You Are Not A Designer

Paul Scrivens / 04.14.08 / 16 responses / Design

It all started when I considered whether I should open up another design blog. I wasn’t sure because it seemed that every niche of design had been covered and there was no room to really make an impact. Smashing Magazine is great and there are over 100 design galleries to find inspiration so what could I possibly do to help move the design world forward? Then I began to look around and there were still only a few people really talking about design.

Design Observer does a wonderful job of taking a very low level approach to design. You have to know your stuff to really gain an appreciation for what the authors of the site talk about. Beyond that there really isn’t that much to consider in the way of blogs to read and learn about design. Yet for some reason there is an over abundance of designers. But there is a catch, they aren’t designers.

Call them armchair designers if you want. Call them people that see a trend on the web and make sure to follow it on their next design no matter what the requirements are. Call them people who hit the galleries for inspiration and leave with a little too much inspiration if you catch my drift.

When Khoi Vinh and Mark Boulton talk about designing with a grid it is a wonderful thing, but does anyone else find it shocking that so many people treat the grid as if it were something new? For example, here is a comment I found while reading another designer’s blog.

Can you go into detail on “the grid”? I don’t think I’ve ever heard a designer mention that before… and now I’m interested. How can I use it to my benefit my designs? I’ve always made my designs by color and just what I feel looks right… never with a grid system.

I have absolutely no problem with people that don’t use a grid for their designs. Work with whatever system gets the job done in the best way possible. But to call yourself a designer and not know about the grid? How many designers know about kerning and the psychology behind colors? How many designers understand the priniciples of typography and white space?

My friend Greg Storey wrote a cry for help last year asking for more qualified designers. There are plenty of people who can chop up a design in XHTML/CSS. Hell you can outsource that for a couple hundred dollars. There are plenty of people who can AJAX-ify your interface to increase the user experience. There are plenty of people who can create a design that looks nice.

The problem is how many people can design solutions to fix the problems a site has? How many people can take the ideas of their client and translate them properly to the screen? How many designers can look passed their own style and design a site that fits the current project?

There aren’t many. There aren’t many people that treat design as an art and passion that must constantly be improved. There aren’t many people that understand design is a craft that should be studied and poured over until you get tired of it. There aren’t many people that understand what design is and yet wish to call themselves designers.

I am by no means a designer. If someone were to come up to me and I knew they needed a graphically rich website with vibrant colors there is no way I could produce that for them. I do my own sites because I only have one style and work with limited colors and keep myself contrained to the graphical properties of CSS. I am no designer. To be honest, most of the people out there are no better than me and yet they want the big bucks. They want the glory. They want to know why their site didn’t make it into the gallery (do galleries even reject sites anymore?).

No, you are not a designer. You are someone that can piece together some stuff in Photoshop or add the right pieces of code in XHTML/CSS. You aren’t the person that creates experiences. You aren’t the translator of ideas that people never thought could be produced visually. You aren’t the person that can toss their own style to the curb and come up with something even greater because of it.

But you could be. Maybe. Just take the time to study like the greats before you. Push your limits. Test your boundaries. Designers like to work within their comfort zone because they know what they will like. Make something ugly to possibly come up with some ideas on how to make something beautiful. When you need inspiration create your own.

It all started when I considered whether I should open up another design blog. I knew I still had a lot to learn about design and this was my chance to share my education with you. This is why Emersian exists. Not to pretend that I am a designer, but to prove my love for all things design.

16 Responses

Mike Rundle / 04.14.08

When I’m putting together a new design, the concept that helps me find the right overall solution is the concept of what the “feeling” of the site should be. This feeling is pretty abstract but its basis is in the emotions that the look should elicit from the user, and this can generally be described in high-level adjectives like “smart”, “stark”, “bold”, etc. Once I’m actually executing the design, then I reach into my design toolkit and pull out techniques and methods I’ve used in the past to achieve certain design goals, and apply the “feeling” adjectives to these. Of course if you follow this process every time then 1) you never learn anything new, and 2) your designs start to look similar, so my goal as a designer is to execute a slightly new technique with each design I put together and then it’s added to my overall toolbox of design methods. This technique usually corresponds to a “feeling” adjective that I may not have designed for previously, so my techniques and ideas are more often than not associated directly with a particular “look” that they help me execute.

This is a big reason why I hate working on projects where someone wants it to look just like “another design I really like” when the goals of the current project and the other site are completely different. The feelings associated with the look of the current project don’t match the feelings elicited by the other site, and yet the client wants the two to look similar, so it’s mixing metaphors and visually there’s no cohesive theme. When talking about how poor designers do things, the idea of applying design techniques associated with X feeling to a site with Y feeling is up there at the very top. Finding something “cool” that you’ve done in one project and doing it across the next 5 is definitely the hallmark of someone who Is Not A Designer.

Armen / 04.14.08

Hear hear!!

