You’re a designer, architect, psychologist, sometimes CEO, and much more.

Just 5 out of the 100+ Roles of a Designer

There are a lot of people out there that think designers just sit and paint-by-numbers all day. Or they think that anyone can design, or even that everyone understands design. Clearly, this is not true or else designers wouldn’t be getting the highly paid salaries as they do in today’s industry. If you knew the industry, you’d understand that it’s nearly impossible to hire an extremely talented designer in the Bay Area today. It’s also harder to keep one. The demand is just too high. If you’re a designer and you’re looking for a job but can’t find one in your area, come check out the Bay!

Here are a few roles we designers have to become on a daily basis.

We’re Opinion Ninjas

No one is right when it comes to the visual side of design. Why? Because it’s all an opinion. That tiny little piece of the massive role a designer has is just an opinion, and people love opinions. Everyone has one. That doesn’t mean everyone should feel obligated to share it. I’ve worked with some of the best design teams in the world over the past years, and one common trait has been this ‘opinion’ everyone seems to be throwing around. What I’ve found, is when you let the designers, engineers, and yes the clients help solidify these visual design opinions, things work 100% more smoothly as opposed to when you allow the PMs, CEO, CFO, CPO, Presidents and the receptionists shout their own. Have you ever heard of design by committee?

Now of course, anyone is welcome to share their visual design opinion, and very well should if they feel the urge. Designers, it’s our job to listen and respond to those opinions respectfully. You must listen, decipher and choose the appropriate path accordingly. It’s not an easy thing to do. It can be humbling a lot of times. No one likes to be told how to do their job, but you have got to listen to others when they speak up. Even if you don’t agree with what they have to say, sometimes the best part of an opinion is not the opinion itself, but the fact that it forces you to rethink your own. To be frank, this goes with any job. Even the CEO should listen to others opinions on their performance. Not that I would tell a CEO how to do their job.

We’re Architects, Experience Experts, Psychologists and More

Of course, the visual design side of design is a very small part of what we do. As a designer, we’re more than just humans behind a desk that paint pretty pictures. We’re architects. We’re user experience experts. We’re psychologists. We’re problem solvers. We’re the face to your products and sometimes the ideas behind your products. And as for us lucky freelance designers…WE ARE CEOs, CFOs, CDs, ADs, PMs, SDs, JDs, and everything else an agency might have all rolled up into one human being. That’s our job, and there is no way around it.

We’re Escape Artists

Any chance we get to escape for a bit to get away from distraction, we do it. It’s great for designers to ‘escape.’ If for you that means putting on your Beats by Apple, crank it. Music rocks and is a great noise canceler. It’s actually extremely hard to think as fast as we have to while everyone is chatting around us or constantly asking questions or goofing around. This is why you see developers with headphones on as well. Also, music is great for inspiration and just makes you feel good = better mood = better design.

It’s our job to design solutions, present to a team, listen to feedback, then go back and tweak. So, yea, we do have to go to our desks unfortunately and come up with solutions first, then emerge back to share them for collaboration. We share our work when we feel the time is right. The moment we have a solution or think you might be coming up on one, we share it. Speaking of which, we do need to stop spending extra days on pixel perfect design. There’s a time and a place for that. Just share a rough comp to help get the conversations going. Don’t share it too soon though. A lot of ‘non-designers’ have a hard time imagining what a design could look like when staring at an unfinished design. It’s a big problem we face and it’s usually why we wait just an hour or two later to share our solutions.

We’re Humans

Sometimes it’s hard to smile when we‘re under so much pressure. It’s hard to be beautiful. Beauty takes work. It takes patience. Occasionally on days we don’t feel like our work is beautiful, we wear it on our shoulders. So yes, we do have the best job in the world, but it’s HARD being beautiful 24/7.

We’re Quick on Our Feet…err…Mice?

The best design I’ve ever done in my career has been over a weekend. The other best projects have been when a client makes me redesign millions of views a day website in 5 days. Sure, I’d love an extra week. Heck, even an extra day or hour would be great. But as designers, we rarely get that luxury — it’s just the job. Designers have to work insanely fast. Sometimes, a project can’t even start until there is design around it. I’m not complaining. It’s my favorite part of what I do. This is why I always highly recommend designers that are starting out to work in advertising. Here, you will quickly learn the skills needed to work under pressure and insane deadlines.

How do we become so fast? Is it because design is just so easy? On the contrary, the more you design, the more you learn and take those skills to the following projects. Design is not easy. We don’t start from scratch. I started 12+ years ago on the project I’m about to do next and I don’t even know what that project is. So next time you see a designer whip out something in a day, remember that it actually took them many years.

Design might not be Rocket Science but those rockets had to be designed.