“Designers don’t get to sit in success. Being a designer means living in a cycle of problems.”
My friend Adrian said it very casually, but it struck me as rather profound.
We were sitting around a corner booth table at a glamorous NYC restaurant for a fashion freelancer networking event talking about the very unglamorous subject of failure. Specifically, we were talking about how failure is way more common than most people realize. It is part of the job.
A designer’s job, Adrian explained, is to solve problems. As soon as they’ve solved a problem, the project is not their responsibility anymore. The design moves on to the next step in production or to the next team to develop, produce, market, and sell.
You don’t get to sit in the success as a designer. You never reach a point where there are no challenges and everything is smooth and easy. Instead, you move on to the next problem.
Despite this sounding somewhat defeating, I found it comforting and I hope you do too.
Running into problems is normal. Failure is part of the job. The fact that you keep tackling (and solving) new problems means you are succeeding at being a designer. Don’t let the cycle of problems make you doubt your abilities.