Improvements can always be made. Always. It is not possible to go through your career without having every single piece of work you do needing an improvement of some sort. The trick is knowing that the improvements need to be made.
Imagine sitting down at a table with a designer whose work you admire passionately. This person is a living-god in your world and their word is gospel.
Now imagine your sliding a piece of your work across the table.
Think about it for a moment. Really do it. I’ll wait, I’m in no rush.
So, how was it?
I hope for your sake it wasn’t terrifying. I hope you were proud and waiting to hear what advice they had to offer. I hope you were confident in the work you were showing them. I hope you believed in the work.
If this isn’t the case, then why not? It’s time to do something about it.
The work doesn’t have to be as good a theirs, it doesn’t have to be as clever as theirs – after all, isn’t this why you admire them so, because they’re able to think differently to you?
You should be confident in your work. You should be able to say “with this I give you the finest of my skills”. Hell, it doesn’t even need to be good. Just the best that you are capable of.
There is nothing stopping you from moving to the next level
Does the idea of showing your work to the person across the table fills your soul with fear? Many consider this lack of confidence a trait well worth dispensing with. I think the opposite. It is something that you can take amazing advantage of.
You are in an enviable position because you know your skills are lacking. You would be wise to realise that there is nothing stopping you from moving to the next level.
Knowing what you don’t know
What a great place it is to be! You know you aren’t where you’d like to be. You are smart enough to know that something is wrong. It is the uneducated who do not notice when something is amiss. But not you! No, no, no! You know improvements can be made, and made they shall be!
Should you consider your typography skills to be of poor quality, you know what to attack! Devour every book on typography that you can and practice what you learn, over and over and over. Should you know your images are poorly cropped, then look at the work that you admire and mimic it!
Imitate the reasons of others. Decide to understand why their ideas work. Discover why their 8/10pt text is more beautiful than your 8/10pt text. Why their tightly cropped imagery works better. Apply the same ideas to your work and see where it takes you! Don’t copy their work (you’d be the wrong kind of fool should you do so), but understand why it’s beautiful.
To break it down
If there is an aspect of your skillset that bothers you, then you should do everything you can to improve it.
- Decide upon the skill in your set that should be thrown to the hounds.
- Look at the work the admirable and see how they can do what you cannot.
- Understand why it works, read as much as you can on the topic. Lose hours in words.
- Let the hounds go hungry and apply this new knowledge! Practice it!
- Practice again. And again. Little more reading, then a little more practice.
Knowing where improvements need to be made is how you become great
There is no magic to getting better at any craft, other than knowing who you are and working damn hard. Knowing what skills you lack and where improvements need to be made is how you become great at what you do. Once you know these aspects of yourself, work to rectify them.
Work towards never uttering the words “I know my skills in this area could be improved.”
The trick answer? If you’re lucky, you’ll never, ever, be able to say it.
Comments
15 pieces of brilliance put forth by the audience
Richie
15th of July, 2010 • www twitter
Quite true… unless you release yourself from the clutches of ignorance… you will never improve, let alone succeed…
It is quite hard to keep up with the pace of evolution these days… evolution in any field for that matter. No matter how much effort and dedication you put into your works, it just doesn’t seem enough.. So, it is wise not to give up or give in to such negative thoughts. Just keep on going, follow your dreams, get inspired, push your limits ….. that’s how the one can transcend to the next level…
Although in the end.. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” … and I will leave it for your imagination to ponder about…
Alexander Ross Charchar
15th of July, 2010 • www twitter
Hey Rich!
I know what you mean by it never seeming enough, no matter how much effort you put in … but I’ve found that it’s only that way for a little while .. the more reading you do, the more work you put in (and the more often you repeat the two), the sooner you get to that moment where it’s not all that scary any more and good things start happening…
It happens slowly, too.. we sort of don’t notice a graduation in our skills or knowledge because we have the front row seat to that little bit of theater and it just seems like it’s the show moving forward as it should …
Thanks again for another comment! :)
Matt O’Leary
17th of July, 2010 • www twitter
Very nice. We often hear things along the lines of ‘the only thing to fear is fear itself’… while confidence is excellent, fear is there for a reason. It really is something to be taken advantage of.
You should only *feel* no fear when there is nothing *to* fear. If it’s still there, you have improving to do.
The wonderful thing is, you’ll never get 100%, so you’ll be constantly improving!
If you’re the absolute best, with no room for improvement… it’d get pretty bloody boring.
Matt O’Leary
17th of July, 2010 • www twitter
I almost have to disagree with your final statement – I think if you’re lucky, you’ll *always* be able to say it ;)
After all, viewing the situation as your Mario-esque title image… would you ever really want the game to end?
Alexander Ross Charchar
18th of July, 2010 • www twitter
You know I really like the idea of thinking of it as a never ending game … various characteristics go up a level here, a level there and you go through your career coming up against various bad guys and missions… it works!
