How do you gain respect as a designer, especially as a young designer?

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Music and links from this episode

Indian Summer by Lobo Loco

Electric Puppet by Mystery Mammal

Line-by-line notes

When you speak to anybody

In any career really

And you ask them one question

What is it you really want from your career?

People will say surface things

Like money

Fame

Appreciation

But everybody really wants one thing

And especially designers

And that’s respect

This is AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess

MUSIC

I remember when I first started out a designer

And I especially remember this when I first started out as a freelance designer

I wanted respect

I wanted clients and peers to respect me as a designer

I knew I was right about some of the design decisions I’d made

But why were clients overruling me, or not believing that I was right?

What was I doing wrong?

I was like every other young designer

I wanted my work to be respected 

And I wanted to be respected as a professional

It’s hard as a designer, and even more so when you’re a young designer who might lack confidence or conviction

Designers just starting out usually lack confidence in their skills

And that’s just natural, it’s normal

And because they lack confidence

That shows in meetings with clients and people buying the design

Then you go in a vicious circle of not being respected as a designer

And add on top of that a simple fact 

That lots of people don’t respect design as a profession

And people just see graphic designers as people who just colour in

Lots of people don’t respect design as a profession

Because they don’t see it as a real profession, like a doctor or a lawyer

The only way to gain respect as a designer

Is to command respect as a designer

Don’t be a yes designer

Don’t just say yes to everybody all the time

If you know you’ve done something right

Tell people it’s been done right, and there’s a reason it’s been done that way

Always command respect for your work

Command respect by being confident about your work

And confident that you’ve done your job correctly as a professional

Respect comes from confidence

And confidence only comes from experience, and unfortunately, there’s no shortcut to that

MUSIC

This was AADA and I’m Craig Burgess

Music featured in this episode was:

Indian Summer by Lobo Loco

Electric Puppet by Mystery Mammal

For a line by line rundown of this episode go over to …/ep141

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