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:
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@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.
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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.
One of the biggest challenges I find is balancing production management and business development. I’ll sometimes turn down work thinking I’m committed for the next X time period, then clients will have delays in their deliverables so I’ve turned down work needlessly. Or, I *don’t* turn the new work down, taking the gamble some of my projects will have client delays, and then have to do a super-juggle if the clients all come through.
Explaining to my parents what I do.
I agree with a lot of the statements. It is difficult to convince a client that an idea/concept generated by a professional is a better route. Clients come to you with an idea of what they want. They expect you to bring their ideas to life. Much like in my head I can see things but can’t always bring them to fruition, I think the client in this situation would be my head. As for making it better, I think good communication skills (especially verbal) are crucial to having a good experience with your client and project. Maybe in our instutions of higher learning we should focus on this more. Also, maybe we should be more picky about the projects we take on. I know we’re always up for a challenge but if you know nothing about golf and decide to take on a project for a golfing association there could be a real disconnect. Go for the projects your passionate about. Good things will come.
My greatest fall back is being a lazy person. I am a pretty darn creative person but I lack the character to get off my rear end and practice or work on my clients and friends projects.
The hardest part is getting and keeping clients! In how many professions can a “successful” practitioner honestly have no idea who he’ll be working for in 6 months time? Even if you deliver, there’s no guarantee that a single client will come back for more work. The words every designer fears: “we’ve decided to do it ourselves.”
One of the toughest lessons I have learned, once by proxy, and the other directly, is putting too many eggs in one basket, or client. When something happens client side with respect to corporate structure, sometimes the replacement may have their own contact and you just may be out. This has helped and hindered in my experience. I have been on the receiving end of someone moving to another company, and have also felt the pinch in reverse.
Then there are the fly by night projects that come and go like the wind. Not staying around long enough to create a consistent breeze in terms of work-flow, and, consequently, revenue.
Aside from that, the next toughest thing is chasing dead beats who do not pay. Any ideas on this is appreciated! LOL
The hardest part for me is accepting when I’m wrong. We can talk all we want about dealing with difficult clients, but in actuality it’s pretty difficult to deal with us and our egos.
The second hardest part for me? Dealing with young designers who haven’t learned to keep their egos in check.
Always work hard to design to the best of your ability and creativity, but accept that your best can be better (and not everyone will agree your work is the best).
Besides the above mentioned, the risk of complete and total breakdown due to overload. We do everything or , at least, too much usually. Trying to be in everyone’s head and still pull designs from another dimension, is a condition we all suffer from.
Tweaking. When a job is done, I love it, the client loves it, it’s all ready to go ; but … but … maybe I could move that image half a millimeter to the left … and wouldn’t it be swell if the spine referenced an obscure poster from the fifties … and … and … these are things that nobody will ever notice, but they keep me up until 3am.
Plus, being expected to be a whiz with Word. No, I don’t know why your word-art is doing that either, please get it away from me.
The hardest part, for me, is to actually find time to keep pushing forward the box including everything that doesn’t include your daily tasks at the office.
Since i dont mind to practice and work on my spare time i haven’t really searched for any greater solution regarding that.
The hardest part about being a designer is being original. There’s so many designers out there now, it’s difficult to be unique.
As an in-house designer - the only one of my kind here in this sea of cubicles - nobody here understands what I do or how long things take. As they walk by my desk they, think I’m just drawing pictures all day and picking pretty colors. Educating my colleagues on the complexities of my job and ever expanding skill set is a tiresome task - plus, it makes me look like a whiner.
Your work is never good enough. You throw in so many hours to create something - days later, when you look back - it needs improvement. it never ends.
The absolutely hardest part - creativity aside - is trying to educate the world-at-large that their best mate (who can do it cheaper because he’s just downloaded a dodgy copy of photoshop), cannot design their website/logo/branding/packaging/stationary/etc. [*delete as appropriate], with the same level of professionalism, creativity and responsibility as a design professional.
That is the absolutely hardest part of being a creative professional today …
Re-educating the great unwashed!
I think the hardest part is dealing with the people that use a designer because they don’t know how to build a website or create a brochure and so on. So those people don’t care about your abilities as a designer just the knowledge on how to get it done and thats how they want to pay you.
Also it is hard to explain to people what I do. For some reason a lot of people think I create floor plans when I tell them I am a graphic designer.
For me it’s being organized, chaos seems to take over so quickly, even when you’ve got a strict system, so yeah, being & staying organized is probably the hardest part.
I would say the hardest part of my job is staying “hip”. I try to read a lot of magazines, blogs and news articles. I take tutorials when I can. I follow a bunch of designers on linkedin and twitter but I still have a hard time being a new, fresh creative when I work in an anti-creativity environment
Great post! I completely agree with @joelbeukelman. The biggest problem I run into is when my clients think they know what effective design is.
The hardest part for me recently has been juggling a full-time design job, a desire to freelance full-time, and the need to provide for a young family. I know what I’d do if I didn’t have anyone depending on me (freelance, holla)… but I can’t just up & quit the staff position, especially with the economy where it is now. At the same time, I feel like my freelance career is being smothered by the full-time job.
The full-time job is great so I’m content to wait until the circumstances are more favorable to jump into full-time freelance… It’s just hard to know what it COULD be like and to not fully pursue it.
@Christian,
Don’t beat yourself up Dude. You are definitely doing the right thing. Just keep networking and making contacts. You have a very good portfolio. Your chance will come, and when the time is right, you’ll know it!
Keep growing!!!
