The Designers I’ve Learned the Most From

Christmas 2018 - Cluj-Napoca.

Over the last eight plus years, I’ve worked with designers at very different stages of their careers.

Some early on.

Some very experienced.

Some confident.

Some still finding their feet.

The ones I’ve learned the most from weren’t always the loudest.

They asked better questions.

Not:

“How do we make this look better?”

But:

“What problem are we solving?”

“What happens after this?”

“Who might struggle with this?”

Those questions change the work.

Early in my career, I thought strong designers were defined by output.

Speed. Taste. Execution.

Now I think it’s more about judgement.

When to push.

When to simplify.

When to let something go.

When to protect the user.

When to protect the team.

The best designers I’ve worked with care about craft.

But they also understand people.

Projects don’t always go the way you want.

Stakeholders don’t always agree.

Constraints don’t disappear.

They stay steady anyway.

That steadiness matters more than I realised.

It’s easy to do good work when everything aligns.

It’s harder to maintain standards when it doesn’t.

If I think about the kind of designer - and leader - I’m trying to become, it’s probably that.

Not perfect.

Just consistent about raising the level of thinking around the work.