Graphic Wattys 2020

✧･ﾟthelightbender

Hey guys! Angelina (thelightbender) here. I'm a resident procrastinator, master trainwreck and still in disbelief that I won a people's choice graphic watty — seriously, I'd ranked the odds of how my graphic wattys results would turn out, and people's choice was supposed to be the least likely.

Oh, and fun fact : I only remembered to do this at 6 in the morning on the day my chapter was due. Whoops.

I've been designing for nearly 3 years now, and from my own experience and the designers around me, something that bothers us at times would be the whole requesting situation : when people ask for covers, banners, profile themes and things like that.

While thinking of things I could include in this chapter, I thought that writing about something y'all can apply to real life might be helpful. As a result, here's requesting 101 — dos and don'ts for requesters, as well as a few tips for designers.

If I haven't proven myself as a complete crackhead yet, and you still believe I have some credibility, please, proceed.

( Last note to the humans encountering this : "graphics" are a broad term for media such as covers and profile pictures, and "designers" are people who make graphics. Just in case you get confused when I don't say "cover maker." )

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REQUESTING A GRAPHIC

Do read, remember and respect the rules. 3Rs, yes, welcome back to elementary school. They are there for a reason. If someone says not to edit over their covers, it's because someone's made adjustments that they did not provide their consent for. This applies to every rule. It may not make sense to you, but think of it as part of the designer's habits. If you want them to do something where their habits are involved, then you have to respect their habits, even if you dislike them. The rules also tend to include important information, like the amount of time the person will take, and may even answer some questions that you want to ask.

Don't shop hop. This is a bit of a general rule — as some designers allow shop hopping — but shop hopping is basically asking for the same thing from different designers in a short amount of time. Not everyone minds this (another reason why checking the rules is to your advantage), but some people get genuinely hurt by this knowing not all the graphics get chosen. I know you may want to have more than one graphic so that you can compare which one works better, but the thing is that designers are human beings with emotions. If you want to take advantage of their work, here's a tip. Don't request at all.

Do see if the designer's stylistic preferences are suited to you. Here's an example: don't ask for a simple, pastel cover from someone who'd do this.

It may be fun for them to experiment, but when requesting, you also want to make sure that the design will play to their strengths, helping your vision become clearer.

The designer will also enjoy making your design instead of crying about it.

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TIPS FOR ENJOYING REQUESTS

Try a referral system! Alongside RAEVANTHOLOGY and GeekGoddess- , we came up with a system where we make our requests interchangeable. With requesters' permission, we can refer requests we're uninspired for to someone else, allowing us to try out different requests and feel a lot less stressed out about opening our shops.

Adopt a non-committing request format. Those who work with a non-committing format won't respond to requests, and will only make the design if they feel like it. At the same time, your rules are loosened — you can let people shop hop knowing that you may not deliver. By convincing yourself, and requesters, that you are not responsible to carry out favours, you'll be able to reduce stress when opening up shops.

Don't be afraid to ask fellow designers for pointers. Can't find that photo of a sleeping kitten? Need to get font advice? Here's the quickest way out : ask for help. Even if you don't know some designers that well, we all understand the struggle of working with requests. And if you don't know who to go to, just go on Discord and message angelina#4480. I'm here to do what I can. This literally goes for any design. You can approach your fellow designers for tips — it's just that requests need more fine tuning and are easier to work with when having second opinions.

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Alright, that's all on my crash course for requesting etiquette and enjoying requesting. Clearly, this isn't everything you should know, but keep in mind that every person is different. These rules may not always apply, so I think it comes back to the idea of "respect." We're all human, there will be miscommunications, and all we can do is learn from those mistakes and try again.

I will stop here before I pull a motivational speech on everyone. Stan Toph Beifong, and have a good day :3

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thelightbender is the Graphic Wattys Winner 2020 of People's Choice Banners/Blends/Story Ads. They're giving away 2 GIF banners To enter, click on the external link, the comments section, or enter this into your browser: https://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/760deb2f19/?