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Ask DN: So what has design became actually?

over 7 years ago from , Pixel placer for touchable machines

Hello everyone!

I've been doing design for like near a decade starting very bottom. From correcting typos on price labels for a local supermarket I could able step up like 100 ladders to human interaction and creative design solutions. Do not consider that I'm degrading anything. But my preferred education and training was focused on communication regardless it's media.

Currently I'm in a "exclusive" labeled office, which would make most of people go wow.

The following paragraph might sound arrogant and that's the last thing I'd be look like. That's why I'm using a fake name. Not planning to give out my real name nor the place that I work right now. Just trying to objective. No ego clashes.

Every single place that I worked before have not been a challenge to me. It just took a few months to be the key figure in any office. Which I never planned to be. And also I don't want to be because design is not considered to be one man rambo show. I'm not an artist. I'm just a designer designing for living beings (or machines). After that, all the works been given out started just repeating itself every time. So I changed places.

I never got concerned with titles. I also just introduce my self as a designer instead of "senior group head of user experience designer etc etc..." I'm already recognised with my work. So why bother staying in a same office and sitting on the same desk for years?

Anyway, like I said, I'm in a "respectable" office and this place seems making me feel sorry for respecting their works.

Another painful thing is my location. I'm stepping up my 30's and I can't find any reason if any other country would want burnt out designer as a worker.

Maybe design is not for me. Constantly doing same shit, getting ignored because of "client" requests, ignoring water-cooler politics, dealing with trashy people with bloated egos. I've started to think -and probably you as well- I've been tricked design is something needed for humans. Not anymore. People who care about power (power = money) found a way to milk this niche ideology and currently design feels like a crippled old man who is living in a vegetative state.

That's how I feel right now about design. Please come and change my crushed enthusiasm on design. Like I said, I'm already experienced and probably this is not your typical "burnout" topic. So please, before posting "take a break, do side projects, run your own design studio" please delete them and let's have a constructive discussion on the current state of hyper consumable design.

edited typo and grammar mistakes.

8 comments

  • Jan SemlerJan Semler, over 7 years ago

    Once i where on an congress and the ux design boss of BMW was giving a speech about what a good designer is. Your topic remembered me of this speech and maybe i can give you some thoughts that i got.

    A little about me, i am a 35 year old designer from germany and was like you stepping up the design game. I did not study design in anyway i learned it all the way down on my own. I started with 15 years and did some grafitti after that webdesign in flash than animations and now i have a little company with two coworkers and design interactions.

    Now about the speech from this ux designer which give me some thought on my own perspective what a good designer is. At first a designer is someone who solve a problem in a visual way, that means we are not artists. Second a designer should know which way down on a development process his designs goes and where it is originated. That means we are a part of a process and that may sound like an easy excuse you but we create products for our clients for a living. Like any other employeed person inthe world.

    We as designers got the eyes of how a product has to look, to feel and to be consumed. Like an engineer who wants to build the fastest system or an cheef who serves the best burgers in town. But these people also just a part of their system, they also painting the pig with a lipstick just like we do.

    So what should drive a designer? What is a good designer? What will change your perspective on just doing the same thing over and over again better?

    Try solve problems you not understand. Try to understand why the developers says it can not be done, try to understand what the marketing tries to accomplish. If you understand the problems in the whole product development process you will be more than just a designer than you can start to invent design and that is the point everybody wants to achive. Step a way up just do not design stuff, design a team that design stuff. Design a company, design a process and finally design you.

    May i could give something to think about. Just a tip of mine, a book, you should read: design is a job.

    1 point
    • Some DesignerSome Designer, over 7 years ago

      . At first a designer is someone who solve a problem in a visual way, that means we are not artists.

      I deeply agree with that one. But there's a very very thin line between just being a photoshop operator and being a designer. It's a very sad thing that this idea is abused by -most of- clients.

      Try solve problems you not understand. Try to understand why the developers >says it can not be done, try to understand what the marketing tries to accomplish. >If you understand the problems in the whole product development process you will >be more than just a designer than you can start to invent design and that is the >point everybody wants to achive. Step a way up just do not design stuff, design a >team that design stuff. Design a company, design a process and finally design you.

