' Welcome To The Real World' - Me And Design In The Real World

Blog 8 – Design In the Real World.

Following this week’s workshop with Greg Osborne, a graphic designer, brand consultant and business owner, I thought about my place in design in the context of the real world. I feel like a tiny fish thrown into the ocean. I reassure myself that I am still just a second-year product design student. It is still not expected of me to be the finished article. It is okay not to be a wizard with software such as Solidworks and 3-D rendering quite yet.

What I learnt from Greg is that I should realise that no one is the finished product in terms of being a product designer. That goes for any creative profession, in fact. I realised from Greg that we constantly work on our craft. In each project, we are exposed to different problems that help us improve our overall ability as Product Designers. The impression I got was that the day we consider ourselves a finished article, is the day we need a big wake up call.

It is difficult to justify those statements as someone who is still relatively new to product design and has yet to start their professional career, but, what can I explain is the outlook and current approach to Design in the real world. Firstly I am highly motivated to work in Design. I have proven this to myself through changing courses, European Studies.

It was during my Internship with an Italian socio-economic think tank in Brussels that I realised, ‘ I do not want to work a job that is related to this degree’. I was studying languages, politics and economics. Subjects I am interested in reading and learning about. However, as a practice, I felt it lacked depth working there in Brussels. I felt like a small cog in this constantly churning machine of the Bureaucracy. I ultimately finished my coop, and the first thing on my agenda was to pursue this design course. This subject as I have described in previous blog posts is something that has surrounded me as I have grown up.

I had 2 weeks before the portfolio deadline as an entry requirement. I was starting from scratch. I worked my ass off and put together the portfolio that got accepted. How I know, deep down that In the real world I want to be a designer is that I worked so hard for those two weeks and every week since. (Not quite true in the literal sense, but you get the idea…). This has given me a strong base to set myself up to learn and practise as a product design student, and ultimately continue on to work in design in the real world.

My outlook on my future in design in the real world is that, as Greg described, I want to see myself continuously improve. I want to make sure I am exposed to different areas of design. I don’t want to be someone who just designs Bluetooth speakers for a living. I want to perfect my craft and continuously so that in ten years when I look back at my college work, I see my naivety, but recognised that we all start somewhere.

I and design in the real world are, however, not so far away. We have internships creeping upon us. I am excited and scared. I know that, when I look ahead to this time, there will be moments where the work will be tough and uncomfortable. I also know that this is a good thing. That means I am doing something I have never done before, meaning I am learning. This will be me applying the lessons learnt from Greg, and ultimately growing in the real world of design.