If I wasn’t a designer, maybe I’d be a...

Some other careers I find myself drawn to, for one reason or another:

• Media Theorist: What is truth? Where does it come from? Who are we talking to about it? Why?
• Landscape Architect: Plants and stone and design, working with the Earth and its seasons.
• Music Critic: Music is proof we are destined for greatness. So let’s talk about it!
• Chef Justin: The way fresh vegetables smell when I’m cutting and dicing gets me every time. Always.
• House Painter: Maybe there isn’t anything a fresh coat of paint can’t solve.

Giving up on the idea of being “good”

Just let “good” go. Do not even categorize what you do in terms of good and bad (or not good). Instead, just do the design work. You went to school for it, you honed your skills, you’ve evolved over the course of however many years. Why does it matter if you’re good? Instead, focus on the task at hand: solve the problem, find the opportunity. Be a worker and get the job done in the only way you know how to do it. If you can let go of being “good,” you can focus on delivering what it is you came to deliver.

When you just need to clear it all out

All the shit you’re holding on to, just don’t. Let it go. Close it out. Move on. Say good-bye. Just be done. Maybe it’s a lingering project with no deadline or perhaps you can’t bring yourself to state the obvious, but you know deep down you just have to cut the chord. Set it lose. Get rid of it. It no longer is part of you, it doesn’t bring you joy, and it isn’t what you want to be thinking about. So there you go, just be brave. Clear it out and move on to the next. And trust yourself, there is a next. No need to be fatalistic.

Here to put in the work

Not to game the system or get around the system. Not to take the easy way out or to half-ass it. Or to phone it in. Yes, I can be lazy, shirk duties, and have days when my heart just isn't in it, but the standard approach I have to design is that I’m here to spend the time I need to put in to do the work. I’m not here to overcharge, do the bare minimum, or to get it done as fast as possible. (I suppose that last one depends on the deadline.) I’m not hear to automate the thinking, to do something that barely passes, or to even have something that’s just OK. No, I am here to put in the work. Sometimes I’m tired when I’m putting in said work, but that, I think, just comes with the territory.

On Symbols: Take Down All Confederate Monuments

Symbols matter. Symbols are powerful. And how we choose to use symbols says a lot about us as a people. It takes very little effort to learn just a little bit about why Confederate monuments are seriously problematic and should be removed. There is no “other side” that can even be considered respectable. The symbols of slavery, oppression, hate, and racism should never be celebrated. It does seem, at this moment, we are collectively setting out to fix that wrong. We shouldn’t let up.

Get in there and figure it out

It can be tempting to try to have everything figured out before you start to design. Or to talk it all through until there’s nothing more to discuss. And then everything will work itself out. This is, in my experience, quite preposterous. I’m not saying to go in without a plan. But when it comes to design, the only way to really get it done is to just get in there and do it. Get after it, go down the rabbit hole, get lost in tangents, and when it all needs to get pulled together, then use your blood, sweat, and tears to pull it all together. Goddamn it, this is how shit gets done! It doesn’t get done by talking, wishing, looking, contemplating, emailing, texting, slacking, or whatever else we do to put off the doing. Especially not going to another meeting. Never has that ever worked. To get the design work done, you simply have to do the design work. End of story.

In Amazement

Given all the cultural, political, social, and other commentary we find ourselves being encircled by, I’m currently most amazed with:

All the shit talking about the new Arcade Fire album, especially if you thought Reflektor was great. Don Jr. being seen as a boy and all black boys shot by police are considered scary men by the media. Why she didn’t just use all the dragons. Conservatives in creative (and tech) positions being all pissed off because their outmoded worldview isn’t being “heard.” Emails to & from people I regularly correspond with all of a sudden go into the spam folder. The “new” slogans the Democrats came up with. What passes for legitimate news sources these days. And what’s labeled “Fake News.”

I’m just amazed by these things. Not in a good way. Please mark it down for the record.