WHY SOME DESIGNERS WON'T DESIGN FOR YOU

I don’t design for many people, but when I’m asked it is a blessing, over the years I have designed for a lot of people including a few bucket list people/products (sorry name drops incoming) Stüssy, Goldie and DRS for me they are the upper echelons, the artists, the tastemakers, the source. A weird thing happens though when you get to design for those authentic voices, they let you be yourself and express yourself freely. Chris Goss at Hospital, Zac at Incurzion, Mitekiss at Goldfat and Elle at Redbull were the same. It feels like they picked you out specifically and they let you roll the dice yourself, rather than just being a designer in a rolodex.

Those moments are rare, they ask for a design, give you a prompt and send you on your merry way. It feels like they have been around the block, they know, even if they don’t get it straight away, they will sit with it and learn to understand it and see it from your point of view. Sometimes the best track on the album didn’t get the single release, sometimes the best album takes a few rotations to understand. If it’s not immediate they trust your judgment, artistry and let it breath.

It sounds like I’m giving an excuse straight away for shoddy work, or turning in something that was thrown together. It’s not, in fact it’s the complete opposite. I don’t know any artists or designers that don’t put their hearts and souls into everything they do, layer meanings, twist ideas, bring them to boil and then simmer slowly, reducing the noise until its final form.  The receiver/client of the image is then bombarded with a different perspective, their original concept is shone through the lens of the artist and at first this can be disorientating, even shocking. As an artist you either hope you hit it out the park on your first swing and they love it or the receiver gives it its proper time, sits with it and truly lets it settle in their cranium. Both ways should lead to the idea getting across the finish line.

Unfortunately this is rare and over time you have a gut instinct on whether the juice will be worth the squeeze. Even when projects come up that you would love to take a swing at, sometimes you have to pass them up. My biggest red flag is designing for committee, if you are answerable to more than one person, its a straight no. If there is a lurking manager or agent, its a double straight no. Some people you realise are paid to have an opinion, whether there needs to be an opinion or not, they can’t handle dead air, they have to say something, change something, disregard something in order to feel like they have earned their pay check. The only return I have seen to this approach is a watered down version of the original brief as both artist and patron deal with mission creep and apathy. I know artists whose income relies on this type of work who add mistakes on purpose or clash colours just so the opinion givers have easy prey and they can settle down quickly.

A quick example. Remember when club flyers were actual art. When we were kids our bedroom walls would be full of fly posters and flyers blu-tac’d to every square inch of our rooms. I’d have to fly poster town about three times a night as they would be disappearing faster than they were going up, later at house parties you would see them student houses in every bedroom. The buzz of this was amazing and meant the designs had to be keener and sharper to make sure you got on everyones wall of fame. Nowadays the heat has been reduced on this, agents disregarding the art, turning every poster into a ladder ad, amends being about their act having to be thirteen percent bigger than anyone else’s, whose above who, egos and bullshit. The designers having their wings clipped, until its impossible to fly and the art becomes passive, boring and predictable.

I’m not here bashing those who work with the designers, considered amends, opinions based on artistic knowledge. Goldie can twist a design in a second. You can hear in his voice its considered and the change is based on his own work in the arts. Its not an amend but a collaboration and the outcome is richer for it. He respects the craft and knows his onions.

Ai is about to carve all this up and some things may turn out more positively. The people who want to control, dictate, and have infinite amends with be able to seek the infinite patience of ai.  The final product will be an amalgamation of things that already exist with a feeling they are used to. Those people who respect the artistry, seek out the people they want and are happy to have a nuanced final product will have the artists heart and soul and they can explore new territory together.

This post may seem like an anti-post, like I don’t want work. I do. I just want the right work, from the people who can see what I bring. Nowadays there are so many artists out there, that a little research will reward you with the perfect solution to your problem. I’ve seen too many people quit creatively because the strain of trying to crowbar their style into misaligned briefs. When you find your artist, treat it like a marathon and not a sprint, let them grow with your project and respect their vision as that is why you have brought them to the table. Also believe in yourself, your vision, your project, you don’t need to ask you nan or barista for their opinions and god forbid your manager or agent.