i don't know, i'm a little conflicted here because really, really, i know this is gonna sound stupid but the best way to get good is to make a lot of shit and t

i don't know, i'm a little conflicted here because really, really, i know this is gonna sound stupid but the best way to get good is to make a lot of shit and then, after you don't feel weird about what you made, you show it to people who have taste (or that you value) and get critique. I think you should design the way that you ______. Do you code? Apply that mindset to your design. Do you just hammer something out or do you try to improve it? Do you look for inspiration from other projects on github? Do you look for inspiration in orthogonal things like architecture or nature or industrial design or _____. Apply that to your design. Apply the same standards from something you're passionate about to your budding design work, it'll show. The more you make this your process the more your design will be your design. as with all other things, there's a whole lot of cargo cult design where you toss in a grid and you dutifully build up some crazy type hierarchy or you use appropriate fonts or just plop down a müller-brockman layout or a tschichold page proportion or three sizes, two weights of helvetica neue, etc. You can convince yourself this is "correct," but sometimes you're just going through the motions. I've made a ton of absolute crap but sometimes i make something and i'm like "oh wow, that's an actually appropriate use for a grid, man what a total cock up that other project was." It's very easy to make and parrot the current zeitgeist (just look at forrst), but it's hard to go out on a limb and try to make something that comes from you. It's even harder to make it something that other people will see and say "oh neat, i like that even though it's a little weird," and that's what practice does to you, but it doesn't come overnight, it takes effort, like anything worth doing, like programming or cooking or sports or _____. The things that make you great in design are the things that make you great in any other field: passion, curiosity, exploration, failure, practice, communication and critique. all in great quantity. this is the moral you see on hn a lot, so it's like preaching to the choir, but go outside your comfort zone and try to make what's in your brain; it's a humbling and rewarding path. i don't want to knock the post, it's fine, but also keep in mind that not everything needs to look like a startup website. I'm tired of friendly blue all the time, i want to see new designs, i want to see people going on a limb. I guess what i'm saying is: this is design for conversion sake, not for design's sake, and those are two totally different pots of gold.