{"id":23963,"date":"2019-02-12T10:55:25","date_gmt":"2019-02-12T16:55:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.crowdspring.com\/?p=23963"},"modified":"2022-05-09T13:17:31","modified_gmt":"2022-05-09T18:17:31","slug":"12-questions-with-self-taught-designer-and-crowdspring-creative-jhharoon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crowdspring.com\/blog\/12-questions-with-self-taught-designer-and-crowdspring-creative-jhharoon\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Questions with Self-Taught Designer and crowdspring Creative jhharoon"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n In our 12 Questions blog series, we feature interviews with someone from the crowdspring creative community of 210,000+ designers & writers from 200 countries.<\/p>\n Today we feature Jahanzeb, who goes by the username jhharoon<\/a>.<\/p>\n Jahanzeb is a self-taught designer (and self-proclaimed handyman) from Pakistan.<\/p>\n He has worked on crowdspring for over seven years.<\/p>\n During that time, Jahanzeb has participated in over 1,274 projects with a focus on logo design<\/a> and helping companies create a brand identity<\/a>.<\/p>\n We asked Jahanzeb 12 Questions about design, creative inspiration, and what it’s like working on crowdspring:<\/p>\n Hello, my name is Jahanzeb Haroon.<\/p>\n I grew up and live in Rawalpindi, which is the twin city of Pakistan\u2019s capital, Islamabad. I\u2019m a full-time freelancer and father of three kids.<\/p>\n My life resides in a triangle: work, family, and sleep.<\/p>\n My main focus in graphic design is logo design but I also do other projects from time to time.<\/p>\n I\u2019m a self-taught designer and began designing professionally in 2012.<\/p>\n I never planned to be a designer. Instead, I worked as a computer technician and in my free hours, I spent time on the internet looking for new opportunities.<\/p>\n In 2011, I found a website that was offering logo design projects for freelancers. I had been using Photoshop for fun for almost a decade at that point so I tried my luck and started participating.<\/p>\n After six months with zero success, I realized that logos are not made in Photoshop but in Illustrator. I watched a few videos about Illustrator and learned the difference between Vector\/Raster and RBG\/CMYK, and more. Then, I installed Illustrator and started learning it by myself.<\/p>\n I remember the designs I made in the beginning. They were awful.<\/p>\n For two months, rather than participating in any projects I just watched the projects. I studied other people\u2019s designs: what they were making, what customers liked, and what design trends were popular. I studied the design briefs in detail and compared it with the winning designs.<\/p>\n Eight months after I started designing logos, I won my first project.<\/p>\n That day was a game changer for me: I knew that I could design and that buyers would like my designs.<\/p>\n From that day forward, I thought of myself as a professional graphic designer. People paid me to design for them.<\/p>\n After my first winning design, I began searching for other freelance websites. I found crowdspring on a search engine. <\/span><\/p>\n The thing that most attracted me to crowdspring was its friendly and funny quotes. The first thing that made me smile was when I clicked on a project and got the following message. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis project is Double Top Secret. <\/span>Just kidding – all you need to do is log in\u00a0and you’ll be able to view the details.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n There are many other things that set crowdspring apart from others. The more I participated in projects on crowdspring, the more I liked it and decided to stick with it.<\/span><\/p>\n If I had to describe all of my inspiration in one word, then it would be \u201cUniqueness.\u201d<\/p>\n I don\u2019t like to stick with one style, I always love trying something new.<\/p>\n I have seen some designers who follow only one style and even if their designs\u00a0are well-done, all of their work looks very similar to me.<\/p>\n Some of the styles I enjoy working with are Minimal, Retro and Modern.<\/p>\n First, I read the brief and view all the relevant files and links. Then, I create a new file in Illustrator to write\/draw my thoughts during the design process. I try to jot down the things that are relevant to the design and try to work out those concepts.<\/p>\n For example, if the project is for a restaurant\u2019s logo then I think about the items that remind me of a restaurant: fork, spoon, knife, chair, table, napkin, bow tie, hospitality, elegance etc.<\/p>\n I pick one or two words and start working on the concept. Meanwhile, I search for relevant designs online for two reasons: to get inspiration, and to refine my concept if it has been done too many times by other designers.<\/p>\n Once I get the right concept, which can be the most difficult part, I try to refine it and find the relevant font.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n1. Please tell us about yourself.<\/h2>\n
<\/h2>\n2. How did you become interested in design?<\/h2>\n
3. What led you to start using crowdspring?<\/h2>\n
<\/h2>\n4. What inspires you?<\/h2>\n
5. How would you describe your style?<\/h2>\n
<\/h2>\n6. What is the design process like for you? How do you start?<\/h2>\n