Master of None, but Damn If I’m Not Interested!
What advice do you have for the emerging designer?
What I didn’t get when I was a student, and what took me a long time to get but really sustains me now? As a designer, and specifically a graphic designer, there’s a free pass to go anywhere you want to go. Meaning, I don’t know anything about cooking but I’ve been in the back of restaurants because I am designing for them, and I couldn’t play professional football but I’ve been in a lot of professional football teams locker rooms. I’ve been in the room where they plan the front page of the New York Times, backstage at performances, etc. I really do need to be in those places to reflect the feeling and their personality in my designs. The work I have been really proud of is all stuff that I was actually interested in. The more you can be interested in, the better your work will be.
Some people go deep into one thing, but I’m not like that. Never have. I go the other way. I have learned a little bit about so many things, that the advice I give to students is that all the technical things they have to learn about are really important, but it is more important to ask this: What is the content of what you are working on and why is anybody in the real world supposed to give a damn about it? A technical tool or trick is not going to help you answer this question.
What will really make you a good designer? It’s being interested in (and if you are really lucky you might even be passionate about) the stuff you are working on. And what I’ve noticed is that good designers can get excited about a lot of things. If you just keep doing good work more good work is coming.
As a young designer there is an idea that is painfully clear to everyone else but will be unknown to you. You don’t actually know shit. It’s the blunt truth.
In the early days we are all trying to learn the tools, the theory, the history, the lessons, approach, strategy, presentations, and storytelling. I remember graduating MIAD and feeling like I had scaled a mountain. Now, 10 years later, college is equivalent to putting on my shoes. Years of work and hours of late nights have helped build a foundation of basics. These basics are things that I draw upon everyday. Color theory, drawing, space forms, lithography, perspective drawing and the figure drawing are important to my daily life and have created a wider base for me to balance (and build) my career on.
Reading Pleasure: http://99u.com/articles/41159/michael-bierut-on-finding-your-voice
Take a range of classes. Pulling in all life experience is relevant for your future endeavors. Designers by their nature have to be problem solvers, and explorers. We are trying to relate to the problem and who this potential solution will serve. The more you know the better. The more interested the better. Just never shut out more experiences. They will help widen your base.
An early interest in technology has been a great second side of the coin. I could have developed these skills in high school and even middle school to maximize my impact today, but everything happens in time. Today my early knowledge of how technical systems are designed and built doesn’t have a root in college. But I was aware that it was a missing component. That was enough to know my first job would have to be in an area related to technology and I would have to position myself to learn more. Luckily I found that opportunity. Thanks to the friends that helped me along the way.
