This article is contributed by Believe Stanley, an Author, Speaker, and Graphics Design Trainer.
I did a poll to get an opinion on what kind of topic would be helpful, in a bid to prepare for a more compelling advert that can be a little bit controversial and creatively communicative, I decided to change the Theme to DESIGNERS DEMON to create better attention. So about Designer’s Demon – handling deals, delay, and deliveries, every Creative begins their journey from a particular level and grow to become a Professional in their field. I’ll try as much as I can to highlight and discuss some of these levels and share about the goodness and challenges that come with these levels based on experience and the little knowledge I have.
Before I became a Graphic Designer, my journey as a creative started as a Craft man: creating handmade greeting cards for different occasions and celebrations. It took me about 6 months as an apprentice to learn the craft before I could make my first handmade card.
From my first card, I grew to become good that my Trainer even admires my cards more. I was the only apprentice out of the 4 students who started that was able to continue the craft as a business. The first business signature I started using was CARDS & CRAFTS. It started making much sense to me when I began to attract military Officers as my clients. It got to the point where the Christmas periods was never a holiday for me because I had to meet up with the demands that were coming in. I loved the job because I was making cool cash from it back then. Cards ranging from 800 naira to 3000 naira back then (about 16 years ago).
Then it started making more sense when I got a request to design a birthday card that was scheduled for delivery in the UK. You can barely see the joy in my face when I was told a recipient of a card would be needing it in the United Kingdom.
Before I relocated from Lagos to Abuja, I had Top military Officers, Senior Management Staff, and some officials at the top organizations who had my products in their homes. That was something of great pride for me.
But one thing I found out is that people kept coming for my cards because it was more durable and Creative than the regular greeting cards they are used to years back. It even got to the point where my card got to the Former Governor of Bayelsa State (Late Alamieyeseiya) and Former President Jonathan (When he became the Governor of the State).
This was just one of the drive that stirred me into Visual Communication Design
I relocated to Abuja in 2006 and was still getting demands from Lagos during festive seasons. When you’re servicing ‘good’ clients, your brain will be working faster than the speed of thought. This is because the money they’re paying you for the job is a strong motivation to give in your best.
Fast forward to 10 years later, I became a Designer. I still tried as much as I could to adopt the same key formula I used in creating my greeting cards: Durability and Creativity. The same thing that attracted my greeting card customers was what I decided to use to attract my design customers: Images. When I was still Designing cards, I usually carve out shapes and crafts like “an African woman carrying a pot on her head” for cards given out to someone celebrating his/her mother on her birthday or mother’s day. So I’ve understood the power and effect images have in people’s minds.
With all humility, I got good jobs, not because I was that good at first, but because of the commitment, I made to serve as a Designer in an organization.
Let’s do a quick rundown of the levels
1. The Point Of Decision & Desire
This is the first stage where an individual makes up the mind to LEARN or STUDY the art and Skill of the Creative Process. For some, they attend a formal educational setting to be taught and schooled. For others, it’s a self-taught basis through which the knowledge is gained. Others go through short Courses on it, take a mentoring program to master the skill from whoever they chose.
Unfortunately, economic dynamics are what made some folks decide on becoming Designers. This isn’t bad though. The only challenge that comes with this is that, what would you do if you’re not making the much-expected income from it? Would you switch or Stay?
The Designer’s demon has little effect on these set of folks because they’re not driven by the passion for the work but the profit expected from it.
2. The Budding Stage
At this stage, the designer or Creative has begun the journey already. He’s gotten his tools; laptop, phone, photography, etc, and any tool relevant to building the skill. Training is an essential part of this stage.
This is the catch – You have a high tendency of patterning your creative process in the direction of whoever you learn your skill from.
What would make you come out of the shadow of your trainer/ coach is your unique intelligence ingredient added to whatever has been deposited into you by your source or channel of learning.
In all humility, my works are more different from all those I learn my design skill from even though I didn’t seat under their physical Training. I learned on the job while taking print jobs to the press.
3. The Confidence Level
At this stage, your “dodo don don”. You are ripe for the market to the point of you determining the price and how you deliver your services. This is where the journey into the dark begins if you fail to master the art of the light properly at the Budding Stage.
You’re confident in your skill and creative Intelligence to deliver. You’re getting demands from your services because of your selling approach, Referrals from other satisfied clients, etc.
If you focus more on the skills and art, you might fail in gaining enough knowledge about the light and how to apply it when the inner demons begin to feed on your Ignorance in the dark. A major mistake most Creative make is the lack of learning the business of their skill.
Now here are 3 designer’s demon to deal with…
1. Ignorance Of The Business:
Have you noticed that most of the creative having issues and fighting the PRICE BATTLE for their works are mostly self-taught designers? A lot of us who were self-taught designers began the journey of design from the level of innocent desire to learn the art and grow in the skill.
We never saw it as a tool for creating a business out of it. The word “Self-employed” is one of the most abuses in the mouth of “freelance” Designers who think is not working for anyone is basically about self. So the default mode is, use the skill to get the things I want.
