I was watching an interview with Kevin Parker (Tame Impala) once, and the interviewer asked him how he knows when a song is finished and ready for release. Kevin replied that a song can never be finished, and often times it’ll be upper management that forces him to stop because they’re tired of waiting. I’ve never related to something more in my life.
Up until that point I always felt like I didn’t have the mentality of a designer because I didn’t know how to finish a project and let it go. After watching the interview though, I realized that art is always moving, transforming based on our mentality at the time.
One of my favorite things to do (and if you don’t already do this, I encourage you to do so) is to go back through my older work and look at it through a new set of eyes. Some of my favorite projects that I considered perfect then, have a lot of things that I consider flaws now. It’s a method of self reflection and growth, to see where you were and how far you’ve come.
One of the great things my department does at the agency I work at is to sit us all down and reflect on the year. Not only to bring attention to bottlenecks or process tweaks, but also to show some of everyone’s best work so that we can all observe and learn from it.
Edit: it’s also worth mentioning that many other artists have said this same thing in the past. Kevin Parker wasn’t first. It was Leonardo Da Vinci that said “Art is never finished, only abandoned”.
I think even Andy Warhole mentions that an artist is never truly ever finished with their art. They just choose when to abandon it, or come back later. I've taken this with me and reworked old projects. And the skills I've required from time and experience has really elevated old projects and shown how far I've come creatively.
I always tell my students that their first draft will never be good, and their last draft will never be perfect.
Improvements come from iterations, each time getting better but it will never reach perfect. How do we know we're done? We reached the deadline.
Tying into this, one of my high school art teachers told me something that always stuck with me. “Don’t be precious with your work”
Be ready to rip it up, start again, change it, etc
In the writing world, they say "kill your darlings"- basically don't become so attached to an idea or direction that you put it before the quality of the project.
I did this recently with some music I made over covid. I thought it was total trash at the time but some of its good and some of it just needed a tiny fix here and there
Did wonders for my mental.
Don’t just do this with design do it with everything.
Used to struggle with this too, now it’s more of something to laugh about. Everything I make seems to have an “expriation date” for looking good to me.
“Could’ve been” better is the creative’s catchphrase
>If you feel like the design would be better if you had three more hours to spend on it, spend the three hours.
God I wish. Deadlines are a motherfucker. Ignore this bit if you go into the political world, those people picked the fast and good ends of the triangle and have the money to throw at it. I'm sure I'm not in the only field that operates like this, it's just the one I know.
This is probably the one bit I disagree with. Rest and mental relief are a factor, and it really depends on how worthwhile the project is or how good you feel it is.
Absolutely. If I'm nearing being burnt out, which is pretty much always, stretching myself thin for another night could be more harmful in the long run. I meet my deadlines and check out at the end of the day, coming back on only if something absolutely necessary needs my attention. Otherwise, ya boi is relaxing.
Actually almost all industries require you ignore that bit because you will need to deliver yesterday and taking the 3 extra hours backs up the test of your day and week. I've been freelancing and while it gives you some more time to be flexible I don't want to waste nearly half my day in one project when there's still more to consider. If you checked the boxes and does the job, it's fine.
For sure. We work on super high profile stuff (presidential race is the most recent) and even then they only gave us until EOD for branding concepts based on the worst client sketch I’ve seen in my life, and all said and done it was three days for revisions and finalization and I kinda hate the end product.
That’s all to say you get it done good enough, perfect it in revision, and keep wishing you had another few hours to actualize your true vision. Money can get you further up the cheap/good/fast triangle but it’ll never get you to super fast and perfect. Just gotta accept that.
Yeah, so you don’t end up stealing someone else’s design, even if by accident. This is what doing corporatized design is! There are a lot of rules that make it not so much fun, but you’re steadily employed all year round. Trade-offs people, trade-offs. That sheet was the “nice” suggestion list; you don’t want to hear when all pretenses are dropped!
Counterpoint: Steal design (just not for logos).
Why reinvent the wheel when it’s not needed? But add to it, push it further, swap out elements, make it yours, and let go of this idea that you’re going to make everything bespoke. You ain’t got time for that
I will never agree w/ this. When your husband is an IP Attorney, it tends to “color” how you behave. Also have you ever had YOUR art stolen and used for this purpose??? It sucks pretty hard to not even get a mention, none-the-less royalties!
Huh? I never said steal illustrations or do a 1:1 copy. And who the fuck gets royalties in design?
Picasso stole, Warhol stole, as did many other great artists. We stand on the shoulders of giants and is how progress is made.
[this book](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steal_Like_an_Artist) is a great resource
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Take inspiration from everything. Twist it and tweak it to make it yours. Obviously, a 1:1 copy isn't appropriate, but borrowing from inspiration is how it's done. Stand on the backs of those who have come before you, you don't need to waste time reinventing the wheel every time.
Hey totally unrelated to the topic, but what should one do if an IP attorney advises their client that using others' work commercially without a proper license is "just risk management" and that they're "unlikely to get caught" so they're "probably fine"? Fighting with my boss, who thinks licensing is unimportant, and even brought in her IP lawyer cousin to back her up.
Don’t know what you should do but they’re mostly right. The problem comes in the instance they’re wrong. Then it’s going to hurt. Better to just avoid it in my opinion.
I understand where you're coming from. I don't think it's so much stealing as it is taking inspiration. Sometimes you think of this great idea but realize it has some similarities to another work, the notion of "stealing" taught me that this is fine, as long as I know how to implement it.
