What Makes You a Designer?
Hi friends,
A question I’m thinking about today: what makes you a designer?
Throughout my career, I’ve had some doubts about whether I was as much a designer as some others I see in the industry.
Other designers that are constantly sketching and thinking of product concepts. The ones that obsess over and debate design details in every product they see. The ones that carefully curate everything they own and make sure they live up to their design ideals.
They seem to live and breathe design. They’re so design-y.
I don’t feel like I’m on that level.
I don’t really sketch outside of work. I do care about the details on things, but sometimes things are just functional, and I don’t care (as much) about how they look. I think sometimes Design with a capital D is elevated to the point of snobbery. I’m as at home in a spreadsheet as in a CAD file.
Does that make me less of a designer?
After having this internal debate for a long time, I think I’ve come to the point where I’m mostly comfortable with the kind of designer I am.
I don’t think I’ll ever by as design-y as some of my colleagues, but there are many ways to be a designer. I think at it’s core it’s about creatively solving problems for other people and having/applying good taste. And those things I’m confident I can do.
It’s worth mentioning that one factor that contributes significantly to this is the Instagram-ification of design. Every designer seems to have a picture-perfect instagram account. I have to remind myself that online and social media presences are highly curated, and you only see what people want you to see.
I doubt anyone is as design-y as you think.
Anson
Interesting things of the week
💻 Designing - Sustainable Design Handbook
I came across this website while randomly browsing LinkedIn this week. It’s a concise guide to sustainable design for hardware products. What I love is that it gives concrete tactical strategies for different levels of change, from small tweaks to a product, to rethinking a product, to rethinking the whole system the product is part of. Will definitely be referencing this in future.
📺 Watching - Why Every Johnny Harris Video Goes Viral - David Mora (YouTube)
If you don’t know Johnny Harris, check out his YouTube channel. He does explainer videos on everything from McDonalds ice cream machines to NFTs to flat earthers. They always go viral. This video by David Mora breaks down how he does that through the alternating use of visual anchors and contextual bridges. As I was watching this, I realized this was highly applicable advice for design portfolios too!
🎵 Listening - Succession Season 3 Soundtrack - Nicholas Britell
Whether you watch HBO’s Succession or not (if not, WHY NOT?!?), you should give this soundtrack a listen. It’s an amazing score that is rooted in classical music but feels very modern. It has moments of intense drama and also some of quiet contemplation that’ll make your day seem more TV worthy than it really is.
💬 Quote of The Week
“The world is changing at such a rapid rate that it’s turning us all into amateurs. Even for professionals, the best way to flourish is to retain an amateur’s spirit and embrace uncertainty and the unknown”
— Show Your Work, by Austin Kleon