I swear, I tried not to do this.
I’ve resisted starting a public design blog for almost four years. I mean, I already have a whole lot of blogs I don’t use, plus a domain I don’t use much anymore, plus a couple I *do* use for photography, plus a personal journal that has been filtered for years. It’s that last bit that brought me here, since the demands of the industry require a public presence and I’ve been trying to do the exact opposite for years now (and pretty successfully, too, all things considered.) It has become clear though that I can do this here, or I can do it in meatspace. And I promise you folks, no one wants that, least of all me.
I suppose I could write the obligatory post that everyone seems to write when they first start a public blog. They apologize for the mess, and they say they’re getting everything sorted and to please bear with them. None of those things are any different for me, btw- I’m not some kind of magical exception. But I figure we should talk about *something* to do with design straight out of the gate, and this is a good opportunity to shout this from the heavens:
Design disciplines are not transitive.
Now, if you’re already in the industry in ANY capacity, you already know this and are either laughing or screaming “YES! CAN I GET A WITNESS!” right about now. But the general public really doesn’t seem to get this, and I hope to attract a broad audience. So let me explain:
Just because I can design furniture? Doesn’t make me a fashion designer.
Just because I can design a hotel? Doesn’t make me a web designer.
Just because I can design a restaurant? Doesn’t make me a graphic designer.
You see where this is going? For some reason this concept seems to be hard to grasp. But it’s the reason this little blog is still such a mess on day one. Because I got news, I don’t know the first thing about CSS or web development. This concept also might have something to do with the fact that I’m wearing green sweatpants and a Blazing Saddles t-shirt too, but the cats haven’t begun to complain about that yet.
I’ll figure it out. I know smart people.
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Damned Good Design 
I heartily second that design isn’t transitive. No matter how much people outside design think it is, doesn’t make it so.
I’ll figure it out. I know smart people.
Amen.
Amen.
What, you don’t want to design the exterior of my new airplane? 🙂
Jay- I think my helping you with The Suit caused enough trouble.
[…] were someone to present the concept to me. But I *am* for finding and working with smart people. I said it in my very first post. I know smart people. It’s true. And they can do all kinds of amazing things that I […]