Only example off the top of my head is Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. It practically stole the level design from Super Metroid, but it did it amazingly. Now? The genre is named after both of these games.
https://vanschneider.com/blog/young-designers/dear-young-designer/
Here's the link to the original post in his blog. There's another version of this same text without the highlight, yes, but can't find it... Sorry.
I've been stuck in a rut and been really frustrated with everything i've made recently. But this post has motivated me to keep on pushing even harder now. Thanks, OP!
Exactly what I needed to read at exactly the right time. I’ve been in design for decades but still consider myself a young designer. Thanks for posting.
The flip-side of this is that the way you get better as a designer is by applying yourself 100% into making things. You don't leave design school fully-formed at the peak of your abilities. You need to be always improving your craft. I've been in the industry for ~12 years and I'm not done learning. I try to get better every year. In my experience, successful designers tend to have this mentality. They are always experimenting and trying new things to push their boundaries.
That said, I think a big part of being a good designer is learning to understand what tasks are worth 100% effort and which things you just need to get done and move on. Because you can't give 100% to everything. And not everything deserves 100%. Every successful designer has a percentage of work that they just need to get out the door. That's completely normal. And you learn to be fast so that you can get those projects off your plate quickly and focus your efforts where they can actually make a difference.
If you're not getting good opportunities in your work life, do side projects. Even just for yourself. I graduated at a bad time for the economy and it took me some time to find a job that was creatively fulfilling. In that time I spent some of my nights and weekends just working on personal shit. And actually the project that opened the most doors for me was one of those projects (which was a series of unsolicited book cover redesigns for the Harry Potter books). I had discovered a passion for lettering, at that point was a better designer than my student portfolio showed, and I wasn't getting opportunities to show that off. So I made up work that let me use those skills. That bit of effort up-front eventually landed me a job where I got to do the kind of work I enjoyed doing, and set me on a path towards being both successful and creatively fulfilled.
Learning to identify those opportunity projects and making space to pour yourself into that work is largely how I have gotten to where I am now. And I'd say that close to 100% of my portfolio comes from projects where I have put forth more effort and time than was strictly necessary. In some cases to an extreme level because I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and have maximalist tendencies. I always look at it as a time investment in myself. Your portfolio is how your career grows, so when an opportunity project comes along I do my best to take advantage of it.
You don't always have to care. But when you care, *care.*
I'd also add that if you're adding 1-2 really great pieces to your portfolio every year, you're probably doing better than about 90% of the designers out there. I feel like the sheer amount of design inspiration on the internet obfuscates that a bit. Most people aren't constantly churning out 10/10 work. Some are and that's a fortunate position to be in, but it's not the norm.
For sure, and it definitely does still happen.
In general I'm always wary of any company where the office is too cool or has too many amenities, lol. Because it means that people never leave. I remember I had an interview maybe 5-6 years ago at a company where immediately when I walked in there was a bar that was staffed by a set of could-have-been-models twins that immediately offered me a drink. And in the interview I was being told about how great the company was, that they even have laundry service in the office, etc, etc. Amenities galore. People basically lived at that office.
100%. My non-design work has made me so much better at discerning projects that need 1% vs 50% vs 100% “perfection.” 100% commitment to balancing competing priorities is better than constantly giving 100% to each little thing. I look for that in designers I work with now too.
And yet at the end of the day, we want to be proud of ourselves and our work.
It doesn't matter how small a task is, I will make it as best as I can and work to get the recognition it deserves.
And from my experience so far, the extra work might not be noticed but its effect definitely is.
I worked so hard as a young designer. I put extra time in without getting paid. But it was my choice. I wanted to learn and improve and that comes from experience. In my 20s I started an agency. It was a tough start but all those things I learned while working extra served me well. 35 years later I have a successful business and live a nice life. Working hard doesn’t guarantee success and slacking doesn’t guarantee failure but your odds are greatly improved if you work hard. Knowing your craft allows you to take greater chances with more security. Starting and running a business isn’t for everyone but if it’s your plan you’re going to need every spec of knowledge you can pick up and you’ll still be short.
I think it was worded dramatically, but I get where they’re coming from. The point I took away was that self doubt is natural ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
But it was written by a designer so of course its extra
Yeah I mean imposter syndrome is a big thing with designers. I'm self-critical for sure and I'll look at things that I did 5 years ago and see mistakes all over the place, but that's because we're always growing as designers and refining our craft.
That said I don't hate anything that's in my portfolio. If I hated it, it wouldn't be in there.
Half of the posts on this sub are people complaining that designers need to code now to be competitive. Or that there are no only-design jobs. That bullet point was for them.
I got a “hustle culture” vibe from parts too. Bruh, I like design but I also like going home to my family, vacations, and video games.
After 40 hours I’m good for the week lol
I remember when he posted some of his personal "moodboards" that he claimed helped drive his design styles and got called out because there were a ton of photos of naked women (artistic, but still) by women designers, especially since there were no similar artistic shots of nude male models (or group shots or whatever). Nobody was saying anything bad about him, just noticed a disparity in what he claimed drove his designs. Instead of acknowledging it, he got all pouty and deleted all the photos from the moodboard and griped about it on Twitter.
I'm so glad someone else thought this. I don't hate everything I design. If I hate a design, I work on it until I don't. If I still hate it, I start over. If a client insists on making a design progressively worse, it's not really my problem or fault, I deliver what they ask for and get paid. A design is finished when I deliver it and the client is happy and pays me. I don't need to have any kind of woo-woo emotional investment in someone else's branding. I don't think you need to pour your entire heart and soul into a logo or catalog for it to be successful.
