Getting older and working in design
- Started
- Last post
- 129 Responses
- scarabin11
39 here. I’m moving toward sculpting, prop making, and set design. Also been building stock for a festival shop i’m gonna get serious about after covid. Got tired of being behind a desk all day!
- Nice! Sound like your having fun with it.
I still don't know what I want.Sellies - I'm ready for a new career by 40 too. I just don't know what to do.mapleT
- do you still look like a final fantasy character?StoicLevels
- Yesscarabin
- Mostly because i wear a wizard hat while gardeningscarabin
- Cool. I dig your hairStoicLevels
- Nice! Sound like your having fun with it.
- Salarrue0
I think any business related studies helps to understand what potential good clients are looking for and with a +20 years experience in the field, one is more capable to come up with creative business solutions / work.
I find these are a good summaries by John Maeda about the current design field potential for "older" designers.
- Also the creative process is similar for every medium. At heart we’re problem solversscarabin
- colin_s0
the funny thing is being 38 with a degree in design doesn't really help for much else.
but yeah, i'd say my passion for design is the same as it ever was, in that when i use it for myself - in art or my personal work - i still love it, but i hardly have a desire to work in-house somewhere.
i'd like to be part of a collaborative / team effort, or do something like find an old town newspaper that i could work with.
- CyBrainX0
Age, aside, I just wish I could get a job. 13-14 interviews since September and only intermittent freelance so far. This is the worst job market since I started in the mid 90s.
- Sorry to hear - for some reason I had it in mind that you had quite a cozy finance-related gig. I have absolutely no idea why.
Things are picking up. Good luck!Nairn - I worked at the NY Stock Exchange two years ago. That place had turnover like crazy. My last gig was an 18 mo. contract at Yahoo FinanceCyBrainX
- Sorry to hear - for some reason I had it in mind that you had quite a cozy finance-related gig. I have absolutely no idea why.
- ArchitectofFate0
Fuuuuck this was 6 years ago now I know why I feel the same way now that I'm 36
- Bennn-1
any idea what careers are made for introverts having a bachelor degree in graphic design but who dont want to work specifically as graphic designer anymore?
I've read social network manager is tailored for those people.
Any of you are or know people doing this job?
what else?
- Well, considering the entire social media employment space is in a bubble ready to burst, I wouldn't put many eggs in that basket.ETM
- social media are about to burst?Bennn
- Some burst but others come along. That seems to be the thing for a while.CyBrainX
- I mean, how long can Snapchat stay popular?CyBrainX
- Geith4
I'm 51 and wait, let me check my pulse – yep, I'm dead.
- < from beyond the gravedee-dubs
- What? You don't know? All of us here... we're already dead.
https://www.youtube.…ETM
- Ben991
I'll turn 38 next March.
I'm into graphic design and related stuff since 1999, it's been 16 years.I feel I've never completely become expert in any particular area of creation. I'm ok at illustration, i'm ok at graphic design, i'm ok at photography, i'm a beginner in web design stuck in basic-mid css+html.
I have a comfortable job since 15 years where I do lots of various thing, but all those thing are basic stuff created rapidly for TV. Never been in an agency to create serious elaborated stuff. 99.99% of the stuff i create at work will never be in my portfolio because its all basic shitty stuff. All my portfolio is made of personal projects except a few freelance jobs i'm doing at home after work. But i like my job, pays well too.
I know i will never find any job like the one i got right now. Its unique. If i ever lose that job i will be in front of a wall. I have zero idea what I would do or what I want to do.
Graphic design doesn't excite me as much as before. I was creating stuff non-stop a few years ago. Now, since a few years I only got a creative rush like 1 or 2 time a year... and it last a few weeks or couple month. Rest of the time i dont feel like creating or i dont feel what i try to do looks good.
Creating stuff for clients that tells you what they want and gives you 500 words to fit on a business card. I'm fucking tired of that shit. Creating stuff with shitty logos and shitty pictures that doesn't fit the canvas size and ratio, i'm fucking tired of that shit.
And everyone is a designer these days. The profession has been diluted in all those "Website for 50$" and "Logo for 5$" websites...
So, yeah. Getting older and working in graphic design is not cool for everyone. It's really motivating and cool when you're 22 years-old. But now at 40, its another game and lots of us are starting to get confuse and unsure about certain aspects of all this.
- Maaku0
This will be us before we hit ____(age)
- pr20
Joined this board many years ago when i was still in college studying painting and graphic design.
I slowly drifted away from painting and the past 12 years worked as Director of Photography on music videos, commercials and feature films. Good pay, but there is no job security as i never know what' i'll be doing 2 months from now. In the process i've made a number of award winning shorts and music videos and in the past year finished a feature-length doc that tries to push the boundaries. It was an artistic bet that we've won and financial bet that we didn't. The film's artistry brought in a very rich benefactor that wants to finance personal projects - so technically i'm employed for next year or so on the next film. This taught me that on big and complex projects the rewards are not often immediate or apparent. Sometimes the reward comes from an unlikely place. I always had this uneasy feeling that film is the medium of the "masses" but thanks to digital revolution the film transformed into much more intimate medium and this is revitalizing. At 35, I know i'll never be doing blockbusters (unless paid to film it) as i have no interest with pop culture, i know i'll be making small intimate films that get experience as if reading a poem. This is not only fine with me but actually very desirable: i don't want to affect mindless mass of people but rather a few select people who have desire to dig deeper. I played with going back to painting but i simply have no patience. Moreover, as i'm an intellectual procrastinator trying to dig at an issue to such depths that with time it stops being exciting i would never paint but rather think about it. This you can't do with film, there is a specific date when you start shooting and that day you HAVE to start making decisions (and learn to live with those decisions).- Have you considered going back to college to study paragraphs?fadein11
- ^
LOL. fuckin dick. Im dying over here.sofakingback - Hah, fadeinPeter
- i still don't forgive you for forgetting to turn on your camera during the obama girl pillow fight scene...robotron3k
- paragraphs = communication; here you have stream of thoughtspr2
- lol fadeinPonyBoy
- Lol fadeinHayoth
- Ianbolton1
I'm 40 next year and been designing stuff for at least 20 of those. I think I'm going to end it all in the new year. You heard it here first folks!
