I don't think I want to do graphic design anymore - burn out
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- hargbine0
Look into Project M, or Design for Good as alternatives to schlocking around through repetitive or derivative bullshit work.
I agree with all above that getting burned out so soon is probably a result of the "fantasy world" of uni versus experience in the real world.
I've got 15 years of a lot of great experiences and a lot of lousy ones. Sure I feel burned out at times, but I keep practicing because I love design in principle.
Fuck the copy tards. Fuck the lousy no-concept 'creative' directors.
There is always a better way to design something given that parameters in Life are always changing.
- Project M = Lulz. Spare us.d_rek
- Cheers!argybargy1
- hahahahahahahahah, project M.********
- georgesIII0
- the = thengeorgesIII
- and we were all being so nice...hargbine
- argybargy10
Thanks for the reponses, I'm not sure why the above poster thinks I'm a troll, anyway:
To those who think keep addressing my age and experience, why should that bar me from the right to find fault with the profession? Why should one have to wait 15 years to find reason to comaplin?
The whole "a job is a job" sentiment really does advance my suspicion that graphic design isn't all that worth pursuing. My sympathies go out to those who've "settled" – I believe a job doesn't just have to be a job.
- comaplin = complainargybargy1
- have to be just* a jobargybargy1
- lets see.. you lived your life in school and the first year or 2 you get out in life and hate it..e-pill
- you really do not have the experience to judge your industry what so ever..e-pill
- you base it solely on the very limited work you have under your career and made quick..e-pill
- ..judgment towards your in-experience and your time based on what you didnt get.e-pill
- if you are already "burnt out" after so little a journey i wonder what long term work 4u will be..e-pill
- in this industry or any other one as you are very quick to dislike what you strove so hard for..e-pill
- the rest of the industry leaders all put in triple your time before making any judgements..e-pill
- and even at that.. level they still push hard to make a change in the industry for their better..e-pill
- if you cant seem to grasp that, then get out of the industry.e-pill
- You have no experience therefore no profession.goldieboy
- Sorry, thought you said 'my' profession! As you were... Bitch away all you want argy.goldieboy
- ********0
- e-pill0
you said -
"I believe a job doesn't just have to be a job."
at your level of inexperience you do not have that call on making such a statement as your lack of experience shows that you can't even work towards building up your career.
if you are falling hard this fast because of some sort of fantasy that the keys to the kingdom will just be handed to you are very mistaken. you have to work hard and balance your life and goals to reach that top level where your above statement may actually mean something truthful.
because of your statement.. it might be considered your opinion, but what is that based on? the very little time placed in a few gigs? where it wasn't working out for you? it is the time you put in that defines your growth not the quick to dismiss all the hard work that will come as you progress.
the creative industry most likely is not for you.
- e-pill0
also because of your anonymity towards hiding yourself in the community, your word and your statements are total junk and worthless.
- it is unsettling, isn't it?monospaced
- Interesting contribution, what maes an identified contribution more worthwhile? Also that should render your own statement "total junk" and "worthless" too, since you remain entirely unidentified. But of course we're digressing here.argybargy1
- statements "total junk and worthless" since you are also anonymous?argybargy1
- but of course we are digressing!argybargy1
- i am not anonymous.. everyone knows who i am.. you boast your anonymity with this thread.e-pill
- e-pill is not anonymous, LOLmonospaced
- mikotondria30
Those of us that have been around long enough to have seen the change from the reverence of well-paying, grateful customers to how things are today need also to affirm that 'the computer', or I'll add - to a great extent, broadband internet, has changed the page and quantity of consumption. For a while, at the end of the 90s, the internet had an identity of it's own. It made sense to say that something 'looked like a website', or did not. New software and more focussed sources of aesthetic inspiration for the website-production industry (design and development were far more closely linked, and simpler) meant that everyone was looking into a narrow beam of inspiration and it attracted more money and more attention, and became a glamourous intersection of new and old industries. Accessible to self-starters and self-taught people, where the journey from talent to cash and notoriety was swift. Design per se was the content of so much traffic. Contemporary design was indispensable to the success of any online enterprise. And so the house of cards began its inevitable messy collapse when some cunt somewhere first typed those fateful words "Design Rockstar". And design died a little. At this time the balance shifted from dial-ups to broadband and the pace at which we all browsed the web upped a few gears. Pages in seconds. Big pages, full of stuff. Hundreds of words and videos and as many graphics as you can fit on them. More and more content, jammed in, skimmed over, no, no no, next page, instant search results, 10 pages in 20 seconds. Design was gorged like an eating contest, stream-lined, less art, more function. Lube on the wheels of industry is the perfect description. There is an art to it, but it's not obvious, or easy, and you'll never feel like a rockstar doing it. Social media metastisising all through your lovely sexy design, the myriad of compulsory elements that bind what is so much more obviously a place of business into the whirring teeth of industry, that looks different one year from the next. What is designed and engineered now is the context and the content, not the graphics. It's all a sell, all a honey-pot to get the user invested in your page, emotionally connected with the brand, fueling and extending the promotion, becoming borg to the meme. Share this, tweet this, offers, upsell, incentives, networks, mobile, AR.. Personally I think this IS a more exciting time to be developing and designing. It was always selling something to somebody, stick with it, get your hands dirty, sell-out, buy back in.
