30 things I’ve learned about design (so far)

It’s been just over thirty years since I left University to start a career as a graphic designer. In that time I’ve worked in small to medium sized design studios, various roles at a large media company, and currently freelancing. Restarting this blog has gotten me thinking about some of the things I’ve learned along the way, these are just a few of those insights off the top of my head.

There are all sorts of ways of being a graphic designer, other than just taking a role in a design or advertising agency. Most graphic designers work in house for government, private enterprise, charity organisations, educational institutions and media companies, despite what social media, design organisations and design competitions would have you think.

Graphic design at its basic level isn’t all that difficult with the tools available these days, producing good graphic design is still the hard part.

Graphic design without an idea and without acknowledgement of its intended audience is just decoration.

Your first idea probably isn’t going to be the best one, the solution will often hit you when you’ve exhausted everything obvious.

Sometimes your first idea does end up being the best one though.

Most of the day to day work you do as a graphic designer can be pretty tedious.

Don’t design something with the sole intention of getting social media likes from other designers. Aspire to get it in front of people who don’t give a crap about graphic design.

There’s seldom just one solution to what you are designing, but some solutions will be better than others.

Don’t take criticism from someone you wouldn’t take advise from.

Bad design can often be refined into good design.

Often your best design work won’t win out.

Sometimes graphic design just amounts to moving things around.

The best thing you offer in your design solution for a client is clarity.

Just because you’ve had a conventional design education, that doesn’t mean your design has to have a conventional outcome.

Every part of the design process, from initial meeting with the client until final delivery of the product is an opportunity for creativity.

Some designers can pick brilliant solutions out of thin air, for most of us though it remains a pretty hard slog.

You will always doubt what you design at some point in the process.

Fear is a great motivator.

With every project that I have ever taken on, I have thought that I’m not good enough to do this, but somehow the job gets done.

You are employed for your taste and intuition as much as anything.

Good design isn’t invisible, it should be the opposite.

Good design is often a feeling first, then an understanding.

More often than not you’ll have to work under the constraints set by another designer.

Design is not a fix-all. There are circumstances you will face that nothing can fix.

There are plenty of tools out there that let anyone produce the expected and the obvious. Your value as a designer is in producing the opposite.

No book or article will make you a better designer, they may help you think differently about design, but you still need to put in the work.

There is value in every experience, even in your low points as a designer, ‘Riding the wave out’ is when you’ll often have your best ideas.

Speak up and speak often. There will be many people with an opinion on the work you’ve produced, and it will get frustrating. The ability to push back on something you don’t agree with, while explaining your reasoning and intention will hold you and your sanity in good stead.

You can leave anytime you want, don’t let fear hold you when something isn’t working or doesn’t feel right.

Beware of getting into the comfort zone, creativity and growth comes from measured risk taking.

Sometimes the opposite of all this is true as well.