I got my driver’s license at 18. Having failed the first test, my father picked me up after the second, successful one and sat me in the driver’s seat. The dumbfounded look on my face signalled “I passed the test, now I don’t ever have to drive again” to which my father laughed and responded “it’s only now that you actually start learning how to”. Boy was he right. By the end of that summer I was driving through the nights with friends – the greatest fun we could’ve had at that age, in my opinion.
Five years later I graduated from university with an arts degree and a crippling paranoia of not having learned a single useful thing during those three years. This time my father, an engineer, couldn’t tell me it’s only now the real learning starts. Nobody could. Thank god I was 22 and still completely and deliriously convinced I’ll be something big and know something bigger than my peers. Greatly thanks to that delusion and the drive brought by it I’ve landed a great job in my preferred industry only to actually, for the first time, realise 1) I know very little and 2) THIS is when I actually start learning. All that gate-kept industry know-how is accessible now. All the tips and tricks, the technical jargon, the artificial intelligence tools, the savoir-faire. But the processes of design thinking – that’s what I actually learned in uni, so that thirty grand tuition wasn’t all for nothing.
It’s been a pleasant surprise to see hard-boiled professionals use the same cut-and-paste block methods I’ve figured out for myself years ago. They draw the same boxes in Photoshop to measure distances. So it’s not such rocket science after all. The biggest thing I’ve learned at work, as an employed graphic designer, is that it’s not so much about fast evolution in your career but about confidence in your work, processes, methods. It’s about reliance in one’s skills and ideation so there’s little need to flounder under pressure. And once there’s confidence, once there’s the sturdy foundation of reliance on one’s know-how, there’s a chance at free-styling it. There’s a chance at resourcefulness, at wit. There’s the time and resources left to create something new, something innovative, something exciting.
Here I was thinking you want to grow and learn as much and as fast as you possibly can. Do it by the book. There’s no longevity in that though. I am starting to see that now. There’s a finish line for that. And what’s after? There’s longevity and value in poise, in confidence. And there’s no finish line for that. I am starting to lean more towards that trajectory.
