Don’t be that guy
I resolved myself a couple of years ago, telling myself over and over, “Don’t be that guy.” Yes, I’m a girl, it’s just a saying, go with me. Before I made the leap from website tinkerer to legitimate web designer I went through a lot of really deep analysis of my talent, my skills, and my ambition. I put my foot down one day and decided that I would not be that “guy” that people talk about as the one who claims to be a designer but is really crap. Sure, there have been those times when I was still getting my footing that I put out some designs I was less proud of but there’s a difference between bad design a student puts out in the process of learning the craft and bad design a wannabe puts out in the process of finding fame, money, a shortcut to whatever.
We all know someone who is that lazy, get-rich-quick personality who wants everything to come easily. And I can see how it would be diffcult for a person like that to stand by while there are people making money designing websites. They get tense and uptight, thinking, “I could do that.” The web is full of people who think it’s enough to know a little code and a couple Photoshop tutorials and heck, let’s start charging people for a website. What I dealt with right from the start was taking care of that attitude in my world, making sure I would never take on that mindset.
You can’t buy design off the shelf from Adobe and you can’t learn it by playing around with it for a couple of weeks.
~ Andy Rutledge Design, if not about something bigger than I am, will never be something I can really be any good at. If I don’t make sure I’m continually learning (and even taking a learning attitude when teaching), I’ll never really be a true designer.
One of my favorite designers is Andy Rutledge and I quote him often, so if you’re a regular here you ought to know who he is. Heck, you should know anyway. A lot of what I’ve learned about design, and about myself as a designer has been from his stern coaching through his articles on design. He said something recently which inspired my note here today:
It is not a flattering characterization, but it’s damned accurate from my experience to observe that many Web designers are Web designers because they don’t enjoy working hard to be able to realize some measure of success. It does not take a great amount of acumen or effort to learn to use FrontPage or Dreamweaver or Fireworks or Photoshop with moderate skill and get paid for it. So armies of Web designers possessed of no understanding of design at all are born. Andy Rutledge, Painting a Better Landscape
It always humbles me some, to hear him talk about untrained designers. I covet his kind of training like nothing in this world. I’ve worked my tail off the past two years to complete my associate degree and it has afforded me so much outside of design, but I still have so much to learn. Andy talks about what some of those things are in his article but I know there are more than what he lists.
The thing many people need most today is humility. Humility is a funny thing. Without it you can’t learn because without humility one doesn’t believe there is anything there to learn. And at the same time, Humility is an ugly thing to look at from the home of its cousin Arrogance. My prayer each day as I begin my work, before I turn on the computer, is that I will be humble enough to recognize my limitations and be courageous in admitting those shortcomings just long enough that I can learn something amazing. Today’s lesson: design is completely separate from the computer.
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18 Comments
I have yet to come across a more competent, intellectual, down-to-earth, and hard working designer than Andy Rutledge. He is actually a designer, something which can be said of so few. I hold him in the highest esteem.
I regularly read his site in the hopes of attaining humility. Sometimes it’s good to be told you’re a stinker at design.
I would propose an amendment to your post. “The thing many people need most today is humility.” This should read:
“The thing all people have needed most in every day since the dawn of time is humility.” I have yet to meet a person to which this would not apply, above all that guy I see in the mirror every morning.
That post kinda convicted me. I don’t think I should be dabbling in design. It’s obviously not my strongest suit, ministry is. I think I should relegate it to a hobby and move on. Oh well. :(
I think I’m that guy. Seriously. I was very convicted as I read your article. I think it’s a good thing though. I’ve been wanting to get into 9 rules, be one of the “cool kids” and stuff. I don’t know, I just think I’m a good minister and that’s what I should focus on. I think I should relegate my “design” to a hobby and keep it there, I don’t have the gift nor the vision for it. But hey, at least I realize it, right? Better to see where I am and be honest with myself than kidding myself into thinking I’m something I’m not.
Sorry for the double submission, just delete either one of them.
Oh, Ben. I’m very sorry if my tone was harsh. I realize there are those like you who are caught somewhere between and I never intended for those like you to lose hope in being a designer. I only meant to talk about where I stand personally and maybe nudge those who are more arrogant in their approach to web design. I have no doubt that there are many ways you surpass me and I admire you for your honesty.
About 9Rules, it’s not just designers. There are all kinds of blogs there. It’s more about your quality of content than the genre. And if it makes you feel better, I’m a 9Rules wannabe too, have yet to stumble upon a round of submissions on time. ;)
ironic, then, that nearly any designer who has real (i say built, some other fields say published, in this context, i guess you could say “˜live’) work, that’s good, is arrogant to a fault. because if you’re not your design will be value-engineered, compromised, and wittled down until it’s vanilla. talent cannot make up for humility. humble designers will only ever succeed when they have no client.
