Table of contents
You are not an artist: Design can’t live on creative expression alone. Understanding the differences between art and design is an important first step for anyone in the early stages of their design education. But—so be it—a lot of designers still like to consider themselves artists. If you’re one of them, it’s time for a tough reality check: You are not an artist.
You’ll never get worse at design: As long as you keep practicing. If you’re not sure what good design is, then go look at a bunch of design. That’s how people learn. Young designers often think that being a creative person means that you have to come up with ideas in a vacuum. Ideas and inspiration don’t just come to us out of nowhere. In reality, ideas come from what everyone else has done before. They’re born from what we’ve seen, what we’ve read, what we’ve heard… what we’ve digested and remembered.
All designers start as copycats: It’s easy to mimic a result, but you can’t mimic creativity. No one learns in a vacuum. Similar to our development as a human being, imitation plays a positive role in developing a foundational understanding of design by honing our visual perception skills. An important part of growing an expertise is learning to see problems through the eyes of experts. And what better way to do that than by studying their work?
Following fads is bad for business: Because trends are, well, trendy. By the time you discover something is ‘on-trend’ it’s probably already at the tail-end of its lifecycle. So if you’re planning to use a design trend, you’re most likely too late to the game. It goes without mentioning that there’s nothing creative, or tactical, about participating in these trends for the sake of trendiness.
The problem with design school: And what we can do about it. To competently communicate in our changing society, we need to be equipped with a broader view of knowledge outside the realm of graphic design. The educational focuses on creativity and technical skill need to be combined in a way that fosters a multidisciplinary approach to both creative process and execution; one that places a greater degree of emphasis on the analytical problem solving process.
Self education is a sound investment: Success in any industry requires a robust curiosity. If you regard learning solely as a passive process that relies on the transfer of knowledge from teacher to student, then it’s unlikely that you’ll continue important learning habits after you leave school. Newton said, “an object at rest tends to stay at rest.” So the path to new knowledge often starts with you getting your ass off the couch, and seeking it out.
Deadlines are a necessary evil: Learning to ride the waterfall. Most of the time we’re not really in control of deadlines. We just have to meet them. In design school, you may be lucky enough to get an extension from your professor, or they’ll allow you to turn something in late for a reduced grade. All this does is help you build bad habits. If you miss a deadline in the real world you could risk losing that client, or even losing your job.
Love what you do, but don’t fall in love with it: Falling in love with ideas often leads to heartbreak. In school you spend a lot of time perfecting very few ideas; ideas that are hard to let go of. Instead of searching for objective feedback, you get stuck seeking information that confirms what you already believe about your design. To be honest with your design process, you’ve got to solicit and accept feedback from others without letting anyone’s personal feelings (or agendas) get in the way.
Design is a business skill: And businesses are eager to leverage design. If you want to be successful in this field, you’re gonna need to be able to understand your clients’ industry, their competition, and their business goals. Then figure out how to communicate about all of these things. While it’s crucial for designers—early in their career, to really hone various design skills—being able to push past the boundaries of the creative world, and really lean into the business world, will make you significantly more effective at your job.
Don’t sweat the critique: Good design is measurable. Almost every project you work on in school allows for creative freedom to experiment. Unfortunately, little is done to measure the success of a design outside of meeting deadlines, staying within the expectations of the assignment instructions, and reacting to any feedback received during critiques. Design school critiques are often a wasted exercise. because students aren’t instructed in more valuable ways to participate in them, or they aren’t conducted in a format that allows for an objective discussion on the work.
Ideas don’t sell themselves: You do. Sooner or later in your career you’ll have to show your body of work—or your ideas for a particular project—to a client and convince them that you know what you’re doing. To sell both the solution and the value that it brings. I’m not talking about the power of persuasion, showmanship, or the art of working a room. Nothing that superficial. I’m talking about confidence in yourself and your abilities as a designer and as a storyteller.
Your portfolio doesn’t define you: People hire people, not portfolios. Whether you're on the hunt for an internship, your first full-time job after college, or looking to make a mid- to late-career move, your portfolio is only a foot in the door. The people in charge of hiring only view it through the lens of "is this person capable of doing the work we expect of them?" Most of the time that answer is "probably." That's the point of the interview process: To truly understand competency. So you need to look at the process of developing your portfolio as a strategic way to get an interview.
Don’t work for free: Your time and skill have value. Throughout your career, but especially when you're starting out, you will be asked to work for free. This may seem like a lucrative opportunity for you to start building your portfolio with work for actual 'clients.' If someone asks you to work for free it means they don't appreciate what you're capable of doing. If they don't appreciate you, they likely won't appreciate the free work you do for them. So just save yourself the hassle.
There’s no fame in this game: Design isn’t about the designer. We spend a lot of time in design school studying the history of our profession and digging into the portfolios of successful designers from the past. The people that defined and shaped the early design landscape. So it's natural to respect the big names from design history as not only a source of inspiration, but for the perceived level of fame that history has placed upon them. But if you're looking for fame—the real kind, not the social media kind—this probably isn't the right profession for you.
