Tag: Thoughts

Thoughts | Creative Burnout

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A few months ago, the article “How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation” from BuzzFeed quickly went viral, as it perfectly summed up a lot of the struggles that Millennials (myself included) have been feeling. The author, Anne Helen Peterson, was recently interviewed on Jocelyn K. Glei’s podcast “Hurry Slowly” and it got me thinking a bit more about burnout as it applies to creatives. Anne talks about this in her interview, but burnout is much more prevalent because of the increase in intellectual labor, rather than physical labor. This is especially true for us “creative types,” as there is no distinct rest time—even once you’ve left work, your brain is still working, thinking, and trying to solve problems.

This is compounded by the speed at which work is now expected to be done—the United States itself has adopted a “start up culture,” which favors efficiency and outputs, and focuses on being lean and nimble. There’s nothing wrong with this on its face—but it has an effect on people much more than I think any of us really want to admit or deal with.

I talked a bit about this in my last post, but the focus on outputs when it comes to design and creativity creates a difficult situation. Personally, I can execute designs quickly, which leads to a higher level of output. But this efficiency doesn’t mean that the outputs are necessarily effective or my best work. Since technology has made everything so much faster, everyone’s timelines for accomplishing a goal or finishing a project have shortened—and oftentimes, that makes it more about finishing the project than enjoying the process and being happy with the end result. Even if we may be happy with the end result, sometimes we have to go right into the next project. To use a personal example, even though I was really proud of the ads I designed for the Capitol One Arena, I was not able to take the time to go see them in person, even though they were up for a month. What does that say about the value I place on my own work if I won’t even go five metro stops to see it? “I don’t have time,” I told myself, and now I wish I had made time. But the truth is, in my head, I was already onto the next project. The deadline had been made, stakeholders were pleased, project completed.

But when listening to this episode of “Hurry Slowly,” their discussion on not taking time to appreciate your work as a symptom of burnout resonated with me. Everyone is moving so fast that they don’t stop to appreciate even their own creations (insert the cliche quote from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off about life moving fast). Burnout isn’t something that goes away overnight, or comes on suddenly—I think it’s always kind of the wolf at the door, and you have to be cognizant of a lot of different behaviors—and work to change a lot of behaviors—to not let it in. Clearly this is not something that can be fixed on a large scale quickly, but I think it’s something all creatives (myself included), need to be thinking about.

Resources

Disclaimer: these are my personal opinions and do not reflect the opinions of any of my current or former employers.

Photo by Jacob Kiesow on Unsplash

Thoughts | The Changing Value of Design

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Something I’ve been thinking a lot lately is how the value of design and design skills has changed over the past ten, or really even five, years—graphic design is much more accessible in the past both given the technology changes, but also new tools, like Canva, that provide basic design technology to anyone who needs it. I think Canva is great as a basic starter tool that can provide people with a starting point, or for resource-strapped organizations, a way to still have decent, customized design. But it’s not the same as having a professional graphic designer or agency research and create a piece for you or your organization.

However, one thing I have noticed over the years is more content about ‘how to make money as a graphic designer without the education,’ and similar topics, and I believe that has led to an increase in the dangerous thinking that design is easy. Sites like 99designs and fiverr perpetuate this idea, where you can get designs (and what is often really spec work) from designers at a fraction of the cost and the time. These are band-aids—not long term, thought-out solutions, that often lower the value of a professional designer or firm’s work.

There is a very big difference between design that looks good and design that is effective, which I think is a difference that many non-designers are not aware of. This is why many designers (myself included) are often handed the start of a project and asked to “make it pretty.” That request in itself shows that many people just want something that looks good, regardless of whether or not it’s effective. Just search ‘branding’ in Pinterest and a plethora of single page brand boards will show up, which yes, may be pretty, but do not provide any of the background or strategy. And although the designer may have that information, that’s not what people look for. People go to designers for “pretty,” not “effective.” And that lowers the value of truly good design.

“Design is having ‘a moment’.” – Stephen Gates

It’s great that the appreciation of design is much more widespread than ever before—as Stephen Gates says, “design is having ‘a moment’.” But much of that appreciation focuses on the end product, rather than the process—and I think that’s purely because many people do not understand everything that goes into a design. There’s a great quote that says “Design is for solving problems, not vetting solutions,” and I think that sums up a lot of what many designers run into now. Requests are frequently to vet a solution by “making it pretty,” rather than to solve an exact problem. Graphic design (or any design, really) will be most effective when it follows the creative process—that can vary from designer to designer or firm to firm, but the starting point of that process is research and information gathering—and the most important part of that is defining the problem.

This isn’t easy to do—this is why tools like design thinking (which has been turned into a buzzword) and process are so important. If you design something without defining the problem, researching the target market and competitive landscape, how can you define or determine success? If it looks good does it mean it’s “successful”? Not necessarily. Some of my favorite projects haven’t seen much ROI (again, that doesn’t mean it’s “bad design”—it’s just what happens when it comes to creativity and experimentation).

Furthermore, design is not something that happens quickly—some designers may execute faster than others, but that does not include time that needs to be dedicated to defining the problem, research, ideation, and concepting. In our current culture of instant gratification and efficiency, everything is measured on how much can be produced and how quickly. And it’s really easy to fall into this trap—it’s one I’m trying to slowly dig myself out of, this focus on pure output rather than following the process and producing something truly creative—and effective. But I think if more designers share their process and the value in it, and that sometimes quick execution will not lead to a successful, effective, or creative project, people will come to understand it.

A great starting resource for this is ‘The Strategic Designer‘ by David Holston, which I’m currently reading—it has a whole section on communicating the value of design to clients which I find particularly helpful.

TL;DR – Pretty design does not equal good design, and designers need to share their process and the importance of it to make their value known.

Disclaimer: these are my personal opinions and do not reflect the opinions of any of my current or former employers.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Event Recap | Personal Branding

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This past week I attended “Standing Out: Branding That’s Personal,” a panel discussion presented by AIGA DC, which I was really looking forward to. The panel was diverse in terms of background and experience, so I was expecting a lot of different insights on how to stand out in the design market, which is currently much more competitive and saturated than ever before. I ended up most enjoying the insights from the moderator, Victor Nguyen-Long, but the conversation itself focused mostly on the importance of authenticity, honesty, and how to take advantage of the social media platform algorithms.

Anyone with experience in branding and brand strategy knows that authenticity and honesty are things that must be kept in mind when designing and building a brand, so that was not surprising. There were a good amount of cliches thrown around on this topic, such as “If you stand for nothing you’ll fall for anything,” rather than tips for how to stand out when everyone is striving for the same thing. The panelists emphasized the importance of sharing on social media—some said that sharing should be curated, while others said that even the most mundane parts of every day life should be shared to better connect with your audience. It was interesting to hear the different perspectives, but it just made me think about how everyone is shouting into the void that is the Internet, trying to get noticed. There are still other ways to build your brand besides social media, which I feel was left out from the discussion.

Brandon Groce, a brand strategist, provided some interesting tidbits on taking advantage of certain social media algorithms (and focusing on one platform and doing it really well)—but does trying to game the algorithm system mean that the more interesting small or new brands (who may not be as socially savvy) may not bubble up to the top? I guess the key takeaway is that after you’ve designed your brand, you have to maximize social media in order to continue building it.

I think this event was a good first step in terms of discussions around branding, but it only scratched the surface.

Disclaimer: these are my personal opinions and do not reflect the opinions of my current or former employers.