How to inspire a young Designer
It’s really not that hard.
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I’m an 18 year old Design student and as a Design student, I’m always looking for some kind of an approval. It’s just the thing designers do. Constantly looking for a person who would say that I have made something good. It’s nice to be complimented, and both you and I enjoy that, because we all care about what other people think about something we do. (Actually, I was 18 at the time of writing this piece; now I’m 20, with two internships behind me.)
At the moment, I’m in the process of applying for a Summer 2015 internship and I have sent *a lot* of emails. Actually, I have never before sent this many emails in my life all combined. And I loved it. I loved the experience, but at the same time, I was afraid of not getting any reply.
Now, you’re probably thinking “How is that in any possible way connected with inspiring young design student?”.
Well, it’s not about my emails. It’s about them — the people who got my emails and replied to them. Is about all those replies and kind, encouraging words. This is what drives young designers. I could not even dream about getting a reply from all these people, my role models, yet they did reply!
I got replies from:
• Julie Zhuo — Product design director at Facebook
• Sam Brown — Design Director at Foursquare in NYC
• Zack Davenport — Brand Designer at Foursqare & Swarm
• Long Cheng — Product Designer at Pinterest
• Eli Brumbaugh — Product Designer at Salesforce
• Christophe Tauziet — Product Designer at Facebook
• Tobias van Schneider — Magician & Director of Fun at Spotify (rly)
Other people who encouraged me:
• Brandon Souba — Product Designer at Dropbox (followed me on Twitter and Instagram, talked to me about Groupon and Framer)
• Christopher Auyeung — Product Designer at Salesforce (followed me on Twitter and talked to me about Salesforce internship)
• Tim Collins — Product Designer at Dropbox (followed me on Twitter, after I’ve been really insipred by his work for a year)
This is what inspires me. Awesome people giving even more awesome advice. Telling me that I’m good. Telling me that I should work more on something else. Telling me work more on products, and not so much on visual aspect of design. Telling me what they like about my work. Replying to my emails. This is what grown up designers should do. Inspire younger generation, so we could continue with shipping awesome design. Also, there’s Twitter. I want to work in a tech company on some great product so it’s a normal thing for me to follow designers from great companies. But what really got to me is that some of the big guys in the design world follow you back — meaning that they have seen you profile and decided to follow you. They might not enjoy all your (great) jokes and (great) tweets, but they are still following you. And that’s awesome. Because, they can understand that you’ll feel great if you’re followed by some you admire.
At least I think so.
And one more thing…
Since every Design student has a list of top 10, 15, 1000 designers, so have I. And I won’t share it with you. But I also sent an email to the guy on the top of that list. His name is Tim van Damme. He’s currently working at Dropbox. I reached out to him on Twitter, then he told me to email him, and so I did, with my bio and portfolio links. My favourite designer!
That’s not all…
My favourite designer is now following me on Dribbble.
The guy who worked at Gowalla. The guy who worked at Instagram. The guy who’s now working at Dropbox. The guy with 30, 548 followers. (It’s not about the followers, obviously. I’m just trying to point out how cool is Tim.) The guy who is following only 472 people. Yep, that guy is following me. My role model is following me. My role model is following my work!
So, this is an appeal to all designer working in top companies. I know you’re working hard, I really do. But find some time for young designers, for the ones who have questions. For the ones who would like to show you what they’re working on. For the ones who appreciate you and your opinion.
You really have the power. The power to inspire, a power to encourage, and a power to influence young people. Don’t let that power go — use it!
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
Here’s my dribbble and my behance profile, give it a look if you want to.
P.S. Thank you, Tim! It really means a lot to me. ☺
