Comments on: How Wannabe Designers Burden the Profession

By: Wise

Wise — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 23:49:54 +0000

Nice article,

but now i’m kinda shamed to call myself a designer, at least i know liltle bit of CSS and HTML to call myself a web (designer)

By: mavcomm

mavcomm — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 08:22:12 +0000

True! Professional designers unite. Technology has blurred the lines between paste-up and mechanical “artists” and true creative, graphic designers. Some people think that knowing how to use Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, or others turn them into designers. Don’t you just hate it when dedicated printing presses that offer “design” services and then farm these projects out at pro bono rates? Worse when amateurs even try to lecture on the subject of your specialization. Thanks for this post. Had been wanting to write about it.

By: Ney Pimentel

Ney Pimentel — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 20:57:39 +0000

Nice!!!

By: Speider Schneider

Speider Schneider — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 19:04:23 +0000

Ah, good point, @Bill! Which is why I also wrote…
http://www.processedidentity.com/article/do-you-really-want-to-be-a-design-rock-star/

By: Bill

Bill — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 08:06:22 +0000

You forgot the most important thing about designers, theres twice as much ego as there is skill.

By: sarah

sarah — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 00:40:23 +0000

@Will Richards – VERY well stated! But the article wasn’t directed at either – my personal opinion after reading, and because he clarifies in a later comment. I think you’ve done a great job defining a “designer” but I also think you are confusing wannabe’s and beginners. I never thought this article was directed at beginners, and to anyone who is reading this and happens to be one – go four comments up and read the points made by pindari – GREAT advice.

By: Richard Ambrose

Richard Ambrose — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 16:11:55 +0000

I found your article both entertaining and interesting. On the positive side my brother rang me up the next day asking me to design a website for free “I’ll do the database stuff, all you have to do is the design bit”. I turned him down and held on to my pride. He couldn’t undertsnad why.

Most people I can work with and a few I accept that I can’t. If I’m unable to stand my ground and justify my ideas to someone who has already decided they like my work then either
1) I’ve misinterpretted the brief – my fault
2) I’ve not given them good enough options – my fault
3) I’ve not picked up that the decision is likely to be though committee because the key decision maker is too scared.

Again my fault! Option 3 is probably best avoided in any profession. When this happens I am reminded of the quote: “Walk through all your parks and alll your cities, you’ll never find statues of committees”

By: Speider Schneider

Speider Schneider — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 16:09:03 +0000

The odd thing about many responses is they insert the question of having an art school education. Not once did I equate attending art school as a prerequisite of being a professional. I did attend art school and left after a couple of years because I had a great job for a major corporation and grew my skills over a decade. I went back to art school at night, merely for my degree (which some corporate entities find mandatory).

In such an emotional article, I am not surprised at passionate responses to the contrary and certainly the amount of personal attacks are expected, but when people read between the lines and come up with something that just wasn’t in print, then it crosses into a ridiculous.

A wanna-be is someone who does not have the talent to make a living at the field they target nor do they care to learn, grow and develop in that field. Those entering the field are beginning a journey and are open and hungry for growth. Those that are self trained and grow with experience are admirable for their struggle. It is the deluded individuals who believe anyone can be a designer by merely stating so and are enamored with the “glamour” they equate with the lifestyle of the industry that creates the problems so many comments have stated. If you read the entire article, without reaching the boiling point after the first paragraph, you will see those are the exact words written. Perhaps the humor threw some readers off. For the great majority, it didn’t.

By: tom

tom — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 12:47:23 +0000

Wonderful summary of the worst type of pretentious, insecure, elitist designer (sorry, “Designer”).

The “special gift of being able to use creativity to solve visual problems”? Good lord, get over your own inflated sense of self. In most cases the person who hires you doesn’t want you to use your “special gifts” they want you to make a design that makes them happy.

When good work is being fucked up by an incompetent committee, the correct answer isn’t to say, I’m the artiste, I know better than you sad, non-artist wannabes. If you can’t demonstrate and convince people why what you’ve done is actually right and better – it probably isn’t.

I agree with the poster above, this is a new low for design writing.

By: pindari

pindari — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 03:50:21 +0000

I showed this to my mom’s friend who’s been designing websites for like 20 years or whenever they were discovered. She uses a text editor and Photoshop version 4.

I had to print it out & show it to her because the only articles she reads are the ones with stuff like charts of css codes for text shadows or whatever is newer stuff she doesn’t know by heart yet.

My mom sent me to talk to her to get career advice & she told me 3 things:

1) Decide if I want to be a programmer or a designer, and if so what kind, or if I want to get rich.

2) My toughest competition should always be the last thing I did.

3) Whatever I pick, my goal should be to get as good at it as I can get, unless I decide I want to be rich. In that case I should either marry a rich dude or sell weapons and not waste time trying to be good at something.

Her favorite thing was the part about “the special gift of being able to use creativity to solve visual problems.”

She says she’s totally going to say that to the next asshat who tells her he wants a “site like amazon,” doesn’t really care what it looks like, and he’s sure she’ll be able to find programmers who will be grateful to do it for the experience.