I’m the worst designer
May 29, 2009
With all the huff and puff about “top css galleries” and “top designers to follow on twitter” and “how to be a rockstar designer” floating around the web these days it’s hard to feel like your work has any value. Because it’s all about who you know and not what you know, right?
So I’m proposing a, well… not so new, perspective for the rest of us “non-rockstar” designers out there. A frame of mind where we stop comparing ourselves among ourselves and instead start building each other up with encouraging comments and constructive criticisms. What would/could happen if we disembarked from our present journey of searching endless hours on so-called “inspirational” sites and started looking inward for our own inspiration?
Someone once told me that the best way to get is to give.
I don’t mean to sound all “new-agey” dr. feelgood, living in a world of rainbows and unicorns. I know we all have dark days where nothing inspires us and we can’t find any thread of motivation. But again, we can’t simply focus on ourselves at times like this, then we’re no better than those self-indulgent “rockstars”. Someone once told me that the best way to get is to give. And I like to take that literally, meaning that the more I give my time or my skills to help someone else out, I always end up with more inspiration in the end. It’s that creative “bump-in-the-road” we all come to, and how we get over it depends on our drive, desire and our knowing we can do better. If you haven’t seen the video of Ira Glass talking about the creative process, he explains it much better than I ever could.
But why then do I consider myself the worst designer? Because that’s how I feel right now, measuring myself up against giants like Jason Santa Maria or The Perel Trio or Rob Morris. These guys are on top of their game right now, and while it’s great to see and admire their work, it leaves me feeling less than adequate to redesign my own site. But honestly, this is just another bump in the road (like I mentioned earlier) that I have to cross. And because I have become comfortable enough with myself to know that more often than not my work is solid, I know this isn’t the end of the road.
So while I wade through the thick muck of designers block, I came up with a list of ideas to help get the juices flowing.
Take a walk. Dance a jig. Get some sun. Don’t take yourself to serious. Cook something ethnic. Play the 3 chords you know on guitar. Go get coffee. Tell a bad joke, to yourself, and laugh. Look at the way a leaf is made. Overhear someone else’s conversation. Write it down. Remember it later. Get some sleep.
Note: I’m putting this out there as a practice to not be perfect. My hope is that it helps you, whoever you are/wherever you are, get through all the distractions in our lives that want to clog us up. We will never get anywhere by standing still, and we will never succeed by being busy.
71 Responses to I’m the worst designer
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Baby Beluga says:
Hi, great post! Sorry for nitpicking – Just wanted to point out that “ethnic” means anything specific to any culture or nationality, so almost all food dishes are ethnic. White/North American/English/Western European people are all ethnicities too
So maybe it could be “Cook something foreign” and that could apply to anyone. -
I can raise my hand for having thought the same. There will always be people better than you. Everybody looks up to other people, even stars get starstruck (I’ve heard some good stories).
Hadn’t heard the Ira talk before. Very inspirational. The only thing I can say is never give up, and don’t be satisfied until you get there.
I think this is one of the most inspirational articles I have read in a long time. Everyday I beat myself up because despite the endless and sleepless hours I spend to try and learn as much as I possibly can, and follow all the advice I have found from other “rockstars” and “rockstar site networks” (ie: envato and fuel networks), I still suck so much, and feel like the more I learn, I also learn that I really don’t know anything at all in comparison to top designers and bloggers out there. Every step I take forward to learn more, it’s like I take 100 steps backward at the same time.
I was beginning to think I was the only person that was experiencing this feeling, because people don’t tend to post this type of thing, that I have seen. I have to tank you, because I’ve been feeling regrets that I didn’t go into a different field of work because web design doesn’t seem to be my forte at times. Now I am motivated to keep it up, and get passed that point of sucking so much, and making crappy things that I wish I could just make “good” like other people seem to be able to do. Now I know I do just suck, and I need to get better lol.
Thanks man, I guess I need someone to confirm that fact, because I knew I wasn’t crazy
I’ll add you to my blogroll, feel free to add my site to yours if you want:
http:///tweeaks.com
We can help each other out with traffic and link-backs, if you don’t want to that’s fine too.
Jared
.-= Jared´s last blog ..Create A Javascript Banner Ad Rotator =-.