Letter to designers

It's not difficult to see that there is one thing 'designers' are really good at and that is Labelling. Labelling yourself and others is pretty much what you do for a living.

It limits your potentials and to be honest there really isn't any point doing it anymore. Long gone are the days when designers really meant prestige. If prestige is what you're after, do work that matters and let others decide what to call it.

Designers love to label each other. The thing is, some labels become more degrading than others, and of course where there is label there is hierarchy. So in reality designers degrade themselves and each other within their industry with the help of meaningless labels. 'Artworker', 'typesetter', ' visualiser', the list goes on.

If you call yourself a 'designer', it isn't necessarily your fault, if you want to blame someone, blame by the education system you went through. Every thing you did has to be given a name, a label, including yourself. In the world of design, 'no name' equals not recognized or 'not valuable enough'. No wonders why you label everything you see touch and smell.

Designers usually associate design with creativity. Simply put, that is a plain stupid. We are all born creative and because you have labelled yourself a designer and trained to become one does not mean you posses any more creativity than anyone else. That is a fact, so I suggest you snap out of it.

Think about it. A profession is really nothing more than a label. If I don't know what a designer can do for me, do I really care what you call him/her? I would perhaps care a lot more if I knew what he or she does and how they could assist me in resolve a particular problem. And that is the whole point. People, not what they say they are, are the real value here.

Have you ever been asked what you do for a living?

If you call yourself a 'designer', your typical answer would be:
'Oh I'm a designer, I specialise in X and I work with brands like Y and Z.'
This doesn't tell me anything. I may not know who brands Y and Z are and never heard of your design speciality or discipline. However I may have recognized that word 'designer' because I heard it countless times.

You can call yourself what you want. What you do and why you do it is a lot more important.

So next time someone asks you what you do for a living, instead of starting out by labelling yourself, just tell them how you can be of any use to them.

Here is an example:

Well, I help/ assist/encourage/ people in establishing and growing their brand/ identity/image/product so they can become more profitable and develop a sustainable business. I achieve this by offering xyz services.

You can call the above description what you like, what it says is something that anyone can appreciate and care about. And that's all there is to it. The irony is that people or 'designers' who are making a difference in this world couldn't care less what you call them. Forget the labels, be who you are not what you do. Be useful and be happy!