Success: A Tragicomedy
I am writing this because in the next two days I must complete 3 design drafts for a mock architectural journal, and there’s not supposed to be a drop of fun in any of them.
And that’s just the way it should be.
What makes a product succeed? I’ve been meditating on this for a while now, ever since I was dragged along with my brother on his exciting college tours over 4 years ago and the head of the computer engineering department at the U of P looked me straight in the eyes and said, “Designers are a dime a dozen these days. You need to find a way to make yourself stand out, or you’ll never get anywhere.”
I’m no business major, nor will I ever be, but then again neither are the tens of thousands of other amateur designers out there. And neither are the famous ones.
For a few years now I’ve held a part-time job designing greeting cards and invitations for childrens’ birthday parties and such, and doing so has taught me a very important lesson. It’s not a lesson that very many artists will want to hear, because art itself is an innately selfish discipline; but, designing these cards, I’ve realized that if the artist wishes to succeed he must give up some of that freedom in exchange for demand. If I receive a request to create an underwater-themed boys’ birthday card, I’m not going to put mermaids on it, no matter how much I like mermaids. Boys do not like mermaids; they like sharks and killer whales and such. It’s the same in every sub-discipline.
How do I, as a designer, stand out? To merely cater to people’s requests like a slave will earn me a decent salary, but absolutely no recognition whatsoever.
Having said that, I believe that the key to a successful design career lies in two things.
The first is to design for a specific target audience.
The second is to design remarkably.
The age of the average viewer is dead. Commercials can be skipped, magazine pages skimmed over, pop-up windows blocked. What is alive more than ever, however, is word of mouth. It’s the bane of hipsters everywhere. To try to immediately reach out to the entire world at once would be pointless. What a designer must do is focus on a small demographic of people, and let them sell your product for you. Why did you start using Facebook? Did you just happen to stumble upon it? Did you see an ad for it on Discovery Channel? Of course not, someone told you about it. Facebook took everything that sights like MySpace failed at, bundled it into a streamlined design, launched it, and a few years later they have over 28 million people by the nuts. Without a single advertising campaign. It’s the same with anything: bands, youtube videos, and, what I’m getting back to, art.
How the hell did someone like Frank Gehry become a household name? Simple, he didn’t follow the rules. He just cranked out crazy designs that architecture hipsters lapped up like catnip and then sold to the rest of the world, and now he’s famous. Just like that. He designed things that were fresh, new, remarkable. Worth remarking about. Word of mouth. When people look at his buildings, they feel connected to something larger than themselves. And that’s what people want to feel like: larger than they really are. People don’t give a shit about Frank Gehry’s life-they love his designs because it makes them feel important; that in someway, for some reason, by having a connection to this amazing building, it somehow makes them, the viewers, amazing. Why do hipsters intentionally listen to obscure bands? Why do you spend hours updating your Facebook? Why do you save up for expensive cars, houses, alcohol? Because you purchase services that will make you seem like a better person. It’s a game of narcissism and guilt. It’s the shit that’s fueling the success of everything from Green technology to soymilk. People like shit that’s different and will somehow make them better than other people if they have it. Otherwise no one would have switched to AT&T’s service just for the fucking iPhone. You sell to a specific group, and let jealousy do the rest of the marketing. It’s soymilk.
It’s the same with design. People don’t want the gaudy logos of the 80s and 90s. People want simple, smooth, and elegant, because it will make them feel simple, smooth and elegant. It’s MySpace vs. Facebook, Rococo vs. Postmodernism. No one likes a Topramen design. Conformity is over. Everyone wants to be a special snowflake.
Or you could just add a lens flare and call it quits.
And that’s just the way it should be.
What makes a product succeed? I’ve been meditating on this for a while now, ever since I was dragged along with my brother on his exciting college tours over 4 years ago and the head of the computer engineering department at the U of P looked me straight in the eyes and said, “Designers are a dime a dozen these days. You need to find a way to make yourself stand out, or you’ll never get anywhere.”
I’m no business major, nor will I ever be, but then again neither are the tens of thousands of other amateur designers out there. And neither are the famous ones.
For a few years now I’ve held a part-time job designing greeting cards and invitations for childrens’ birthday parties and such, and doing so has taught me a very important lesson. It’s not a lesson that very many artists will want to hear, because art itself is an innately selfish discipline; but, designing these cards, I’ve realized that if the artist wishes to succeed he must give up some of that freedom in exchange for demand. If I receive a request to create an underwater-themed boys’ birthday card, I’m not going to put mermaids on it, no matter how much I like mermaids. Boys do not like mermaids; they like sharks and killer whales and such. It’s the same in every sub-discipline.
How do I, as a designer, stand out? To merely cater to people’s requests like a slave will earn me a decent salary, but absolutely no recognition whatsoever.
Having said that, I believe that the key to a successful design career lies in two things.
The first is to design for a specific target audience.
The second is to design remarkably.
The age of the average viewer is dead. Commercials can be skipped, magazine pages skimmed over, pop-up windows blocked. What is alive more than ever, however, is word of mouth. It’s the bane of hipsters everywhere. To try to immediately reach out to the entire world at once would be pointless. What a designer must do is focus on a small demographic of people, and let them sell your product for you. Why did you start using Facebook? Did you just happen to stumble upon it? Did you see an ad for it on Discovery Channel? Of course not, someone told you about it. Facebook took everything that sights like MySpace failed at, bundled it into a streamlined design, launched it, and a few years later they have over 28 million people by the nuts. Without a single advertising campaign. It’s the same with anything: bands, youtube videos, and, what I’m getting back to, art.
How the hell did someone like Frank Gehry become a household name? Simple, he didn’t follow the rules. He just cranked out crazy designs that architecture hipsters lapped up like catnip and then sold to the rest of the world, and now he’s famous. Just like that. He designed things that were fresh, new, remarkable. Worth remarking about. Word of mouth. When people look at his buildings, they feel connected to something larger than themselves. And that’s what people want to feel like: larger than they really are. People don’t give a shit about Frank Gehry’s life-they love his designs because it makes them feel important; that in someway, for some reason, by having a connection to this amazing building, it somehow makes them, the viewers, amazing. Why do hipsters intentionally listen to obscure bands? Why do you spend hours updating your Facebook? Why do you save up for expensive cars, houses, alcohol? Because you purchase services that will make you seem like a better person. It’s a game of narcissism and guilt. It’s the shit that’s fueling the success of everything from Green technology to soymilk. People like shit that’s different and will somehow make them better than other people if they have it. Otherwise no one would have switched to AT&T’s service just for the fucking iPhone. You sell to a specific group, and let jealousy do the rest of the marketing. It’s soymilk.
It’s the same with design. People don’t want the gaudy logos of the 80s and 90s. People want simple, smooth, and elegant, because it will make them feel simple, smooth and elegant. It’s MySpace vs. Facebook, Rococo vs. Postmodernism. No one likes a Topramen design. Conformity is over. Everyone wants to be a special snowflake.
Or you could just add a lens flare and call it quits.