I know sometimes we all think that what we do isn’t really important, or we wonder if it’s even “all worth it” in the end. We think: What else could be accomplished in the time that we spend picking fonts or finding a successful color palette? How many trees planted? How many houses rebuilt? How many children in Darfur saved? What am I doing? Does it make any sense?
Although I try to tell myself that what I do is tremendously important, I have quite a few weak moments where I feel I should pack up and join the Peace Corps.
Being the mother of a two year old boy, I have learned a lot about communicating on two separate levels, his and mine. Fulfilling the role as a “font of infinite knowledge” to my child can be fun, but it can also be an overwhelming task.
Two year old boys are constantly in the mix of things, yearning for new and exciting ways to be entertained and involved. Like with my child, the constant demand from the audience (i.e.client) to be involved with content ideas, type choices, color etc. has made the effort of a designers craft that much greater.
Like Sagmeister said,
“The audience is much more interested in design now because almost everybody is a designer themselves. This technology driven change has not lead to the predicted job losses but onto a desire for more sophisticated work from professionals.”
I know there are going to be clients that are less than easy to work with. Ones that ask you to “make it look like this (example of someone else’s work).” There is nothing more frustrating than being restricted of your creative rights. I know that if all you do is make compromises, things get less interesting, but, I want you to know there is nothing wrong with conceding, swallowing your pride and taking half damage. Keep your self-respect and commit to your responsibility of designing, but don’t be above learning about your audience.
Remember that creating experiences, even less than satisfactory ones, can’t stifle your passion to create and create effectively. Not every job can be perfect, but it’s the ones that bring “the good” back to your desires to create that make working all the more appealing.
Working on a small budget within an even smaller time frame, dealing with unreasonable demands, and being constantly pressured to tailor to a client’s needs while trying to maintain effective and inspiring ways of communicating can be daunting, but remember to use what you know to play your part and look forward to the next project.