Description

Self-indulgence is vital as a designer.

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Music and links from this episode

1. Outro by Komiku
2. The Life and Death of a Certain K. Zabriskie, Patriarch by Chris Zabriskie
3. The Simulation Hypothesis by Revolution Void

Line-by-line notes

1. It’s easy as a designer
2. To get bogged down in the day to day humdrum
3. Of things like client amends
4. Projects not going your way
5. Or you just not being able to produce your best work
6. That’s why it’s OK sometimes
7. To give into self-indulgence
8. And indulge yourself in some side projects
9. This is AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess
10. Peaks and troughs are natural in anything you do
11. Something can’t be amazing without there being something bad to compare it against after all
12. And even today, I go through times where the work I produce isn’t my best
13. Or I don’t feel its my best
14. Even today, I still doubt my abilities
15. And question whether I’m a good designer or not
16. And wonder endlessly whether I’m good at my job
17. It’s natural
18. It’s self doubt
19. It’s what we all do.
20. I don’t seek to remove self doubt in my life though
21. Because I see self doubt as a positive thing
22. When I’m doubting myself, I know it’s usually for two reasons
23. I’m doing something new or challenging
24. And I care about doing a good job
25. And neither of those things are things to avoid
26. Obviously I know I care about doing a good job
27. But even when my subconscious is doubting
28. I know even in my subconscious I care about doing a good job
29. That was a weird meta-tangent
30. Anyway
31. The reason I say this is to make a point that everything we do won’t be great
32. Every design you knock out isn’t going to be your best work
33. But there is a place where you can always do your best work
34. And if it doesn’t turn out to be your best work, you can just scrap it and try again
35. In side projects, you can always try and do your best work
36. There’s no restrictions on time, effort, feedback
37. You just do the work you want to do, when you want to do it
38. That’s self-indulgence
39. And whilst the word indulgence is often seen as a perjorative
40. I don’t see it like that at all
41. To get better as a designer you need to be indulgent
42. If you stick to the sometimes tight confines of a client brief
43. You’ll never push past and do your best work
44. Often...