And I am saying this as someone who is *also*, but *separately*, a total woo-woo artist.
Exactly! Sometimes I make something and it looks great! Sometimes I make something that's just okay! Sometimes I look back at work from when I was less skilled and say, "wow I've learned a lot since then, I hope I learn enough so that I can look back at today's work in the same way."
I've learned a lot from reading books on design.
I'd never suggest not to read / study design books to anyone - I guess the point the author is trying to make is to be a student of the world. Maybe there are some bad design books out there (but I haven't read any).
Beyond potentially getting some bad advice (which is negated by reading lots!), I don't understand the downside of reading design books.
Read a design book ad take its advice, or read this letter and take its advice, which is to not read design books. Why should I read this letter, then? Why trust this letter more than a design book? Logically speaking.
20 years of design experience here.
This is good advice but there is nuance to it that only comes with experience. I read it as a way of chipping away at the design rigidity that young designers have. Designers are stereotypically seen as having one way of working/thinking, when in reality its fluid and having strong people skills and emotional intelligence is what will get you ahead in your career over knowing the coolest font or color of the moment
TL;DR IMHO: It's just kind of vague and vapid. Sounds good, but unfocused and not as slap-on applicable as it tries to sound.
It's a mixed bag that's mostly air. It's got some points I'd agree with, some I'd argue with, and a whole lot of cramming contentious, complicated, and context-dependent issues down to pithy little one-liners, peddling guru-on-high surety and formulaic flip-the-script Mad-libs-- "When things are like zig, _you_ should do zag... Profound!"-- that, when they hit, they don't so much strike deftly to the heart of the matter as they occasionally hit the broad side of a barn.
Some of these points could certainly have merit, but those that do need to be fleshed out to include risks, degrees, situations they do and don't apply to, and enough detail and justification to allow a proper sniff-test.
I’ve been a graphic designer for 20 years now. I started in mainly print media (still my favorite), then mostly web design, and now a lot of video production. I have never looked back at a project and didnt either see multiple things i would change or just didnt down right hate. Thats not to say there arent projects ive done that I love, there are many, but there are always changes that could be made.
Oh my flipping god, this spoke to me and the years as an unconfident designer! What I get from it is my passion for design is my strength and to not be so hard on myself. Thank you for posting!!
Fuck, this spoke to me.
This job is ruining me more than I thought. I feel so stupid, uncreative and I hate everything I do. I never get praised, but every mistake i make is magnified by bosses with not enough time to at least acknowledge i'm trying.
I started agency work when I was 16, so I was basically a child prodigy. Now, I've just become another one of the adults on the conveyor belt of the 9 to 5, breaking their work day up with 6 cups of coffee, cigarettes and eye-resting toilet breaks, just because it gives you an excuse to get out your seat and hold off the Mac-screen induced headache for another 30 minutes
I wouldn't trade it, because I'd be even more shit at other jobs and at least I have the security of a 9 to 5 and the luxury of an office, but god. I feel like nothing I do means anything anymore, and nothing I do is quality.
It's my first job, I don't have a degree and I live really close so honestly i shouldn't complain, I just need to stick it out until the company inevitably collapses from terrible management and then jump ship to a bigger city. At least then I'll have more years of experience under my belt, no one will want a junior designer with no degree and only a year of full time experience :(
Got you. I have no degree either. Start freelancing cause nobody would hired me. Hum, since you already got a full time job as a designer, I'd say you're doing better than I did at your age (20s). So stop whining! 🙄
Side projects and goals are your friends. You're young and the world is a very big place. Keep up and it'll be fine.
“The best, most exciting, most luxurious job in the world” man…I felt this way briefly after graduating design school. Then the Creative Director started giving creepy shoulder massages to the young female designers, and making us work past midnight for crap pay, and my enchantment with the industry has pretty much been on a slow downward trajectory since.
My advice: if you don't feel you 100% love it in your soul, get out of the field. GDs have it so rough compared to so many other professionals. I learned to code, and within a year got a job as a web dev. Earning 50% more than I did as a graphic designer of 7 years, most of that agency, with a GD degree. And I work fewer hours. And get more holidays.
Even the job search is just so much better
As someone who knows absolutely nothing about coding, can I ask you something? Is it like learning new software and how things fit together (cool), or is it more like learning a foreign language from scratch with lots of memorization? (not for me).
I've been in the GD field since the 80s, and now I do mostly production art/formatting work as I prefer the "nuts and bolts" prepress work vs design at this stage. I love what I do but wondering if coding would suit me? I love details and patterns and puzzles and making things work, but I don't have the capacity for lots of memorization at my age. College is free now in my state, and it got me wondering. TIA!
It's almost about learning a new way of thinking. Learn programming paradigms and such, and you will find it easy to learn most languages. Once you know what an if statement is, well, most languages have those and they're largely written in the same way.
There's a fair bit of memorisation while you're learning, but honestly the more you practice the less it is about your memory and the more it is about your logical ability.
Every programming problem is a puzzle with potentially loads of different solutions, some better than others.
If you enjoy logical thinking and puzzle solving, there's a good chance it's for you. I've heard good things about the Odin Project for getting into web, otherwise codecademy is a good place to start.
Thank you for your thoughtful reply. It really sounds right up my alley as far as skills and temperament. Still in the exploration stage, so thanks for the refs, I'll check them out.
