The Designer’s Survival Guide: Must-read tips for beginners submitted by the pros

The Designer’s Survival Guide, created by Richard Baird, is like the missing handbook that every designer should’ve received from day one. Taking in advice from industry pros, the site provides curated tips on everything from designing custom typography to giving presentations and working with clients.

Of course, there are countless tutorials all over the Web that closely cover every little detail of design, but The Designer’s Survival Guide feels much more like a timeless collection of guidelines from the wise.

Also, there’s something about the way these guides were designed that make them so digestible. Each tip is between one to three paragraphs long and looks a bit like this:

11. Users come first
The web should be accessible for everyone, even those who still use IE, so keep in mind that if you want a website to be broadly accessible you have to work with IE in mind, (at least 8 and 9 – as of 1/2/12), visitors shouldn’t need to adapt to your site and should always come first.

Provided by @MrMorelo

Or:

16. Optical vs grid based type design

Grid based type can provide a designer with a technically accurate solution but these can often fall short optically. Grids are a great way to start but the weight and detail of some characters can often make appear heavier in places so don’t constrain yourself, try different letter combinations and small off-grid adjustments to create an optically balanced result.

Suggested by Sandro Dujmenovic

This is a great resource for young and experienced designers alike, so check it out via the link below and feel free to contribute tips here. For more, check out The Next Web’s full Design & Dev channel.

➤ Designer’s Survival Guide

Source: Webdesigner Depot