Five to Inspire with Trevor Rogers
Interactive Designer @ Dropbox
Who are you?
I’m a designer living in NYC and working at Dropbox. I’ve worked as a brand designer, art director, product designer, and most other things in between.
Most days I wake up to my wife getting ready. She’s a middle school teacher and wakes up a little earlier than I do. Our beagle sleeps with us and usually waits for me to wake up as his signal to get out of bed. After that, I check my e-mails and do a little bit of work before my wife takes off.
I either go to the gym or run every single day. I know you’re supposed to take rest days, but at this point, it’s a habit that is more mental than physical. It clears my head and gets me ready for my day. After that, I clean myself up and head into the Dropbox NYC office.
The train is usually my time to listen to podcasts or read. I try to be proactive about using that time efficiently but it’s tough. It’s easy to get sucked into social media or endlessly shuffle through a Spotify playlist until I stop.
Once I’m in the office, it’s work time. I work from NYC but the Dropbox HQ is in SF, so I usually have a couple of hours that are protected from meetings or random communications that naturally occur in the workplace. After lunch, my day is mostly spent showing people what I’ve been doing and working through problems. Dropbox has done a great job of creating a culture that protects design time. It’s a pretty sweet gig.
After work, I go home and cook dinner with my wife and dog. The dog doesn’t cook, but he definitely tries to taste test. Netflix. Brush the teeth. Bed. Rinse. Repeat.
This is a tough question because it requires you to define “good.” I’ve worked with charities, and I’ve worked with for-profit companies. Some of the businesses I’ve worked for have made a ton of money and some have done the opposite. For the most part, I would say they all had “good” design.
Good design does the job it’s hired to do. It should work, look great, and delight your user or audience. I think the major problem is that sometimes design is hired to do the wrong job. It takes a good designer to point that part out. Defining a “good” designer is a whole other story.
I would love to teach. I guess I feel like I don’t have time to go back to school. Life has thrown some curveballs in the past couple of years that have made me reflect on how easy it is to waste the precious time we have. Now, I’m focused on learning a couple of things that I’ve always wanted to learn how to do.
I don’t think there are many things that I WANT to do that I won’t end up trying. I’m pretty proactive about setting goals and working towards them and it helps that I truly love the process of learning.
However, teaching is a big commitment and I don’t do things unless I can commit 100% of my energy to them. I know how hard teaching is from watching my wife. It’s the real deal.
Happy and healthy.
I’ve been lucky to work on teams full of amazing and inspirational humans. They all pushed me to be better because they were all great at their jobs and I’m a naturally competitive person (in a healthy way).
My wife also inspires me. Anybody who can go to work and deal with middle school kids is showcasing unmatched bravery.
Most of my day to day inspiration doesn’t come from the design world. It usually comes from music, fashion, or even fitness. If I could design something that makes people feel the way I feel when I’m listening to Migos, I’ve achieved something really special.
Where can we find Trevor Rogers?
Website: http://www.trevorgrogers.com
Dribbble: http://www.dribbble.com/trevorgrogers
Twitter: @trevorgrogers
Instagram: @trevorgrogers
