Speider Schneider wrote on Twitter today: “I will punch the next person who sends a resume that says, “I want to make the world a better place through meaningful design!”“, which got me thinking. Why do we design? I know why I do, but what is the driving force behind you guys, the community?
So throw your comment down there, describing you design. What makes you want to pick up that tablet and start punching pixels?
For those that don’t know, Speider Schneider is a former member of The Usual Gang of Idiots at MAD Magazine, has designed products for Disney/Pixar, Warner Bros., Harley-Davidson, ESPN, Mattel, DC and Marvel Comics, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon and, consistently, pumps out some of the best posts on Smashing Magazine.
My dad and grandpa would always tell me you have to love what you do for a living and you won’t work a day in your life. I’ve been searching for that “thing” i’m passionate about, until i started learning about design. So you could say i design, because it is what i’m passionate about.
Design puts me in my happy place. I don’t do it for the money, I don’t do it to make the world a prettier place, I do it because I love to do it. I am passionate about it and have been since I was kid drawing my favorite super heroes.
A man after my own heart.
Nice question, Radu. I always think design is a form of expression of my inner self. That is why I design. That is all.
I think designers are like bull riders – you don’t try to tame it, you try to stay on top of it. So I guess I do it for the fun of the ride.
Radu, it will be interesting to hear your answer of this question
I need to implement some sort of “Like” feature for comments. So I can click that sunvabitch 100 times for your comment. Actually, I’m pretty much on the same page as Bill.
design makes me happy for 2 reason: first, i love what i do:i love designing, i love coding… and i love coffe (the glue that keeps all together)..second… i love the money that my works can give me… it’s all about money after all! ;D
You know why I like you, Nick? Other than the fact that you’re a nice guy. Because you have the cojones to say what’s on your mind without flinching. Kudos to you, brother!
honesty is the key…. if you’re a liar…people will notice it…. and you can’t go so far…… be sick,be honest!
I am crap at welding… so I have to do something else, don’t I.
Mind you, thinking about it, i ain’t that much better at designing, either… but i need to find some easy money, and design is the quickest way to loads of cash.
What am I talking about? It isn’t.
Then i dont know.
The end.
ps: Please donate and help me pay off my clothes and car, and this tablet I use to show off during client meetings.
ROFLMAO!!! I almost spilled my drink laughing. Hilarious as ever, Shoog. Can I call you Shoog? Yeah, I’ll call you Shoog.
no problem sicky,,,
Shoog
Sicky & Shoog sounds like a pretty cool (and dumb) cartoon. I’d watch it!
Lol, seems like we both consider welding as some sort of opposite of designing. I have the same thought on my home page but you said it better. Damn.
Just a side note: i dont consider welding as some sort of opposite of design.
To tell you the truth, i believe both have tons of similarities.
I was just pointing out i was shite at it… well both in fact.
Because I won’t be a modern-day Dali or Picasso and it’s my chance for greatness (limited as it may be not taking in consideration the fact that i suck at it).
On a more pragmatic note beats sitting in my mom’s basement and not earning my keep, that plus the fact that I’m not trained to do anything else.
On a more whatever’ish note: I’m an idiot (person with ideas) and this lets me put my idiocy in practice while providing nourishment.
:slowly clapping: Nice, one, buddy. Nice one!
This will teach me to not tweet late at night and then go to sleep!
Honestly, design is powerful and can do great things — it can even save a little bit of the world, but in dealing with one too many students in my career, I go nuts when I see the aforementioned statement on a résumé over and over again. My next least favorite is the ubiquitous, “here I come, world! I’ve got the fresh ideas and experience to put them to work” (actually seen several times). While putting a goal or objective on a résumé is no longer required or expected (the employer knows why you’re applying for that position), this sugary, idealistic stuff is childish and unprofessional.
Check this for more tips on what not to do on a résumé… http://tinyurl.com/4x4ga2e
For those with dreams of being a “design rock star,” here’s a reality check… http://tinyurl.com/37u4zwl
Thanks for the replies!
I want to make the world a better place through meaningful responses!
ROFLMAO!!!
Why not love design.. is the best feeling in the world completing a design piece after hours of researching and staring at the blank new photoshop document. I wouldn’t trade it for the world unless i win the lottery.
Son, I am disappoint.
Just messing with you Radu even if i win the lottery i would not trade design for anything in the world
I’ve been a payed designer for over 10 years and what keeps me going is looking at a project that is finished and seeing it out in the world. That and my mother saying things like “Wow that really looks professional”. Hence the term payed designer above.
