Relatively Speaking
Some people become designers because they love creating artwork, but don’t want to be broke all their lives. Some become designers because they like the lifestyle and trappings of an aesthetics-based profession, or think that designing SOMETHING will help them leave their mark upon the world. It could be their baby, growing up before their eyes, splashed across every poster and brochure and website and fashion accessory they design.
I became a designer because I feel a deep desire to communicate. In elementary school, I hadn’t yet developed my pronounced extroversion, and at recess I could always be found sitting cross-legged next to the doorway of the school, reading some fantasy novel or comic book. Despite my lack of socialization, most of the kids in my class still had a pretty good idea what I was all about, because of my incessant doodling. I would draw on anything the writing utensil in my hand would mark. The teachers could always see my homework or test coming from halfway down the stack, because every spare inch of margin was filled in with ninjas and robots and super heroes.
I had something to say. At that point, mostly I was saying ‘death ray’ and ‘super powers,’ so the medium I was utilizing to communicate worked pretty well. Fortunately, as my opinions and knowledge evolved, so did the sophistication of my medium. I learned to write, and worked for years as a columnist for various newspapers. I learned to paint and to play guitar and to take photos. It’s like I was rushing to find the means to convey what I wanted to say. That was my drive.
No doubt partially because of my schoolyard devotion to comic books, I’ve been asked more than a handful of times in my life what super power I would have, given the choice. I always reply the same way: I’d want to be able to communicate with and understand any person perfectly, without any misreading being possible, using whatever method was necessary. It wouldn’t be glamorous, but I think it could end far more armed conflicts than, say, being able to start fires with my mind or leap over tall buildings in a single bound.
I imagine that a good deal of that super powered pipe dream stems from the fact that, as a communicator, I am stunted by my lack of foreign language retention skills. I have taken a total of four Spanish classes and to this day can barely ramble and keep up with a conversation in that language. While some inhale and exhale languages like air, I find it difficult to digest even the smallest bite.
It is fortunate that my chosen trade does not require a firm understanding of non-native languages in order to thrive. Design is one of the few fields, in fact, where individuals from drastically different backgrounds can immediately find a point of reference, have a basis for comparison, and ideally come out of a (non-verbal) exchange with greater understanding.
That I do not need to speak another language to succeed in the design field will not stop me from continuing to try to learn, however. Though my methods of communicating may be sufficient to express myself at the moment, I know from experience that I will need techniques that are more complex, more expansive and more versatile if I am to move any closer to my goal of ending wars and stopping bullets with nothing but communication skills (and maybe a few doodles…in the margin).