- By context you mean the network right, then what's your position as a designer if graphics aren't designed?argybargy1
- utopian0
Oh Hai Br@tt B@ssh
- utopian0
Have you downloads and or uploaded any movies to MegaUpload recently? You'll probably be in jail sometime this year, good luck mate!
- horton0
i call BULLSHIT on at least 50% of you talking all proud about the industry. you secretly hate your jobs and you know it.
i've mostly bailed on designing for clients, tired of being their creative mule, couldn't be happier.
- I hate most of the people I work with but typically not with what i'm tasked to do.d_rek
- subtle differenced_rek
- i love to hate my industry.. after 14 years of service.. i still have passion to develop new ideas.e-pill
- im not proud of the steps the industry has taken for the sake of the consumer and their cash.e-pill
- im not sure how many of you are in product development but every item i produce, im happy..e-pill
- ..when i walk on the streets and see someone using something i created.. it makes it worth all!!e-pill
- all the headaches all the time all days and nights sweating for that item.. that someone uses.e-pill
- they may love it.. and or use it once.. but they went and purchased it. that is special.e-pill
- if this guy gets burnt out is so little time, they may never see that or get that chance.. sucks!!e-pill
- for them.. too bad.. so if they want to bounce.. let them do it..e-pill
- plenty of other new fresh minded artists out there hungrier for their time..e-pill
- argybargy10
@e-pill
To clarify several of your mistaken assumptions: I have no such beliefs about the world and expectations of "keys being handed to me". I absolutely value the potential and need for hard work – which is why I've received excellent feedback from my employers for positions which I nonetheless left on my own terms. In my view this isn't a failure as I've responsibly made decisions based on my circumstances and experience to move on to something better each time.Anyway, from your comment on horton's post: the experience of other people purchasing your designed product is clearly gratifying for you but that's just not where my values are. I'm really not interested in this type of fufilment: other people approve of my creation > then I get a "special" feeling.
- awe your feelings are hurted?
i dont care about your ideals you are a waste to any industrye-pill - your lack of any experience.. shows your immaturity to fit inside any creative environmente-pill
- you can claim any answer to fit this , but in the end you still left.. and never tried to make it.e-pill
- short bus special.. if you only knew.. but you got to put in the effort to earn that special..e-pill
- mistaken assumptions!? you straight up said you were too good for several places. pretentious F...monospaced
- awe your feelings are hurted?
- robulation0
Gotta say, the fun part is after you're out of the 'junior designer (I'm a shit cunt with an ego that makes me not want to listen to people who've worked hard to get to where they have'). Learn loads and you'll get outta that and get to do more fun stuff where what you say has more depth and weight with the big-knobs. Get the book "how to be a graphic designer without losing your soul", it's pretty good at keeping your feet on the ground. AND, stick your commercial head on for a second and think whether you would rather be a creative, OR an R.S.P.C.A. van driver/male nurse/professional gay.
- monospaced0
Do you have facial piercings or tattoos, or those ear-hole-plugs?
- nylon0
When I graduated from University in 1995 I knew I was EASILY in the top 10 of the 50 that graduated.
