10 New Year's Resolutions for Designers Reading Response

Choosing better problems to solve was an inspirational article. Quite an interestingly written article as well. It makes several really great points about what kind of technology and power that we are squandering away on trying to copy existing successful applications and business models rather than trying to create solutions to social and economic problems. Stop stealing crap. "be aware of and take advantage of the learning that came before you." great advice. This section of the article really points out something interesting about web design as well. He mentions his book viewsource and how they would see someones code, copy it, and change it and put it online and then someone would come along and see it, copy it, and change it again. Its pure evolution. Don't try and save work that doesn't function properly or solve the problem that you're meaning too. You'll just end up wasting more time. Remember to swallow the ego and salvage the project not your pride. Challenge clients don't pander to them and don't blame poor design on other people. You can’t design in fear. "Don’t throw the fight before a punch gets thrown". Swallow your pride and accept blame. I can honestly say I have failed a lot since coming to school here. Lots of projects did not turning out the way I wanted to them to and its been a great way of growing as a designer. I have gotten much better at learning to accept my short comings and work to improve them. The main thing is I know I'm messing up less with time which is all I can ask for. Stay curious? I would rather take this attempt at a Steve Jobs quote and just put it out there. Stay hungry. I'm happy to know there's so much I don't know. Design changes so rapidly, and technology changes at light speed. I think now more so than ever are they blending together into some kind of beautiful unruly monster. A designer who can't write can't defend their work. Boy does that hit home pretty hard. I have picked up The Elements of Style Illustrated and look forward to improving. Sell your designs, don't back down, and intelligently justify your work! I can't drill this into myself hard enough. Really great article.