Why are you a designer?
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People love stories and story time. So tell us all why you are a designer.
My story begins when I was 12.
I became a web designer when I saw the insides of an InvisionFree message board. It was basic HTML and CSS, but when I was younger, I had no clue what it was. I wanted to manipulate the code to produce a cool, functional message board with an amazing design. So I jumped into learning basic HTML and CSS just for that purpose. As time went on and I learned more, it eventually became too easy to design those boards, so I started using my knowledge to create websites because I found that to be more challenging. Now, the challenge never ends and I love that. That challenge fuels my passion everyday. -
When I was graduating high school I wanted to build a website about the program I was in and so I read a couple HTML tutorials and built my own site. It was easy and I enjoyed it. It wasn't until my Junior year in college when I wanted to create another site, this one built around taking notes for classes. I used some shitty CMS and could style it at all. I gave up.
About 2 years after that I was working for a recruiter and found myself doing a lot of ASP.net programming, which also meant I had to do a lot of the design work. I started to read Zeldman and this was when CSS started to gain some ground. I realized that my designs sucked unlike the people I read so I began to soak up every piece of design info I could. I was hooked.
I treat it more as a hobby so I can maintain the passion. I did client work for a little bit, but it killed my desire to ever want to design anything. I went through that with soccer and I didn't want it to happen with design.
Now I do design because I like the ability of creating an experience that nobody has come across before. We have the power to dictate a couple seconds or minutes of a person's life. That is a lot of power. -
I have always looked on in awe when I've seen great posters, advertisements, book covers and album art, but never ever thought I could learn how it's done because I'm so rubbish at drawing.
Then along came the internet, and a spell of unemployment. A relative needed a new website quickly as his had just been taken offline by a paranoid designer, so I offered to do it, thinking how hard can it be?
That was when I realised I was a truly terrible designer, and I didn't know how to become a better designer. Once I started looking for the answers, I was hooked. Design makes the world better (usually.) I think it's actually a little bit noble :) -
I went to art college with photography and painting my focus and also did writing as a component. It became apparent to me though I was more and more leaning from art to design (I see a strong distinction but that's another story). I dabbled with multimedia as much as it was back then splicing video and doing some installation work. I was a painter though for my 'traditional form' and my work became more and more abstract as time progressed to what I now understand as design not art.
I loved the technical side of Photography.. any technical aspect of anything on the course I lapped up. This was before the internet went in any shape graphical. Web designer wasn't a career. *checks no remarks about 'thats old'. I was still into computers though but being told a lot the 2 things didn't go - you were artistic or you were science (then that is what computers were) - right or left brained is such a false term.
Fast forward a few years spent doing photography and of all things performance poetry after I left uni. I had no real direction was in summer doing henna tattoos and generally being young, free and a bit weird. I got a chance to go back and do Software Engineering which happened to be about the time PHP was kicking off and whilst it was all black and red with animated gifs... web design was coming through. The course was more focused on C, Java and other forms than the web as that was still an 'emerging field'.
It became rather rapidly clear to me though I was not going to be a developer purely. I built up on the html I'd dabbled in during my course and found myself discovering what others were doing... that was the start of me making a connection between being able to be a designer and do the technical side of computers. Haven't looked back since. I also think I was lucky to see most of the emergence of this 'design form' and seeing what can be done now and is done now really daily blows my mind still. I know I made the right choice as every day get a buzz from the work I get to do and enjoy that others do in web design. -
I have an older brother - 13 years older, in fact. When I was a kid (read: 7), he used to bring me around to his work where he was a graphic designer and illustrator for a small shop in Toronto. At work I was everyone's little brother and people used to bring me around to their setups and teach me how to code HTML/CSS with WYSIWYGs and dick around in Photoshop.
Wanting to be like my brother, I kept hacking away with the things they taught me and at 10 had launched my first site. I kept reading and learning and at 13 had my first commercial client (note: they didn't know I was 13). I like to joke I've been doing my thing for 13 years now and I love every passing minute of it.
In high school, though, I wanted to be something else not thinking that design and front end would be a viable career option. Finding out my girlfriend at the time was pregnant and due during my senior year in high school, I had to switch up paths and found two gigs in design where I worked in studios leading companies' marketing and web presences.
After the second gig started to turn sour (one thing I've learned about entrepreneurs in small businesses is that they seem to change their business goals by the month which can be frustrating when trying to build a reputable brand) I realized that all the work I'd been doing for clients on the side was progressively getting larger and that there was something for me there.
