Working as a Graphic Designer is not as glorified as many make it out to be. Sure we sit behind our fancy computer setups, sketching ‘pretty pictures’ in our Moleskin notebooks and can do business from the comforts of our own homes, but it can also be one of the most stressful, involving and cutting edge jobs out there.
Graphic design is in an industry that technically and creatively evolves faster than any other profession in my opinion. Designers constantly have to learn new software, stay on top of trends, have our work critiqued and displayed on a ‘pedestal’, manage tight and strict deadlines, consistently stay creative…and when we have time, live our daily lives. We play many roles, wear different hats and face many challenges daily. There are many days when I throw my hands up in the air out of exhaustion and frustration, but in the end there is nothing I rather do with my life and career.
Below I asked a few graphic and web designers what they thought was the hardest and most challenging part of being a Graphic Designer:
- @studiorohan: As a designer you are constantly trying to improve. In this industry if you are standing still, you’re falling behind; you are constantly expanding your portfolio, your designs, your knowledge, your career and more.
- @sthursby: Managing expectations. Not only do we expect the best from ourselves, but our clients do as well (with good reason). Convincing those in power that a winning concept cannot necessarily be immediately conjured out of thin air is a challenge.
- @joelbeukelman: The reality that everyone has an opinion on what looks good/right. A patient would never tell the doctor how to fix their broken bone… nor would a customer tell a mechanic how to fix their oil leak, but a business owner will definitely tell their designer that emerald green and yellow would be the best colors for their corporate identity.
- @ClaraCharlotte: (a graphic design student) When I first started my studies I was convinced that perfectionism is the hardest part. And it’s hard to stop being one. A layout never screams “I’m done now, leave me alone!” Now I’m convinced that the hardest part is talking to non-designer folk about your work. Mostly getting the client to understand and appreciate your work.
- @kiryn: Whilst designing is the job, it’s all the complimenting work that keeps it flowing, staying focused on generating new client work and networking.
- @pxls2prnt: coming up with an intriguing concept. A concept that will capture the minds and emotions of those who view the work.
- @creativeworld: communicating your design and ideas to other people – at the end of the day if you can’t talk about and explain your design, it may never see the light of day. These days, great designers need to be great sales people too.
- @nikibrown: balance and time management. I’m two years out of school and still find it hard to manage that work-life-fun-freelance balance.
- @flyingorange: not letting my creativeness overtake the client’s objective.
- @thepurpledoor: continually pushing the envelope to keep my style fresh and evolving.
- @culinaryculture: Interpreting the things that people say for what they really mean. A good designer has to be intuitive and able to see through to the truth of what a client is looking for.
- Derek Land: trying to handle regular office stuff whilst also keeping up with design, coding, meetings, etc. of a project – in effect, running the office (secretary hat) and simultaneously trying to maintain high quality in my work (designer hat).
- Joann Sondy: On a day like today when I think I’m turning into a not-for-profit corporation it was hard to keep my cool. Unfortunately, this economic situation is causing some very deep and stressful emotions which make be behave badly… Thus this undesirable stress places undue stress on the creative process.
What’s the hardest part of your job as a Graphic Designer? What can we do to make it easier? Share your thoughts (and frustrations) in the comments below.
@flyingorange: I always face the challenge you are saying…most of the time clients interference in design let me to stop using my creativity and just follow there instructions at that time I feel like a machine who is just follwoing instruction not using brain and it makes me dam irritate.
I try a lot to explain that blue look more professional and these will be good but clients don’t listen and I am still facing this problem
“Explaining to my parents what I do.”
lol, signed.
Hardest part for me used to be balancing my time between my work that needs to be done now, school that I just finished luckily and personal things that I want to do now to develop my skills and staying on top of stuff. Now when I finished university it got a bit easier, but still I can’t be arsed to work sometimes when I just don’t feel like it and I’d rather play World of Warcraft or watch a movie. ;)
For me, the hardest part is getting my owner to understand that paying someone 200 bucks for a website screenshot will not produce higher quality work that i do.
I hate it when i am given no direction for a site, no logo, and told by the client they have no color preference. I am expected to create the best thing ever seen, with nothing to go on. Hell, asking what sites they like, and getting ebay, and amazon as site references really erks me.
