How Design Has Changed Me

This morning I was thinking about what I was like when I first started my own design studio. This was 15 years ago so it's been awhile. The main thing that I grabbed onto in my trip down memory lane was what I used to think being a graphic designer truly meant.

Back then I thought being a graphic designer meant making stuff look cool. That's it, if I couldn't make it look cool (at least to my standards) it was some lame client that just didn't know what was good for them. Over time I slowly matured, I slowly begin to realize that my job was to really figure out what my clients goal was, what they wanted to accomplish with this piece I was producing. Believe it or not for the first few years I was doing stuff that just looked cool. I know it's hard to imagine, but so much of my work was for night clubs and the music industry and the main goal reall was to just get someone's attention. I was doing my job, but it had truly little design merit.

In the past decade I've been truly looking at concept and function and for the most part everything I have done is cool in its own way. I learned that I really have to live in my clients industries and learn to define my client as a leader. It's their business, they know what they need, but it's my job to make sure it has a concept and that it is graphically pleasing and functional. I love what I do and I can't imagine having any other background then I have. The preconceptions and mistakes in my past have made me who I am today. I think my clients would agree that not every design studio is created equal.