What Makes a Good Designer?

As Malcolm Gladwell set out to prove in his book, Outliers, people are not born with talent contrary to popular belief.  Gladwell even questioned whether Mozart was truly a child prodigy.  When you do the research, you find that the most brilliant people are brilliant because they put in more hours of work than any of their peers to become the best.  Moreover, lucky timing played a huge role in their success. 

The internet and technology has made it more difficult for many creative types to make a living.   It seems everyone is an amateur writer, photographer, or interior designer now, and many who used to get paid for these professions now suffer too much competition from those that are willing to provide the goods for free.  The iPhone makes it possible to take some really cool photos, and it’s tempting to think that some of your photos are just as good as that of a professional.  The difference is that a professional’s photos are consistently good.  Even when the lighting is bad, the space they’re photographing is the size of a closet, or there is a bad glare bouncing off a mirror, they have the skills needed to address those issues quickly and easily.  But most people simply don’t know what they don’t know, and they don’t understand how complicated something is until they’ve been hired for a job and it’s going sideways fast.

Design websites, blogs, and You Tube have all made a ton of information available.  The playing field has been leveled, and that’s great if you’re a creative who wants to redecorate your house or take some cool photos for friends.  Yet having the tools is not the same thing as knowing what to do with the tools.  I’m a huge fan of the TV show “The Big Bang Theory.”  In one episode, Sheldon “learns” how to swim by watching tutorials on the internet.  You can’t learn how to swim without doing it.  And you can’t become an amazing swimmer without a coach, competitions, and many hours of practice.  Similarly, it takes some form of education and/or an apprenticeship to understand proportion, rhythm, symmetry, asymmetry, color theory, composition, transitions, building codes, constructability - all the things one needs to know to be a good designer.  It takes studying and working under the supervision of experienced mentors for numerous years.  This is why I advise creative young people to work for someone else for at least 5-10 years before working for themselves.  It takes working on hundreds of projects, because there’s something to be learned from every single project.  And it takes making mistakes – the very quickest way to learn a lesson - and knowing when you've made mistakes, so they won't be repeated.

It’s true that good design, like good art whatever that is, is somewhat subjective.  And even the experts don’t make a slam dunk 100% of the time.  But experts will be consistently good and efficient.