Getting older and working in design
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- bezoar3
Short answer is that I'm moving to something else. almost 40 and it seems that my situation is very similar to those in this thread. 13 years in the industry and decided to take a leap of faith and start a new adventure.
Had to leave the design/ad world. burned out, downer attitude, cynical...etc. due to the chip on my shoulder and fuck wad management. however, i did have passion for the work and met many friends.
So if I'm gonna spend time at something, I'd rather focus on my family and artwork. So after 5 months in Japan, and my wife's blessing ahem, I returned with new attitude and career goals.
Currently apprenticing at a studio prototyping toys and sculpting/casting my own art pieces. Still freelancing when the money is worth it.
BTW nice to join the conversation qbn. been lurking 'round these parts for a while.
- shellie2
I'm still in my early 30s but I started working as an animator and designer at a very young age. My first big corporate job came at 19 years old and it wasn't my first in design. Worked 5 years on staff and the rest as a roaming agency freelancer, eventually working entirely at home. I became a hybrid producer/developer near the end of my run. The last 3 years I've transitioned out of it completely.
Now I am an entertainment talent manager and tour manager. I still work with agencies now and then but in a much different capacity. I'm greatful i spent all these years growing those relationships. I've found it much easier to pull in a nice big advertising jobs for my clients than other talent managers because I'm much more familiar with what is going on and how to pitch an agency to work with this painter or that musician. Most recently one of my music clients did an online series for national geographic that I was able to produce on the talent side with no sweat and that funded all our other projects for a year. A lot of my peers in the talent managrment industry have to grind a lot harder to find traditional ways to work their clients.
A lot of my ideas are grounded in completing the online/offline loop which had increased my clients earning power. I've found my peers to be left scratching their heads when it comes to doing that. But now I can also be creative in ways I couldn't behind an agency desk. A client of mine is an endless well of merchandising opportunities which I've been able to design, help manufacture and launch. I find a lot of what I learned over the years has been useful if applied in a different way.
I may join a management group sometime this year. I found some other managers that have a more traditional experience in that field that really value what I can do. I'm a bit lonely working solo for such a long time and this new career path allows for work in groups and freedom to move around and do what you want as long as you're brining in the dough. It's kinda nice.
- ArchitectofFate0
bump? not bump? surely this can't be all the stories?
- sarahfailin1
the light inside has broken but i still work
- eryx0
I was looking for a tread to post this in because I found a different career path from being a flash developer up until about 4 years ago. I was fired from my agency and tried to make it as freelance developer. I devoted a lot of my time to leaning new programming techniques but after utterly failing at Flex I decided to throw in the towel.
I started my new career at 32 years old and have been at it for almost 3 years. I work in the NDT industry. The work is very physical and has to potential to be very dangerous but I do get to take pictures all day.
There is a large amount of certifications that you have to pass in order to move forward in this career but once you start moving forward it becomes more interesting. Pay also starts pretty high, I made almost three times as much as I did when I was under salary at an agency and paid more in taxes than I made in income as a freelancer.
There are some things that I miss from my old career. I miss not being part of a large project that I can point to and say “I programmed that”. The sense of accomplishment when you solve a difficult problem. I also miss the new and exiting ideas and techniques that I was exposed to on a daily basis. The people I worked with were informed, cultured and for the most part non-violent.
My new career has some interesting challenges, I am sure that it would not be for everyone you have to have some very thick skin to deal with very thick people. Working in -40˚C weather, wildlife, insane hours, dangerous material and humping the camera through the mud are definite drawbacks but job security, monetary compensation and the ability to move forward into many different off shoots of the same core career tend to negate them pretty quickly.
All in all I am happy that I changed careers but I still miss what I use to do, I think that is why I keep coming back there, so that I can kind of still see what is going on...... and COTD.
