It is, however, a good jumping-off point for learning about design, and, if you really want to freelance, to learn about professionalism while you’re at it. One of my idols, Andy Rutledge, recently wrote about young wannabe designers ignoring every warning and going headfirst off the deep end, unaware of the craggy rocks that seperate great designers from everybody out there with a cracked CS4.

I myself have recently pondered why so many people conceive our profession as adding “Feenstaub”, i.e. some magic pixie dust, to everything to make it look “good”. You may be born with or aquire a certain sense of aesthetics, forms and shapes, but in order to acheive greatness, you need to learn the science behind design and art, otherwise everything you do will be hollow, bland and unremarkable. And that’s the worst that can happen to you or your prospective clients.

To the uninitiated, art looks accidental, whimsical even. And that’s the way we want to keep it. We want people to understand our messages, not wonder about the creative process. But we do, and we have to. Every great artist did it and even though it may all seem effortless, nobody should assume designing is anything but hard work. That’s not to say you can’t have a little fun doing it, but your priorities do have to be straight.

Andy got flamed for telling the truth, and I expect the same to happen to me, but then again, somebody has to be honest about it, and it ain’t gonna be your friends and family.