It took me 65 interviews before I got a job. I couldn't understand why people who didn't give a shit about design on my course where getting jobs and so called good ones at that...
So, I took my first job and stayed there for two years. Not a heard of agency but they threw me in at the deep end and I had to sink or swim so to speak.
I left there to work for a web company and they laid me off after a year due to relocation.
I 'freelanced' for a while if you can call it that and then a got another job which lasted for another year.
I freelanced properly that time and ended up getting in at a very well known design agency in London. From there, they made me full time... I stayed there for 2.5 years and hated it.
I left in 2005 and set up my own agency - 6 years later I opened up a 2nd office in New York...
You get NOTHING on a plate... You work hard, you get rewards...
Problem is with these fucking kids is that A) the teachers convince them that they are going to change the world when they leave and B) the kids believe their own hype and want link £25,000 starting salary in C) a top company that they will be able to brag to their friends that they have a job at say... North or Wolf Olins...
Im not going to lie, I hate the design world, full of bullshit and wanders (apart from the lovely people on here of course)... I do it because Im good at it and quite frankly am too scared to do anything else...
The other thing that kills me is that you see adverts with lines like this:
Junior Designer required. Must know indesign, illustrator, photoshop, fireworks, after effects, flash, dreamweaver, java and .netWhat fucking planet are these people on?
I don't know anyone who knows all that...
Rant over but serious kids... Fucking grow up, roll your sleeves up and get stuck in...
Everything comes to those who wait...
- first three paragraphs are my exact story too, except I finished uni in 2005monospaced
- Continuity0
One year and already burnt out. Really? Is this a joke? I've not read the whole thread, cos I don't really fancy it, but fucking Hell. One fucking year, seriously.
You've either got a sense of entitlement the size of Jupiter, or you're simply a pussy and can't handle the pressure that comes with the career.
Either way, sounds like any shop you work for will devour you, spit out the bones, and find someone who can take it and make something of it.
- you just summed up the entire thread's response, actuallymonospaced
- Ah. Well, makes sense, I can't expect the lot of us wouldn't feel the same way. :D Anyway, how goes, mono?Continuity
- all good, hiring people, y'knowmonospaced
- Continuity0
For the record, we've got a trainee at my shop who's been in the game for a year since leaving uni, and is always taking initiative and having fun with his gig, is always asking questions cos he wants to improve, and always doing the very best he can. You could learn something from people like him, and cultivate a new attitude.
- Continuity0
'Anyway, from your comment on horton's post: the experience of other people purchasing your designed product is clearly gratifying for you but that's just not where my values are. I'm really not interested in this type of fufilment: other people approve of my creation > then I get a "special" feeling.'
Do the advertising and design industries a favour and get out of them, you patronising twat.
- argybargy10
@e-pill:
I will address you one last time as it's quite amusing to see you reply with such uproar. I feel sorry for you, as by now you’ve made splendidly clear, that your self-evident low self-esteem compels you to respond only aggressively and quite immaturely to otherwise healthy discussions – and I must extend sympathies to those around you in your life, those poor souls.@Continuity
Hi, you should read the whole thread as you've quite ignorantly made some erroneous assumptions about myself – as stated above, I actually do value hard work and have been rewarded for it, I've decided on my own terms despite excellent feedback from employers to move on.Secondly, I'm sorry if you've felt patronised however, I must've hit on a sensitive nerve there for you if that's also your way of life – nothing wrong with that by the way. But judging from your emotive and aggressive response, you perhaps suffer the same ego issues as e-pill?
@ Everyone
I appreciate everyone’s responses, you’ve all made yourselves abundantly clear your positions. Now you’ll just have to wonder what I’m going to be up to :D
- pango0
meh tldr
- ETM0
I have a family member that couldn't settle on a career thought the world owed him, despite having more lucky breaks than most ever have. Was a career student, MBA (management), then B.Sc in Horticulture (landscaping), then coffee became trendy so tried the MBA skills at opening a coffee shop, then back to school again for.. (I can't even recall). Lived in and out of mommy's home. Then life caught up, had NOTHING to show for it, and took a menial job selling windows and doors which he is stuck at nearing 50 yrs old.
Sometimes it's not the career, it's the person.

