Hello there, I go by beckasso and I’m a art director and designer from Brazil. Looking forward to getting more connected with the online design community, specially in times like these. Perhaps to keep it less boring I’ll just throw a random question here.
How does your work represent your life philosophy?
(ok no so random, a little bit complex too)
Interesting question.
One of my beliefs is that I should love and care for my family to the best of my ability. So my work allows me to feed, clothe, shelter, and provide for the needs of my family,
Or you could say that my personal views are expressed by the nonprofit organizations that I choose to assist with a discounted rate or with pro bono would.
That said, I don’t think your life philosophy should be reflected in commercial art done for clients. Fine art? Sure. But our jobs as designers is to solve our client’s communication problems – not interject ourselves into the work we do for them.
They may overlap. For example, let’s say one of your life philosophies is “a place for everything and everything in it’s place” and you’re doing a website for a company that builds custom closets. Then, sure, your philosophy will be right at home. But it might not be as appropriate for that philosophy to shine through on a job where you need to reflect chaos and disorganization.
My life philosophy is that I make loads of money without lifting a finger. My work does not reflect that.
That’s very interesting and I totally see what you mean.
As I’ve gotten deeper into the whole lifestyle design mentality, I contemplated more and more how my works tells a story and that I get to choose what story is being told (or at least, be conscious about it). Why should a cliente hire me instead of someone with the same abilities? Why having a stable and healthy creative flow improves the quality of my work? That kind of thing.
I’ve come to new perspectives and one of them is that my values, methods and perspectives set the tone of basically everything that I do.
I don’t think that your life philosophy interferes with the client’s needs, rather than it interferes with your process of bringing ideas to solve those same needs. So in the end, it’s all about creativity and bringing some things to consciousness, I guess.
Either way, it’s really nice to see your perspective also.
Sounds more like a goal, haha. But I feel you!
I’m with Steve-O on the idea that you cannot interject your personal, let’s call it, style, into a client’s project. Especially where it’s not appropriate. Commercial art is a product. Fine if you don’t want to offer certain product, but it does limit your potential income.
If you can afford to pick and choose clients with shared values as your own, more power to you.
Where I work, and I agree with this philosophy, we will make -just about- anything you want us to. Doesn’t matter what side of whatever fence you are on. I’d like to think we’d find a way to refuse work that was hateful or hurtful. So far, haven’t seen any.
Yes, I see what you mean. I think it’s less about picking just what work fits you and more about why the work you do is the way that it is. For instance, my process usually includes a more experimental approach, I believe in focusing more on implementing new methods in my creative process to achieve new results, and that it makes a difference in the final work. My philosophy is that creativity is an everyday exercise and that I should keep myself open and inspired in most things that I do. I don’t necessary have to choose a specific type of client or work to be able to do that, I believe.
Although I do agree with you that we should be able to vary the type of projects we take, I think it’s not only necessary but good. Haha, hope I’m making sense.
And thanks for you guys’ thoughts!
Welcome to the forum Beckasso. Your first post is very thought-provoking.
I don’t really have a life philosophy. I don’t think I’ve ever considered such a thing.
I approach design projects from the viewpoint of addressing whatever problems clients might have that caused them to hire me. I don’t view my role as someone who necessarily does what clients want, however. Instead, I view my role as developing solutions that clients need. Taking that approach means digging deeper to find underlying problems that need to be solved and, when necessary, convincing clients that what they initially wanted might not be the right approach.
As for my own personality entering into my work, I think it’s unavoidable. I don’t consciously have my own style, but other people tell me they recognize my work. There are both objective and subjective considerations in every design problem. When I develop and evaluate those subjective considerations, I need to rely on my own judgment, experiences and preferences, so I suppose that’s where any personal style I might have comes into play.
Ah, maybe I’m misunderstanding the question.
I guess then the answer is yeah, the work I do pretty much reflects my life philosophy, which is pretty much “live and let live.”
In truth I do not have a life philosophy. I ended in the design field because I thought I was rather good at it, and it did not involve lifting heavy boxes. The number one purpose is to put food on the table. Number two, no screw-ups. Number three, make good work and enjoy it.
As for a personal stamp, I’d like to think I’m a chameleon, that I’d be that masked man … except for illustrative work, of course.
Olá and welcome to the forum! Good question. There are clearly very differing approaches in answering this one. I’ll weigh in.
I like to think that I live with a “keep the main thing the main thing” mentality. I try to focus on, learn about, and share the things in life that are most important. For instance, “the big topics” might be the types of things I would actually disagree, or argue with people about. However, there are a lot of things that don’t fit that category. Things that are ancillary, like opinions and personal interests, well those are just fun and interesting. I like learning about other people’s interests, even if they might seem strange to me.
This plays out in my design work in the fact that my favorite principle of design is “focus”. Although there are many different ways this can play out, most of the time, you are going to see my work reflect that by having the most important imagery and information being designed in a way that makes it the clear center of focus for the composition. I don’t like to make things “muddled” and am not very good at that, although I can see why in some instances that might be advantageous to do so.
Welcome Aboard Beckasso! 
Sorry for the late reply on this one haha. But thank you all for sharing your perspectives, I’ve been researching creative processes and productivity, so seeing all your point of views was very enriching. We are not, after all, machines that serve only as a means to an end, and that becomes quite clear in some of the answers you’ve given me. I feel, as designers, we’re often tasked with managing our own minds throughout the externalization process and understanding how we operate could be a great tool for that.