Remember that morning I arrived late to the café with eyes smaller than a pea? Well… it wasn’t a night out at the club or a movie marathon… actually, I was earning some extra cash. Well, maybe that’s not the best way to explain it. Let’s start from the beginning: I was sitting at the computer, hunched over, with a headache, eyes almost shut, a glass (or a bottle) of Coke beside me and some crisps; I was creating a flyer to bring life and colour to an event! In fact, I was already on the fifth layout proposal because the client wasn’t satisfied (and didn’t even know what they wanted). My ideas were running out and the sleepiness was growing… But! I did it! After hours of pushing my creativity, I finally made the much-desired flyer. The client was very happy, and I was doubly satisfied, over the moon! All those hours sitting all twisted in the chair were worth it, and in the few hours I slept, I slept with a clear conscience, proud to have made another client happy. We should never give up.
We are not nerds or computer geeks!
After drinking that much-needed coffee that morning, I still went to work. As soon as I got up from the chair, my hands were already frozen from the position on the keyboard and mouse. After all those hours working, when I finally thought I was going home… the client asks for a thousand and one changes! Here come the dozens of files “project1.ai“, “project2-almostdone.ai“, “project3-maybefinal.ai“, “project4-almostalmostdone.ai“… What a nightmare we go through… But client satisfaction is more important (even though they aren’t always right). After all, we are the professionals, right? We’re here for a reason!
A day of creation, innovation and appreciation!!!
Designer day is marked on 5 November! It’s the most important day of the year (for us). The day we want to show the world how our world works, that we are not robots and that the ideas clients give us don’t come out automatically like “is it done in 5 minutes?” Nooo! It doesn’t work like that! Many look at Photoshop/Illustrator (our best work friends) as “start”, “execute” and “finish”, but those little words are made up of dozens of tools, composed of hundreds of functions, and each function is stored in our minds. We have to draw on our creativity to make each one work as best as possible! Each function sparks an idea, and each idea brings to life a flyer, a logo, a business card… It seems mechanical, doesn’t it? But it’s not. Our creativity is something rare. Anyone can learn to use the software, but not everyone has the gift of creating and innovating. It’s not something you find around the corner or buy at the mall, so it should indeed be valued, and highly!
“Graphic design is the ability to create something lean from various considerations and the skill to remove the excess and filter the essential, achieving satisfaction when it manages to translate the client’s desire and achieve complete interaction with the receiver” – Ikko Tanaka
Our dilemma… with the programmer.
We never lack ideas! Our minds work at 300km/h. In the same second the client is presenting the idea, we’ve already come up with a thousand and one projects in our heads. We’re always one step ahead, and that’s fantastic! Great for us and a big problem for, say… programmers! Poor things, it’s really dangerous when they work with us! They can’t always put our crazy ideas into practice or keep up with what we say. No one is good at everything (I wish) and certainly no one is perfect, but there are many projects that are 50/50, and the programmer’s part (no matter how fantastic the idea) sometimes isn’t (never is) completed the way the designer “programmed” it. That makes us very sad… and (completely) annoyed! But since we’re good-hearted, we understand their web development effort and accept it…
We are what we do!
This text was written by someone who is completely passionate about what they do! They give 100% and have true dedication!
It is not intended to offend or criticise others; it was simply written in a seriously fun way about what our daily life is like. It seems fun to sit in a little chair and stay there all day… but it’s not. The chair position is uncomfortable, and often all we want is to get some fresh air and take a break. Our world spins differently from other people’s. Our ironic way of sometimes dealing with life is part of the job, of how used we are to dealing with the illusion of our creations. We are criticised by many and valued by few. Being a designer is a profession, but above all, it is done with passion, with grit, and a lot of struggle to reach a certain level.
When you think of criticising us, remember how many times we gave up going out with friends and family (sometimes we forget to eat) to stay locked at home creating and innovating for your company, which today is successful thanks to the image we gave it. Be professional too, value a designer!