Feb
27
Photo by Zsolt Vajda
I suppose you’re wondering why I’ve gathered you all here and I understand you have more important places to be, so I promise it won’t take more than 10 minutes. I will ask you however, that you let me finish what I have to say before you start bashing me.
The reason why I asked everyone to come here today is because I wanted to ask you that you please STOP ACTING LIKE DIVAS ALREADY!
Photo by dorywithserifs
There, I said it. Seriously people, what’s wrong with you? I don’t know where exactly, but somewhere in between Saul Bass and Joshua Davis, a new breed of designers was born. A breed with tremendous talent (most of them anyway) but with one big flaw: they developed an arrogant attitude and started acting like Divas instead of acting like the professionals they were supposed to be.
Rockstars Designers and Web Superstars, put your talent to a good use and start giving something back to our industry, when requested, help other colleagues, educate, instead of promoting your latest book, try to connect with your audience for a change, if anybody, it is them who put you there, it is them who will buy your next book and invest their money on your talent. You owe them that much.
Photo by Andy Woo
Be nice and graceful to the people who want to learn from you, like with everything else in life, you will too feel curious about someone more talented or experienced than you down the road. How would you feel if they ignored you?
Photo by Sebastiano
If you want your readers, clients and the industry to respect you, you first need to know the secret recipe of respect and understand that it is not a birth right. It is something You have to earn, and in order to do that you need:
Quick, grab a mirror or turn over a CD (if you don’t have one close) and look at yourself while asking, “WHAT AM I?” (Not to be confused with “WHO AM I”).
Photo by camerondaigle
You are a communicator. That’s what you are and at the end of the day, you communicate through design with other people. It should be a lot more important to remember WHAT you are, instead of repeating all day WHO you are.
I bet you’ve heard or seen “Devils Wears Prada”. Remember Miranda Priestly? Well, you’re not gonna like this, but that’s how project yourself. Yes, your work is AWESOME, Yes, I’m one of the thousand people out there who bought one of your books and your websites will still be one of my daily reads, but seriously, you have to get rid of the whole “Don’t waste my time, I’m the 8th Wonder of the World” attitude.
(This Reminds me of this AWESOME Ad Michael Bay did for Verizon)
We are living in a time where the quality to listen and switch perspective is a core value in personal and professional ethics, a time where titles, diplomas and other stamed recognition have become practically irrelevant.
Understand that you don’t need to be cocky, arrogant or have attitude to justify your rates or your trajectory, your work should do that for you. People like Veerle, Lynda Weinmann, James White, Johan among a few others great Designers have no attitude and they have proven that you can be a successful, respected professional in the industry without one.
Yeah, yeah, you have a 100.000 users visiting your site every day, and they aaaalll seems to have a valid opinion or question about something. DEAL WITH IT, and by “it” I don’t mean the press “the delete key”.
What’s the point of having a Contact us section on your website if you’re not going to let anybody contact you?
Photo by sugarfreak
I don’t think there’s something more rude in this digital era that
not answering emails. This is special annoying when it comes to Tech Support email (Hear that David Watanabe?).
If you’re swamped in work thanks to your amazing talent and can’t absolutely email back, at least have the courtesy of setting up a free auto-responder, at least that way people will know their email went out fine and that you’re just not available.
Hi, it’s World’s 8th Wonder here
Thank you for contacting me. I’m currently up to my eyeballs in work and I might not be able to answer all the emails I get, so I ask for your understanding in case I don’t get back at you. If you need urgent assistance or response, call me at + XXX XXX XXXX.
I apologize for the inconvenience and I appreciate your understanding in this matter.
Sincerely,
- You
Photo by vanluven
Dear Colleague, If you made it this far, I appreciate your time. I believe there are still some things in you that reminds you how you were before you turned into Ms. Priestly. It probably means that the next time you check your email, instead of deleting people’s opinions and questions, you might even answer a few. It means you will be able to put your experience, achievements, awards on a side and allow yourself to successfully connect with someone.
Now, Isn’t that a good feeling?
- Your fellow Designer
Here’s a prediction: This article will probably be the most unpopular article I have written so far, but I don’t care because I had to get it out of my system.
It is an open letter to My Colleagues and their immature and cocky attitude they developed lately. I’m not writing this based on envy or anything else but frustration and shame. How many times you wrote to people that you admire asking something or simply giving your support to their work and never heard back? Me? Hundreds. That is why I thought about writing this article and apologize myself on behalf of this beautiful profession we chose.
