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What type of work should you create and share?

What type of work should you create and share?

I know that I’m not the only one who gets hesitant when it comes to sharing work online. What kind of work should you create and share? Will it resonate with people? What is the purpose of it? And so on… So let me share some of my thoughts on the topic. First of all, you need to know WHY you are creating and sharing your works. Here is a couple of basic WHYs for most designers: Doing it just for fun Doing it to build an audience Doing it to get new clients Doing it to achieve all of the above Of course, everyone is unique and has their own goals, so really think about your reasons and what you should share/create to achieve them. To give you a more specific example, I’m gonna take each of the above-mentioned goals and analyze what type of content I think you should share based on these goals. However, even if you already know what your goal is, don’t skip the article to jump straight to it. It’s important to see the overall picture because all the points are interconnected. Doing it just for fun That’s easy – create content you love creating and don’t care about anything else. But this is also a non-negotiable step if you want to achieve any of the following goals. It is the most important thing. You must enjoy the process so that you can do it for an extended period of time. And no matter what your goal is, you must understand that there are no shortcuts here, and you’ll have to stick to...
Is it too late for you to kickstart your design career?

Is it too late for you to kickstart your design career?

A lot of designers are hesitant to start proactively building their audience and career just because they feel that so many people are already ahead of them. And I get it, it’s a bit scary to start working on your following on Dribbble or Instagram where you come across so many amazing designers who have tens of thousands of followers. It might seem that you are late to the party and there is no point for you to jump in. But… Continue reading and it might change your perspective: New York is 3 hours ahead of California, but that does not make California slow. Cameroon is six hours ahead of New York, but it does not make New York slow. Someone graduated from college at 22, but waited five years before securing a job. Someone became a CEO at 25, but died at 50. Someone became a CEO at 50, but lived to 90 years. Someone is still single, While another is married with children. Absolutely everyone in this world works based on their own time zone. People around you might seem to be ahead of you. That’s totally fine. Some are behind you. Everyone is running their own race in their own time zone. Don’t envy or mock them. They are in their own time zone and you are in yours. Life is about waiting for the right moment to react. So RELAX. You’re not late. You’re not early. You’re very much on time. Pretty powerful, right? I don’t know about you, but it resonated with me a lot. You’re very much on time. No matter at what...
Now is the time to create something and share it with the world!

Now is the time to create something and share it with the world!

I’ll be honest, I’m not feeling 100% confident writing this article. It’s been a while since I wrote any articles on Icon Utopia. For past couple of years, I was almost exclusively publishing my “Best Icons of the Month” series, and truth be told, I wasn’t too consistent with that either. If you’re one of the OG’s who’s here from the beginning, you might remember that sometime ago I used to write on a weekly basis. As time went by, I got swamped with work and other projects, so eventually I started publishing less and less. Nevertheless, I never forgot about Icon Utopia – it’s my passion project and I was constantly beating myself for not making enough time to work on it. But guess what, nowadays, when most of us spend significantly more time at home, I was finally able to sit down and write. I was looking for the ways to make the most out of this additional time I have on my hands, and I wanted encourage you to use this time to either learn something new or start an exciting side project.   Perfect opportunity to create something This might be a perfect opportunity for starting a side hustle or reviving an old one. Like I’m doing with Icon Utopia! So I want to invite you to join me and agree to spend at least a bit more time on that project or idea that you have been postponing for ages. It’s a perfect time to create something and share it with the world. Only you know what it is: a drawing, an icon set,...
Best Icons of the Month! (June 2018)

Best Icons of the Month! (June 2018)

As I do every month, I collected the best icons to give you this essential pinch of inspiration and keep the fire inside of you burning. Take a peek into these different styles and unique approaches towards icon design! It’s always a great pleasure to discover them. I’m pretty sure that you will find some fantastic icon designers and icon sets amongst the ones I selected for you this time. Feel free to pin and share the ones that you love the most. It will help these great icon designers to get discovered. Stay inspired, stay curious.   Need more inspiration? Check out Best Icons of the Year here: Best Icons of the Year 2017 Best Icons of the Year 2016   Want to learn how to create icons as awesome as these ones? Check out my Free Icon Design Guide. It will teach you everything you need to know about icon design to get...
Medical Icons Design Process + Download Free Healthcare Icons

Medical Icons Design Process + Download Free Healthcare Icons

Today, increasing numbers of healthcare institutions are embracing the Internet to share helpful health information, create professional communities, and to provide online patient care. However, like many other conservative industries, healthcare suffers from a lack of progressive web design, with a well-elaborated UX and detailed approach. Not least are the icons, which can improve usability and make medical website or software recognizable. In this article, Agente unveils some design secrets and shows how to create healthcare icons and make them effective. In the end, you’ll have a chance to download a free medical icons set developed by their design team. How to get ideas for your medical icon sets? Every design process has its unique workflow, and icon design is no exception. To make an icon set sharp and elegant, just sitting and drawing is not enough. Only a lot of research, preparation, and iterations will bring your work to perfection. Let’s check the basic steps towards designing an icon set for healthcare. Define real-life objects in healthcare that you need to illustrate We all recognize the famous “send” icon in messengers illustrated by a paper plane. The paper sheet which represents mail is combined with the shape of an airplane which constitutes an act of sending. The same should work with healthcare icons to make them recognizable and intuitive. Research the industry or the needs of the specific company to reflect the action by the relevant object. Example: object—first-aid kit, action—buy medicals; object—radiation sign, action—warn about poisonous elements. Visualize these objects as sketches. After you have decided on the set of objects, try to visualize them on paper....
No more excuses – create your own icon set today!

No more excuses – create your own icon set today!

You like icon design, don’t you? Those cute little thingies. Once you notice them, you instantly know what it should mean and this brings a smile to your face. You browse through Dribbble and Behance every day, pinning and favoriting icons you’ve loved the most. But you’re not making our own icons yet. Wait, what? Why? I’ve stopped counting how many times I’ve been asked about how to start and the tools one can use. All those questions and doubts instead of simply starting to actually work on icons! Let this be the wake-up call for you. This time rather than fantasizing about that awesome icon set you will make one day – create it this instant! (Right after you are done reading this article, of course.) If you’re feeling stuck, the first thing I’d recommend doing is checking out my Free Icon Design Guide. There I’ve put everything you need to know about icon design to get started. May you still have questions, keeping reading! I’ve collected a few questions that people have been asking me throughout the years and tried to answer them shortly but comprehensively. Do you see the question that has been eating you away and stopping you from creating your own icon sets? What Program Should I use? Photoshop, Illustrator, Sketch – which one to choose? Which of them is better for icon design? Truth is, it doesn’t matter. Choose whichever you know best, and create killer icon sets in it. Personally, I’m using Adobe Illustrator, but if you know nothing about the Illustrator’s workflow, you won’t be able to create icons there, right?...

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