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I use PhotoShop and Ai, sadly i never come up with concept now. I read, view many inspirational articles etc. Still nothing and that is the thing i hate a lot and maybe that is a reason i have left and give up PhotoShop/Ai. I am sometimes able to do work with Cinema 4D but my PC is not capable to handle it. Before it was so fun, i just bring up some random concept and work it and the result was good, now its just like a empty mind…Maybe in life i have given higher-priority to other things rather then designing.. :|
Also when i try to design something, i consume so many hours on a simple piece. Other people might be cable to do it in 30 mins to 1 hour. And i, an empty minded person take 4-5 hours on that simple litle piece. I lost my skills because of inactivity in designing. Maybe now, today, tomorrow i will try to make something..
Regards,
Ex-Opesa.
now this is so true. i love design. i love creativity. i focused on graphic design for a better side income to turn into my fulltime work at home income. but everything in this article just made me look at graphic design in a different way. thanks for this article to knock me back to reality. graphic design is not all fun games and excitement. i can imagine it can be very very stressful at times
Great post. I think there’s a bunch of things that makes graphic designers find themselves into a sea of frustration and chaos, a lot of the comments above already said lots of true facts, and I am agreed with all of them.
So for me the hardest part is to find the PRECIOUS time to learn about new trends (technologies, softwares) and a lot of tools that make our skills so much competitive, and the problem is that when you finally have the chance (free time) to do it, you prefer to rest, relax and have fun, wich is totally OK but it is harsh to find the balance within it.
And I don’t know you guys but since I’ve just finished university I am like “not in the mood” to work (I’ve been working for 2 years in an agency), I mean, after 5 years working my ass off, somehow I think I deserve a free time to be as lazy as I want… and that is a big problem!
“too many cooks spoils the broth”
- its hard when your project manager insist he’s crazy ideas instead of the client’s goals and directions.
- its hard when you presented your 3 mocks to client’s sales ppl and again will ask for more mocks but in the end will go back to your first 3 mocks.
- its hard when you thought the sales ppl finalized everything not knowing the IT Manager will put he’s dumbest ideas and change everything.
- and the hardest part: when they presented whole project to the Chairman/CEO he will just said I dont like it. Its that the best you can show me??
I would have to say the hardest thing about being a graphic designer is staying up to date with the rapid modernization of styles, designs, whats the current fads and program versions and languages.
Another challenge is creating graphics for a wide range of personalities and companies; from a total color blasted flier to a boring very structured corporate organizational chart.
For me the hardest part is simply to get into the freelance thing in South Africa (Pretoria) since the trend here is to work for companies. That leaves VERY little time for self-study and improvement if you are already studying part time and updating a web site. Nevermind those cool 3D projects you want to complete one day or the new recording of you hammering out licks on the guitar. :-p
Right now, I feel like my hardest part is just trying to get myself started and established as a freelance designer. I’m fresh out of college and obviously the economy right now if insane, yet I managed to get a part time job designing at a firm. My struggle is trying to just get my work out there and to get some sort of positive response from other firms to get a potential full time position. To keep myself up to date with designing I am constantly on my computer coming up with new layouts for websites, learning how to code using new things like jQuery, doing random sketches, picking out random companies to redesign for, etc. It is a lot of work but I feel it is worth it in the end.
In general though, besides my struggles through getting my work out there I think the most difficult thing about being a graphic designer is keeping up with others who have clients they work with, and a portfolio full of work that was actually produced and not just a self-given project. Maybe it wouldn’t be as tough if the economy wasn’t so bad? But again, this is why I am blogging, doing tutorials, and getting a variety of styles under my belt!
[...] Hardest Part Of Being a Graphic Designer [...]
I totally agree with some of the statement
Boss))))do you know we all work 7-24???? do you know we spend how many hours for the mock thingy???? Sigh sure you don’t know anything cos YOU ALWAYS ASK FOR MORE!!!
*Back to work…
Being in the Art, Design and Music business, I agree with the statement about a patient not giving the doctor advice… at a party you can say you’re an artist or musician and people will give you their opinions… Made me wish I was a brain surgeon… No one would comment on the Madulla oblingada or whatever it’s called. :-)
I think it’s all of the above brought together into a giant confounding mesh. You spend your energy and life pursuing design, embracing it, and learning new and improved ways to approach it. You have to compensate for ever-changing technology as well, and for me, that’s an enjoyable part.