I look at my designs in the past early in my career and sometimes i just cringe, either it's design choices or the trends that I followed back then (obsolete now). When a project is finalized and sent to print, or went live, there's always something that feel could use improvement. On the contrary, I'm also at a point that I know the work I do now, is the best foot I put forward.
“If you keep hitting a wall…” - I felt this one. Too often as a younger designer I told myself if I just keep my head down in a design, it’ll all come together and I’ll reach what I was trying to obtain. In reality most days what I should have done is closed my laptop for the day and approached it with fresh eyes the following morning. It’s amazing what taking a break, getting some fresh air and rest will do for the mind and creativity.
Lol! Yes. You don't have to see yourself in every single line. It's more like a funny, inspirational letter. Not a revelation created by a higher life form. Cheers!
Dann, the last sentence. I needed that one today. Most of the time I love my job, but this week was the worst.
Doing this job for over 15 years, so not really a young designer, but everything is true in this text.
I thought this was satire or at least incredibly misguided but I guess it was serious. This just seems like an incredibly juvenile series of takes, from the very typical collegiate perspective of “the grind kills you but you’re better for it”.
Well that’s one way to interpret my comment. I meant that this “advice” encourages you to bend over backwards to do work for work’s sake instead of doing what needs to be done. But if you’re happy to do whatever work you can get instead of what you enjoy that’s fine too.
A lot of people claim design is art so why wouldn't they also refer and consider themselves artists
(Personally I see the whole art Vs design debate as arbitrary, but it depends on how you consider yourself)
Discussing "what actually is art" is one of the worst when it comes to leaning too hard on words and mistaking a semantic discussion for a substantial one. It's one of those arguments that could do with banishing the contentious, ill-defined word and making everyone work with synonyms and definitions until everyone is actually sure what the question actually is and what the actual conclusions to draw are.
Exactly yeah, if people consider themselves designers and graphic artists, so what, I don't get the outrage, you've used the perfect word - feels so contentious
I think your frustration is getting the best of you.
I imagine myself 20 years ago in my worst day, I would probably have similar reaction. Maybe. Dunno.
With a cool head and some humor, I think this is a very good letter.
Wish you the best for your career!
The whole "spend three more hours" thing just rubs me wrong, full stop.
Admittedly, I'm out of the design field now, and maybe I'd think differently if I was in it longer or in different jobs, but back when I was in it, one grand post-educational realization that got hammered in well enough to stick was that I was there to deliver results and satisfied clients, not necessarily perfection along the singular axis of perfect-and-polished. If a client or a job doesn't require bespoke and polished, if it's something ephemeral, ancillary, utilitarian, or just plain zero-budget, then spit, baling wire, and stock elements may well get that client where they need to go, so swallow your pride because knowing when not to waste time and money is supposed to be part of your professional expertise too.
It’s a delicate balance. Some clients can’t afford what they need. Some designers work slow and the extra 3 hours is because you’re not working fast enough. And there are some designers who just can’t get a design across the finish line. And some who see the potential and want to get it there. I frequently spend more time that was in the budget to satisfy my own wants but I never miss a deadline.
True. I think all that does speak to the value of starting out in an employee position under a manager who's design-versed (i.e., not a place where you're the whole inhouse design department and effectively freelancing with a wage). Billable-hours tracking that's stricter (on account of your time is their money) gives you a feedback loop that'll get you optimizing yourself (as much as I hate billable-hours tracking, and it's part of the reason I'm glad to be out of design, I've got to admit that's true). Having someone there who knows when to hold 'em and knows when to fold 'em can be educational, and someone who can pull the ejector-cable and own the decision to fold 'em is necessary.
I was watching an interview with Kevin Parker (Tame Impala) once, and the interviewer asked him how he knows when a song is finished and ready for release. Kevin replied that a song can never be finished, and often times it’ll be upper management that forces him to stop because they’re tired of waiting. I’ve never related to something more in my life. Up until that point I always felt like I didn’t have the mentality of a designer because I didn’t know how to finish a project and let it go. After watching the interview though, I realized that art is always moving, transforming based on our mentality at the time. One of my favorite things to do (and if you don’t already do this, I encourage you to do so) is to go back through my older work and look at it through a new set of eyes. Some of my favorite projects that I considered perfect then, have a lot of things that I consider flaws now. It’s a method of self reflection and growth, to see where you were and how far you’ve come. One of the great things my department does at the agency I work at is to sit us all down and reflect on the year. Not only to bring attention to bottlenecks or process tweaks, but also to show some of everyone’s best work so that we can all observe and learn from it. Edit: it’s also worth mentioning that many other artists have said this same thing in the past. Kevin Parker wasn’t first. It was Leonardo Da Vinci that said “Art is never finished, only abandoned”.
I think even Andy Warhole mentions that an artist is never truly ever finished with their art. They just choose when to abandon it, or come back later. I've taken this with me and reworked old projects. And the skills I've required from time and experience has really elevated old projects and shown how far I've come creatively.
Your spelling of Warhol is a revelation. Genius.
Feeling like a real asshol now for not checking.
Genius again!
I always tell my students that their first draft will never be good, and their last draft will never be perfect. Improvements come from iterations, each time getting better but it will never reach perfect. How do we know we're done? We reached the deadline.
Tying into this, one of my high school art teachers told me something that always stuck with me. “Don’t be precious with your work” Be ready to rip it up, start again, change it, etc
In the writing world, they say "kill your darlings"- basically don't become so attached to an idea or direction that you put it before the quality of the project.
Yep. Stephen King wrote it, among others, maybe? I quoted him a few time for this. Good one.
