(If you’re interested in following my career path, you can visit my Linked In profile.)

Anyway, that’s not what this post is about. Sort of.

I have learned that time is finite and one of the most important skills you can learn in life is to be self-directed, and self determined. This can seem like a very intimidating suggestion. And the responsibility of living with the consequences of making your own decisions rest solely on you.

But here’s the thing, whether you make your own decisions or someone else makes them for you – in the end it’s you who bares the responsibility anyway.

In these wacky times, I just wanted to give some encouragement to everyone who is faced with difficult decisions. May you make them well.

Apparently, the ladies in the car made him pull over the shoo the lizard off to spare him a death on the open road.

The guy finally flicks the lizard off the hood and walks back around and gets in the car. Meanwhile, the lizard runs to the back of the car and jumps on the tire.

As the car begins to pull forward, I see the lizard start to run up the tire to overcome the rotation.

Then the rotation becomes too fast and I see the little green lizard holding on for dear life, spinning at an increasing rate around-and-around.

I never got to see the outcome, but I bet it involved the lizard being flung from the back tire into the air and landing back on the hood of the car.

Then I find this site which offers to automatically send quarterly supplies of underwear, socks and t-shirts to men.

So either doomsday is upon us – or Utopia is around the corner. I can’t decide.

The ads, so far, promote Florida’s clean, oil-free beaches.

Two things about this strike me as absurd. The first is that ANY money would be spent [read "wasted"] to promote an travel to a destination whose beaches are soon-to-be and are already seeing the appearance of oil, tar balls, et.al. Shouldn’t all the money given to the states by BP be used to prevent the oil from reaching the beaches in the first place and/or support clean-up? I can’t help but to think that any effort to prevent or avert the oil’s intrusion to Florida’s Gulf Coast in the first place would exponentially support greater tourism over interm advertising.

The second thing that I found absurd was a Florida spokesman’s comment that they would use the money provided by BP to produce advertisements to inform the public which sections of beach are contaminated with oil. I live at the beach. I know that what happens in the water “over there” effects what I’m doing in it “over here”. I simply don’t want to visit any beach anywhere near contamination.

The whole thing just ends up seeming like a big beckoning call to people to come visit some polluted beaches. A health hazard and poor forethought from BP and Florida. Isn’t it poor forethought that caused this whole thing in the first place?

Click http://www.paperg.com/ to learn all the details.

Do I think PaperG – and services like it which are bound to proliferate – will take away designer’s jobs?

Probably.

I’m in no way sad about this. I think it’s an excellent example of our profession’s evolution. Granted, the example ads I’ve seen are ugly and poorly constructed, but the technology still seems underdeveloped and is bound to improve.

I do believe that there will always be a market for good, innovative, original, custom design (but it’s probably shrinking and/or specializing). Designers who have the talent to produce such work should always be able to earn a living.

But I also see our profession strongly trending towards the development of tools which automate or greatly assist in marketing and producing marketing materials. And these tools improve and cost less at the pace of technology.

It’s a really cool time for designers. How we position our outlook and set our minds to adapting with change will greatly determine our future success.

• Ref: Southpark

http://www.stopworkforhire.com

I don’t like work-for-hire, but I don’t think it’s something that’s going to stop any time soon.

I also read another story in Communication Arts where a “forecaster” said [I'm paraphrasing here] that we [graphic designers] need to be the agents of our own job destruction.

I thought this was very true and great advice. What I took his words to mean is that as our profession changes, we either define it in new ways moving forward, or quickly get left behind. Think travel agencies in the 90′s.

This probably applies to every industry. Look at how we consume news, music, etc. Some in those industries are dying a slow, painful death while others are capitalizing on the change and thriving.

So what I’m finding in my career now is that there’s the real challenge in keeping myself and the services I provide viable, valid and valuable. Otherwise I’ll just end up being an unemployed great designer.

The cure seems to be a crazy mixture of patience and open-mindedness.

Take the term “modern” for example. If you tell me you want a “modern website”, you’ll probably get a SEO friendly website with a lot of social media integration and a utilitarian navigational structure. However, ask my fellow designer and you might get a site with a Flash intro and some navigation that uses sound effects.

Now I know my interpretation of “modern website” is the correct one (smiley face), but I can’t entirely discount my fellow designer’s perception. In the end you may not agree, but that’s not the point. I think the point is that by having patience and listening with an open mind, you’ll have learned how to communicate better and in a more meaningful way.

*The Princess Bride

Here’s an analogy. When I go to the doctor, I expect them to use their training and expertise to make me well. Can you imagine how ridiculous it would be if I sat there during a medical procedure and dictated to the doctor what each of his moves should be as they popped into my head?

Yet that is what happens every day to skilled designers.

Can you imagine how the doctor would tolerate a patient trying to dictate their treatment?

Yet as graphic designers, so many of us “roll over” to client requests with alarming frequency – whether it’s due to lack of assertion or because a manager requires it.

This is all to the detriment of our profession. Of course, I believe that you have to earn your right to stand up for and defend good design. But given the level of intrusion and the terribly low-quality commentary being provided by clients, it doesn’t take much of an expert to speak design sense.

Realize that as a formally trained graphic designer, you have a duty to yourself and your profession to further the cause of effective graphic communication. In the case of clients who choose to tread in the territory where they are not qualified, this can involve client education (enlightenment) and sometimes refusal to degrade the quality of your product (retire the client).

My first concern is that you would show the client something you don’t want them to pick in the first place. But in the case where several designers contribute to the effort, or where others in a position higher than you have input on the process, this is sometimes unavoidable. And unfortunate in democratic design.

But why is it that the client has such a strong propensity to choose the worst one? I think it’s because clients can have a lack of design understanding, unsophisticated appreciation, bad taste or all three.

Why did they hire you in the first place? Maybe they don’t have the tools to do the job, or the time. Or maybe they want a professionally done solution.

Isn’t that what we should give them?

I propose – and challenge –  that designers present one solution to their clients. The best solution. Spend the time you would have spent on all the other design variations on client education. Explain how the solution you are presenting is the best. And if it isn’t than you can talk about your need to understand their problem or business better.

In the end I think the designer and the client would be better served. The designer by having their effort go on to represent their best capabilities. And the client through not having to make a determination based on their own lack of expertise, but having the best option from the professional they hired.

So I started with a look at myself.

First of all, I have less free time than ever. I’m not talking about recreation time. I’m talking about the inbetween time. The time between tasks at work, chores at home, managing a family needs – the down time in my mind, the little breaks that rejuvenate creativity and allow a fellow to find peace.

These things have really challenged my ability to perform at a high standard. And I believe that poor quality is one of the real results associated with this lack of downtime.

I attribute the lack of downtime to increased stresses and tensions for earning an income and the general sense of increased difficulty (real or perceived) of maintaining a lifestyle, or having your standard of living downgrade.

No real answer, but food for thought. If you have the time.