Pressure in the design world

And how you loose your passion in the process

Attention: the following paragraphs include a rant by a design student who wrote this while being completely burnt out. Viewer discretion is advised.

Sometimes, I’ve just had it up to here **reaches hand high above head** with the pressure to succeed perfectly in my career.

Don’t get me wrong. Most people my age need a swift kick in the rear in order to make it in their future careers. Not to mention, if you have a professor who’s gone a little soft, students usually gets a free pass to “procrastinate-as-much-as-you-want land.”

In a sense, I don’t understand how people can be ready to graduate and still not feel the pressure that often weighs on me to succeed.

That pressure came in force around the beginning of my second year. It walloped me against some sharp rocks, aptly named “societal expectations,” which were formed out of a glopping collection of opinions from my family, friends, co-workers, professors, and strangers on the internet.

I felt that in order to achieve a specific career or be one of the best designers in my class, that I had to reach some unnamed goal.

I had to have a certain number of portfolio pieces, never have a super long period of free-time, and un-ironically use the word “hustle” (I’m looking at you, GaryVee).

In a certain sense, it was exactly what I needed to succeed at school and in my internship and it helped me to go above and beyond a large majority of my peers.

In another very real sense, it made me completely burned out.

I think the question running around my head was, “How in the world am I supposed to go far and achieve my career goals if I’m burned out every time I try?”

Attention: I stopped writing the above paragraph, because I knew there was an answer to my question, but I wasn’t sure what it was yet. The following paragraphs were written several days later and include the answer to myself and my previous rant.

The answer came in the form of a journal entry I made.

Late one night, I sat down and decided to create a “ramble” page in my bullet journal. I didn’t know what it was going to be about, but I felt like I just needed to write something.

I started writing about the pressure I felt to be constantly being creative as a designer, and towards the middle of the page, I wrote:

So, I fight against the pressure, while fighting to keep the passion.

I came to a grinding halt.

That was it. That was the answer.

The times where I felt the most successful were the times when I was passionate about what I was doing.

Pressure from others killed my soul and made designing anything a task and a chore—something that had to be done because the world said so.

Passion for those people, however, lit a fire underneath me.

It caused me to think about how to help others and about how the world could become a better place through good design.

After all, that was the reason we all became designers in the first place, wasn’t it?

I realized I had gotten it all mixed up.

Pressure from others causes you to doubt your innate sense of creativity.

Passion for them allows you to create without boundaries

I don’t think it’s an easy thing to keep the passion and disregard the pressure. With both, you’re doing it for others. The only difference is your motive.

I think every designer, especially one who is a student, has a hard time with this.

The creative industry is chock-full of expectations from others, and we are hard-wired to live up to them. I think it will always be an uphill battle to keep our passion alive.

But, it will make the world a better place and it will make you the designer you want to be.

The rest of my journal entry:

So, I fight against the pressure, while fighting to keep the passion.

And my fingers continue to work.

And the night turns in.

Thanks for reading! If you’re interested in getting to know or working with me, you can find me at reedknecht.com, reed_adventures on Instagram, or reedknecht on Twitter.