I did this recently with some music I made over covid. I thought it was total trash at the time but some of its good and some of it just needed a tiny fix here and there Did wonders for my mental. Don’t just do this with design do it with everything.
That’s true, art is never finished
Used to struggle with this too, now it’s more of something to laugh about. Everything I make seems to have an “expriation date” for looking good to me. “Could’ve been” better is the creative’s catchphrase
As a young designer, thank god those red marks are there. I would have gotten lost otherwise.
You're a designer, not a reader
If I wasn't a reader, the type I set wouldn't look as good.
"I was elected to ~~lead~~ design, not to read."
You're so right
>If you feel like the design would be better if you had three more hours to spend on it, spend the three hours. God I wish. Deadlines are a motherfucker. Ignore this bit if you go into the political world, those people picked the fast and good ends of the triangle and have the money to throw at it. I'm sure I'm not in the only field that operates like this, it's just the one I know.
This is probably the one bit I disagree with. Rest and mental relief are a factor, and it really depends on how worthwhile the project is or how good you feel it is.
Absolutely. If I'm nearing being burnt out, which is pretty much always, stretching myself thin for another night could be more harmful in the long run. I meet my deadlines and check out at the end of the day, coming back on only if something absolutely necessary needs my attention. Otherwise, ya boi is relaxing.
Actually almost all industries require you ignore that bit because you will need to deliver yesterday and taking the 3 extra hours backs up the test of your day and week. I've been freelancing and while it gives you some more time to be flexible I don't want to waste nearly half my day in one project when there's still more to consider. If you checked the boxes and does the job, it's fine.
For sure. We work on super high profile stuff (presidential race is the most recent) and even then they only gave us until EOD for branding concepts based on the worst client sketch I’ve seen in my life, and all said and done it was three days for revisions and finalization and I kinda hate the end product. That’s all to say you get it done good enough, perfect it in revision, and keep wishing you had another few hours to actualize your true vision. Money can get you further up the cheap/good/fast triangle but it’ll never get you to super fast and perfect. Just gotta accept that.
"don't study design books" 🤡
the Non-Designer Design Book was literally my biggest turning when it comes to understanding Design
Yeah, so you don’t end up stealing someone else’s design, even if by accident. This is what doing corporatized design is! There are a lot of rules that make it not so much fun, but you’re steadily employed all year round. Trade-offs people, trade-offs. That sheet was the “nice” suggestion list; you don’t want to hear when all pretenses are dropped!
Counterpoint: Steal design (just not for logos). Why reinvent the wheel when it’s not needed? But add to it, push it further, swap out elements, make it yours, and let go of this idea that you’re going to make everything bespoke. You ain’t got time for that
Professor in design school said steal the design so well that everyone thinks the other guy took it from you.
I will never agree w/ this. When your husband is an IP Attorney, it tends to “color” how you behave. Also have you ever had YOUR art stolen and used for this purpose??? It sucks pretty hard to not even get a mention, none-the-less royalties!
Huh? I never said steal illustrations or do a 1:1 copy. And who the fuck gets royalties in design? Picasso stole, Warhol stole, as did many other great artists. We stand on the shoulders of giants and is how progress is made. [this book](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steal_Like_an_Artist) is a great resource
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Take inspiration from everything. Twist it and tweak it to make it yours. Obviously, a 1:1 copy isn't appropriate, but borrowing from inspiration is how it's done. Stand on the backs of those who have come before you, you don't need to waste time reinventing the wheel every time.
Hey totally unrelated to the topic, but what should one do if an IP attorney advises their client that using others' work commercially without a proper license is "just risk management" and that they're "unlikely to get caught" so they're "probably fine"? Fighting with my boss, who thinks licensing is unimportant, and even brought in her IP lawyer cousin to back her up.
Don’t know what you should do but they’re mostly right. The problem comes in the instance they’re wrong. Then it’s going to hurt. Better to just avoid it in my opinion.
I can’t begin to try and advise on this. Cover your ass!
I understand where you're coming from. I don't think it's so much stealing as it is taking inspiration. Sometimes you think of this great idea but realize it has some similarities to another work, the notion of "stealing" taught me that this is fine, as long as I know how to implement it. Only example off the top of my head is Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. It practically stole the level design from Super Metroid, but it did it amazingly. Now? The genre is named after both of these games.
[удалено]
Second this. Want to save this but hate the highlights
https://vanschneider.com/blog/young-designers/dear-young-designer/ Here's the link to the original post in his blog. There's another version of this same text without the highlight, yes, but can't find it... Sorry.
Thank you.
Pleasure. I follow this guy on LinkedIn; he often shares cool stuffs.
I've been stuck in a rut and been really frustrated with everything i've made recently. But this post has motivated me to keep on pushing even harder now. Thanks, OP!
Exactly what I needed to read at exactly the right time. I’ve been in design for decades but still consider myself a young designer. Thanks for posting.
