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March 28, 2007

After Hours

I recently had lunch with a designer friend. The subject of the pursuit of happiness came up. She’s torn as to what exactly she wants to pursue, both in design and as a career. Having many options is both a blessing and a curse. We started discussing the possible reasons why a passionate designer would want to change careers. Inevitably the subject of “corporate design” came up.

There aren’t many twenty-something designers who aspire to work all day on real estate ads and cookie-cutter corporate brochures. For experience, perhaps some, but for the most part this isn’t why we decide to become designers. It’s usually a subconscious decision to “play around” with images and type all day long. I’m a firm believer that we have an unstoppable urge to communicate our ideas and thoughts to the world. It just so happens we communicate other people’s ideas to make end’s meet.

She went on to explain how much happier she’d be if her workload consists primarily of non-profit and “conscious” projects, rather than fueling people’s notion of “spend spend spend” for corporations. It’s a frustrating speech to give somebody, because in the back of your mind you realize you’re simply verbalizing a choice. We’re free to pursue any kind of design projects we desire, if not for our pocket linings.

And you can’t blame a designer for getting fed up with the whole industry when all they see are the same projects and the same clients, over and over and over. Design should change the world, and change hearts. Design shouldn’t be about sitting at a desk all day pumping out the same formula in different test tubes. It seems our job has been systematically stripped of most creativity, which I find slightly ironic.

So it’s up to us to keep the dream going. The most difficult part of my life has been learning to balance work and personal creativity. Mine can’t be turned on all the time. It’s too exhausting and too much risk for burn out. I’m the type of guy that needs a break from the wacky world of design. I’m also the type of designer that always has an itch to work on something else (something outside of work).

I guess what I’m saying is, we as designers, need to force ourselves to keep thinking and designing outside of work. We need to flip the canvas after work and break the box. Hell, even drawing a few straight lines freehand. Anything, really.

Once a week. Once a month. Whatever. Every now and then we need to dive into a personal design problem and get some solutions down on paper. If anything, it will remind us why we pursue design—not real estate brochures—every day.

Clamoring






    
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