The value of experience
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- BaskerviIle0
@ rupedixon – experience means knowing how to plan your projects so that everything gets done on time. Working late all the time to improve things show a lack of experience. If you're a good designer you should be able to create useful, relevant work within a normal timeframe. Knowing what will work down the line is key.
- robotron3k0
it's not experience or a school, it's your ability to sell yourself and/or how cute you are.
- shit...
tcmmct - spread dem cheeksattentionspan
- if you are female, you hit it dead onLIoyd
- shit...
- ribit0
I figure you have years of experience ahead of you when you start work (like 40-50), why rush into that bit when you can add formal education into the mix as well? There's time for it all..
- Sadly, only 40 seconds after writing this post, Ribit was struck by a rogue object and passed away.NotByHand
- *moment of silence, resumes doing linesmagnificent_ruin
- nose candy?tcmmct
- I'm not dead yet!ribit
- tommyo0
I didn't go to school, just kind of picked it up, fell in love and kept at it. I'd say around year 4 or 5 I started feeling much more take-on-the-world-confident. I'm sure this is consistent across the board but one thing I really really loved about the early days is the 'Oh shit I leveled up!' feeling. That's really the best way I can describe it, like one day you wake up and all of a sudden you've gained some sort of new enlightenment. Those days seem to get a little farther and farther apart as the years go on. But those 'oh shit I leveled up!' start adding up and I guess that's experience eh?
One thing I'll say that I really liked about being self-taught is that I never quite knew where the boundaries were. I never learned where my responsibilities began or ended - so I ended up trying to learn everything: identity, process, print, typography, web, AS programming, illustration. Which to be honest, is kind of maddening, but also liberating knowing that you can figure anything out.
Where Corvo2 said, '1. some lack of confidence in your own work (validation)' I think this is close to being correct, at least for me. But taking this a bit further I think it's more of a fear of being 'found out.' Eventually it goes away, but for me I felt like I was constantly scared that I didn't know something I should.
I always hated the whole 'it's who you know' logic. Just comes across like it's something you're not really responsible for, like it falls from the sky for no rhyme or reason. If you bust your ass, you have some semblance of talent and you're fair, you'll know the right people.
- GetRefresh0
Been doing it 20 years. Began to click between 5-10.
- JSK0
Too much experience and higher title can hinder you from getting a job.
- rupedixon0
@BaskerviIle - that's very true, and I completely agree, I think what I'm trying to say is that even with a lot of experience you can still be a rubbish designer. and you're right, the more experienced you get the more foresight you develop, therefore the faster your decision making process becomes.
The comparison I was drawing to the dude's I'd had to work with recently was that they didn't give a shit and for them design was a 9 - 5 job, and there was very little pride in what they did. My point being that experience and training don't matter as much as desire.
- desire will fade...babaganush
- not if you're a true designerLIoyd
- NotByHand0
Not surprisingly, people without much experience tend to think experience is not really that important.
People without much education tend to disregard schooling as being that important.I, personally, don't think having an ounce of talent is that important.
- play0
Design can be learned, but those without the initial eye and talent will take much longer to reach a certain point.
Talent aside, I think professional experience grows on 2 different levels.
The first is the ability to gage a project's scope, objectives, timeline, and execute completed deliverables within your timeline. All while juggling all sorts of bullshit in between.
The second is the understanding of business architecture, social skills, and the art of persuasion ... The people you work with and the environments that surround you play a big role in this. This skill will earn you more money in the long run. And everyone knows it's all about making money ..
- wordsinyourmouth0
uhhh......
- CALLES0
yes and no
- dropdown0
I wish I had more schooling. Hind site, you know?
- yeah, you would have learned it is 'hindsight'Jnr_Madison
- Corvo20
I think the trouble of being self-taught is,
1. some lack of confidence in your own work (validation) and
2. discipline, since one of the big advantages of formal education is being in a studio with a schedule and entirely dedicated to one task.
- CALLES0
well... you have to have talent.. but school can never teach yu how it is out there in the work place... they can just polish your talent(sometimes) but there is not a class called "Asshole Producer 101"
you need both i guess
- Stugoo0
knowing what you do is good.
confidence in your abilities and being able to back it up.
thats what counts.
- powertoni0
I dont.....grad school was unequivocally the worst mistake of my life.
- neue75_bold0
You can become a good designer through education and experience. But to be great at anything, that takes a lot more than those two things alone. It's a matter of insight, sensitivity, intelligence and to a large degree, how you were raised — the way the world around you at a young age affected you, your views and understanding towards the way that the world and it's inhabitants truly 'work'.
Many good designers today have just been good at understanding things like — what makes design A. better than design B. They become selectors, knowing which samples and inspiration are most relevant to the project and can be taken from and more importantly, what should be left out. That in-itself comes from experience and moderate intelligence. Almost any of us with passion and desire can reach that level..
But to be great, to be a visionary, to see what everyone else has seen and think what no one else has thought, that comes from somewhere within and cannot be taught nor learned...
- Thanks. I now feel even more shitty.
:)Peter - I'm talking completely out of my ass here and am possibly still drunk...neue75_bold
- that was beautiful, snuggs. i am weeping.paraselene
- we probably both need sleep ;)neue75_bold
- you're right.Corvo2
- Thanks. I now feel even more shitty.
- Pupsipu0
so where did all this experience get us in the design world? What about experience in other industries, like industrial design and engineering. The same shit keeps being made unless someone (usually without that much experience) invents something better.
It seems that more experience just makes you a more efficient production monkey.
- and being a production monkey their whole life never made anyone famousPupsipu
- That is the most ignorant thing I've ever heard.NotByHand
- is there a famous production monkey? It's ok not to be famous I guess.Pupsipu
- are you retarded?magnificent_ruin
- well I can actually put a sentence together that most 5 yr olds wouldn'tPupsipu
- This doesn't even make sense. It may be a sentence but not a productive one.nicole_marie