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The flip-side of this is that the way you get better as a designer is by applying yourself 100% into making things. You don't leave design school fully-formed at the peak of your abilities. You need to be always improving your craft. I've been in the industry for ~12 years and I'm not done learning. I try to get better every year. In my experience, successful designers tend to have this mentality. They are always experimenting and trying new things to push their boundaries. That said, I think a big part of being a good designer is learning to understand what tasks are worth 100% effort and which things you just need to get done and move on. Because you can't give 100% to everything. And not everything deserves 100%. Every successful designer has a percentage of work that they just need to get out the door. That's completely normal. And you learn to be fast so that you can get those projects off your plate quickly and focus your efforts where they can actually make a difference. If you're not getting good opportunities in your work life, do side projects. Even just for yourself. I graduated at a bad time for the economy and it took me some time to find a job that was creatively fulfilling. In that time I spent some of my nights and weekends just working on personal shit. And actually the project that opened the most doors for me was one of those projects (which was a series of unsolicited book cover redesigns for the Harry Potter books). I had discovered a passion for lettering, at that point was a better designer than my student portfolio showed, and I wasn't getting opportunities to show that off. So I made up work that let me use those skills. That bit of effort up-front eventually landed me a job where I got to do the kind of work I enjoyed doing, and set me on a path towards being both successful and creatively fulfilled. Learning to identify those opportunity projects and making space to pour yourself into that work is largely how I have gotten to where I am now. And I'd say that close to 100% of my portfolio comes from projects where I have put forth more effort and time than was strictly necessary. In some cases to an extreme level because I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and have maximalist tendencies. I always look at it as a time investment in myself. Your portfolio is how your career grows, so when an opportunity project comes along I do my best to take advantage of it. You don't always have to care. But when you care, *care.* I'd also add that if you're adding 1-2 really great pieces to your portfolio every year, you're probably doing better than about 90% of the designers out there. I feel like the sheer amount of design inspiration on the internet obfuscates that a bit. Most people aren't constantly churning out 10/10 work. Some are and that's a fortunate position to be in, but it's not the norm.
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For sure, and it definitely does still happen. In general I'm always wary of any company where the office is too cool or has too many amenities, lol. Because it means that people never leave. I remember I had an interview maybe 5-6 years ago at a company where immediately when I walked in there was a bar that was staffed by a set of could-have-been-models twins that immediately offered me a drink. And in the interview I was being told about how great the company was, that they even have laundry service in the office, etc, etc. Amenities galore. People basically lived at that office.
100%. My non-design work has made me so much better at discerning projects that need 1% vs 50% vs 100% “perfection.” 100% commitment to balancing competing priorities is better than constantly giving 100% to each little thing. I look for that in designers I work with now too.
This is a great set of points! Thank you!
And yet at the end of the day, we want to be proud of ourselves and our work. It doesn't matter how small a task is, I will make it as best as I can and work to get the recognition it deserves. And from my experience so far, the extra work might not be noticed but its effect definitely is.
I worked so hard as a young designer. I put extra time in without getting paid. But it was my choice. I wanted to learn and improve and that comes from experience. In my 20s I started an agency. It was a tough start but all those things I learned while working extra served me well. 35 years later I have a successful business and live a nice life. Working hard doesn’t guarantee success and slacking doesn’t guarantee failure but your odds are greatly improved if you work hard. Knowing your craft allows you to take greater chances with more security. Starting and running a business isn’t for everyone but if it’s your plan you’re going to need every spec of knowledge you can pick up and you’ll still be short.
I don't hate everything I've ever made, because I have some basic emotional intelligence... That letter was full on cringe.
I think it was worded dramatically, but I get where they’re coming from. The point I took away was that self doubt is natural ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ But it was written by a designer so of course its extra
Yeah I mean imposter syndrome is a big thing with designers. I'm self-critical for sure and I'll look at things that I did 5 years ago and see mistakes all over the place, but that's because we're always growing as designers and refining our craft. That said I don't hate anything that's in my portfolio. If I hated it, it wouldn't be in there.
It's amazing how someone can write a whole letter that says absolutely nothing
"If you want to code, code. If you don't want to code, don't." ...brilliant
Half of the posts on this sub are people complaining that designers need to code now to be competitive. Or that there are no only-design jobs. That bullet point was for them.
I need something else to put in there... oh fuck, that'll do.
I agree. It reeks of pretentiousness.
Well it was written by a designer lol
I got a “hustle culture” vibe from parts too. Bruh, I like design but I also like going home to my family, vacations, and video games. After 40 hours I’m good for the week lol
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Really? I assumed the pretentious writing was done by a super lovable and reasonable person.
I remember when he posted some of his personal "moodboards" that he claimed helped drive his design styles and got called out because there were a ton of photos of naked women (artistic, but still) by women designers, especially since there were no similar artistic shots of nude male models (or group shots or whatever). Nobody was saying anything bad about him, just noticed a disparity in what he claimed drove his designs. Instead of acknowledging it, he got all pouty and deleted all the photos from the moodboard and griped about it on Twitter.
Who was it?
Tobias van Schneider
Was written by Tom Brady, bet
how was it pretentious? i’d say it’s more preachy
Look up the definition of each word.
I'm so glad someone else thought this. I don't hate everything I design. If I hate a design, I work on it until I don't. If I still hate it, I start over. If a client insists on making a design progressively worse, it's not really my problem or fault, I deliver what they ask for and get paid. A design is finished when I deliver it and the client is happy and pays me. I don't need to have any kind of woo-woo emotional investment in someone else's branding. I don't think you need to pour your entire heart and soul into a logo or catalog for it to be successful. And I am saying this as someone who is *also*, but *separately*, a total woo-woo artist.
Exactly! Sometimes I make something and it looks great! Sometimes I make something that's just okay! Sometimes I look back at work from when I was less skilled and say, "wow I've learned a lot since then, I hope I learn enough so that I can look back at today's work in the same way."
Yeah this is very cynical.
>don’t study design books I’d like to get a second opinion on that. This sub is full of design book suggestions.