I mentioned something very similar recently, Paul. I’ll not point you to the whole article (it was just an update post), I’ll just quote a portion of it;

“I haven’t been to design school, or attended a design related college course or university degree. But, I’m not alone. In fact, it appears to me, a large majority of the key players in the WordPress blog design community, have never ’studied’ design.

Such people tend to get a lot of their inspiration from other sites, and visit galleries regularly for inspiration. I’m the same.

However, the problem with just looking at completed forms of inspiration, is that you don’t learn the key principles in play as the designer developed the site. So, you end up trying to piece designs together without proper planning and thought.

This is why I read books.

Good design books teach you how to design. That is, not how to open Photoshop, but how to plan, develop, and structure the key elements of the design, and put them together with purpose.

It is my desire that I will continue to learn, so my work will become, well, one of the leading around. It’s a tall order with so many great designers out there. But hey, I have a right to aim for the stars as much as the next person.”

Anyway, it’s nice to see you writing on topics like these. I’ll be following closely.

Bryan / 04.14.08

You’ve got a misspelling here:

“How many designers can look passed their own style and design a style that fits the current project?”

Feel free to delete this comment once fixed.

Paul Scrivens / 04.14.08

When talking about how poor designers do things, the idea of applying design techniques associated with X feeling to a site with Y feeling is up there at the very top. Finding something “cool” that you’ve done in one project and doing it across the next 5 is definitely the hallmark of someone who Is Not A Designer.

That is a good summary right there.

@Armen: You are basically…spot on. Keep reading and keep growing.

@Bryan: Good catch. No reason to delete the comments that point out my inability of writing an entry perfectly.

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[...] is boggles the mind. Emersian is an unpretentious blog about design. One of his latest entries, You Are Not A Designer, is sheer proof of that. I particuarly enjoyed this [...]

meme / 04.16.08

Why are you trying to make the word “Designer” to mean the same as “A great designer”?

we have sencences for a reason you know, it seems to me like you’re more part of the pretention and mystification of design.

You ARE a designer, you DID design this page!

in order to express an opinion about the designer you would add an adjective like “terrible” or “amazing” in front of the noun designer!

If i run I am a runner, not a very good one mind but I am still a runner.

Bring the word back down to what it really means, we dont want to end up where Art and Artist are today do we?

Rusty / 04.16.08

web design is not PRINTED design, please don;t forget that….

and second, most of us, web designers, do not have an art or arts related major or an artsy design background, most of us got interested in web design from different sources and most of us have different background.

personally, i look for inspiration and i always try to add my personal touch to the idea i have, i dont try to follow trends but 80% of the time that’s what the customer wants.

and until today i cannot afford to reject a customer

Paul Scrivens / 04.16.08

@meme: So having the ability to run makes you a runner? Having the ability to swim makes you a swimmer? Having the ability to sing makes you a singer? If that is how you define traits then you are correct in thinking that everyone is a designer.

@Rusty: I understand most of the “designers” out there don’t have a art background, but what is to stop them from learning? We have the internet at our fingertips and that is a great education enough if you take the time to use it. Add to your library the many great books on design out there and you will find you don’t need to take a painting class.

Alex / 04.16.08

I’d liken this to the difference between people who can play an instrument and musicians. There’s a marked difference.

On one hand you’ve got the group that can play an instrument with technical perfection, but not know anything about music other than how to read which note they need to play. In fact, there’s a lot of people that play in bands and have no idea how to even read music. These would be the people that can execute a design without creating something new (or tailored to the situation/site.)

Then there’s the other group that understands the how and the why of the music. These are the ones who can hear a piece and come up with the harmony line, or a counterpoint to the melody. They can immediately play a complimentary riff over a chord progression, or find a substitution in that progression that creates more interest. These are the true designers.

There’s something to be said about innate talent as well. The smallest group is that which knows that something works, without understanding all the complexities to why. Of course these people also tend to be the type that wants to find out why, and they do.

meme / 04.17.08

“So having the ability to run makes you a runner? Having the ability to swim makes you a swimmer? Having the ability to sing makes you a singer? If that is how you define traits then you are correct in thinking that everyone is a designer.”

I didnt say just having the ability, that is how you define traits and only people who design are designers not everyone!

You see Designer means someone who designs or is designing or is between designing, thats all the word means! if you add other words together to form sentences which add further meaning various words, like Web designer, Print Designer, Great Designer or Bad Designer etc.

What you and many other people do when discussing things like this is try to tag on “further meaning” to whatever word it is you’re talking about.

You wouldn’t put an article together called “You are not a cleaner” based on the amount of so called “window cleaners” that don’t do it “properly”, they are cleaners, to elaborate they’re terrible window cleaners.

Would a Clothes designer no longer be a designer if they didn’t know about kerning or grids?

Troy / 04.25.08

I agree completely with your mindset, Scrivs. Just because you call yourself a designer, doesn’t make it so. Design is a multi-dimensional idea. It includes form, function, feeling, etc.

