Mike Monteiro

Design Is a Job

Jaydee (she/her)

Here's the thing: I'm about to save some of you a lot of time. If you're getting upset three paragraphs into the intro, I'm letting you know right now that I am not relenting. You're only going to get more upset.

If you are happy to work at a place that allows hate speech to exist, or designs databases for rounding up undocumented people, or keeps hiring the same type of cis white guy over and over and over, put down this book and stop being a designer. If you work, or aspire to work, at a place that tolerates racism, sexism, white supremacy, or transphobia, put down this book and stop being a designer. If you are afraid to rock the boat, put down this book and stop being a designer.

The goal of this book remains what it was: to help you do good work. The introduction to the first edition started with a very simple sentence: I love design. That remains true. I still love design. I still love designers. I hope this second edition, written in more trying times, still conveys that. And I hope I can pass some of that along to you, this time with a warning: love design, because it will love you back. Love designers, because they will love you back. Do not love where you work, because work will never love you back. 

 I LOVE DESIGN. I love it when something is well designed. I love the process of getting there. I love the interesting failures along the way. I love that I have the opportunity to earn a living designing things at a place that my partner and I built from the ground up. I love the arguing and the critiques. I love that someone I hired three years ago can now make my designs better. And I absolutely love the clients who make this possible. 

Which leaves you. I love you most of all. And I am tired of seeing you get your ass kicked because no one taught you better. I am tired of you not getting paid. I am tired of you working nights and weekends. I am tired of you doing spec work because someone has convinced you it will look good in your portfolio.  Iam tired of you sitting by and hoping the work sells itself. 

So I wrote you a book. It has a spine, and by the time you're done reading, so will you. 

The myth of the magical creative is alive and well, and it's powerful. It's equally perpetuated by designers and those who work with them. And it's destructive, reducing a designer's job to pixel-pusher, prettifier, Someone who feels their way to success. A magical creative is expected to succeed based on instinct, rolling the dice every time, rather than on a methodical process that can be repeated time and time again. 

Also, it makes you insufferable. Nobody likes a coworker who operates outside the rules. And this will make it harder for you to work with your team.

Whether you are freelancing, in client services, or working in-house, you as a designer require honest feedback, real criti- cism, and the collaboration of other workers. That's not going to happen in a realm where colleagues or clients are worried about crushing the spirit of a magical being, or when designers don't see themselves as equal stakeholders.

A designer is a worker with a certain set of skills, but for too long we let others control those skills. We let the people who hire us tell us how to do our jobs. We saw ourselves as lucky to be here. We saw ourselves as order-takers. We saw ourselves as "creatives." We saw ourselves as that most insidious of termns: individual contributors. (It's a union-busting term.) We are workers, and we work alongside other workers.

Once you have design goals, you need to gather as much information as possible to make sure you are designing a solu- tion that will fulfill those goals. You simply cannot design with- out researching the landscape, just like you can't build a house without surveying the land.

Design Is a Job quotes

Join the club