The Price of Being Great
Most of the people I graduated with have no job, or are holding a job different from their field. Why? Because they say they can’t find work in the design field.
This is however, simply untrue. The problem isn’t that there’s no work in the design field, the problem is simply that there’s no longer much work in the print design field.
The problem
The problem starts with schooling and ends with the person. Our school was pretty traditional and the whole four years was focused on print design, with only one class for one semester based on the web. The school simply decided to ignore reality and continues to teach these outdated methods. Yes, there’s still work to be found in pre-press, print and advertising, but the majority of work and money is to be found on the web.
The problem doesn’t end with the school, because in the end, it’s the student who makes their own destiny. It’s not really the school’s fault that the recently graduated student can’t find work – it’s the student’s. They know there’s no work to be had in print design where we live, yet they continue to sit there and wait for a print opportunity to come up, instead of branching into the similar field of web design.
The Great
This post isn’t really about the students I graduated with, but more about what seperates the medicore from the Great. Of course, when I say the Great, I’m not referring to myself in any means, as I’m still working and growing my way towards that point (I hope).
So what seperates these people without design jobs from the great designers of today?
- They adapt. The great designers can recognize when something is dying and move on. In this case, the print world (note: the print design field is still large, but harder to get into if you’re just starting out)
- They’re still learning. The Great don’t just go to school, graduate and find a job doing the exact same thing for forever. They learn new techniques, new coding languages and new platforms. Think of the first print designers who moved over to the web. Bet more designers in the 90′s had wished they’d done that.
- They don’t submit resumes. The Great don’t surf around Careerbuilder, submit two resumes and then call it a day. Instead, they’re everwhere. On blogs, social media sites and local events. They’re so well known, employers come to them.
- They don’t want “jobs”. You’ll never be Great working for an employer. Yes, you could find a good paying job you like, but a job in the long run will simply hold you back. You’ll never be able to make the kind of money you could by freelancing, or do the kind of work you could do by owning your own business as well.
- They’re not jealous. Plenty of non-great people spend most of their day being jealous of someone more “lucky” than they are. Well guess what? There’s no such thing as luck. People make their own destiny and if you’re 45, obese, and living in your mom’s basement, that’s due to no one’s fault but your own.
All The Web, All The Time
The truly Great are always working. When it’s not client work, it’s business duties. When it’s not business duties, it’s side projects. Or learning. Just because work is slow doesn’t mean they are. They think about the web every waking minute. Even on vacations.
Do we want to be like that?
Of course it takes a special person to be Great. Not every one can or wants to be involved in their business all the time, and that’s ok.
I’ve spent some serious time studying The Great. You know, the people we hear about everywhere on the web, in podcasts and even on TV. All of these people work exorbant hours, but to these people it’s never really work. It is a lot of sacrifice however, as most of these people don’t have much of a personal life, nor do they have much time for family. But it pays off.
If you want to be one if the Great you have to have both dedication and drive. Dedication to continue to work after weeks of no pay, and the drive to work for 20 hours straight. You have to prepare to face rejection and ridicule from the uber non-greats. To go the road that isn’t in the GPS (and other life cliches…).
Your thoughts
What do you think of The Great? How did they get to be one if them?
image by Esparta
About the author
Amber Weinberg specializes in clean and semantic XHTML, CSS and WordPress development. She has over 10 years of coding experience and is pretty cool to work with. Amber is available for freelance work, so why not hire her for your next project?
Nice post Amber, I think you’re spot of with what you could call a great ‘designer’ and I completely agree about the whole web v. print thing.
Along with the things mentioned it does take a bit of luck and being in the right place at the right time (this can be also down to people’s judgement too).
Keep workin’ hard and love what you do and you’ll do it.
Thanks
Although I think people make their own luck 
Everyone got to where they are today by someone’s hard work.
AWESOM read and very well put. I was one of those that worked for an emplayer but I never got the satisfaction I wanted out of my job. I was in the right field, but not in the right place.