- when you say end it all I hope you mean design (not yourself)dee-dubs
- he said end it
ALL
It was nice knowing you.O0O0O0 - You already said:
ALL
Don't you dare back out now.sofakingback - PICS
OR
IT
DIDN'T
HAPPENO0O0O0 - Gonna be a has been, not another could've been.Ianbolton
- I'll start a new Suicide of the Day thread anyway. So chill the fuck out.Ianbolton
- We're chill bro.O0O0O0
- And what are you going to do next?Ben99
- Might study. Maybe travel. Who knows? Be good to get a little more freelance work from beyond the grave.Ianbolton
- matski7
I'm 38 now and currently in the transition from being an agency designer for 12 years (from which I've become burned out, and bored), and the past year freelancing, to doing something I really love – becoming an artist/painter.
I'm in the process of moving out of London, and recently brought a little house by the sea (moving in next week). Where I will set up an art studio, and spend my days doing what I like best – creating, and being expressive.
The buzz of London was a massive draw when i was younger, but now I'm older I am more attracted to slowing things down (a little). It wasn't a easy choice (as there's not many career choices or financial rewards being an artist/painter), but I think you come to a time in your life when you need to weigh up what makes you happy. I'm in a position where I don't have kids – if I did than I probably would not be doing this. But I get the same excitement now about to start a new chapter in my life, as I did when I first got into design.
- inspiring!valentim
- Thats awesome. Not to get in your bizzz but the fear there is income. Is the painting bringing in income enough to pay for a home and living? If so you win.sofakingback
- where in london are you and where you going? are you cashing in on london property?dee-dubs
- Good luck to you. I'm in the same boat.bezoar
- Good luck! Do you have enough income coming from your art? Fantastic if you do. Or are you going to freelance too? It does sound nice.formed
- good luck. sounds like a tough transitiondocpoz
- Best wishes.hosscreative
- trooperbill0
Got made redundant 4 weeks ago having bounced around loads of small agencies for the past 16 years (wow)
most digital marketing is becoming pr now and im not skilled in it and dont have the time to reinvent myself
been around every big agency in the area and lost of in house roles for interviews and im too experienced for most and not specialist enough for others... it sucks
most agencies who interviewed me were just farming candidates and had no intention of hiring... a recruiter told me this was a major issue at the moment
got a temp job offered at a large brand which would have been cool if it was permament
just in time i landed a role in a big digital agency - its a more junior position, further away than id really like and for 3k a year less than i was on... but i gotta eat and have a kid due in jan so need the cash
they were concerned that id jumped job every few years but in my experience there is no job security... whaddayagonna do. i basically turned it around saying i was having a kid and looking for a new 'home'
too long for a dick and too short for a richard i think they say.
i start next monday which gves me time to illustrate the jungle scene on our nursery wall.
i thought bout moving out of the industry completely but had no idea where to even begin.
- Well the positive of this is you got another job and within 4 weeks... thats good no?dee-dubs
- Continuity0
So a little follow-up to what I posted above.
Another CD at the agency where I work — roundabout my age, I think a year older or so — has decided to only come in two days a week, devoting the remaining three working days to teaching advertising at a local uni.
Part of me thinks, 'Well done, mate, you've managed to re-invent yourself somehow.'
Another part of me thinks, 'Fuck me. Is this how I'm going to be put out to pasture when my time comes? I have to stand in front of a bunch of kids and _teach_?!'
I'd rather staple my bag to my leg.
- dee-dubs0
Bump, was wondering how things were looking for CrimsonGhost over last few months?
- how are things going with you?Gnash
- Doing OK, but anxiety about what the future holds persists...dee-dubs
- ^ i hear you. hang in thereGnash
- https://www.youtube.…bklyndroobeki
- bklyndroobeki0
read this recent issue yesterday
http://hosted-images.magazine-se…, it put a sprint in my step.
- Continuity0
At nearly 42, I recently started a new CD in one of the bigger ad agencies here. At one point I was starting to worry, cos I know this game is for the kids, but I managed.
Don't know how long I'll keep this up for though; I've been looking at my life and really asking myself if this is what I want to devote 8 hours of each day or more to.
Yay, existential crises.
- a new CD job*Continuity
- I doubt the age thing applies if you're at CD level or above but best of luck either way.CyBrainX
- It kind of does. Even at that level, there's a sort of ageism that dictates things. There's also the fact agencies don't want to fork money out. It's mental.Continuity
- I spoke with a recruitment agent once that told me lot of agencies go for <40 CD as they want the youth/trend to be creative face of their company.dee-dubs
- ^Continuity
- sounds like its going well if only working 8 hours a day.fadein11
- Closer to ten or eleven.Continuity
- sothere1
I was just made redundant. It seems I was too senior for the company. The assumption is they can hire younger guys at a lower cost to do a adequate job so why pay the salary.
There just doesn't seem to be the respect towards what an older creative can bring to a company. Companies are too often run by accountants that just see the dollars and dont have any creative knowledge to really see the difference,
I'm not sure what I'd do for a new career and who would hire a 41 year old with no experience in something new anyway.
I am pretty worried about the future as my partner and I have our first baby on the way and prospects look pretty lean.
- See below. Go for the senior roles. It takes longer to land one, but they're out there.Continuity
- thanks mate. I'm not giving up yet.sothere