Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Open Letter to everyone thinking of designing

LEARN YOUR PROGRAM

Designing is more than making some stuff and selling it. It is more than an easy way to make money (it isn't easy and you aren't going to get rich) Designing is hard and stressful and draining, but it is also rewarding and fun. NOBODY is going to hand it to you on a silver platter. It is HARD work. It takes time and energy. There isn't a go to place or person, you need to learn your program. There is no magical key to designing, there is no easy way. If this is something you want to do then plan on spending lots and lots of time learning. I (or any other designer) should not be able to recreate your kits in a matter of minutes. Be a designer in you own right, stand on your own two.

I am by no means saying I am the best the digi-designing community has to offer, but I bust my butt. I spend a lot of time learning and growing. I wont say I never use tutorials, because I have but I would NEVER make a whole kit from tuts and actions and call it mine. Change, adapt, and grow. Use tutorials as a base and add on them, make stuff truly your own. I can honestly say that I learn more with each new thing I design.

Designing is NOT something you want to do if you don't have a backbone. I have a pretty thick skin and there have been times that I wanted to crawl under a rock and never come out. I have looked back on the kits I made just a few short months ago, and when I made them I thought they were great. When I look at them now I wonder what I was thinking. Your ego is going to take blows and your feelings are going to be hurt. You are going to be let down and you are going to have disappointments. There are highs and lows and I have learned all of this in just a few short months. This business is not for the weak-hearted. I pour so much of myself into EVERY thing that I design and I can truly say that my stuff is uniquely mine.

5 comments:

Jessica Dixon said...

You Go GIRL!! I Totally Agree with you! It is a HARD industry to be a part of, and you have to make things your own, and no matter what you will get hurt sometimes...just the way it is!

Anonymous said...

Did something happen to cause you to write this post?

Anonymous said...

amen girl. AMEN!

Stephanie said...

I agree, however anonymous must be upset with you. Anyway, I have noticed the influx of new designers lately and I wonder if we are all just going to be selling to each other, like a symbiotic type thing.

krista said...

you said it well! amen!

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