I Suck... Help Me

[DistinctGraphicz]

I don't have anything to show besides my website which has some good, but mostly bad design on there. I'm looking for anyone and everyone to give me advice. I would really like to advance my design skill to the next level. Here's my problem. I've been working in the sign industry for 4 years. Now i'm pretty decent at designing large electrical signs, but I don't have the opportunity to design cool logos and posters and stuff. I'm jealous of alot of stuff i see on here, and i think to myself, how do i find those clients that kind of force me to design outside the box. I don't know if abstract is the right word, but that's sorta what i see a lot in poster designs on here and other forums. The other problem is where i live. Rockledge, Florida is not an urban area. There are a lot of industrial parks, mixed in with low income housing areas and these new communities. This and the surrounding area is still up and coming, but it's nothing, and will be nothing like a NYC or London or whatever other major up to date city.

Pretty much what I am looking for is to get out of my juvenile / basic / boring designs and get into the more modern, abstract, high energy, everything i'm not designs.

Besides move, what can i do to better my designs? find freelance work that will help me design better? what books should i read? what courses should i take? what free tutorials are out there? blah blah blah.

overall: Help Me, I Suck.

[Toon]

How about local nightclubs, That's where alot of designers start out?

[james]

If in the main you just want to improve your portfolio for now, try thinking up your own briefs. Thats what i do occasionally. The benefits are that - with no end-client to please other than yourself - the finished work can be exactly as you intended, you can spend as much time as you like doing them, and you can freely experiment as well

[zumojuice]

James makes a good point. I'd say the only possible consideration it to make them commercial viable if you're putting them in your portfolio, or as personal work if not.