Why Design Should Be a Helping Hand?

The first time I opened Photoshop I was still in high school. It all started with a game when Manu told me “Do you know this program? You can make fun of people’s faces in pictures”. And then we spent our days liquefying photos. That was until I decided “let’s see if I can do something else”. So I started searching for tutorials, having conversations with Manu about Photoshop, without them being just about blur and liquefy. Every day I was working at my designing abilities. It was simply amazing when after 4-5 hours of work you could see what came out of a white layer. I used to (sort of) believe I was doing digital art.

But all this design and art business is sort of weird. Because lately I’ve started seeing design as more than art, more than a masterpiece that makes people go woooooooooow.

In my opinion there are two types of design:

1. Art related

2. A helping hand

And designers who make designs in order to be helpful are much more valuable that designers who do it just for art’s sake. Why? Let’s see it this way, it’s rather simple: You have to do a flyer to let people know about your new discount for summer tires. The message has to be understandable for drivers and has to make them come to your store and buy your summer tires. Now my question is this: Do you choose a designer who will make you a flyer that you can frame and hang on the walls of an art museum or you choose a designer who will make you a flyer that’s like a helping hand to your business?

By the way, the designers I‘m talking about above are those that have surpassed this level.

In conclusion:

• To the client!

Choose the designer who wants to help your business and not the one who want to make art from your business.

• To the designer!

I understand your frustration with the client who doesn’t understand your work and makes you change it 100.000 times just to “see how it looks like this”. But make an effort and try putting yourself in your client’s shoes and think like him!