Stephen Hull | Mastering Graphic Design in a Digital World | Tech Tuesdays
In this episode we dive into how the minutiae of design—from color selection to logo adaptation—play a pivotal role in branding and consumer perception. Stephen Hull is a Graphic Designer and Art Director with over 10 years of experience in developing and executing creative projects for various top-level clients in diverse sectors, including medical, pharma, consumer electronics, and social innovation design. Stephen is also a skilled collaborator, leader, and communicator who can work effectively with diverse teams and stakeholders. And he’s a United States Air Force veteran with a BA in Visual Arts from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Tune in for an enlightening discussion on graphic design with your host, Erika Christie, today on Creator/Shift.
Some Questions I ask:
SKILLS: What element of graphic design do people need to practice the most to get good at?
Is a degree necessary to go into graphic design?
Best way to use your technical skills to shift to new mediums?
What happens when you ask a designer to do too many things? Design and video and writing and graphics, etc.
In this episode you will learn:
The value of transferable skills between different artistic mediums, such as painting and animation.
Stephen’s toolkit? Creating powerful infographics and brochures that stick to brand colors while maximizing space efficiency. 📊 #BrandConsistency
Understanding the specialized skills required for various creative expressions, including distinctions in writing for theater, film, and audio dramas.
New hire? Corporate classes are here to clarify what the graphic department does, aiming for seamless integration of new talents. 🗂️ #EmployeeOnboarding
Discussion on the importance of obtaining a formal degree in graphic design to enhance career prospects in corporate environments.
As we continue unraveling the intricate tapestry of graphic design, from analytical processes to the creative eureka moments, and from solo projects to team collaborations, join us in exploring how this vibrant industry evolves. 🌐 #BeyondDesign
Feeling the inspiration? Share this slice of creativity with someone who’d appreciate it! 🌟
Stephen's website: http://www.stephenhull.com
Connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenhulldesign
🔗 Listen now and learn how to refine your graphic design skills and understanding, ensuring your work is not only visually appealing but effective and relevant in today's fast-paced digital world.
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Did you enjoy this episode? This interview is a part of the Creator/Shift Tech Tuesday series! There will be more bite sized morsels coming your way from Stephen including chats on A.I created art and an overview of the printing process.
Erika Christie is the host of Creator/Shift and as a Filmmaker/Writer/Producer has worked professionally in many different fields. Erika will be interviewing all types of amazing art-folk and delving into the best ways that artists up skill themselves- meaning, what they do to better themselves and their artwork. We'll also be putting a special focus on transitioning your skills into new artistic mediums and how to best work and collaborate with artists who have very different skill sets from your own. On Tech Tuesdays we will be delving into software, design, and gear reviews as we cover many artistic disciplines.
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TRANSCRIPT
ERIKA CHRISTIE: As far as skills go, what parts of design/graphic design do people need to practice the most to get good at?
STEPHEN HULL: It depends on what type of graphic design they really, really want to do. So do they want to do user interface type design, website design with programs like Figma, which do website apps, the stuff that you see on your phone? Do they want to work freelance and do print material? Do they want to do more graphic design and social media? Do they want to work in a company where they can use all of those skills? Again, the basics of design would be through classes or through a degree in art. So visual art, regular art, just knowing balance, form, color, what not colors to put between something, how something is not balanced, and knowing when, knowing the rules and then knowing when you can break them just a little bit to make things more interesting. Some people get frustrated doing large books, catalogs. Some designers love to get in the weeds and do that. Some designers like really simple, basic, wild art for, you know, some gallery somewhere that they can do things for. Some enjoy working for a company like I do, where I can get to do a lot of different things, but then I'm still got a few restrictions on color and font and what I can use. But the best way is just to get a degree in graphic design, a degree in art, a degree in Ux UI, or even programming for some people.
ERIKA CHRISTIE: So do you think, do you think a degree is really necessary? Or is it just because some people like schooling, which is myself, I like taking classes, I like having the structure, and some people don't like that at all. But as far as graphic design, do you think it's a benefit having some kind of a degree?
STEPHEN HULL: Yes. If you, if you really want to get a job in graphic design, then you'll need to have either an associate's or a bachelor's in some type of visual art program. Most of them require that. Unless you've just been self taught and kind of worked your way up and you have a great portfolio, then that portfolio speaks for itself. But usually you're not really going to get anywhere in a corporate world unless you've got that degree in graphic design. Everything just usually requires at least an associates in graphic design. Now, it's really important for, you know, you to have your portfolio and to meet and mix paint, you know, with, with other designers because those people will get jobs, and then you can get jobs that way through the other side. But, yeah, I would definitely say a degree is rather important.
