Deanne Cheuk, is an illustrator, designer, art director and artist born in Western Australia. She has done Some great type designs, Art direction and illustrations for such magazine as The Fader, Flaunt, Nylon, Black Book & Tokion for more of her work check out her site. In this installment of advice from iconic designers, Deanna Cheuk gives us simple, but poignant advice. Two words. “Stay Fresh!”

This means something different to each one of us.  But what it means to me is to keep your designs game tight! aka keep up with the times and not fall behind. Technology, design aesthetics and trends are moving faster than you can blink. You don’t want to be left behind while everybody else zooms passed you.

Remember technology is your friend.
Technology as we see it is the world wide web. The internet give us as designers and artist endless possibilities. Use it to help network, spread the word about a new pieces you have created or an update to your portfolio.  Twitter and Facebook can help spread the word to people and fans that have never seen your work. They can both open you up to a new audience. Be a part of design communities such as DeviantArt, Behance and Design Democracy. These site allow you to put up your portfolio, or just recent work. Other artist can comment and give you feedback.

Use networking sites like LinkedIn and Plaxo to keep contacts and clients updated of you work availability and recent projects. But one of the most important ways to use technology is to be voyeuristic and browse what other designers are saying, doing and creating in the world… Information is power.

So how do we stay fresh?
Are you a designer that’s been at the same job for years? Are you an illustrator looking to see whats NEW in your field? At whatever point you happen to be — you need stimulation to help you create.

Stimulation come in many forms. It may come in creative friends challenging each other with new and interesting ways to attack a project. It may come by reading online blogs, design books to fill your head with new ideas. Maybe it means taking classes at your local university or try some online tutorial’s to give our creativity the kick you feel it needs! Or it can even mean dusting of the camera (hopefully not) and roaming around your town to take photo of cool things around your neighborhood or for a keep as a visual archive.

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Keep yourself Fresh with the VS Project!
Not only do you need to stay fresh, but you need an outlet to help flush out those creative juices. Here, the VS project has an environment for experimentation and new ideas. Each issue of the VS project allows you to dream up the most elaborate, thought out, simplistic or far fetched ideas and unleash them on to a creative project that keeps you guessing. Your are not held back by clients, money and resources. You create (ukre8) your own atmosphere and push yourself as far as you are willing to, to make each project something that you are satisfied with.

These are just a few ways to Stay Fresh, but there are so many others.
How do you stay fresh?

George, of the UKRE8 Community - George is the main contributor to the ukre8 the VS project website. He works along side DSN to create content and projects to support the artistic endeavors of the versusDSN & the VS Project. Follow the Author on Twitter:@Creative_Guru