Stop using digg, stop looking at css galleries all day...
Step away from tutorials/examples/etc for 1 month. No design books, no magazines, no flickr, no outside inspiration...
You have to take the lead in your talent. Anyone can look at css galleries, or design repository, and it's a good source for inspirationWHEN you are running dry.
If you want to do trend whore stuff, alright. Do the 45 degree lines,do the gloss, use drop shadows all over, combined they could be great,or a complete disaster.
I'm self taught in my skill set, it's the only reason my creativity is different in the perspective of clients and designers alike. It's why my interest lies in genuine branding, because when you make a brand, the only inspiration you should get from competition is what not to do,otherwise your brand isn't that special.
So I give any new designer a challenge or anyone that binges on cssbeauty and digg... Stop it. Next time you start comping a site, get anotepad and pencil, don't pull up your browser and scavenge theinternet to see how to do that glossy crap shine outline style... Make your own in your head, on a notepad, moleskin, then worry aboutexecuting it.
The world itself, both nature and man's creations are an inspiration enough to where the web, in comparison, and the whole web 2.0 cliche isa fraction of life to look at for ideas.
If design and/or branding is more than just you being bored on the comp,or your way to feel intelligent, but actually have a passion, Ichallenge you, to test yourself to see if you are good enough if google didn't exist, or css beauty, or css zen garden, or the countless blogs giving tutorials for things you never even imagined in the first place.
If you can not take up this challenge, or even consider arguing it as a whole, it means you are not cut out for this and you are replaceable, or you have yet to open your eyes to being inline with whatever is dugg, or caughtup in how cool/hip/talented the rest of the 'design' world thinks you are.
So, the challenge is there, and it will only help you in the end.
Good luck for those who take this post to heart.
I write this because I thought about the 'Where will you be in tenyears' and some people said 'well i'll be 24, 26, 28, etc... Well I am 24 now, and it all started as a hobby, but did I call myself a designer even when I had clients, not until I was actually creating things thatI could be proud of. i did minimal before it got big on the web, I did2.0 functionality before it got big on the web, I did guerillamarketting before social networking sites, etc. That's what makes meproud of my work.
I didn't just kill time on a computer, looking up tutorials, or what was being most commented on, etc.
We live in an age now where people think they're smarter for posting a comment on a blog, or 'digging' something, or being a part of a beta invite, or downloading photoshop and making something better than a crap photo with a filter...
But it doesn't. Binging on sites for creativity and reading other people's thoughts only to do the exact same things, and sometimes incombination for horrible results... That's not your job. That's not being a designer, or Creative Director, it's not innovative and it'snot professional, it's skimming by and feeling good because you are in a group that seemingly has forward momentum...
So examine, given age and real experience, are you just along for the ride or are you willing to move forward and question how 'design' is becoming a social trend, not a profession?
(For those in which it applies)
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4 comments:
I could not agree more. While I often find myself browsing digg/css zen garden/whatever is hip, I have had some strokes of originality now and again - and I'm very proud of the work that's come of it. All too often, though I do see people stuck in the rut that you are describing, but even worse, not even realize it and ironically think that they're cool.
My only words for you are "watch out". I realize that you have plenty of experience - and I do admire your work very much - but you are still merely 24. You might go through 3 more career changes before you die; you may start another company and have it tank - you just never know.
While you may be in a position to give advice to beginning designers, you definitely came across as if you were the 14-year-old with this post.
I imagine you are from MintPages given the tone...
The insight given, comes from somebody who has been around, nor is it in the words of a 14 year old. But thanks for the advice, albeit completely obvious and I would be able to say what I said, in the manner said, if I had forgotten what you said. In fact that is part of the point, is that the future is unknown, and it's bes tot prepare yourself and know you have it in you when times change.
How dangerous is it to point out something obvious and challenge people to rely on themselves instead of others?
And this will sound cocky but unless I completely forgot how the average 14 year old thinks, I don't see the correlation. I do however see where people can get defensive... There is a mighty trend in our midst and it has the potential for good and evil. But as far as a 14 year old, I don't think they have the insight to point out what I have, make the challenge, and in posting, know the possible backlash from people who get offended... Even though I said only for those that apply.
And by all means, I hope to go through more than just three career changes before I do.
William Blake said he was not inspired by CSS galleries, but god. I understand his sentement. It is but the physical neural pathways (the result of the world in which we live, perhaps a gift of god) in our brain that allow for our individualized, and quite personal, creative thought processes. And although it is impossible to remain uninfluenced by the ideas around us -we are always responding to the ideas we hear, even if we chose to ignore them- it is important to be true to the creative rhythm flowing through us.
Perhaps your rhythm is very similar to someone else's. I don't understand why people feel the need, in that situation to copy, rather than simply respond. It is our version of the idea that is so important. Our handwriting and our perception, the result of being a singular and unique being, is what makes one's creation so interesting. Although I think it's important to stay aware of what's going on around you, so you know effective ways of wording your ideas, the wording and idea should always be your own. Otherwise you're pretending to be someone else.
I will say there is danger closing oneself off from the surrounding world. For example, perhaps your idea is similar to someone else's, and the viewer interprets it as a response to a work of art you never considered. I think that would be an error of miscommunication.
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