I’m going to be able to milk the “student designer” for about another 3 weeks and at the time I am going to have to start introducing myself as a “designer”.—Exciting.
I have been logged into the design chat at the GDC for about 5 months now and the information has been invaluable in many ways. Making the design world something to be proud of is an organization all creative thinkers should acknowledge.
I have yet to meet Rick Strong, but I am sure our paths will cross, he wrote these inspiring words on the blog moments ago and I was sure I wanted to share them with the 5 people that visit my blog. This was his response to a conversation a few designers were having in regards to dealing with vendors, and clients. It is about reducing designs association with being simply a commodity and taking it to a level that is that of a professional practice.
Pass on the brilliance.
This comment by David is critical to the financial success of Graphic
Designers (caps intentional):
“This method also takes design out of the manufacturing process and
reduces the perception that design is a commodity.”
What Graphic Designers are selling (after we get past the layout stage
of our careers) is essentially “intellectual property” not skills.
Any person who has a copy of Illustrator, Photoshop or InDesign can
draw a perfect circle, clone a background or lay out a newsletter.
People selling those “skills” are now, literally, a dime a dozen.
What IS in short supply are people who, given a specific communication
goal, can take a blank screen or 64 sheets of blank paper and
conceptualize an entire web site or publication that achieves the goal
of the client. This is very much harder than it sounds.
“Doing” a logo or “doing” a layout doesn’t make one a Graphic Designer
any more than taking snap shots with a pricey DSLR makes one a
Photographer. It’s not what’s in our HANDS that counts, it’s what’s in
our BRAIN.
To paraphrase David, “This awareness takes design out of the
manufacturing process and reduces the perception that design is a
commodity.”
Rick Strong,
Ottawa.
My proprietorship will run under the handle Hoffmanian Creative, and I have been playing a bit with my identity although the level of effort in that department has taken a back seat to stuff going in the grad show at ECI so until next time I will be a *HIC.
Processhaus 