At frog we used to call that an innovation surplus. A tree doesn’t make just the right amount of leaves every year. It makes much more than enough. At the end of the season it sheds them and starts again. Ideas are like that on projects. You need more than just enough of them.
So build your ability to generate and visualize ideas quickly, and bounce them off of others to multiply them into more. Don’t get too married to your ideas, especially early in your career. Working with others you will see how they edit the ideas down and over time you will gain that ability as well.
Most folks covered the critical stuff by now. I would add the ability to influence those around you as an important skill. It’s one thing to simply communicate your idea, but it’s a whole different animal to influence others. It’s a mix of soft skill sets that takes time to hone. Looking back on my career, I would say that’s been the most valuable trait to have.
Personally, I’ve found lately that a great skill to learn as a Design student is to fail as efficiently as possible in the early stages - and using whatever skills you can to do this. Sketching I think is critical because if you can sketch well you can evaluate the concepts for a brief much quicker and at my school this is critical due to the very short times you get for your brief. I am a big advocate for sketching as much as possible in early stages with school.