And no matter which one you go through, the nice part about the degree is you get some art history. You get, you know, film history. You get exposure to other artists who are around you and other creative people and what they're doing. You can see people who are real good artists, but might not be good graphic designers and people who are designers, but not necessarily good at actually doing art. So there are different skill sets. So a graphic artist isn't somebody who can sit down and do an illustration. They might be able to, but illustration as an art scale, painting, you know, is an art scale, but that doesn't mean that they'll be good at doing graphic design.
ERIKA CHRISTIE: But if you have, if you're really good at one, do you think that makes the transition easier if you want to move over to one of the other ones?
STEPHEN HULL: Well, just because you're aware of art, you might be. And if you're, you know, doing painting, then you might be aware of grid systems and how light works. And so it is a little bit easier if you're in that creative world. But that's one of the nice things about school is it kind of helps you decide which way you want to go or what you want to do. So an artist, artist isn't going to be happy doing, you know, flyers for a company every day because that's just monotony. Whereas someone like me, a graphic designer, likes that structure and likes to try to fit a goal, a marketing goal, within different, you know, but an artist sometimes is like, that's just too boring. So they want to do something fun and wild, and sometimes that's not what graphic design is going to let you do. Right.
You're going to have to, you're going to have to get into programs like word or PowerPoint, even though you don't like those kind of programs.
ERIKA CHRISTIE: Yeah. And that's actually one of the things that I like the most about shifting between, I'll use the word mediums, is, you know, if you're a street artist versus someone who only does graphic design, versus being a painter versus almost even throwing photographer in there, although it's slightly different. But I like to say that each of those has vastly different skill sets, but there are still a couple of skill sets that overlap. So, like you said, if you're a painter and you understand form and design and negative space and how light hits things, and then you wanted to get into, let's say, animation, you've already got a couple steps forward because you already know some things. It's just you have to learn the other parts, the vocabulary, the tools, the software of whatever the other medium is that you want to transition into.
STEPHEN HULL: Yeah. And that vocabulary stuff that comes. I mean, it's really easy in school because you've got the books, now you know what a font is, now you know what? And so you can use the skills that you like to refine to be the designer. But yes, and I get that a lot. So it's like somebody wants to hire a designer who does video and who does animation and who does web design and who does print. No, we've had these conversations before, vastly different skill sets. If you want somebody that does it all, then you're not going to get a high level of work out of them because it's almost impossible to do everything well.
ERIKA CHRISTIE: Doing two or three of those well is a unicorn. Doing like six or seven things at that level is...
STEPHEN HULL: I mean, yeah, it just. How, how well of a product do you want? You need different skill sets for different people. And like you said, you've done all this audio video stuff and I've done the graphic design stuff. I have no idea the terms that you use. I have no idea the stuff that you do. I just know that it takes a long time and that's not a path I want to go. And if a company wants me to do that, they should just hire somebody that wants to do, because the training, the time, the computers, the work, I won't be able to do the other stuff that I need to concentrate on. And so they're not going to get a decent product out of that.
ERIKA CHRISTIE: One of my favorite examples when I talk about kind of switching between mediums is to talk about writing, is when you're writing something for theater on stage. Stage is so much about the words. Like the focus is on the words. Yes, you can see the people, but the backgrounds are usually almost impressionistic at times. The background doesn't necessarily count. It's really the people and the words. When you switch over to, like, film, it's all about the visuals. I mean, people are listening, but it's all about the visuals.
STEPHEN HULL: Which is where the word cinematic comes from, is you want these big, huge, grand stuff. And then if you're writing and you switch over to an audio drama, which is one of my first experiences when I writing all this other stuff and switching to audio dramas, I had to write in things like, oh, no, look ahead, don't step on that. And like, you have to, like, you have to put that stuff in there because there's no visual at all. So you have to find this, like, strange, nuanced way of adding in the atmosphere and everything that's around you for writing. So you can be a really good writer in one medium and try, but you still have to go through all these steps to transition to doing something else.
At the end of a film, there's this huge, long list of people, and it's because there's a specific person to do lighting, there's a specific person to do the sound. There's a specific person. So, yes, all of that. You know, if you want to hire a designer to do video, then no, you need to hire a video person to do video. That's where that creative brief comes in. It's like, no, this is not exactly what's in my wheelhouse. So, no, this is what you need to do. This is what you're looking for.
It helps refine that and get that down. But from a corporate standpoint, there are some classes that we have where we kind of explain to new hires what the graphic department does and doesn't do, what we're responsible for, you know, why we're there and the things that we look for when we do the work that we're doing.