When I went on my own I realized what I was missing and I am now finally feeling the satisfaction I want.
Your point about print design is very true. I regularly see print comapanies here in SA start up and a year or two later shut down.
This sort of reminds me of an article I read a while ago entitled Artist, Designer, or Hack. http://www.drawar.com/articles/artist-designer-or-hack/160/
Just graduating in May, I can see exactly what you are talking about. In my class we had people focused on sports and clubs but not design, let alone web design. Now they are stuck working in a grocery store when they paid a significant amount of money for their education. I expressed my ability to help them, but they just didn’t want to take advantage of the resources at their fingertips. Great post.
Great post, now I’m inspired!
Great article Amber!
It takes a lot of dedication to become a great designer. You have to be committed to your passion, your business and your clients. It’s not for everybody either, so you have to push yourself and hope for the best.
I also agree with your thoughts on print however I don’t think there are less jobs in print everyone is silkscreening it’s the web trend to include print it’s interesting take threadless.
Silkscreening isn’t holding up the print industry. The fact is simply that there are much less print jobs today than there were in the early 90′s. Companies are simply not buying as many ads anymore, which is evident in the decline of magazine and newspaper revenue. The web has created many more opportunities and has a lower cost of entry, so businesses have moved most of their advertising there.
One of those moments, never attended to say it that way. I meant to say that silkscreen is just a great way to utilize print for the web. Agree with everything stated that is common knowledge not saying its stopping layoffs or saving businesses but its a growing social market.
Great post Amber
And I can concur with Edward, seeing that we went to school together and at one stage went through the same company.
One does not simply have work fall into your lap, you have to go out, be proactive and get it. By being everywhere, attending every seminar, doing talks on IT and having a strong portfolio and good references has certainly helped me here in South Africa, but that doesn’t mean I can sit back now.
Hope everyone that reads this article takes it to heart and goes out to proof to everyone they will be the next big thing since cheese on sliced bread
Amber, you are on of my best former students, but you make such sweeping remarks, and you use the word “design” very VERY loosely. What you should be saying instead is Print PRODUCTION, rather than Design. What you do is not design, it is production for the web. DESIGN education is all about learning to think, and to think visually and strategically. To design is to solve problems in ways that deliver messages that are unique and inspired. It doesn’t matter if it is for print or for web. If it was pure software, HTML, etc. that you wanted, there are a hundred technical schools that teach that stuff all day long. If you want to see what design is, and how big it still is, check out some of the work my buddy Rolando Murillo is doing at http://www.murillodesign.com, or Brian Owens at http://oandhbranddesign.com. This is design near the top of the food chain, and these guys have more work than you can imagine, and they are winning awards all over the world.
I agree, it is much harder for people to find work. There isn’t room for the mediocre designer any more, and I remember the days when EVERY ONE of my students could find a job, seriously. However, I do know that the top students coming out of the top programs in the country are still heavily recruited. Creative Circus in Atlanta still has 100% placement for their design majors, and these are world-class jobs they are finding.
What does this mean for me and the rest of us who teach at regular ole’ colleges with every-day students who didn’t travel half-way around the world to learn design here? I’m not sure, because in Arkansas alone, design majors are being cranked out by the dozens each and every semester, from at least 8 schools. Imagine what that’s like in Texas with UNT, A&M Commerce, Texas State, Texas Tech, UTA, UT Arlington, University of Houston – all of which are some of the better design schools in the country. And yes, most of these kids are “print” focused coming out, though they all take some web stuff while in school. But again, those particular classes (as with the one at APSU) are more about production than anything else.
In a perfect world, we wouldn’t let everyone in to major in graphic design. We would select the cream of the crop, and have the luxury of being SUPER selective. Yet, our classes must make so we can keep our jobs, so we do our best with who we get, knowing full-well they all won’t end up in this industry.
