Are you a bad designer?

If you are, it’s probably not for the reasons you’d expect.

Which color is the perfect one? — by Markus Spiske

Throughout college and art school, insecurity is one of the biggest hurdles to take as you sprout into a fresh, young designer. Not to say that mathematics, studying English or anthropology are easy, but at least there is a verifiable outcome to most of the things you encounter.

As a designer, not at all. It seems as if you’re at the grace of whoever you’re working with to judge whether or not you did a good job. If someone doesn’t like how your creations look — tough luck. Turns out you’re a bad designer after all.

Or are you?

Let’s be clear. If it happens often that you create stuff that your clients don’t like — chances are you are in fact a bad designer. But not for the reasons you think you are. And, luckily, there’s probably an easy fix.

See, most designers who are insecure because every now and then their work gets rejected, do not clearly understand what being a designer encompasses. They focus way too much on the designing itself, and way too little on everything that’s involved. They don’t pay nearly enough attention to the context of their job.

Firing up your tools or sketching some roughs on fancy paper is only a fraction of your job as a designer. Sure, it’s…