Design seems to be viewed by most as making something look pretty. It has no immediate tangible value. If a mechanic works on your car, you know if he successfully fixed it or not. Many clients do not look at design as a tangible/valuable process. They don’t understand that it can have either a wonderful or terrible result, because those results cannot be recorded or formulated. Therefore you are not viewed as a professional. Your knowledge and passion for it is easily ignored. Much more easily than they would ignore their accountant.
Chances are, whether you work for yourself, or a company, the client is going to show your idea to everyone. You will find that what really matters is how his/her grandmother feels about it… Again, denoting that your knowledge and skills are of no value. What is 4 years of school, massive student debt and all this time crunching down in the field worth, if grandma is a better designer than you are…
Which leads to the final stage of difficulty, and that is confidence. Being able to sell your idea is increasingly difficult if you spend 6 years in the field and still haven’t managed to produce anything that the client hasn’t butchered to death. It constantly puts you in a state of confusion. What is design? Is it valuable? Am I even any good at this? Every time I try to help someone succeed, I feel like I have somehow failed… Maybe it doesn’t really matter, or maybe I just suck at this?
The reality is that many designers would (and do) work for free if they are offered an opportunity to do something fabulous. Design is more than a career, it’s a passion that we spend our lives pursuing, no matter how difficult and draining it is.
Where do I begin? I have been designing for 20 years now. I’ve worked for corporations, ad agencies and freelanced. I have been freelancing full time for the past 6 years. There’s a huge difference between working for someone and working for yourself. When you work for yourself, you not only have to constantly education yourself on your design projects, you have to were every hat imaginable. (Sales, marketing, taxes, etc…) It can really suck at times. The most frustrating thing for me now never being able to get away from my work. I’m so passionate about what I do, I can’t sleep. I don’t take care of myself like I should. I have experience “BURNOUT” on too many occasions. I’m currently in burnout mode. In order for me to regain my drive, I have to get away from it for a while. Unfortunately, I don’t have that luxury. I have been very successful in my work, therefore my clients expect a tremendous about out of me all of the time. I find myself working 48 hours straight, without sleep. I feel it’s taking it toll on me mentally and physically. At this point, I don’t know what else I can do, but keep trying.
Yes agree, as a graphic designer you need to keep improving the skills. The learning process never ends up.
The hardest part for me in graphic design is to be original and to work out some great ideas for clients needs as a loads of ideas have been put to work already.
Think the Little Train that could. I think I can. I think I can. I think I can create something fabulous. Something more fabulous than the last one. I think I can. I will work hard. Study. Learn. Keep trying.
Thirteen years later. Is there another side to this mountain? Designers are expected to create something brilliant from nothing on a daily basis within budget and on time. Then clients and project managers get involved. They splice it and dice it. Tossing out the very items that make the piece special. It becomes throw-away art.
Next comes the time interrogation. Why did it take so long? And then the clients says … “well, I could have designed that in Word in half the time.” Of course the client wouldn’t have been able to create something as good, but the kicker is, the client wouldn’t know the difference. The client would be happy with a crappy logo versus even paying $250 for a brilliant one. That’s cheap for a brilliant one. A designer is not necessary. Erased.
Which figures. When a project goes well and the planets align, the client sends a letter to the firm praising the project manager?!
At the end of the day I wonder … why I am a designer, and what is it that I offer the world?
i love graphic design it is the best i design naked people ads to capture the true beauty of the lesbians and gays. ITs not negative at all i love the gays.
Wow thanks you for this post. I can relate with this. Designing is not just do it now within an hour or some because conceptualizing is not easy task to do. You have to free your mind from whatever it has and from it you can imagine things that others can not. There should be no time pressure.
It’s a dog eat dog profession. You need to constantly be ahead of the person next to you and to be the one to outshine the competition. At the same time, it can exhausting. Sitting behind a 27″ inch screen from as early as 5 o’clock in the morning till 11:00 at night, really takes a toll on you. Sometimes, you’ll spend an entire day creating something but because something was not right, it’s scrapped and you have to start all over. At times, I’ll sit at my computer screen with a blank art board, not knowing what the hell I’m supposed to be doing. Writer’s block is probably the worst thing that can happen to you. But overall, I love my job. I enjoy working with clients and when I’m working on my own personal stuff, it’s motivating to always innovate and progress with your work. As an ex graffiti writer, I’ve grown accustom to the constant pressure and fast paced environment of getting up before the next man beats you to it. I like the competition but at the same time, savoring back and enjoying the work in it’s essence, is what’s most relaxing.