The funny thing about fear is that I think we’re so use to there always being something to fear (much of the media/news we take in is purely about fear), that we’ve gotten a little numb to it… so we eventually get to a spot that’s comfortable enough that the fear can be ignored. For me the fear that develops when in that place is the one of becoming stagnant… I hate the idea of being in the same place skill/knowledge wise for longer than a couple of months .. imagine going five years without improving in some way! Argh!
Radu
1st of August, 2010 • www twitter
Hey Alex,
Great article, as always. I was thinking about this just a few nights ago. I think there’s a part of the picture that is very subjective. The principle of bettering yourself remains, but the methodology should or is, in fact, different for each individual. My way of approaching personal development is quite different in that I use the word “crap” a lot when referring to myself. Which, in turn, drives me to focus on a problem and overcome it. I know designers who would just freeze if someone called their work crap, so my system would be anything but productive in their case. As for fear, this is a more primitive sociological discussion and, again, depends on the individual and the driving force behind each person.
Alexander Ross Charchar
1st of August, 2010 • www twitter
Hi Radu :)
You’re 100% right, it really is very subjective, but I think we’re pretty much on the same page except for the terminology, as you said!
No matter what words we use, the core message is the same though, isn’t it? Knowing how to look at your self and the work you do, knowing what needs to be improved, then going about it.
I think if having your work criticized (calling it crap) would make your freeze, then you’re not in the right environment. It can be tricky, but once you fully trust the designers around you, having them call your work crap is anything but a put down – it’s a way of saying “I know you’re better than this”, which is really a very positive thing. The worst kind of comment you can get as a designer is the constant “yeah, it’s pretty good”. That’s great for the ego, poison for the creativity.
Radu
1st of August, 2010 • www twitter
Whenever I get the “yeah, it’s pretty good” comment on something I’ve done, I almost always follow with “ok, but how would you improve on it”? It keeps me down to earth and to me it’s a healthy attitude of constant improvement.
I’ve noticed that a lot of up & coming designers have this same attitude of trying to keep their egos in check, which probably comes from seeing the way some* of the more famous characters in our business behave, especially in regards to them, and trying as hard as they can not to be like them: pompous, arrogant, self aggrandizing and rude.
*I said “some”, as in not everyone. Just wanted to emphasize that.
Alexander Ross Charchar
2nd of August, 2010 • www twitter
I think you’re spot on about the egos of up and coming designers. I find it interesting that the design community is so friendly and encouraging. Of course, this might result in the unintended situation of a lack of serious criticism – you know, every just saying to one another “yeah, it’s great”.
I think most designers are probably very nice, down to earth people. They know how much effort goes into learning everything that needs to be learned and respect it when they see others going through the education they’ve gone through themselves. Unfortunately there’s always going to be a bad apple to spoil the bunch.
Radu
2nd of August, 2010 • www twitter
One bad apple? A famous designer that actually takes the time to talk to a beginner is the exception, not the rule. I’ve actually made it one of my continuous challenges in life to help out all designers that ask me something, especially beginners. As long as you’re not rude and I’m not sleeping, I’ll answer whatever I can as best I can. And if I ever become famous or something, I’ll try as hard as I can to not forget about this attitude.
Alexander Ross Charchar
3rd of August, 2010 • www twitter
It sucks that you feel that’s the exception. Maybe I’ve just had good luck, but I’m continually surprised by how willing and open designers tend to be. that being said, I haven’t really spoken to a great deal of them, so maybe my experience is the exception ;)
And when you’re famous, I just hope you don’t forget about me and retinart! ;)
Radu
3rd of August, 2010 • www twitter
Rest assured, mate, if I ever become famous, I’m taking you down with me. ;-)
Alexander Ross Charchar
6th of August, 2010 • www twitter
hahaha, shall I start shopping for our floating-office housed on a luxury yacht? ;)
Stephanie Webb
17th of August, 2010 • www
To get to the next level as a practitioner you need to be critical of your own practice and be able to reflect on the work that you do and identity key factors that you personally would like to improve on. Improving and learning new things is something that I experience every day and I have real motivation for wanting to learn even more as a result. If you think that you are the best you can be as a designer then what more is there to do for the industry? I don’t think that you can ever really be at a stage where you stop learning new things and accepting new challenges from either the industry or even your own personal goals.
Alexander Ross Charchar
18th of August, 2010 • www twitter
Very true – there’s always something more to learn and apply your skills to. I think it was Paula Scher who once said that she started to work with environmental graphics because it was something completely new and different, but something to which her existing skills could transfer to in an interesting way.
And it’s kind of a beast that feeds on itself, isn’t it? You need to be passionate if you’re to be interested in trying new things, but trying new things keeps you passionate.
Shall you delight, entertain & enlighten
us with your own thoughts?