2
I like reading your open letters because of their honesty, solid form of opinion, professionalism and relation to reality. I’m new to the field and new to your blog, but one day I hope to attain a high level of experience and expertise. To be a colleague would be an honor from my perspective. I promise never to act like a diva and maintain the connection to communication in my work. I appreciate this posting very much!
3
I have to agree with Jeff here, this article is one of your best and an excellent read. Great job.
4
Well said mate and I’ve got to agree with you 100%. Fellow designers who think they’re the best thing since sliced bread, pull your head out of your arse.
6
Hi guys,
I do hope my prediction prove itself false. Not to sound like an upset ex-something but seriously, there’s a lot of colleagues out there that need to print this and hang it on their bathroom mirrors.
You guys know Ray Allen?, Well, for those who don’t he’s an amazing athlete, currently playing for the Boston Celtics, he’s an eight-time NBA All-Star AND one of the most accurate 3-point shooters in NBA history. Needless to say, this guy has real talent.
So, Ray Allen stopped by Late Night with Conan O’Brien, an NBC Talk Show about a week ago, and at some point in the Interview Conan asked him:
- You are in person as well a very nice guy, you’re very polite, you don’t seem to go in for the trash talk, that other players use. What you do instead of trash talk?
(Note: You know when a basketball player after getting a great 2-pointer he’ll start screaming to the cameras, to the opposite team and then asking people on the venue to praise him?)
Ray: Well, it’s interesting cause the guy come down on the floor and he’ll dunk on somebody or shoot on somebody’s face and he starts beating on his chest, like showing the whole audience, the whole crowd that “I JUST DID THAT!, Did you see that?”, but don’t you think out of 20.000 people they just saw that you score that basket? So I’ll just let the basket go and speak for itself.
That’s is exactly what I’m talking about. Well said Ray.
Thank you everybody for stopping by, it’s a good feeling to know there are people sharing the same thoughts.
7
nicley put!! have one friend who acts so, and it is freakin annoying. yeah sure i do big-projects to, but i really dont care about how big they are. I really just care about how creative i am allowed to be on each projects.And enjoy every second of the creativity and soroundings around me. i always lett family and friends, and Colleagues have big input, and try out suggestions i get.. =)
8
I appreciate you bringing this to light Juanma. This is just one of those topics that just needs to be said— as difficult as it might be for some to swallow. As I even read yesterday, “Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.” You’re a friend to this industry and this post proves that. I think this serves as a reminder to us all, who being human, can sometimes be fooled into thinking we deserve all the honor and praise. We have to remember what we’re all doing here colleagues: We’re here to serve others with our talents, resources, gifts etc. Our duty is to help our clients achieve their goals. If we’re in it for selfish gain, then we’re in the wrong industry.
More truth for thought:
“...humility comes before honor...Pride goes before destruction.”
“...whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
Case in point: Ray Allen.
9
Duuuuude, what an honor to receive you in my virtual casa.
For those who don’t know, Kenny is not only another great example that you can be a great Designer without acting like a rockstar, but he also happens to be my half brother.
“Our duty is to help our clients achieve their goals”
Nuff said.
10
Though I personally don’t have any experiences with designers acting like divas, I hear what you say. I guess it’s something that occurs in every industry, as there’s just some people who tend to think they’re all that because they are good at what they do.
It’s interesting however to see that designers that aren’t just good at what they do, but really stand out, are often quite pleasant people. Which makes sense as it seems hard to imagine that someone who lacks in personal communication skills could be really successful designing communication. Insane photoshop skills and salestalk only get you so far.
12
Everybody is like this these days. In every industry. Its sad and scary.
13
Haha… this was really great.
I think when fame starts becoming a factor in anyone’s life this can happen. But then there are people like George Clooney who is one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, but seems to be the coolest, most down to earth guy out there.
We need more Clooney-esque designers.
14
You rock. I am currently dealing with a writer who wants to design (but can’t) and an intern that would be a wonder of the world (she thinks). I’ve noticed new designers have an arrogant flare and feel it’s going to hurt them in the future with their design careers. More jobs for the rest of us! :)
Great job on this. You’re right on!
rock-n-roll
Paul
16
Eh, I’ve been doing design graphic, web and programming for fifteen years, divas come and go, it’s nothing new to the industry.
