Busting Design Myths

March 18, 2014 | Gabby Oberti, Junior Designer

This post is being released posthumously in memory of Gabby and her drive to always learn and to make the world a better place through design.

Part one of a two part series for your knowledge and entertainment!

1. Design is a one person job.

If this were true then great design would not exist. The difference between average design and great design is collaboration. Two sets of eyes means two different perspectives and two more sets of eyes means two more ideas on how to make it better.

Every single piece of design work starts out as an orphan, each time it is paid attention to, it elevates to a new level. If left to one guardian, a design is likely never to improve.

2. New graduates know everything.

False. A degree means the learning has just begun. I can say this authoritatively because I graduated two years ago, joined the workforce… and found myself feeling like I knew nothing.

It’s true, RIT prepared me by teaching me how to use design to solve business, social, and civil problems. I also learned how to use computer software that was in place at the time. But with design, learning will never end. There will always be new design programs, new platforms, and new experiences from which to learn. One of my main strengths as a designer is how earnestly I yearn to learn more about our clients’ businesses and how they fit in to the larger context of their new industries.

3. Designers are glued to their computer screens.

I think I would go both blind and insane if that were the case… not to mention I would be a terrible designer.

Although we do spend a serious amount of time in front of computers, think about this:

Beth Singer Design has a library for a reason. Books still hold value and it's a lot easier to open up a book about infographics then to type ‘infographics” in a search bar and find something that is actually worthwhile.

Sketching? Do you know how long it takes to use pencil and paper and sketch ten layout ideas in a sketchbook? … About a tenth of the time it takes to do it on the computer.

A screen is just a screen. The computer is not real life.

Color and size can be skewed after spending enough time on a computer, designers need to print out their work to check themselves. Also, it is a lot easier for designers to stand around a bunch of print-outs and talk about a design than it is to crowd around a computer.

Since I hear the question, what exactly do you do as a graphic designer a lot, I assume that these have been helpful. To see more myths that I can annihilate, check out my next post!