We failed to learn the Concept of pricing and Negotiation. Cost determination and having a Broad view of the Graphic Design Supply Chain. What you fail to learn or don’t know which is a critical part of your area of interest will turn out to hunt you or cause you a great loss if you fail to pay attention to it.
Sometimes in 2013, I got what seems to be my biggest deal back then. I got a deal from a company to produce their Communication materials: Letterhead and Business cards for all the staff of the company. I was so excited about the job that I failed to enquire about the Production Process. My knowledge about printing such types of Materials was limited. I knew the machines used in printing flyers and posters were also used in printing letterheads and business cards but didn’t know there were other machines (DI) specifically made to run business cards and letterhead better and in sharp quality. I succeeded in printing the entire job. Unfortunately, they were all rejected because of no registration of colors. The company’s official color was messed up during the printing because I used the wrong Machine. That became a tormenting period for me. I had to purchase a new set of papers and cards for printing, hoping to get a better result. I change the operator who will run the second print. Unfortunately, the guy used my papers to ruin another person’s job who he was owing. My life became miserable because I began to look for him everywhere.
You see that kind of torment one gets at night that looks like a demon was pressing him/her, causing the person to be scared of sleep? That was the kind of mental experience I began to have every time the client calls me to ask for his job. In failing to deal with this “Ignorance demon”, I unconsciously activated another kind of demon – Avoidance.
There is more to design than just using your software or App to create something. It’s bigger than you can imagine.
2. Delivery Delay
The delivery delay is another demon to deal with. This demon is borne out of your inability to understand your limit and capacity. The deception that you can do and handle every job that comes your way is what activates this particular demon in a designer.
You cannot handle every job! Don’t fool yourself into thinking so!
Most of the jobs I failed more in when it comes to print deliverable were jobs that I handled for the first time without doing proper findings of their production processes.
In design, when you grow to the level of confidence and perceived expert, you will attract a lot of clients and customers demanding your services. If you don’t set a limit to the kind of jobs you collect at this level, the impact and effect will humble you. If you’ve grown beyond doing 2000 naira, 3000 naira designs, and those are the kinds of jobs that floods you and you also now have $50, $100, $500 and $1k clients that’s are coming periodically but consistent even though not in their numbers like the less than $10 clients, you need to put a limit to them.
If you don’t know how or when to draw the line between the categories, you will end up delaying deliveries on both lines. Most less paying clients are more stressful than the high paying ones. Draw the lines. Know your delivery capacity per time, else you will be tormenting yourself by avoiding calls and causing more harm to your brand than good – that’s a self-inflicting demon.
3. Competitiveness
Competition is one other major mental demon resident in a Creative. The idea that you want to become better than the next guy within your space or around you is a silent killer of your self-growth and mental productivity. Understanding your core purpose as a Creative is pivotal to your increased productive intelligence.
Every Creative is running a CUSTOMIZED race to fulfilling a specific agenda and life’s goal. You don’t know what is driving my creative thinking; why I’m creating the kind of content I’m creating or chasing the kinds of customers I am chasing. If you are driven by my drive to achieve my Purpose, you will get stuck when you encounter the kind of challenges peculiar to my drive. It is not bad to draw inspiration from others, but let that inspiration be like a propelling force to drive you towards achieving your specific purpose as a Creative.
The only way to tame this demon is to build a ‘Collaborative Consciousness‘ within you rather than a competitive consciousness. We cannot all be knowledgeable in our fields of expertise. At the highest level of expertise, we possess a higher level of ignorance in some areas where others have gained and build mastery in them. So instead of trying to compete with another Creative or person doing well, build collaboration with the person. Collaboration is the new currency in this season we are in now.
How to tame the Demons
1. To deal with the Demon of Ignorance, get the needed knowledge you’re ignorant of. One easiest way to tame that ignorance is to get someone mastered in the area, seek information from him/her.
I don’t need to learn Medicine now to know what is required to stay healthy or how to handle common fever. All I need is to ask a doctor about what is required of me, then I act on his knowledge and expertise in dealing with the problem.
2. DELIVERY DELAY: understanding when you’re making a transition from a previous level to a new one. If the circumstances surrounding your delivery of a job aren’t favorable, decline it, or better still outsource it to someone else.
3. COMPETITION: build a mind of collaboration rather than competition. In building Collaboration, consider building:
- Establish a good relationship with those ahead of you in your field of expertise. You need these people to navigate your way through whenever you encounter some challenges ahead of you in the journey. You’ll also need these people to get the information when you’re in a critical decision point, Negotiating into the next level of higher pay, etc
The other category of collaborators you’ll need is those in your downline or those on the same level of understanding with you. You’ll need these set of people to share jobs or relationship you feel is below your level of performance. At this point, these guys can help you keep servicing old or existing clients/relationships that fail to grow to the new level you’re operating on at the moment.
About Author