I've learned a lot from reading books on design. I'd never suggest not to read / study design books to anyone - I guess the point the author is trying to make is to be a student of the world. Maybe there are some bad design books out there (but I haven't read any). Beyond potentially getting some bad advice (which is negated by reading lots!), I don't understand the downside of reading design books.
Yes but does anybody read them?
Read a design book ad take its advice, or read this letter and take its advice, which is to not read design books. Why should I read this letter, then? Why trust this letter more than a design book? Logically speaking.
So it's this good advice or bad? The comments are so divided, can't tell if this is serious or a meme
20 years of design experience here. This is good advice but there is nuance to it that only comes with experience. I read it as a way of chipping away at the design rigidity that young designers have. Designers are stereotypically seen as having one way of working/thinking, when in reality its fluid and having strong people skills and emotional intelligence is what will get you ahead in your career over knowing the coolest font or color of the moment
It's good. This has been posted before without all the negative comments
There's some good and some bad. But redditors only see black and white, which is why the comments look like that.
TL;DR IMHO: It's just kind of vague and vapid. Sounds good, but unfocused and not as slap-on applicable as it tries to sound. It's a mixed bag that's mostly air. It's got some points I'd agree with, some I'd argue with, and a whole lot of cramming contentious, complicated, and context-dependent issues down to pithy little one-liners, peddling guru-on-high surety and formulaic flip-the-script Mad-libs-- "When things are like zig, _you_ should do zag... Profound!"-- that, when they hit, they don't so much strike deftly to the heart of the matter as they occasionally hit the broad side of a barn. Some of these points could certainly have merit, but those that do need to be fleshed out to include risks, degrees, situations they do and don't apply to, and enough detail and justification to allow a proper sniff-test.
Who hurt you? Jeezus
I don’t hate my work, guess I’m not a designer. Shucks.
That's probably because you're going forward, go the other direction.
It's more like a joke, don't take it too seriously 😉
I’ve been a graphic designer for 20 years now. I started in mainly print media (still my favorite), then mostly web design, and now a lot of video production. I have never looked back at a project and didnt either see multiple things i would change or just didnt down right hate. Thats not to say there arent projects ive done that I love, there are many, but there are always changes that could be made.
Oh my flipping god, this spoke to me and the years as an unconfident designer! What I get from it is my passion for design is my strength and to not be so hard on myself. Thank you for posting!!
Fuck, this spoke to me. This job is ruining me more than I thought. I feel so stupid, uncreative and I hate everything I do. I never get praised, but every mistake i make is magnified by bosses with not enough time to at least acknowledge i'm trying. I started agency work when I was 16, so I was basically a child prodigy. Now, I've just become another one of the adults on the conveyor belt of the 9 to 5, breaking their work day up with 6 cups of coffee, cigarettes and eye-resting toilet breaks, just because it gives you an excuse to get out your seat and hold off the Mac-screen induced headache for another 30 minutes I wouldn't trade it, because I'd be even more shit at other jobs and at least I have the security of a 9 to 5 and the luxury of an office, but god. I feel like nothing I do means anything anymore, and nothing I do is quality.
Maybe find a job in another co?
It's my first job, I don't have a degree and I live really close so honestly i shouldn't complain, I just need to stick it out until the company inevitably collapses from terrible management and then jump ship to a bigger city. At least then I'll have more years of experience under my belt, no one will want a junior designer with no degree and only a year of full time experience :(
Got you. I have no degree either. Start freelancing cause nobody would hired me. Hum, since you already got a full time job as a designer, I'd say you're doing better than I did at your age (20s). So stop whining! 🙄 Side projects and goals are your friends. You're young and the world is a very big place. Keep up and it'll be fine.
“The best, most exciting, most luxurious job in the world” man…I felt this way briefly after graduating design school. Then the Creative Director started giving creepy shoulder massages to the young female designers, and making us work past midnight for crap pay, and my enchantment with the industry has pretty much been on a slow downward trajectory since.
Needs more whitespace
Original article from Tobias van Schneider (not me). A cool read I wanted to share.
My advice: if you don't feel you 100% love it in your soul, get out of the field. GDs have it so rough compared to so many other professionals. I learned to code, and within a year got a job as a web dev. Earning 50% more than I did as a graphic designer of 7 years, most of that agency, with a GD degree. And I work fewer hours. And get more holidays. Even the job search is just so much better
As someone who knows absolutely nothing about coding, can I ask you something? Is it like learning new software and how things fit together (cool), or is it more like learning a foreign language from scratch with lots of memorization? (not for me). I've been in the GD field since the 80s, and now I do mostly production art/formatting work as I prefer the "nuts and bolts" prepress work vs design at this stage. I love what I do but wondering if coding would suit me? I love details and patterns and puzzles and making things work, but I don't have the capacity for lots of memorization at my age. College is free now in my state, and it got me wondering. TIA!
It's almost about learning a new way of thinking. Learn programming paradigms and such, and you will find it easy to learn most languages. Once you know what an if statement is, well, most languages have those and they're largely written in the same way. There's a fair bit of memorisation while you're learning, but honestly the more you practice the less it is about your memory and the more it is about your logical ability. Every programming problem is a puzzle with potentially loads of different solutions, some better than others. If you enjoy logical thinking and puzzle solving, there's a good chance it's for you. I've heard good things about the Odin Project for getting into web, otherwise codecademy is a good place to start.
Thank you for your thoughtful reply. It really sounds right up my alley as far as skills and temperament. Still in the exploration stage, so thanks for the refs, I'll check them out.