Here is my camera:
- thanks for sharing. camera looks interesting -- are you exposed to much radiation?Gnash
- some, lots of safety procedures you have to follow. Makes it interesting.eryx
- I imagine there is little work for flex. I would have learned flex if I was smart/dedicated enough. In hindsight I'm glad I was stupid/uncapabl to learn it.hotroddy
- good wkmans comp too i supposebklyndroobeki
- bklyndroobeki0
I do believe that this is the ticket:
"Instead of stressing myself out chasing clients, I let clients come to me by applying for one of my offerings."
http://99u.com/articles/51208/fo…
Trying to not let my dream die.
- mekk0
I'm 25, started doing web stuff around the age of 14. Did a design school that I paid myself doing shit for events and bars. I thought this would be three hard years. haha. I dumb fuck. The real pain and struggle came when I started working in advertising. Suddenly my work was rated and it was shit. I needed another 3-4 years to really 'get good' and haven't earned enough to save a penny.
Things are good now but your stories really creep the fuck out of me.
- mantrakid3
Very cool thread. These thoughts are exactly what was scaring me a year and a bit ago (Im 34) when I was focused almost 100% on doing client service -based web development. Wordpress setups, theme customizations, troubleshooting, then the relationship would degenerate into getting their email going on their iphone and helping them figure out malware bullshit. I hated the progression that almost every client seemed to end up at. I was their IT department, by way of being friendly and good with computers, and the money was decent enough and paying my bills, etc. It was hard to say no and I lacked courage for many years to even consider it. I laid awake at night wondering how i can possibly still be doing that same bullshit every day for the next... 10... 20... 30.... 40 years..!?
Then I panicked, i said fuck it & i screwed it all up by blowing through savings and making a dumb little video game & shit got real for me for the first time in my professional life. Now ive essentially entered an industry where age can be respected if it comes with mad experience, and theres sooo much shit to learn that i am genuinely interested in and i dont even give a fuck how old i get anymore because every day i feel like a fresh, optimistic kid at the best school in the world. As long as I have that enthusiasm, I have no worries about the quality of work i do or my perceived value... I know i got this from here on out. :D
until i get tired and jaded and switch careers to porn.
- great post can totally relate_niko
- So you're in the video game industry now?Ben99
- is it your game that's on steam right now?Gnash
- What are you doing now?bort
- sorry i missed the comments on this. Yeah Im doing game design for a new company now. Great job, flexible and creative, uses all my skills.mantrakid
- yuekit0
Interesting thread. Just playing devil's advocate,
Are burnout, money issues and ageism NOT issues that people encounter in other careers? I think it's quite common that people dream of doing something else, while underestimating the downside and challenges they would encounter. What is a "good" career for middle aged/elderly workers?
One main advantage I can see with design/dev is that it gets you a set of skills that you can use to pursue other online business. Also the location independent aspect, not being tied down to a 9 to 5 office job could work quite well with middle age/semi-retired lifestyle.
- breadlegz0
Nearly 40, been freelancing (and running a small web company) for about 18years. Complete rollercoaster, but I manage to support my wife and two (soon to be three) kids.
Although I do less design now and more strategy work. Then hire other freelancers to get the work done.
- Nutter0
Many years ago, when I was still studying, I was out in the city with some friends. We came across a homeless man and fell into a talk with him. A friend asked him what he used to do, his answer: "he use to be a graphic designer".
As my friends were leaving I gave him what cash I happened to have, hoping that some day that little bit of karma would prevent me from end up in the same situation...
- At the height of my profitability as a commercial illustrator, I got chatting to a neighbour and we asked each other what we did. I told him I was...Horp
- a commercial illustrator and he said 'ah yes, I know lots of those'. He then went on to say he knew a lot of once very succesful illos who were all now ...Horp
- on the breadline. He said that none of them saw changes coming and found themselves utterly redundant as technology and younger people's styles pushed them out.Horp
- Most of them were depressed, unemployed, big drinkers, he said. I realised that very day I would not be doing illo for the rest of my life as I had assumed.Horp
- and sure enough I started to see my once advanced photoshop working looking distinctly creaky against newer ideas and styles from kids who were 60% cheaper.Horp
- :(Ben99
- Oh man.versus
- bklyndroobeki0
The more and more I speak w/ young folks about how their jobs, I find that they are finding work based on who they know. Also they are straight out of Design & Tech programs @ Pratt, SVA, Parsons.
