Ready for some more ramblings? Lets start with another quote shall we. “The life of a designer is a life of fight. Fight against the ugliness. Just like a doctor fights against disease. For us, the visual disease is what we have around, and what we try to do is cure it somehow with design.” I love this for two reasons. First, because Massimo Vignelli is a straight up badass. Anyone who states that you should use Helvetica 99% of the time is either absolutely crazy or a genius, I’ll let you decide. Secondly, it gets to the main idea of this post.

One of the questions that I think scares me the most about this profession is -why design? Different people will say different things like, “oh, I liked to draw when I was little” or “it was the best way to still make money while staying in a creative field.” And while those answers definitely have validity, it leaves me wanting for more. I always get hung up when I try to think of an answer because I think it goes a lot deeper than that.

I think for a lot of us, the answer lies in the drive to constantly be creating something new. Bringing something you designed from thought into the physical world is absolutely incredible and it is probably the closest thing to magic that I can think of. So if I’m going to be creating something, why not make it nice to look at. Massimo is right though, a lot of the time there’s a fight involved. Either with yourself, your tools or resources, even other people. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Struck’s values are “love, fight, adapt.” There is so much to fight for and I love that Struck is willing to acknowledge those things. It’s the design that you fight for that stands in stark contrast to the complacent design; what Massimo calls, the visual disease.

As far as agency life goes, it’s incredibly refreshing. I love the creative flexibility, the pacing, the self-motivation, and the sense of family. For the most part it is what I expected, but what I find most refreshing is the drive to fight for what people are passionate about. Maybe that’s what fight comes down to, is passion. You probably can’t fight for something you aren’t passionate about. That’s what I love about agency life, no one is here to “just get by,” they want to be here. That’s definitely something worth fighting for in my opinion.

As for fighting visual disease, I’ll try my hardest. I think studios that pump out the best work are generally the most passionate and diverse. Side-note: that’s the other thing I love about Struck, they care about diversity, but that’s another post entirely. For now I’ll leave it at love, fight, adapt.

• M

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