By no means do I consider myself a designer.
Have I designed? Yes.
Have I designed logos? Yes.
Have I designed websites? Yes.
But by no means would I consider myself a designer.
When I hear the term used, I think of awesome designers like Jared Erikson.
When it comes to my own “design” work (notice the quotation marks), I am always struggling with–dare I say–pop.
I recently came across this quote on SwissMiss that does an excellent job of summarizing what design is all about and how you become a student of good design. Let me pass this along to those of you that are aspiring to become better at the art of design:
“Learning to design is, first of all, learning to see. Designers see more, and more precisely. This is a blessing and a curse — once we have learned to see design, both good and bad, we cannot un-see. The downside is that the more you learn to see, the more you lose your ‘common’ eye, the eye you design for. This can be frustrating for us designers when we work for a customer with a bad eye and strong opinions. But this is no justification for designer arrogance or eye-rolling. Part of our job is to make the invisible visible, to clearly express what we see, feel and do. You can‘t expect to sell what you can’t explain.”
— Learning to See, by Oliver Reichenstein
So how do you learn to see?
Spend more time looking at good design.
Thoughts?
Mayan says
A very good quote. Keeps us grounded. 🙂
Eric Dye says
True.