On collaboration: perhaps it’s because I’m at the beginning of my web design career but I find that designers don’t collaborate enough. It’s either they are not interested in collaborating (ego, competition) or the current ecosystem isolates them (meaning companies don’t prioritize design and/or don’t have the funding to hire a team).
Most of my web designer friends in Paris are adrift, working alone behind their screens in their respective homes and the only collaboration they are interested in is with developers. In fact, some of them are struggling to stay afloat and I keep on thinking, “If we put our heads together, we should be able to get out of this fix!”
I read Etapes magazine and they often express a certain paranoia about the dissolving parameters around what makes a “designer.” They also lament the current trend of design decisions being made by marketing directors and other commercial types (essentially people with no design education).
I think we can combat the perceived dissolution of the design trade with collaboration (collectives, cooperatives, etc.): “Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.”
I can definitely see how people would treat it as a business; lock down IP to stay competitive etc. but it seems a shame that you have to sign an NDA just to see napkin sketches these days.
Although I’ve done web design for a number of years now, I’m schooling for industrial design and it’s both better and worse for collaboration attitudes. It’s cool to see our collectively different attitudes come together to solve a design problem in a unique way – which is where collaboration is the best – but it’s also sad to see people seclude themselves simply because they think someone will steal their idea, even in a classroom where it would be obvious if someone copied. The real world won’t be nearly so black and white in what “copying” is (look at China!) and so this attitude, I think, really just hurts net progress.
Perhaps it’s just my more socialist design attitude, but I’d rather help everyone and give away good design for less and take in lower profit margins than try to be so exclusive so as to reap personal wealth. Ultimately, I want to see a better world over, say, a better car in my garage.
So simple, but incredibly deep. Having recently switched to an occupation I truly love, this mantra really speaks to me. Words to live by… Thanks for sharing!!
Swissmiss is an online garden Tina Roth Eisenberg started in 2005 and has lovingly tended to ever since.
Besides swissmiss, Tina founded and runs TeuxDeux, CreativeMornings and her Brooklyn based co-working community Friends Work Here. (She also started Tattly which was recently adopted by BIC)
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Hell, yes!
Apr 11th, 2011 / 8:33 pm
Awesome!
I’ve got the first and last sentences covered. Now I’ve got to conquer that middle one, and it’s a doozie.
Oh well, 2 outta 3 ain’t bad.
Apr 11th, 2011 / 8:42 pm
If this is all you need, I’m 3 for 3!
Excellent.
Apr 11th, 2011 / 8:49 pm
On collaboration: perhaps it’s because I’m at the beginning of my web design career but I find that designers don’t collaborate enough. It’s either they are not interested in collaborating (ego, competition) or the current ecosystem isolates them (meaning companies don’t prioritize design and/or don’t have the funding to hire a team).
Most of my web designer friends in Paris are adrift, working alone behind their screens in their respective homes and the only collaboration they are interested in is with developers. In fact, some of them are struggling to stay afloat and I keep on thinking, “If we put our heads together, we should be able to get out of this fix!”
I read Etapes magazine and they often express a certain paranoia about the dissolving parameters around what makes a “designer.” They also lament the current trend of design decisions being made by marketing directors and other commercial types (essentially people with no design education).
I think we can combat the perceived dissolution of the design trade with collaboration (collectives, cooperatives, etc.): “Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.”
Apr 12th, 2011 / 6:46 am
Love it. Got 1 & 2 down, but need to do a bit more of 3.
Apr 12th, 2011 / 9:34 am
I can definitely see how people would treat it as a business; lock down IP to stay competitive etc. but it seems a shame that you have to sign an NDA just to see napkin sketches these days.
Although I’ve done web design for a number of years now, I’m schooling for industrial design and it’s both better and worse for collaboration attitudes. It’s cool to see our collectively different attitudes come together to solve a design problem in a unique way – which is where collaboration is the best – but it’s also sad to see people seclude themselves simply because they think someone will steal their idea, even in a classroom where it would be obvious if someone copied. The real world won’t be nearly so black and white in what “copying” is (look at China!) and so this attitude, I think, really just hurts net progress.
Perhaps it’s just my more socialist design attitude, but I’d rather help everyone and give away good design for less and take in lower profit margins than try to be so exclusive so as to reap personal wealth. Ultimately, I want to see a better world over, say, a better car in my garage.
Apr 12th, 2011 / 9:36 am
So simple, but incredibly deep. Having recently switched to an occupation I truly love, this mantra really speaks to me. Words to live by… Thanks for sharing!!
Apr 12th, 2011 / 10:31 am
Yeah baby! Yeah!
Apr 13th, 2011 / 6:30 am