BOL,
JJ
Egos. Mine included. Everything else is a cake walk.
Yeah, your all spot on the ball, especially dwoodfork. That’s the worst thing out of all! Ha.
I can’t really compare since I’m still in university, but so far the hardest thing for me is staying motivated. For me it’s way too easy to use a template for a border, or some other element.
Or at least, that’s where it starts.
For one project, I created a website from a template. I justify it - I don’t know CSS, I want it to look good, barely know Dreamweaver. I hang my head in shame.
@pinedaproject
i think we re-create ourselves everyday
@herne
Try being a Compositor. My job is to take the Designer’s “vision” and convert it into production-ready publication templates in InDesign. You talk of Client nightmares, try dealing with peevish Designers that get upset when you want to modify their designs so that it can be more easily duplicated in a production environment…
For me, it’s people thinking I can make a website. Apparently all graphic artists/designers are web AND print designers. Web isn’t a strong suit for me, and I find I’m explaining the dichotomy of the professions often. Web graphics? easy enough. Web Sites? Not so easy.
I agree the hardest part is competing with cheaper or unskilled “designers” and opening client’s eyes so they can see the value of professional design. That’s not design snobbery, it’s good business sense. I’ve had to rescue clients who’ve had a logo or website designed offshore for peanuts; they end up paying more to get it done properly. And I’ve worked with local “web designers” who have little knowledge of basic design skills like typography, layout, colour theory and usability. By all means open design up to all - it keeps us on our toes - but keep educating clients and doing good work that inspires them to come back for more…
The hardest part is the salesman part for me, I can’t for the moment be as good as i wish doing it, but I’m getting better with every client, because is a process like everything in design and in life more you try easier is going to be the next time.
Another thing is that the client thinks he is always right even if is horrible what he wants, they don’t have design studies but they know everything about identity or colors.
Thanks for this great article All those designer are great so we must learn from.
A lot of the above statements apply to me too, but today the hardest part is being whipped around by other people’s deadlines. Apparently, the phrase “Lack of planning on your part does not constitute and emergency on mine” is not supposed to apply to graphic designers. :-\
I think the hardest thing about being a graphic designer is that you’re forced to face ALL of the above mentioned things at some point in your career… many of them on a weekly basis.
It’s all part of the job… finding the business, competing with the freelancers, convincing the client, coming up with the killer ideas, pleasing the client with those ideas, closing the deal and getting paid. But you know what? I still wouldn’t trade a job that allows me to use my creativity for anything… I’ve got my blog, got my mac, I’m a happy guy
I completely agree with culinaryculture, it’s really hard to understand what a client’s actually looking for, when they email you, you have to look at it like as if it was a sketch.
I kinda like it when my client tells me my work is crap, scrap it, do it again. Somehow I pull something a thousand times better out my brain because it tells me “dude, you can do better.” The hardest I’ve had to deal with is convincing your client — sometimes students starting up like yourself — that the price is REASONABLE and you have to eat/make a profit/pay for electricity and internet that keeps your business alive and going, too. I’m just starting out, I’m constantly running prices by other professionals and my professors before I present a quote to a client. I feel like I need signed documenation, works cited, and a bibliography attached in footnotes to my proposal.
One of the hardest parts…
Knowing when to stop. The problem’s most obvious when creating personal projects (logos / websites etc.). I find it’s easier working with clients than it is alone.
Graphic Design is a leading economic indicator. What we deal with now, like rapid change and job instability show up in fields like banking now. In many cases, I can study the design of a business and discern a lot about their underlying character. It’s takes passion and commitment to want and pay for quality visual design and more importantly information and user experience design. I always thought Microsoft had a flimsy commitment to design. I think it reflects what going on with their culture.
Great post! I love to feel that I’m a part of a subculture that’s so visible, yet relatively unknown.
Some of the above reasons are very archetypal. For me personally, I find it hard to be inspired when I’m supposed to come up with a design. Some Clients and most Corporate Clients want it/need it done within a couple of hours and that has been a struggle for me. Unfortunately, i’m the most creative between 1am-3am. Figures!
@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. I TRULY AGREE WITH THIS ONE
it is very hard for me to keep balance in time between my school ( medicine ) & my freelance career ( design) .. i have to work daily to increase my skills on both otherwise i will really be a rotten fish by the end
nice words :
A layout never screams “I’m done now, leave me alone!”
Clara Charlotte:
In this industry if you are standing still, you’re falling behind;
Studio rohan:
my 2 cents..
a large part of what I’m doing is also knowing where I stand in terms of the market that I’m in. I admit readily I’m not the best, but neither are my clients paying for the best. What I can offer though is I will put in my best. As for those clients that insist on more or less, well I will have to suggest(kindly) they have to find someone else.
yes….it’s makes you feel alive…sometimes kill you in a same time, but somehow you love it..
what a weird type of job for living huh?
:p
being told that you’re wrong all the time haha.
Great idea for an article. Reading it makes me feel a bit overwhelmed, but also comforted that there are others out there with the same issues and concerns as me.
The hardest part about being a graphic designer being creative on demand.
RSI anyone?
Right now it’s kind of half getting the quality of my work to be consistantly professional and also getting your name heard and art seen!
I work with flash and the most hard thing for me is to create good quality animated works with cool special effects BUT very light for the cpu. Often clients don’t understand this and they pretend miracles.
(sorry for my English)
right brain work is…suck and hard sometimes..when ur mood down..the whole works follow it hahahah thats the hardest part
@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.
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!
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.