Why are designers never satisfied?

Good question. I’ve always felt this way and thought it was just me, but after doing a little research it now seems that 99% of designers feel the same way. But why is this?

I was lucky in the fact that when I left school I knew exactly what I wanted to do and set a path to become a graphic designer. But even at this early age, whilst in college, I was never 100% happy with the work I completed. Even now I occasionally feel the same way, especially if it’s a personal project with no deadline. I am currently creating my own photography website and decided that this would be the perfect time to write about the process and how I felt along the way.

Day to day I have researched a lot in order to get the most out of my website. If you missed our last post on website design inspiration, you can catch-up with the best of the best here. From this research I felt like I was ready to start designing. A week or so later and I’m happy with where it’s currently at. I feel ok sharing it with the public however, I know in a few weeks or months later I’ll want to change something or completely re-design the whole thing! This brings us back to the big question – why are designers never satisfied?

Personally, I think it’s down to multiple factors. Trends, technology and other designers. There is always going to be someone or something out there that is better than you, that’s just life! But don’t take this to be a bad thing – I think this drives people to do better and push boundaries. But while many strive for perfection this can actually be an enemy of progress. If you read The Done Manifesto you could probably apply this to your day to day work and get a lot more done.

The Done Manifesto

1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
3. There is no editing stage.
4. Pretending you know what you’re doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you’re doing even if you don’t and do it.
5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
7. Once you’re done you can throw it away.
8. Laugh at perfection. It’s boring and keeps you from being done.
9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
10. Failure counts as done. So, do mistakes.
11. Destruction is a variant of done.
12. If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
13. Done is the engine of more.

I’m not saying that we should rush and not think about projects, I just think sometimes you have to accept that you have done the best you can do and move on. You can always come back at a later date to improve.

So, I’ll leave you with this… “‘Done is better than perfect’ is a maxim for all of us prone to endlessly tweaking our projects and never finishing them. Ben Barry, a designer at Facebook, calls it a favourite quote. The key to moving ahead is following through.” – Melanie Pinola.

Right, rant over – peace out and keep your eyes peeled for an update with the site.