      This is actually a slap to my face. In a good way. Because these exact sentences that I've been using to define design. And I just noticed that I've been stuck between monitor and a chair for a long time. Now thinking out of the box, I've always avoided to run a design studio to avoid designing just "websites".

      You're right. I literally have to design instead of just thinking about pixels.

      I really loved your approach to the subject. If you have a blog/medium can you share? I'd love to follow it.

      May i could give something to think about. Just a tip of mine, a book, you should >read: design is a job.

      I love that guy and procrastinating his book. But just bought it a few mins ago.

      0 points
  • Thomas Michael SemmlerThomas Michael Semmler, over 7 years ago

    I'm not sure, if this has in fact anything to do with the design profession itself. People tend to think, that their profession has to be chosen once and practiced until they die, because only then they get closer to achieve mastery. That is not true and not human.

    You don't have to waste your time in a profession that does neither challenge you, nor make you happy. A personal metric for me is: if it feels like wasting time, I probably am.

    All of this depends on what you want your life to be and what the direction is that you are going. Your Job has the ability to elevate you in reaching your life goals - that becomes problematic, when it actually is in the way of working towards them.

    I will not even try to reignite your fire for design. If you don't like it anymore, maybe you could consider changing it. I would strongly suggest you start journaling, maybe even meditating. Both will train you quickly to become more self aware - because it sounds to me like you have hard time observing your inner processes.

    0 points
  • Tommy Shimko, over 7 years ago

    I think it's fine if you quit design forever if you're not feeling inspired or challenged. That would allow for somone that actually is excited about having the best job on earth to take your place. Sorry it didn't work out!

    0 points
  • Adam Hayman, over 7 years ago

    This is a tough subject and I think the answer is going to differ from person to person. For me, and I know you don't want to hear this, but I wasn't satisfied at my last position so I left and started working freelance full-time. That allowed me to work on the projects I wanted to work on and with the clients I wanted to work with. I could find projects that challenged me as a designer and helped satisfy my need to do meaningful work. It's just now, after quite a bit of life changes, that I'm starting to connect with others and consider joining their company full-time.

    So like I said, I know you don't want to hear "run your own design studio" but it honestly may be helpful. Even if you end up not sticking with it, at least you'll have cleared your head, had a change of pace, and can approach another full-time gig down the road with a renewed vision of what you're looking for out of the job.

    As far as hyper-consumable design as a whole, I guess it depends on what you mean by that. What do you see as the perfect vision for the future of design? If you could snap your fingers and change whatever you wanted about the industry or the way it's perceived, what would that look like?

    0 points
  • Luca Candela, over 7 years ago

    Sounds about right, I know very few designers in my network that don't feel like you do. I think we believed our own story that design was supposed to be the silver bullet but nobody really bought it. We got stuck putting lipstick on ugly pigs, never really got taken seriously.

    In some companies, with the right people, it's possible to do good work, but the majority of us get stuck in dead end positions with no leverage, satisfaction or the chance to make a difference.

    0 points
    • Some DesignerSome Designer, over 7 years ago

      Hey Luca,

      Sorry for making you deal with horrible grammar mistakes on the first post.

      You mentioned about satisfaction. Actually the original subject of my post was "I can't get satisfied" but changed it to this. Yeah satisfaction is one of the biggest issues that I'be been dealing. I also agree with putting ourselves too much into our story but why shouldn't we? Back then solutions as design was the major revolution to being umm.. modern? But current state of design is to correct some random guy at top of x white collar guy's idiotic ideas into a presentable fashion with our "photoshop".

      Maybe you've seen the video that they're asking other professions to work them for free and maybe pay later. They all find it funny, some even just scoffs away instead of answering. So, in our profession it's kind of standard.

      I'm not mentioning the low pays. So if the payment is the base concern for designating the entity's value, I'm assuming designers are worthless against some random ceo guy that I've mentioned before. But the reality is that worthless one does the all work.

      Ugh.. I don't know.

      0 points