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Designers, what are you fighting for?
Are you fighting for design? Or are you fighting for your designs?
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If you’re fighting for design, you’re in the wrong place. Go where you’re valued. More specifically, go where design is valued. But if you’re fighting for your designs, congratulations! You’re in a place where you get to argue the merits of your work rather than the merits of your profession.
The right fight
Maybe you think you shouldn’t have to defend your work. Maybe you think that having to fight for your ideas means you’re not valued. Maybe you think having your recommendations overruled occasionally is a sign of disrespect. That’s flawed thinking.
Ask any designer who’s worked in a place where design isn’t valued. They’d kill to have a conversation about their work rather than wondering why they were excluded from another strategy meeting. You don’t get a free pass on your work just because your title includes the word designer. Designing is just one step in the process. Defending your work, and arguing its merits—that’s a critical skill to hone and one that will define the arc of your career if you’re a strategic designer.
Professionals of every stripe have to prove the merits of their work, and they don’t always get their way. That’s just how…