You know I am extremely proud of you. You are about the hardest worker I’ve known. You have found the perfect niche for yourself, and that is cool.
db
I had a very similar school experience to Amber (in Texas at SFA), and the people I’ve kept up with didn’t do well, much like Amber’s friends. I was one of the few that really made something of myself in the design world, and the problem I saw when I was in school was that students expected to learn what they needed to know in classes. That is false, and the faculty did nothing to change that perception. The biggest disservice my school did to it’s students was to give them the idea that what they needed to be designers was to pass their classes and get a diploma.
Schools also seem to make the same argument ‘db’ did, that what they teach is “design” and “design” can be applied to any kind of “production.” To a point that’s true, many of the same principles apply across different media. HOWEVER, never in any of the interviews I’ve conducted with design job candidates have I ever asked them to explain the fundamentals to me – it is apparent in their work if they get it or not. If they don’t have the production skills to apply those concepts to real-life work, however, their education is completely worthless. Theory must be accompanied by application, and the application students are doing is 10+ years out of date, if they’re getting it at all.
Those who get good jobs could probably have skipped school, because they had the drive to learn the latest valuable skills on their own, despite their school. Those who didn’t have that drive and expected to learn what they needed in classes are working at Kinkos, if at all. I put much of the blame on students, but many schools aren’t helping either.
Brian,
The fundamentals of design are the “rules” so-to-speak, of composition. That is certainly a given, and not what I am talking about at all, though I admit most design grads still couldn’t list them for you, or build any kind of dynamic contrast (in any medium) to save their lives.
What I am saying is, to design is not an intuitive endeavor, and design applies to everything, from the chair you sit in, to the website you navigate through, to the brand you encounter that endears you to the promise of it, to the airport you traverse. To me, there is no such thing as “good” or “bad” design. Rather, there is either design, or there is not. Design is applied to any kind of PROBLEM, not any kind of “production”, as you said. Production is just the process we go through to execute our ideas, regardless of which “tool” we use. That is what most people fail to ever realize.
David, I think you missed my point. I’m not arguing about design vs production. If what you say is true, than why is that most design students have failed to find design jobs and refuse to branch into the web? I know one very very stubborn one that I’ll have to tell you about the next time we chat in private.
“To me, there is no such thing as “good” or “bad” design. Rather, there is either design, or there is not.”
David, no offense but that’s a bunch of academia nonsense. I welcome you to visit the real world sometime so you can see what your students will face, and what they aren’t being prepared for.
I’ve spent a lot of time in the real world, and that’s the way I see it. Either something went through the process, or it didn’t.
You’re also confusing design with decoration. There is a big difference. Design is all about the process, and it is a full process of research, ideation, revision, and execution.
David I disagree. I keep in touch with many of the students we knew and most of them are still waiting on a “print design” job. When I mention how many web design jobs are available, none of them are really interested, because it wasn’t something they were taught and they believe they can still find print design jobs…which have been almost nonexistent for several years in Nashville. APSU taught design in general, but based design on the print world, not the web. Design for the web (regardless if you do any code or not, you do NOT have to know code to have a great career in web design) is very different than print design. I’ve coded several websites from print designers who thought the web was the same, and their sites sucked to code because they had no understanding of what can and can’t, or should and shouldn’t, be done on the web.
True Amber, that was the way the curriculum was set up at the Peay. What I hoped you all got from me was, take what you know about problem solving, composition, execution, etc. and apply those concepts across all mediums.
Here’s where we venture into some philosophical differences of opinion. First let me say this – most “design” on the internet is horrific, if we look at it collectively. Now, what “can or can’t or should or shouldn’t be done on the web” is entirely subjective. I do admit that much of it is functional – i.e., point sizes too small to read, vast fields of white text (or God forbid yellow) on dark backgrounds, typographic limitations, too many large-size images, giant backgrounds, all your basic MySpace visual pollution, obnoxious Flash movies, etc. However, who is to say what the rules of the web actually are? Why should I care if only 10% of the world can see my site? Why should I care if my site scrolls horizontally? Why should I care if my design makes it difficult for you to code? That is the equivalent of me caring at all how much work an Illustrator has to do to create what I want, or a Photoshop expert to retouch what I need him/her to retouch, or a photographer who has to spend 3 days building a set to get my idea right. It doesn’t matter to me if he has to stay up all night to get it – that is what he/she is paid to do.