I did find it a little ironic that you cited two designers who only go by one name as examples of non-diva attitude. I’m not familiar with either one and though the use of only one name is common practice in many parts of the world, in Western society, it’s, well, a tad divaish…
cheers!
17
never in a million years would I have thought I’d see my name and the word diva in the same paragraph.
I’m a pretty low-maintenance dumb-ass - who enjoys skateboarding… gardening with my 5 year old… and I love making design… my studio is in a barn 30 feet of my back deck.
I constantly fuck up and make mistakes. I find growth in my mistakes. I open source all the programs I use to create design - some good, bad, and ugly.
so if you’re going to stick to the word diva - can we swap out my name for some other douce-bag that actually fits the bill. UNLESS being a diva means I can wrestle with this crew… http://www.wwe.com/superstars/divas/ then I totally want to be a diva.
Although I might need to re-consider that trucker/diva look…
ps - Zsolt thanks for a great read/post.
18
thanks for the e-mail Juanma… and I just realized I wrote…
ps - Zsolt thanks for a great read/post.
when I should have credited you Juanma - that’s what happens when you cut and paste the wrong person’s name too fast.
ps - Juanma thanks for a great read/post.
19
@Joshua Davis: WOW, I actually can’t believe. It’s JD in the… pixels!
“never in a million years would I have thought I’d see my name and the word diva in the same paragraph”
Never in a million years would I have thought to see **YOUR** name on one of the comments. I can’t think of a more perfect example for what I was talking about than having you, here writing about it. It’s just another great way to show that Great Designers never get drunk on their achievements just to forget what they really are.
“...so if you’re going to stick to the word diva - can we swap out my name for some other douce-bag that actually fits the bill”
I didn’t referred to you as one of the people in the business who behaved like that, actually if somebody had the slightest doubt, you just prove it yourself.
I did mention your name at the beginning of the article for a total different reason thou. I needed the readers to create a mental time frame between two of the Greatest Designers in history, one of them from way back (Saul Bass), and the other one being a more contemporary figure, and honestly, I can’t think of anybody else other than you to fit that bill.
And Dude, totally digging the hat and the beard a la “James Hetfield”. Now seriously, thank you and everybody else for proving me wrong:
This is the most popular article I have written. Plus, it comes with a built-in iSight photo of Joshua Davis, HOW COOL IS THAT?
(BTW, I feel like the guy who made a Blog to see if Kevin Costner would show up eventually, in reference to that movie Mr. Costner did about the baseball field, you know, “if you build it they will come”, and Mr. Costner did in fact came. Here’s the link, it’s pretty funny actually: http://ifiblogit.blogspot.com/2007/09/success.html)
20
here are some snips from our e-mail volley…
--
yup. it’s me… on the contrary about the comment about certain people being unable to answer their e-mail. I do in fact read and respond to all of e-mails except for the penis enlargement ones.
:)
I don’t think it matters that you show **NAME OMITTED** and **NAME OMITTED** posts - I think it’s better you don’t single them out and let your post be a general call to anybody…
I do agree… I get people who call my cell… because I put it on my site… yes my cell… and yes I’m the guy who answers it… I wish more people called actually - it’s nice to connect with people who have read your book and are trying to work through the same problems you went through. but I also haven’t worked on super huge projects that **NAME OMITTED** has and I probably don’t get the same amount as e-mail as he does. but anyway what I find interesting is that all of these successful or semi-famous people in our industry got there because of the help and collaboration with others through this medium of the internet. so I do find it funny that they close up that means of communication that got them to where they are in the first place.
but I actually think this is ok… by remaining teachable and open to new ideas only means that you’ll remain relevant and not stagnant… these people will have their day and then fall away into memory and the people who remain connected and evolve with the new things they learn will stand the test of time. I hope this pertains to me… I hope in 10 years I’m still collaborating and learning from a community I love so very much.
You’ve brought up a wonderful observation that I think about quite a bit… and you’re not crazy… people who become well know because of the community should stay connected to the community. but what’s more important is not getting these people to change… it is getting the next generation of designers to stay connected to this idea and remain successful.
all the best
21
Could it really be that Joshua Davis came here? wow.
I agree with everything you guys just said. It’s specially inspiring to know that a guy like him can still worry and pay attention to the new generations of designers. Inspiring and brilliant at the same time