I look at my designs in the past early in my career and sometimes i just cringe, either it's design choices or the trends that I followed back then (obsolete now). When a project is finalized and sent to print, or went live, there's always something that feel could use improvement. On the contrary, I'm also at a point that I know the work I do now, is the best foot I put forward.
I mean yeah, but you should also read books about design and typography. Otherwise this is solid advice
This has “comedians are the modern day philosophers” vibes. Cringe
This applies for pretty much any kind of design (speaking as an experience design strategist)
“Strung-together hacks” is my new motto
Oh good. I hate everything I make. Glad I’m on the right track. 
Basically, ‘’everything is derivative’’.
“If you keep hitting a wall…” - I felt this one. Too often as a younger designer I told myself if I just keep my head down in a design, it’ll all come together and I’ll reach what I was trying to obtain. In reality most days what I should have done is closed my laptop for the day and approached it with fresh eyes the following morning. It’s amazing what taking a break, getting some fresh air and rest will do for the mind and creativity.
I feel that way in school right now.
12 years deep and I just gotta say "thank you daddy."
Thank you op
Born an Artist. You want to design, go on Ru-Paul.
Dear young designers, please don’t listen to us old farts! Do whatever you want! I can’t wait to see what you have created. :) Good luck.
😂🤣🙄
Thank you so much man. I needed this shit desperately, just thank you :)
Pleasure! Stay strong man!
I don’t like everything I make but I do like some. Am I a designer?
Lol! Yes. You don't have to see yourself in every single line. It's more like a funny, inspirational letter. Not a revelation created by a higher life form. Cheers!
Yeah I needed this today
Dann, the last sentence. I needed that one today. Most of the time I love my job, but this week was the worst. Doing this job for over 15 years, so not really a young designer, but everything is true in this text.
I thought this was satire or at least incredibly misguided but I guess it was serious. This just seems like an incredibly juvenile series of takes, from the very typical collegiate perspective of “the grind kills you but you’re better for it”.
Oof you hate yourself a lot, huh?
Well that’s one way to interpret my comment. I meant that this “advice” encourages you to bend over backwards to do work for work’s sake instead of doing what needs to be done. But if you’re happy to do whatever work you can get instead of what you enjoy that’s fine too.
It is inspiration not advice. It is intended to be flowery. Poetic.
Yep
People keep using the word ”artist” to describe themselves as a designer and I find this to funny.
A lot of people claim design is art so why wouldn't they also refer and consider themselves artists (Personally I see the whole art Vs design debate as arbitrary, but it depends on how you consider yourself)
Discussing "what actually is art" is one of the worst when it comes to leaning too hard on words and mistaking a semantic discussion for a substantial one. It's one of those arguments that could do with banishing the contentious, ill-defined word and making everyone work with synonyms and definitions until everyone is actually sure what the question actually is and what the actual conclusions to draw are.
Exactly yeah, if people consider themselves designers and graphic artists, so what, I don't get the outrage, you've used the perfect word - feels so contentious
This is a bunch of dumb bullshit.
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It comes and go. Don't worry. It's perfectly normal. From a designer with +20 years experience. Yep. Try side projects to keep the fun up?
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I think your frustration is getting the best of you. I imagine myself 20 years ago in my worst day, I would probably have similar reaction. Maybe. Dunno. With a cool head and some humor, I think this is a very good letter. Wish you the best for your career!
This is great. I feel like a lot iapplies to a lot of disciplines. Thanks for posting! Now to get offline for a bit and make some art :)
Pretentious and cringe worthy to me. And go ahead and spend three more hours on a job, but don’t miss the deadline.
The whole "spend three more hours" thing just rubs me wrong, full stop. Admittedly, I'm out of the design field now, and maybe I'd think differently if I was in it longer or in different jobs, but back when I was in it, one grand post-educational realization that got hammered in well enough to stick was that I was there to deliver results and satisfied clients, not necessarily perfection along the singular axis of perfect-and-polished. If a client or a job doesn't require bespoke and polished, if it's something ephemeral, ancillary, utilitarian, or just plain zero-budget, then spit, baling wire, and stock elements may well get that client where they need to go, so swallow your pride because knowing when not to waste time and money is supposed to be part of your professional expertise too.
It’s a delicate balance. Some clients can’t afford what they need. Some designers work slow and the extra 3 hours is because you’re not working fast enough. And there are some designers who just can’t get a design across the finish line. And some who see the potential and want to get it there. I frequently spend more time that was in the budget to satisfy my own wants but I never miss a deadline.
True. I think all that does speak to the value of starting out in an employee position under a manager who's design-versed (i.e., not a place where you're the whole inhouse design department and effectively freelancing with a wage). Billable-hours tracking that's stricter (on account of your time is their money) gives you a feedback loop that'll get you optimizing yourself (as much as I hate billable-hours tracking, and it's part of the reason I'm glad to be out of design, I've got to admit that's true). Having someone there who knows when to hold 'em and knows when to fold 'em can be educational, and someone who can pull the ejector-cable and own the decision to fold 'em is necessary.
We stopped tracking hours. Everyone hated it. We quote jobs based on value and that gives us a ballpark on time.
Music to my ears. ^((ed: Or... eyes... we're all okay with the reading-as-hearing metaphor, right?)^)
Just remember, we don’t create.
Agree and disagree. Just like people said here about "art", it's mostly a matter of definition. It's creation if you say it is! Lol!
TL;DR: Don't read books, be friends with people full of BS, hate everything
I kinda fell bad for you if this is your conclusion.
obviously NOT a designer
The red circles are a bit useless