Description

Should you be a specialist, or a generalist?

Music and links from this episode

1. Break by Little Glass Men
2. Poolside by Little Glass Men
3. Spray Paint It Gold by Little Glass Men

Line-by-line notes

1. INTRO
2. Over the years, the design industry has flicked between different trends
3. The gradient and bevel era where designers were first starting to work out how to use the new features that Photoshop allowed
4. The skeuomorphic design trend, that saw every designer making things look real life things
5. And the current design trends: very simple and clean design that some people think has gotten too simple
6. There's even been trends that have dictated what a designer should be, or should do
7. There's been the traditional graphic designer, who mostly designs print work
8. There's the hybrid designer, who designs web and print stuff
9. And there's the more granular type of designer that's become popular in recent years, the UI or UX design, or interaction designers. They've got different names every week
10. The current trend is to tell designers that we should focus on one area of expertise. That we should be specialists and not generalists
11. I disagree. And in this episode, I'll tell you why.
12. This is AADA, and I'm Craig Burgess
13. PLAY MID SONG
14. In the past 12 years, I've designed lots of different stuff, and worked on lots of different projects
15. I've even built apps and web systems, and dabbled with programming
16. On top of that, I've even looked into video game design, and started trying to learn how to make games
17. I didn't get very far with learning how to make games by the way
18. But it's something I definitely want to return to learning about
19. I truly do consider myself to be a hybrid designer
20. I'm just as interested in getting my hands dirty in the technical side as I am the creative side
21. I get equal parts enjoyment from right brain activities and left brain activities
22. As a young designer, this kind of difference confused me
23. I enjoyed developing stuff, so did that mean I should be a developer?
24. But I'm a pretty good designer too, so should that mean I should be a designer?
25. I was truly confused, and early in my career I nearly took a job as a developer
26. Now, I'm glad I didn't
27. I don't ever see my interest in lots of different topics as a designer as a bad thing at all
28. In fact, I believe It's only turned me into a better designer over the years
29. Because I can understand things from technical viewpoints
30. As well as the creative side
31. When I'm designing something new, I fully understand what can be achieved technically, so I can push the boundaries and not hold back
32. I think any development activities I do as well help me with my problem solving abilities
33. Development, coding, whatever you want to call it
34. Is a creative endeavour
35. You are creating something
36. And you're solving problems
37. And you're communicating
38. Anybody who tells you otherwise is just wrong
39. To me, a good graphic designer should be able to turn their hand to designing almost anything and be able to do a good job of it
40. It's trendy right now to specialise
41. To call yourself something like an interaction designer
42. Or a UI designer
43. But to me, all designers should be interaction designers
44. Or UI...