You might like this article for when family members are astounded you can actually make a living being creative… http://tinyurl.com/62h8hl3
I haven’t been a designer for too long, but I just love the feeling of a huge completed project and just be able to say: “I made that”. Even better when it’s something physical, like a print.
The whole creative process is fun, and when things go really well, money is good too!
I hear you, about the prints. Being able to physically touch something you made from scratch is like cocaine for your ego. Uhmmm, not that I would know how cocaine feels. I should stop now.
Nothing better than creative cocaine!
I design because I love to create things. Not just digitally (web & interface design/development) but also other stuff, like messing around with Arduinos and the like to create cool little robots.
There’s nothing better than that feeling when you see the idea you had at first, has actually come to life.
I certainly don’t design for money, I don’t have any ( Listen son, I’ll give you a chance of having a job : can you give to my brand a beautiful image and a website full of awesome features ? I’ll give you 200 $ ! ).
I design because I sucks too much at programming to become an indie game developer, and that’s the closest thing I’ve found that let me create a kind of universe, tell a story, build from scratch and say : Yeah, I did it, this is my story and I had fun doing it.
This and because I couldn’t put zombies or super heroes everywhere when I was doing hamburgers at macdonald’s.
From what I’ve seen of your website, you seem pretty able with comics style illustration. And comics are one heck of a way to build a universe. One huge upside, of course, is the complete lack of programming. So, why don’t you try to do a few indie comic strips? Who knows, maybe that’ll land you a gig with a mainstream comics company. You’d have my full support and I’d promote the heck out of them, too.
Yeah, I’ve started something some weeks ago, I need time, too much projects in mind.
Thank for your reply and your futur support
And btw I’m totally agree with the initial subject and speider’s point of view : I’m bored of designers wannabees and their ” I want to save the world with my designs, I want to build a new world where we could all buy food with our love “.
Designing is not only a passion, it’s a way of life. Be yourself, spit on trash, put your guts in what you do and above all : have fun !
A good game development team its created from several members (7 for a little mmoarpg). One of these members deal only with the creation of characters and scenery (graphics designer) and don’t know any programming language. So if this is your real “big dream” … What you are waiting for?
The funniest thing that I found about your post is that I managed to talk my way into my current, and first, design job with no on-paper qualifications and exactly zero experience. The way I was able to do that was by saying to the designer that I would replace ‘I don’t want to design the world, I don’t have the experience at this point. I known your ad says previous experience required, but how can I get that when no one will give me a chance. I can do this job, I just need you to let me prove it..’
I have honestly never wanted to design the world. Never seen myself as being a renowned designer who is to inspire generations to come. In fact even now, after a couple years of doing what I do, I look at the finished product (a 60+ page magazine I do from start to finish) and still have trouble believing that it is my work and that I am capable of producing such a thing!
When it all boils down to it, and when I get asked why I wanna be a designer (especially since EVERYONE wants to be a graphic designer where I live) I always tell the person that asks that ‘I just like drawing my pretty pictures’ it’s much more then that, but at the end of the day,, that’s really what drives me..
Also, I like being able to call myself a graphic designer and it ACTUALLY being true
I design, because I just can’t look at all the shitty looking sites on the web. I hate it when a great company, with a great product wastes their potential by having boss’s nephew design their landing page. It just hurts.
Because we have to. It’s why we’re here. Do we have a choice?
it’s not the only thing i’m good at. i do chemistry physics well. but it’s the only thing i’d love to do from bottom of my heart and stay late for it. never know what would happen after my design,but it feels like there’s a mysterious area behind my mind that could pour out something shocking or what ………..and really wanna explore it.
: ) that’s it.
I fail to see why “I want to make the world a better place through meaningful design” puts your panties in a bunch.
Unless it’s the cheesiness and amateurish slant of the resume which pisses you off. (Well, that sugary-rainbow-unicorn thing pisses me off too)
But I have the same reason for wanting a career in webdesign, albeit I have a *possibly* better way of saying it:
“I want to learn about design so I can improve all those crappy websites that look like the designer doesn’t know shit about the company’s target market and decided to make a collage of all the popular design elements at the time of the site’s conception without thinking if it contributed anything to the goals at all.”
Isn’t that essentially the same? because replacing crappy with “meaningful” design WILL make the world better. (But I sure as hell won’t be doing it for free.)
Oops. Sorry about that. Reading the quote in its context: http://www.instantshift.com/2011/04/20/professional-practices-they-dont-teach-you-in-art-school-resumes/
I see that it’s not the message that Schneider abhors, but the amateurish delivery. Sorry about that. But I’m glad I was able to read the actual article.