Episode 56: When Design Becomes Work

Show Notes for This Episode:

[1:00] In today’s episode we talk about how design can become work
[1:30] The hosts believe this is inevitable
[2:10] At some point the honeymoon phase will be over
[3:00] Even if you do something you love, doing it every day will eventually become laborious
[3:50] Pull back and try to remember why you loved this in the first place
[4:20] The non-design work will mostly kill the joy
[4:50] Why do people lose the joy of creative work
[5:30] Clients turn designing into work
[6:40] Revisions killing the joy out of design
[7:20] All the external things surrounding the design work are affecting your passion
[7:40] “Design without purpose is art” – Tom Ross
[8:10] “Design itself is a cog in the wheel of capitalism” – Dustin Lee
[8:40] Design was born to create desire for products
[9:10] The role of a commercial artist is to create demand
[9:40] Choosing jobs based on your moral values
[10:20] Lisa lists the reasons that put her off designing
[11:10] The external factors that are out of your control will mostly kill the joy
[12:20] The world revolves around money and this will influence your design work
[13:00] Your audience will know when you create just for making money
[13:30] Feeling constraint is the main issue: time, taxes, legal etc.
[14:15] Lisa felt trapped towards the end of her graphic designer job
[15:15] Some designers love engaging with people and making them happy
[16:00] Work is still work, even if you love what you’re doing
[16:40] The misconception of thinking you’ll love every minute of what you’re doing
[17:40] Form is made out of shadow and light
[18:40] People having a go at Dustin for being down on his Instagram feed
[19:10] Tom’s example of John Donne and his obsession with his own mortality
[20:15] Dustin’s example of war soldiers being constantly told they will die someday
[20:45] Being a designer won’t be awesome every day
[21:20] There are ways to mitigate the less joyful times
[22:00] Feed your creativity in other ways and find things that make you happy
[22:40] Surrounding yourself with good things will bring a positive outcome on your work
[23:30] You have the ability of not working with a client that you don’t like working with
[24:10] Ask yourself what can you do to remove the things that drain your energy
[25:00] Please have a listen to one our previous podcast – Episode 54: Respecting Yourself and Your Clients
[25:45] Tom’s idea of creating a questionnaire to assess how you feel about a project and a client upon project completion
[27:30] Not witnessing the signs and knowing what brings you down
[28:20] This exercise will keep you in check and help you make changes
[29:45] Becoming a prisoner of your own mind
[30:25] There’s a multitude of ways to make money as a designer
[31:15] Limiting your options, when there are so many other options
[32:15] Freelance affords you a lot of freedom
[33:30] Lisa’s believes that we are in control of our own future, but Dustin is not so sure
[34:00] Quick fire of solutions to things killing the joy
[34:15] Fire a client that makes you unhappy
[34:40] Find an external thing to make you happy, if there’s no joy in your current work
[35:50] Don’t expect your work to fill yourself with joy – find the joy in yourself
[37:20] Ian found out what he wasn’t enjoying and removed that
[38:00] He realised he loves everything that has to do with lettering, and removed the web designs and brochures that didn’t bring any joy
[39:00] It’s never too late to make a change
[39:40] Play and experiment with other things
[40:30] Adults loving being children again – Tom’s example of playing in the sand at the beach
[41:20] Audit what’s making you miserable
[42:00] The type of work that you’re commissioned for might not be what you enjoy
[42:30] Tom gives a teaser of our upcoming episode on branding yourself
[43:00] Thanks so much for listening to this week’s episode