Interview with Sarah Khan; Graphic Designer & Creative Director from Washington

Aug 4, 2011 by admin    3 Comments    Posted under: Designer Interviews, Graphic Design Tips

One of the initiatives out of many, which we have taken at DesigningTips.com, is of bringing an exclusive one-on-one interview session with leading graphic designers from around the world.

Well, today we are bringing to you an in-depth interview with Sarah Khan, the creative director of a Washington, DC based design firm; iKhan Design. Check out her deep intuitive understanding of the profession and design tips below…

DesigningTips.com – Please tell us a little about yourself, where are you from and how did you end up being a designer?

Sarah Khan – I was born and raised in the suburbs of Washington, DC as the only girl in the family, with three brothers. I had always been interested in art as a child and coming from an artistic family helped to grow that passion until I realized, that I wanted to be a graphic designer. Before my father immigrated to the United States in the 1970′s, he was an art director in Pakistan; needless to say I was ingrained with design sensibilities at an early age. My father owns a screen printing company, so CAD and Corel drawings were familiar to me. Eventually, I began to experiment with Adobe Photoshop as a teen. I even had one of those old school Geocities page in middle school where I used to write about my boy band crushes. In high school, I found myself skipping classes except my 8th period of Ceramics session. That’s when I realized, I loved to make things beautiful. I went on to get my B.A. in Graphic Design from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and an M.F.A. in Graphic Design from the Savannah College of Art & Design.

DesigningTips.com – Is it necessary to go to design school to learn how to be a good designer or is it enough to “attend the school of hard knocks?”

Sarah Khan – I could answer this very simply by saying no, it is not necessary to attend design school in order to be a good designer but considering I have two degrees in the field I think I need to explain a bit further.

Generally, I believe that fundamental design skill is natural and can’t necessarily be taught. People without a true love and understanding of basic design principles can’t suddenly learn them in 4 years.

Design school simply creates a safe environment in which students are able to experiment and hone their skills under the proper supervision which obviously can be very helpful – as it was for me. However, there are plenty of amazing designers who never went to a design school and are self taught, one of my favorites being Carlos Segura from Segura, Inc. I actually wrote and designed a book about Carlos.

DesigningTips.com – What are the key elements of a good design? Is good design a function of creativity … of sound experience … or both?

Sarah Khan – Good design solves client problems simply and effectively. If the solution is creative – great, but I will always favor a simple and effective design solution with sound experience that accomplishes the goal over a super creative and less effective design.

DesigningTips.com – Is there any real difference between designing a brochure/pamphlet/logo, room in a home and clothing for a beautiful woman?

Sarah Khan – Of course there are real differences between these three things, they all have different goals and needs associated with them. Designing a brochure, pamphlet or logo relies heavily on communicating an idea using text and images. These items involve marketing thinking in order to effectively promote a product or service, whereas designing a room and an outfit for a beautiful woman could potentially be that product or service.

DesigningTips.com – How do you work on your design projects? I mean, what design software, applications and design tools do you use the most for your projects?

Sarah Khan – My number one design tool is a pencil and my Moleskine notebook. I try to sketch out every idea before it leaves my brain and gets onto computer. Sketching for me is especially important when I am working on a project and I get inspired for another design project that I don’t have time to work on yet. I spend a lot of time doing research online, so staying on track and not getting distracted is sometimes hard to do. To help me stay on top of projects, I use the Behance Action Book. The action book has helped me visualize what is on my plate for that particular day and where my priorities are for that week.

When it comes to my digital work I rely heavily on Apple iMac and four Adobe products I could not live without; Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Dreamweaver.

DesigningTips.com – Are there ever times when design changes are radical?

Sarah Khan – In my relatively short career of a graphic designer, the greatest shift in design I’ve seen is on the web. As browsers are progressing swiftly with technology, designers are beginning to push the boundaries of web design forward with innovations such as web fonts and moving away from the Flash phenomenon we saw in the late 90′s. I can see this shift occurring once again as the era of “responsive web design” and “mobile-first” are sweeping the design blogo-sphere. A decade ago the internet was very new and designers were designing websites with a lot of animation, slow load times and varying browser support, simply because they could and not because it made sense for the goals of the client. Good modern web design shows much more restraint.

DesigningTips.com – Can you tell us about your design portfolio and clientele (about the people you have worked with & for)?

Sarah Khan – I currently work full-time as a senior web & graphic designer for the number one lobbying firm in the U.S. while still pursuing my freelance career as a creative director of iKhan Design’s. At my full-time job I have been able to work on a number of projects with good printing budget. Being born into a family in the printing business, paper still holds a great deal of love in my heart. Two of my projects have won GDUSA American In-House Design Awards. The “Power of Diversity” brochure was featured in GDUSA magazine in 2010 and the “One World. Infinite Possibilities.” brochure was featured in 2011. (See artwork below)

Based out of a powerful city such as Washington, DC has allowed me the opportunity to work with many political clients (see photo iali.jpg). While only one of my clients is directly involved in the political arena (IALI), my work for associations and lobbying firms are closely tied to politics. I give credit to the 2008 Obama campaign for bringing beautiful design to Washington and opening the door for young designers such as myself to help companies bring their marketing campaigns up to date with the use of creative designs. Although some of these projects may not be the best, but they do present a heightened level of design challenges which allow me to grow as a graphic designer. Many of the clients I work with have no idea what good design is, or how to effectively relay their message to their target consumer. This allows me to serve as the educator in a sense and build a trusting relationship with my clients from the ground up. Companies are very focused on their web presence at the moment and in turn my design portfolio is web design heavy.

The most recent website launch I worked on was a full redesign for the Community Financial Services Association of America (CFSA). CFSA needed an effective vehicle to battle the often negative publicity the payday lending industry was receiving (See photo cfsa.jpg). Advocating on behalf of their members was especially important to CFSA via their website since a new federal agency which directly affects its members, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, was slated to launch in mid 2011. We decided to take an aggressive approach to tackle the common misconceptions associated with the payday industry. One of the ways we did this was by incorporating “Myth vs. Reality” banners on the home page which link to more information about the payday industry.

DesigningTips.com – Any design tips you would like to share with freshers just starting out in the design industry?

Sarah Khan – I think the more experience you gain, the better. No design school can prepare you for the actual client work. Stay grounded, be prepared to encounter criticism and of course, change your design work accordingly if considered necessary…it happens more often than you’d think!

You can find more about Sarah Khan from her website here.

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