The Moral Obligation of Being a Designer
A good industrial designer friend of mine (good designer, good friend) once told me that design is a moral obligation. I believe that’s a very accurate way to describe the feelings us designers have. You know those feelings. The feelings you get when you see poorly-set type on the side of a van or on a storefront sign. You have those feelings when a non-profit asks you to make a website for them and they give you terrible logos and materials to work with. You get the feeling when you see anything at all that just isn’t quite made right; it’s poorly put together, the color is off, the pattern is ugly, it’s not anti-aliased, it has lens-flare, it’s loaded with drop shadows, bevels and every other Photoshop effect the creator has just discovered. The transparent gif has a halo; there are way too many animated gifs on the page. High rez photos were resized in HTML rather than being properly compressed. You know the feeling. It’s a tug, deep within; it’s everything a designer can do to keep from yelling out: STOP USING COMIC SANS!!!
As designers, we have to fix things. We can’t stand to watch poor design execution. It’s something we can’t control. We have no choice - it’s just completely inappropriate to live in a world where people can just ALLOW that horrible design to exist! It’s just not right!
What’s with us? Why does it bother us so much? Why must every design be perfect? Why can’t we allow people to use disposable cameras? Why must everything look pristinely crafted? Why not just let sleeping dogs lie?
The answer is, it’s our duty. That’s why we became designers. We know the industry is competitive. We know there are jobs that pay better and have better hours. But we don’t care. We were born to be designers. We have to design! It’s our job; our purpose! Being a designer is not an occupation; it’s a life-long pursuit! That’s why all the charity and pro bono cases pile up on our desks; that’s why we break design budgets. It has to be perfect! Nobody gets sub-par design!
Irony of ironies that we’re never satisfied with our work, either.
But that’s another article.