It sounds rash, but it’s true. Production people have to make things work (and they LOVE the puzzle of it), and it is usually their job to gripe about the designers who are making it difficult on them. Believe me, I’ve been there. You wouldn’t believe what those dudes at RBMM put the production team through – the horror of it, lol. But, that’s the way the world works at that level: the designer sits in his office and sketches it all out – either in paper, or in Photoshop or Illustrator. They then bring those “sketches” to the production people, drop them off, and say, “make it work.”
You’re right about your fellow students not wanting to adapt sometimes. You adapted, mutated, and evolved because you had to, and that is what you wanted to do, and knew how to do. If it were me over there, I would not have gone the web route. I would have continued to fight and work on my book, and pound on every door and enter every contest and win what I could until I finally got somebody’s attention. Kids think there is this magic thing that happens once they graduate, and they will know all they need to know, which is kind of funny actually. I tried to tell you all that when you left APSU, you were just STARTING. Really all we had time to do was to POSITION you. Does that make sense?
db
See, I don’t agree. All the why’s you mentioned could also be turned around to print:
Why should I care about whitespace?
Why can’t I have a poster in 10pt white font on a black poster?
Why can’t I cram 100 images into one postcard?
Why does a logo matter?
etc etc, just like the design world, the web world has rules, grids and guidelines as well. I know several beautifully designed websites.
For your argument about designers shouldn’t have to care how to produce it, you know that’s wrong. If it didn’t matter, why were we required to take a pre-press class to learn how to properly prepare to go to print? Print designs who try out web design before knowing what can/can’t/should/shouldn’t inevitably fail as none of their websites work for anyone, including the clients with the $$.
What book are you talking about?
You took a pre-press class to hopefully make you more aware. I’m all for that – but I’m just telling you how it is for production people. Those questions about design you listed, that comes down to taste. Some have it, some don’t I guess.
You could probably say the same of virtually every field around. Coding is a good example – I made an abortive attempt at a computing course in 1995, when I was about sixteen, and they were still using Pascal as the sole programming language. I seriously doubt anyone else who did the same thing is still using Pascal professionally now – they would have had to learn something else. With hindsight, I think C would have been a much better choice, since so many other languages are based on it.
There are few fields around where people can just go to university, do their degree and then be sorted for life, and it’s unreasonable of people to expect this. Lawyers are expected to stay abreast of changes in the law, and doctors are expected to keep up with new and improved treatments. Why should any other professional field be any different?
David, you are totally and utterly missing the point of the entire post.
Come on Amber, you didn’t do anything you didn’t already know how to do. You defaulted back to what you knew. You’re going off here on all these people you went to school with just because they haven’t chosen the same path you did. That’s not fair, and I can’t blame them. I could never imagine being content doing what you do. And look, you said “You will never be great working for an employer.” Seriously? That is incredibly naive, and coming from someone who has been out of college for 3 years.
I don’t mean to be tough on you, but you still have a lot of growing up to do. Your posts are incredibly entertaining however, which is why I feel inclined to comment.
No, I didn’t default back to what I already knew. Everything I do now is stuff I learned after college.
Read any book of anyone who ever made it, and all of them will tell you you won’t make it by working for someone ele. It’s simply a matter of economics. No employer could ever pay me half of what I make freelancing.
That seriously just inspired me to be the best in my eyes at what I do. Every point made I couldn’t agree more whole heartedly with and I’m still striving to follow those points.
Wanna print that shit out and put in on my wall!