Hey Natalie, thanks for leaving that nice comment on Ben’s site. I thought I would repay the favor and make two compliment you on two websites!
You’re sound like a really good person and I wish you luck in your quest for finding your own 9rules.
Erg! I keep forgetting that textpattern wants me to preview my comment and then submit it. I clicked away after hitting preview and forgot to submit. OK, I’ll try to write basically the same thing again.
I know you weren’t trying to discourage me, it’s not like you had Ben Gray in mind when you wrote this post. I think what happened was your words and thoughts made me deal honestly with myself and face my own limitations. I don’t like admitting that I’m limited (at least currently) in anything, so when I read your post I just, well, was convicted. Not like, by God or anything, but by myself. I had to deal honestly with myself. Don’t worry though, I’m sure I’ll still tinker with code and Photoshop. It’s a great hobby for me and I just can’t quit it because I enjoy it so much. I’ll still be around your blog and 9rules and stuff because it makes for great reading and great inspiration. Thank you so much for your kind words, Happy Easter!
adam “humble designers will only ever succeed when they have no client”
I can think of a few humble designers who would disagree with you.
Sorry Adam, sweeping generalizations won’t get you anywhere here. There is a very broad spectrum of talent and humility. It takes time and experience to learn how to deal with clients and criticism, and a personality that is always open to learning how to be better. It’s unfortunate that you may have run into less than professional designers, or perhaps ones who have just given up a certain amount of hope, but for some of its patrons, the design world most certainly is not a black or white endeavor.
Jason is right. In fact, I think nothing ever can be black and white-contrasted when dealing with people. Design is about people, so there ya go.
Natalie, I agree with your post and was mostly called out by your last sentence. It’s very right. Design principles don’t change between media that easily. Conventions can and often do, but principles? No way.
Bad designers are there to blur the line, I guess. Or to build a group so we can make the difference.
Rob You hit on something there without “˜bad’ designers how would we know if we’re any good? In a way I guess we all go through those periods where we’ve learned something new and we think we can rule the world with it. It’s just so much more awesome when we get past that and realize how much more there is ahead.
Jason As always, so nice to hear your perspective. You remind me that the company one keeps can determine their success. Having people like you around the web makes it easier to stay above the slop. ;)
Yes, of course. It was Dylan who sang “he not busy being born is busy dying”. I see the process of learning as growing and being born is just one growth in your life. Learning and, assuming it has effect, improving is in essence a process of being born more if you want to look at it like that :)
And I like the concept that, if you stop learning, you’re dying. It’s true. You’re never done. No one ever is done, and that makes it such a lovely challenge.
being open to learning to do better is an important thing, i agree. but it’s not something i would call humble. part of this is my christian upbringing, and my absolute loathing of the idea of humility. fundamentally, design is telling someone else how sell their product, and that can never be humble. i’m honestly confused as to how you can read andy’s writings and get humility out of them.
adam You said, “…my absolute loathing of the idea of humility” and I think you have a very wrong idea of humility, though I’m not sure what you think it means other than some kind of oppressive feeling of worthlessness. It’s actually the opposite. It’s acknowledging your weaknesses so that you can strengthen them. It’s lifting other people up instead of focusing on yourself.
You also said, “design is telling someone else how sell their product” and that is way off. Design has nothing to do with telling a client anything about their product. That would fall under marketing or product consulting, or something along those lines. Design is more about listening to people, learning what their needs and desires are, and trying to create something that encapsulates that in the most beautiful and succinct way. Of course there’s more to it, but that’s the general idea anyway. It requires humility to admit that you don’t know everything, that you can learn from the client/user needs without imposing too much of your own design prowess. It’s stepping back for a minute to make the design unique to the client and not just another product of the designer.
As for “how you can read andy’s writings and get humility out of them” it has to do with who Andy is as a person as much as from his writing. That’s another facet of humility getting to know who people are before judging their work, or their words. It’s why I read your ABOUT page before replying to a comment (when possible).
Shameless and dated self-promotion in harmony with what this post has to say: “˜Back to Basics’ @ A List Apart.
Also, I wanted to point out that I linked your poster from the Web Standards Project.
Ben “Clients and managers create impossible deadlines, and make key development decisions though they wouldn’t know emphasis from italics if the difference bit them on the ass.” My favorite. :)
Yeah, I was kinda on a roll – proving once again that while my chops ain’t too bad, I’m best suited to writing when all’s said and done.
…While I disagree with the imperative tone of Andy’s message, I see exactly where he’s coming from.
I would just like to see the money made by the people who know what they’re doing, rather than the ones who know how to sell.
The story of the friend of a friend who churns out crap with WYSIWYG and makes money hand over fist because of those same sales skillz is getting to be kinda tiresome.