(no subject)

[kradeelav]

"What part of working in design professionally do you enjoy the most? like, is there one aspect or type of project that you enjoy more than others?" - neotula

Figure if I can still answer this evenly on a day where I feel ... less than charitable towards the dayjob as a whole, then it's a remarkably honest answer. :P

So there's almost two parts, or two answers to this. Medium-wise, I very much enjoy that odd space between architecture and print graphics; a lot of folks call it experiential or environmental graphics, these days.  I've written a bit about that over here, about the permanence, about a sense of place and texture that digital design very rarely has.  There's also the fact if you're decent at photoshop / 3-D thinking / renderings / sketchup, you can essentially create anything to sell, and that's a super-power when it comes to suits. And likewise it gives you, the individual, an independence that is very rare.

The other part of the answer ...

Corporate design is fun for me in the puzzle-like visual problem solving sense.  It's a little bit of 3-D chess when all the pieces are together.

Say the suits need a logo in order to finalize a 5-year contract with $big_media_company where the two powers sell a TV show or a product together, or whatever. You're not only pleasing your direct boss, or their manager, but I would at least say 15-20 "cooks in the kitchen" as well as two companies as a whole, if not their off-shoots.

Said logo needs to be legible, resonate with the target audience and the suits and the CEO with very odd ideas and your design team, be of the times but not too on-the-nose-trendy, need to be in presentation with a whole brand identity that survives being picked at by all the stakeholders, and on-time (aka due yesterday) ... it very quickly becomes less about the "creativity" and more about "does it do the thing in the minimum amount of time and the minimum amount of politics".

This can be hell; part of the issue I had today is rescuing a similar initiative because a few designers got carried away with being "creative" (aka have nothing to show after weeks and a VP's nipping their heels) and not focused on the business or human side.

But man, when it does happen just right? You get a slam-dunk logo (or design or whatever) that's solid as hell, the suits trust you because you've got a track record of other slam-dunks, there's kudos from Fortune 100 companies in your inbox or from the top dog, and there's that sense of satisfaction and stability and pride at threading a very tricksy needle.

that's a high.

very different than a drawing high, or even a design-for-fun high, but it's one all the same. ;)

Comments

[neotula]

it's definitely interesting to hear what about design appeals the most to different people. i think for me, i know I definitely like the process of making something. all the little steps and things that need to be done to do it well definitely stuck with me, and i've really come to enjoy the space i get into when i do that process.

it's for sure good to hear what sort of things feel good when they work out.

[kradeelav]

that creation space is so wonderful and almost holy, isn't it?
I've heard some refer to it as the state of "flow", where time is meaningless in a good way. Absolutely can get how that can be a source of joy, and I hope you always get to keep it. : )

[clonecumber]

I think I know what kind of high you mean. I liked the way you described all this! Your job sounds interesting, but I can see where the stress lives.

[kradeelav]

mmhm! rewards aren't without some kind of risk, yeah. (and thank you <3 )