I’ve been contemplating a lot lately on what it takes to level up as a designer, and as a team by extension. Just like anything that is worth doing, it’s never easy. Hell, even the first step, which in this case is admitting you have a lot to improve on, is already a milestone for some of us, ego-aside. This goes beyond the topics of UI, and components and the more technical (dislike using this increasingly confusing term) parts of the craft. This is about people, process, communications, zigzagging through org hierarchies, and the many aspects of the job that is not always up to you.
It’s harder to focus on the things we have to do rather than the things we have got to stop doing simply because the former could mean an infinite number of things. For now, I would much rather focus on elimination.
Ban ‘Lorem ipsum’. There is no alternative. Learn to write. Not just for you, but for the people who will work with you (and your Sketch/Figma files).
Ban ‘Making things pretty’ to describe design.
Ban the 9-5 mentality from the bottom-up, and instead introduce learning as part of the job description. Your future colleagues will thank you.
Ban shaming introversion, and instead find ways to foster community with like-minded people who are looking for more productive things to do outside of work other than to get shit-faced drunk and brag about being functioning alcoholics the next day. This is not Mad Men. Anyway, a few suggestions on alt activities: skill-share sessions, intimate dinners, going to meetups together, mentorship work, book clubs et cetera.
Ban lazy ways of thinking. Designers are problem solvers. I am all for avoiding reinventing the wheel sometimes but on a micro-level. At a high level perspective, it’s always encouraged to think deeper, as locally as you can be, and as focused to your users as possible rather than too often being distracted by what your highly successful neighbor is up to. You’ll always be a step behind, if that is the kind of mentality you encourage.
Beyond creating great work, I’ve also taken a proactive step in making sure I live a higher quality of life and mindset. Just like the most innovative and successful startups in the world, everything is internally-driven. Every milestone worth aiming for starts by being honest, and is built by lasting principles that are gonna stick with you longer than your Sketch expertise.
I don’t want to just work, i am in the business of producing work that is worth my time, for the causes and the people I care about the most simply because life is too short to do mediocre work, much more so be surrounded by mediocre people.
I know next to nothing about sports but i’ll end this with a timely quote from Kobe Bryant: ""Life is too short to get bogged down and be discouraged. You have to keep moving. You have to keep going." - Kobe Bryant
and this: “The answer to “Why?” is “because why the fuck else would you even want to be alive but to do things as well as you can?” - Stewart Butterfield, We Don’t Sell Saddles Here
Thank you for reading,
Nikki Espartinez