As someone who teaches web languages, it’s disappointing to me when a student comes into class armed with l33t Photoshop skillz and nothing else. No idea of whitespace usage, kerning, grids, or anything considered a staple of good design. To these students, “design” is about glossy buttons and subtle drop-shadows- not creating a cohesive solution.

I’m not saying that Photoshop skills aren’t important, I just think we tend to over-emphasize the “pretty” over the “solution”. Unfortunately, most clients want the “pretty” simply because they saw xyz site do it. Such is the life of a web designer…

Reggie / 04.28.08

@meme - you’re forgetting that the titles of designer, developer, programmer, etc. are badges to be earned and then worn. Sort of like running a race and coming in 75th or in the top ten. You ran the race, sure, but you didn’t come close to being among the elite who either have extraordinary talent and aptitude or who have paid their dues in training, hard work and gruelling practice. This elite are additionally and inevitably going to change the face of racing - introduce new techniques, regimens for preparation and indeed new races to be run.

Designers do so much more than put objects on a page. A true designer solves design problems on a form v. function continuum. They create problems to be solved. They break through boundaries never even perceived before they broke through.

I am not a designer. Not yet anyway. I can put together a decent website, and I can answer to my clients needs. I can make my client’s cheezy and all together cliché ideas and turn them into something pleasing for their customers to browse, but I am not a designer. I have a long way to go before I solve any problems, before I create something truly unique, before I move the design world in any one direction.

I am, however, a student of design. Perhaps this is where most of us really are.

Stevie / 04.28.08

Short illustrative story: At a party, I met a painter. Painting fascinates me. I am not very good. I don’t have the time. Anyways, he was also a self-taught web designer. So am I. The Internet was still in MUDDs and Chatrooms when I was in college. He asked me what programs I use. I told him I write code from scratch using CSS. He looked puzzled and then asked me what CSS was. After I explained, he replied, “The new Dreamweaver does all of that for me.” I was speechless. So web design is now picking a template, modifying it and collecting a check. If this is okay with everyone, I will soon be out of a job.

Defining a designer? I still wonder if I have learned enough coding, rules, and language descriptions to be a web designer. I have over 12 years experience as a graphic designer, and feel confident to call myself one.

I don’t think a title should be used unless the experience, employed position or education is there to back it up. If that isn’t the case, then I am a painter. I am an illustrator. I am a writer. I am a print specialist. I am a computer technician. I am an accountant. Really. I am a nutritionist. I am a novelist. I am a journalist. All true. **smiles**

If you want, you can place bad, awful or amateur in front of those titles, but I am still stealing the actual worth of those professionals by declaring myself one.

1eighty » Blog Archive » What is design? / 04.28.08

[...] You are not a designer [...]

xirclebox / 05.07.08

I think what’s going on here is that we have “The Artist” vs. “The Designer” and the way applications are used. The Artist is only concerned with the look and feel of the creation whereas The Designer is concerned about both the look and feel as well as the techincal details required to make the creation work. The Artist is someone who uses these applications to only create what Designers build. Is the ability to create something Boolean? Yes. You either created it or not. But to design something such as a UI is to have an understanding of “how” or the “purpose” for creating said UI. The path to understanding design is not found in the “tools” drop down menu.

Not to take anything away from those who use applications to get the job done. I designed my first web site back in ‘94 using Photoshop and wrote the HTML by hand using Pico. Today I use the Adobe Creative Suite to build sites, however I also know the code and can do it by hand. But as projects grew and time lines shrunk these tools proved their usefulness.

I feel those Artists who use applications and wear the “Designer” badge can be classified as either: Novice, Advanced User, Expert.

The Novice is just starting out. They will most likely be using some WYSIWYG because it helps speed up the process. They may be doing this as a hobby or it could be a career move for them as some point.

The Advanced User is not all that new to the game and is very good at using the applications to achieve their goals like the “Painter” Stevie mentioned. They may have a formal background in the arts but don’t “waste” time with learning things outside of their box. “Just let the application do it for me.”

The Expert is the person who knows what’s going on up top and under the hood. They know why the code is behaving a certain way, they know why it’s best to use a certain technique in Photoshop over another. They may be formally trained in the arts or computers but have taken the steps to learn or become familiar with the details outside of their box.

In any case, to be able to create something takes initiative and talent.
Does that mean the end result is any less important? Not if serves it’s purpose.

My Mother, Pat Gaines-Mills is a very accomplished Artist who went to school to study Art and now has work hanging all over Indiana and abroad. Me, I’m an accomplished Designer who went to school to study Psychology and has sites all over the web.

My Mom is great at painting anything from abstract compositions to the endangered Black Rhinos in Africa. But if you need an interactive presence I’m the one to call. Love you Mom

The Artist vs. The Designer | homer gaines / 05.07.08

[...] was reading an article “You Are Not A Designer” and it stirred up some feelings in me on he subject that I have been wanti9ng to explore. [...]