Restart designer. How to say goodbye to the routine and reach a new level

Designers are considered to be creative people who visualize bursts of their consciousness on the screen of Aimak with digitized brushes. Probably there are some, but I assure you that every third designer is engaged in solving daily tasks of the same type and begins to envy an accountant who solves solitaire, simultaneously responding to messages in Odnoklassniki.

Designers rarely work in one company for more than 3-5 years, and all because inside we praise design as a religion, and in fact we draw gray rectangles and try to understand the essence of customer comments. It drains, first of all emotionally. A designer without emotion - no one.
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Dreams of making something outstanding are buried under the onslaught of typical tasks that provoke typical solutions. They undoubtedly work, but work more for business than for you.

Two types of thinking

Michael Mikalko, author of the excellent book “ Hacking Creative, ” believes that there are two types of thinking: reproductive and productive.

Reproductive thinking is based on our experience. That is, having met a new problem, we remember how we solved similar problems earlier. For example, creating a simple website, the designer at the subconscious level realizes that he must have a horizontal menu, a large picture, an inscription and a button. According to the author, reproductive thinking contributes to the stereotypical thought that for a designer is like death.

Productive thinking is the search for new ways to solve old problems. Most of the time, we think reproductively and this is logical, since it requires less mental expenditures. But the fact is that to create something new you need to think in other ways.

Genius requires the creation of a huge number of alternatives and assumptions from which the best is chosen for further work. Choosing a productive mindset, you have a chance to create something new.

Beginning designers justifiably kicked off the desire to make beautiful, but not profitable business. And since creative people are vulnerable, we can only complain about the inability to show creative abilities. “Customer stupid” - this phrase has become a cliche, from which it is time to get rid of. Why don't you become the kind of person who will choose which projects to work on? “How?” - you ask, finding an excuse in the absence of time. That's how.

Reboot

We all were once engaged in work that impeded the realization of personal ambitions. We thought about how to make money this month more than the previous one, not thinking about the future. We took third-party projects, spent the evening at the monitor for the sake of an additional tens of thousands of rubles. If you do that now, think about it. Selling your work for hours, you will not get far. At some point, time will end, but the money will still be missed. In addition, working around the clock for many months, it is problematic to make several quality projects in a row. What is the way out? You can increase the value of your time, but the truth is that money designers do not motivate. It's cool to buy a new MacBook or iPhone, but it has little effect on the creativity we live with. We are inspired by only one thing - the fucking job done.

Fantasy is probably the coolest visual design studio in the world. My friend George a few years ago dreamed of working in it, but nothing came of it. A series of bad luck pushed him farther and farther, until he decided to do something extraordinary.

For four months, George locked himself at home and refused all orders for an ambitious goal - to make a complete redesign of Google News . What for? Working with customers does not give the designer a good deal. You get a bunch of edits, encounter a platform problem, spend evenings in bars, and only after that create. Personal project gives you the opportunity to focus on pure creativity.

The result of many months of work George became proposals from Google, Microsoft and Fantasy. And George is not the only example. A year later, AIC employee Artem Triple, working in the evenings and weekends for three months, completed a similar project - the redesign of The New York Times, which allowed him to find work in Amsterdam. Another example is Pavel Shumakov, who won a design competition and is currently working in London.

It may seem that these people are different. The level of their creativity is space and you just have to wait with their mouths open for their next project, moving the logo on the right and slightly lower. But this is not true. They were, like everyone else, moving logos, repainting icons, until they decided on something big.

Are you ready to devote a month to a fictional project without having a guarantee of success? After all, it is illogical, but precisely such actions make ordinary people outstanding. The founder of Apple spoke very well on this topic: “Everything that you call life was created by people who were no smarter than you.” This proves once again that it's not about talent or luck. The only thing that you do.

Three factors restart

Your reboot, as a designer, should consist of three things.

Task

It should not just be, but also inspire. Without creative motivation to complete such a project is not easy. Ilona Mask motivates two things: caffeine and the ability to send a man to Mars. In the same way, you should be motivated not only by imaginary success, but also by the desire to make a great project. Best in your career.

Process

You will have to face an ideal customer, from which there will be no changes and strange wishes. Someone dreams of this all his life, and you have the opportunity to get such a customer today. The main thing is not to play.

Without a budget and a deadline, it’s very easy to relax, give up and stay just as ordinary as before. Therefore, the timing should be.

Presentation

It's not enough to create a cool interface. It is necessary that people also learn about this. A quality presentation is half the success, so take this seriously. Tell us about the work process, add photos of the workflow.

And something else …

Think about the fact that at this moment, while you are reading these lines, some designer is engaged in a made-up project, without a guarantee of success, but having ambitions to realize it and do something he never did, but he believed that he could. Who in this case is more likely to succeed?

Each of us can be extraordinary. It is only necessary to break out of the routine and do something new, unusual. That which motivates and is able to lift out of bed an hour earlier. You will never have a guarantee of success, but the fact is that only by trying we can hope for it.

As Henry Ford said:

"If you think that you can, or think that you cannot, you are right in any case."