- trooperbill0
i ran my own digital business for 7 years right out of uni and finally dropped it (gost) 8 years ago to work in house and at agencies. i threw the towel in with regards to design and moved to SEO tho it seems that im the unofficial CD at my current workplace and basically live in illustrator and photoshop 50% of the time.
i manage a small team directly and have basically spent the last 8 years at a standstil work-wise tho the money has increased as ive moved job
turned 39 last month and am having the same mid life crisis as many people here... is this what i still want to be doing, if not wtf could i be doing as i love the work so much.
transitioning to a management position seems to be working better here as theyre investing in helping this happen and the people in the wider business (parent company) come from some high profile positions which i hope to help.
in short moneys good, works ok, personal life is good but i feel unfulfilled and am worried for the future.
im just not good at anything else !!
...seems to be a running theme of all of the people on here as we're all +/- 10 years of each other as befits people who discovered newstoday early in their creative careers.
- cannonball19782
I'm 36. For me much of the burnout stems largely from doing what I do for other people and allowing their drawbacks to chafe with me.
I love designing things. I hate doing it for other people. I think my escape will be the rough and tumble world of design entrepreneurialism.
- georgesIII1
Great thread,
one of my biggest fear is not to get older or work forever in this field, but to get bypassed by the technology we need to actually make a living from it.
I've been getting more involved in the tech side of design and what is happening right now is pretty close to the invention of the printing press,
Every month my inbox get flooded by faster, smaller, less complex to use IOT platformS, 3D printers, 3D Scanners, sensors, microchip,
Anyone can come with an concept and actually bring it to production in less than a year which is excellent which is excellent, but when you take look in field like web development, anyone can now make a professional looking website with squarespace, wordpress, etc and it won't be long before an algorithm creates website depending on our personal tastes >> https://thegrid.io/
So yeah, I would love to grow old in this field, but I don't think it will sustain me in the 10 or 20 years, The speed in which A.I. and other tech are evolving, is making me thing that "designers" in the future will be a select niche with a special set of skill sets,
- "but to get bypassed by the technology we need to actually make a living from it." thisbklyndroobeki
- the print world is pretty static right? does it ever change?bklyndroobeki
- slappy0
My plan to stay relevant is to slowly move out of design and into more of a producer role. Its fairly straight forward for me as I'm a digital designer.
As the web is maturing, its becoming clear that good websites require good planning and great content. Therefore the designers role is moving from design and front end dev into a much more interesting place. Audience research, content planning, art direction, design, project management, online marketing and social strategy.
I know this sounds really boring but what this translates to is time to do the job properly, getting to know your market by sending out surveys (social), interviewing stakeholders, and writing a kickass creative brief/functional spec.
Then planning and finding talent, producing photoshoots, briefing the copywriters, planning and art directing videos, working with 3D visualisation artists, meeting with SEO and online marketing partners, finding/quoting with developers, forging relationships with other creatives.
This type of role requires experience and is suited to older designers who know the business. Rather than being one piece of the puzzle, design the puzzle and choose the pieces.
- nocomply0
I think about this frequently. I'm currently 32 and I run my own one-person business doing web design, development, and consulting.
For now it's working out pretty well. I'm sure in 5 years it'll be more or less the same, or hopefully even better as I continue to grow my business, expertise, and get better at client selection.
But how will things be in 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, or more? Will people want a 50 year old dude pitching them a website? What about a 60 or 70 year old consulting on their project?
I have no idea, but I suspect that our culture of agism in this industry is going to change. It will have to. Everyone in our generation is going to have to work significantly longer than our parents and grandparents, regardless of the profession. That's just life. Age won't be what it used to be.
Owning your own business is a way to avoid getting fired, but it doesn't solve any answers as far as gainful employment is concerned. I think all of us will just have to figure it out as we go along. That's what I'm trying to do.
- Clients wont give a crap how old you are as long as you get them results.breadlegz