Now a single father with a nearly 3 year old darling son, being my own boss gives me the flexibility I need to be for my son when he needs me and pay all the bills. I actually hired a full-time employee last month on top of everything so that I could have some more time for the little man and am happy waking up every morning to the projects that I have.
So, why am I a designer? Because it's who I am.
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(I'm enjoying reading these, so here's mine...)
I'm a designer because I wouldn't rather be anything else. I guess I've found my passion; nothing else gets me quite so riled up as design and front-end code.
I started making websites about 12 years ago but didn't figure it would lead to anything career-wise so I kept it as a hobby, making fan sites and putting my drawings online. I was inspired by other such sites and liked that I could do the same myself. I have a bunch of notebooks from that time filled with ideas for sites, designs, and things to try with CSS.
After high school I floundered around for two years feeling miserable, not knowing what I wanted to do. Dad always said I should “do something with your art” but I wanted to make money. It took me a while to realize that people do make a living making websites and I could even get a design-related job in this province. I've always been into art, business and techy stuff so I think web design is a perfect intersection of those. I'm happiest when I can create things and solve problems. I like that web design as a field is still evolving and keeps me on my toes. -
(Hate bumping up an old topic, but doing it anyways)
I agree with you said Scrivs. When you're younger, it's easier to experiment and learn from it. When you're younger, there's not many risks involved, especially with designing. I started designing websites when I was 12, and at that age, there was no risk involved. I would just design websites, showcase them, and be proud of them no matter how horrible they were. I was proud of myself for doing something most people that age couldn't.
Now, with my freelancing business, I am putting that experience into practical use. Grant it, I'm only 19 now and still don't have many risks, but I still have the risk of losing business. It is one that mentally blocks me everyday, but I'm slowly learning how to get past it.
If you can balance the experimental phase with the practical phase in life, I think you can improve yourself. -
Actually, I have shied away from "design" my whole life. And I am ooold.. I was the one that was "good at drawing", did a year in art school, and I love doodles more than oil paintings.
I certainly did not want to be a designer. I found them pretentious, uniform in their effort to be "creative" individuals, their black-rimmed glasses and identical clothes. They worked every day to sell shiny toothpaste, walked around with big zip folders and self important frowns. They all made, liked and admired the same austere stuff, black, white and red in swiss proportions and very little humour. Yawn.
I did not want to be a computer geek either. I grew up with Commadore 64 and tape drives. Syntax error. The graphics of manic miner was the best around, and it was way to pixely for me; the distance between pencil and screen way, WAY too long. Not tactile enough.
I did graphic industry. I did typography with lead type, offset and letterpress. Ammonia-smelly blueprints. Did my apprenticeship in hand and restoration bookbinding, worked in a printing firm for four years. Then tech support, then production pottery, then marine research equipment. Then a BSc in digital media.
I came back to computers and design. As the technology is so much better, the distance between sketch and screen negotiable, I have come home. I still hate the toothpaste-designers, though. -
@boblet: What is a toothpaste designer?
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Hehe, I see how that can be unclear. I just did not want to live and work, making braindead ads and commercials for diapers, toothpaste and tampons. Mind you, this was a deception I made when most designs was on paper, and the designers moaned about their integrity dying in doing this sort of work.
Luckily, I now work with unbelievably complex content, disseminating research and academic knowledge. -
I wouldn't hate the toothpaste designers, but the companies that feel that is all that is needed. In Objectified there is a segment on IDEO and how they tried to design a toothbrush that was sustainable over time instead of having to be thrown away.
Could you imagine telling someone you design kitchen utensils? That sounds just as bad as designing toothbrushes until you tell them you work at OXO where the importance isn't on what you are designing, but how great you are going to make that design.
Everything in the world can be designed better, but it is up the people that pay the bills if they wish to go that route. -
Fair enough, but there is a grand difference between a toothbrush and a toothpaste ad.
I would actually not mind designing kitchen utensils. -
I think a good middle ground is working to design toothpaste ads to pay the bills, but designing to make the world a better place in your spare time.
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A year ago, when I was 13, one of our IT projects was to create a website using Microsoft Publisher, instead, I decided to hand code mine. After about a month of learning HTML, CSS, some basic Javascript and some principles of design. I completed my site.
Since that time I've delved into (back-end) web and software development (although infrequently).
Now, I can whip up something like this in about 5 minutes.
I'm hoping to improve on my print design skills and make something of a career out of this.
