How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer
Book #1
August 2022
How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer by Debbie Millman
This book is a collection of interviews with well known designers. It’s in an easy to digest question and answer format. Interviews include:
Michael Bierut
Carin Goldbert
Milton Glaser
Paula Scher
Stefan Sagmeister
Neville Brody
Peter Saville
Emily Oberman & Bonnie Siegler from Number 17
James Victore
John Maeda
Paul Sahre
Chip Kidd
Jessica Helfand
Seymour Chwast
Lucille Tenazas
Vaughan Oliver
Steff Geissbuhler
Stephen Doyle
Abbott Miller
Massimo Vignelli
I’m starting to form a list of books I’d like to read, and I’ve been looking at my local libraries to see what design books they have in their collections. I borrowed a handful of books and decided to read this one because the interview format seemed like any easy way to dip my toes into reading about design.
It’s also important to note, the title of the book is a misrepresentation of the content. No one is telling you how to think. It’s not really even asking the designers interviewed how they think. It is a collection of interviews about the design profession and the designers share as much as they’d like. A more accurate title would be “What designers think of themselves professionally”. But, that doesn’t exactly jump off the shelf at you. As I read the interviews I quickly came to realize there were common themes:
Designers think their own work is good, but not great. They can look back and be embarrassed by earlier work.
There’s a tension between having work where there are a lot of restrictions/rules/goals and there is work that has very few limits. The grass is always greener. Designers tend to want less restrictions, but once the restrictions are removed, they struggle to know what to do with the work.
Designers love the process of creating the work. The flow.
Designers feel the need to constantly explain the difference between art and design. Or why they choose graphic design over art. There’s a lot of gray area between art and design. Some designers identify more with being an artist than others.
Designers tend to see themselves as makers. They don’t necessarily feel they have a specific skill in one area or another, and many feel they don’t have enough technical skills. But across the board, designers have an innate desire to make.
For the most part, the designers in this group are of a generation that started working before computers were commonplace. Many struggle with technology and/or depend on others to translate their ideas into a final product.
The First Things First Manifesto and Milton Glaser’s 12 Steps on the Road to Hell come up several times throughout the interviews.
There were a couple thoughts that really stuck out to me:
Empathy
When I think of describing a designer’s personality, I usually think of some stereotypes: pretentious, superficial, quirky, flaky, cool. Culturally, I don’t think we think of designers as having or needing interpersonal skills.
In the preface of the book, Debbie Millman states “Despite the obvious similarities, there is one trait shared by each and every person in this group of designers: high levels of empathy.”
I had to stop and read that few times. Empathy? Feeling someone else’s feelings? Huh. A quick check with Merriam-Webster for a broader definition of empathy:
Empathy: The action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner
Now that makes a lot of sense to me. I’ve been around and worked with a lot of designers. The people that are doing good work are exceptional listeners. They tend to read the room. They are asking questions that reveal problems or truths. They are fully present when speaking with a client. If a designer can’t understand the project goals from the onset, they really can’t produce any quality work. Let’s also remember that clients generally don’t have the experience or language to articulate visual things. So, the designer is nearly always translating the client’s intentions. I notice leaders in the design field tend to be personable, present, approachable. So, yes, I agree, empathy plays an important role in the design process.
Design: A Youth Oriented Business
There’s two parts to this thought and both have puzzled me about my chosen profession right from the beginning.
When you work your way up as a designer – junior designer, designer, senior designer, art director, creative director, you have gained design skills. But, you generally go from actually designing things to leading teams that are designing things, to bringing in work and reviewing other people’s designs. So, you go into the field because you love to design things, but you eventually stop designing things as you work your way up. You get paid more, you design less. Design studios are full of young people doing the work, led by a few people 40+ who spend the majority of their time in meetings. I don’t have much to say about this, other than it is perplexing. And also infuriating.
“The problem usually is that once you’ve built up a 60- or 100-personal-strong company to be a potential service, you’ve become a business person. You are no longer a designer. That activity disappeared years and years ago. It is what always happens. It’s the classic pyramid structure of creative companies. It doesn’t work”
— Peter Saville
Secondly, if design studios are full of young people doing the work, where do designers fit as they get older?
It’s really hard nowadays to maintain a career in graphics, particularly in the field of graphic design. It’s a youth-oriented business. I often wonder about whether I’m relevant or not.
– Carin Goldberg
Yes, I’m insecure about whether I’m good enough or hip enough or up-to-date enough, or whether my ideas are old-fashioned—all of that sort of stuff at any given time.
—Stephen Doyle
The interview with Peter Saville particularly stands out. His early work in designing album covers is well known. But, he doesn’t feel as connected to the subject as he did 30 years earlier. He questions whether it’s appropriate to design certain things at certain ages.
I mean, I’m 51 years of age now! People still phone and ask me if I want to design album covers. They tell me I can do whatever I want, but it’s very difficult for me to explain that the rack of a record store is not where I wish to express myself. Go ask a 20-year-old.
— Peter Saville
Another interesting tidbit
Milton Glaser prophetizes the current state of social media.
Question: Do you think the part of the brain that seeks community is awakened by communal brand experiences like MySpace, YouTube, or the iPod? (check out the 2007 technology reference points!)
Milton Glaser: Yes. But there is a dark side to this. People develop communities that define themselves and isolate them from others. This leads to a kind of estrangement from everyone else. And before you know it, there’s a class or status war, or some other sense that we’re more important because of our desires or a sense of betterment because we have good taste or because we earn more money. That collective identification quickly turns into a way of excluding others from humanity. We have to be so cautious of this. It is an endless cycle of human history. A collective consciousness develops within a tribe, and everyone outside becomes worthless–it’s a prevailing pattern in humanity.
Inner thoughts
It’s been many years since I have studiously read about design. And although I think this reading challenge is definitely worth my effort, it’s not without my own personal hiccups. Here’s what I was thinking as I was reading and writing:
What did I get myself into thinking I’m going to write about design? Am I a writer? Am I any good at writing? This is coming from the kid who chose to create a watercolor poster of the lifecycle of a polar bear rather than write a report. That being said, are there any designers who are good at writing? We are people who have invested our lives into visually representing things. In the interviews, Abbott Miller claims to be just as comfortable writing about design as creating design. Admirable. I’d like to read some of his writing. Adding it to the list!
Reading about design is exhausting. As I read, I think about what I’m reading on many levels. Much of what is being written is philosophical and abstract. Often background knowledge in art, artists, culture are needed to comprehend the writing. And I sometimes have to go back and re-read so I can think about it from multiple viewpoints. When I read something, I think lots of things. Can I relate to what they’re saying? Who is this person? Are they a curmudgeon or overly positive or somewhere inbetween? Does this person’s generation (and generational technology gap) play a role in what they are saying? What does this statement mean for design as a skill or trade or an art? What does this statement mean for me as a human being who works in design? Do I agree with this statement? It’s not casual reading. It’s college level reading. I can only imagine what someone with no design background would think reading this. Self-reflective gobbledygook?
I already feel that reading about design is making me notice new things and reflect. And that is exactly why I set up this reading challenge.
Let me end with a remarkably positive statement about the field of design:
Design is a way into learning about, supporting, improving and magnifying the world.
— Abbot Miller