Surviving the freelance game: The lessons I learned working for myself. If you’re an average kid coming out of art school, you probably don’t know much about business. This is why I often advise designers entering the workforce to give both full-time employment and freelancing as a side hustle a shot, to see which feels right. Enjoy the comfort of employment while building your own client base; test the waters before making the jump to freelancing full-time. And—if you can swing both—you may find that this model will suit you for longer than you expect.
Always start with a sketch: Sketching is the fastest way to turn abstract ideas into concrete solutions. Take a second to count the number of times you were able to align with a client, professor, or teammate on an idea that existed solely in your brain. It’s too easy to get burned by things that only “sound good” on paper. Either someone rejects your idea because they can’t visualize it the way you do, or your idea is misinterpreted through lack of clarity and that person walks away with an alternative understanding. When abstract ideas lack concrete presentation: Game over.
Simplicity is a discipline: Even the most complex problems call for simple solutions. Simplicity isn’t a style, it’s a philosophy. Achieving simplicity in a design solution relies on constant refinement of said solution, with the goal of communicating just the right amount of information to clearly articulate your idea. And, sometimes—through this process of refinement—more may actually lead to less.
Worse than being called ‘ugly:’ How bad design affects bank accounts. The impact of bad design goes way beyond receiving negative feedback about the look, the quality, or the user experience. It can be worse than losing clients or straining relationships. For a business, bad design can seriously affect the bottom line. It’s our responsibility—as stewards of ‘good design’—to communicate the true value of the work we do, and the real impact design has on revenue.
More right than wrong: Design solutions are not a matter of black-and-white. Because design can be such a subjective and divisive subject for many people, sharing ideas and working concepts with others can lead to a lot of disagreement. The more people who look at something, the more varied opinions you’re likely to receive. But the belief that early design concepts can be separated into right and wrong is, frankly, just wrong. Design isn’t a matter of black-and-white. Not so cut and dry.
Stop asking for approval: Instead, lean on your expertise to build client support. The practice of placing design in the hands of a client for selection—or approval—needs to stop, as it creates the wrong impression that the work we do is open to subjective review; that design artifacts are nothing more than pieces of art for the client to judge and validate. Unfortunately, it’s a problem that we, the design community, have created and enabled for too long. And it’s time to hold ourselves accountable.
Lorem Ipsum is a joke: Why designers should also write. In our day-to-day we laboriously push pixels, carefully choose and place visual elements intended to connect emotionally with our audience, or obsess over the steps and dependencies of a process in hopes of providing a user with a better experience. And we do these things with a passion, because we love it. I think it’s really important we learn to do the same with words.
Design is a team sport: How to build high-performing working relationships. My time working with others has taught me that I personally value two things: Good work worth doing and the people I do it with. Collaboration is the key to bringing these two things together. It’s what fosters our ability to perform as a team, contributing to valuable solutions that support our clients’ successes.
Mom, where do ideas come from?: A psychological approach to the creative process. How does one get from point A to point B? Or, in the cases where inspiration seems a little more random, from point A to point J? Approaching any new problem presents, in itself, new challenges. If you happen to be tackling that problem in an unfamiliar medium or an emerging industry, even more so. It’s through a process of trial and error—both conscious and subconscious—that all creative people work toward finding solutions to these challenges.
Bring your passions to work with you: Creative solutions often come from unlikely sources. Connecting experiences and finding a way to apply that resultant eureka effect to a current problem or practice—like we discussed in our last conversation—can be intensely gratifying. So let’s explore what it looks and feels like. Here’s what Golden Age science fiction and gestalt theory taught me about branding.
Keep everything in perspective: By focusing on one thing at a time. Connecting your interests and experiences to form actionable ideas works outside of the problem solving space as well. Sometimes, reflecting on a topic can help you learn something new about yourself, influence the way you manage work, or even how you interact with other people. Here’s what reflecting on one of my passions taught me about managing client relationships.
The future is human-centered: Supporting a people-first approach to solving problems. There’s one question I regularly get from both seasoned designers and students alike: “How do I get into user experience design?” Over time I’ve been able to pair my response down to a pretty simple answer, on the surface: User experience design is less about what you know than it is about what you value. It’s less about your design chops than it is about how your brain works. The real question you need to ask is: “Is user experience right for me?”
Be a learner, not a knower: How asking the right questions leads to better solutions. Today I learn from asking questions; obsessing over how things work by analyzing interactions. It’s an exercise that often relies on flat-out talking to people. Every time you question the way things work, you collect data on everyday interactions and strengthen your understanding of, not only what works, but why people love “this thing” versus “that thing.”
Epilogue: Keep failing forward. To prove that you’re capable of continued success in the changing design climate, you don’t need a perfect portfolio, or a specific degree, or even a fancy title. You need to have an appetite for risk and a curious mind. You need to be comfortable with getting uncomfortable about pushing the boundaries of your skills in, and understanding about, design.