The answer is that there is no answer.
There’s no playbook for becoming a designer.
I often get these questions:
“How do I work at ______?”
“How do I present my portfolio?”
“I want my dream job, how do I do that?”
The answer is that there is no answer. That’s the beauty of going to design school, and pursuing a design career—however you land there. Only by going through it do you truly discover where you want to be.
Some people have clarity and focus. Some people stumble into it. Some people want to design but never get a design job and go on to do other great things. Some people take a while to get there and struggle to find their stride. Some people just ‘get’ it (whoever you are, consider yourself lucky).
The cool thing?
If you’re interested in design, it will likely help you WHEREVER you go and with WHATEVER you do. You gain skills and get to develop your own process and ways of thinking that will benefit your personal and professional life. Design is an invaluable, unmeasurable skill.
Heck, take a look at the path I’m on:
It’s messy. I have come a long way from selling bead lizards at garage sales when I was 8. I’ve taken on a lot of different jobs, and some of them had nothing to do with design, but it turns out that they did. I learned to sell stuff. I made authentic connections. I went to school. I helped people. I learned how to work hard, and the value of manual labor. I learned how to appreciate and be grateful for each and every job I had, whether I liked it or not. I am proud of every job I’ve had even though some are NOT at all glamorous and I’ll never be famous. Why? Because they led me to where I am now. I teach design with wonderful students and colleagues, make friends with awesome clients, and keep in touch with mentors. I will forever be a work in progress, but I do the work. It’s often unglamorous, messy, uncertain, and tedious, but DOING the work leads to new opportunities and paths.
I gave a brief talk at Techstars and AIGA last year and the wheels have been spinning quite a bit as we embark on a new school year.
I’m going to rehash some of those thoughts, so stay tuned...
