There are dirty little secrets in every profession, and the field of visual design is no different. It’s been my experience that clients tend to think of me as someone who sits around and has fun playing in Photoshop all day (hardly what they would call “real work”), and that couldn’t be farther from the truth. This isn’t easy – I’m usually juggling many clients at once, trying to meet insanely tight deadlines, fielding phone calls and attending meetings, all while trying to stay as creative as possible and on top of the latest design trends. Therefore, it shouldn’t be surprising to learn that visual designers (like me) generally tend to look out for themselves and skew their output in ways which makes the daily grind easier to manage.

So, in no particular order, I’d like to present a few dirty little secrets about the visual designers you hire to work on your own projects:

We use stock photos and other graphics whenever possible

Back in the early days of my design career, I worked with a guy who I considered to be a really good designer. Whatever he worked on seemed to be on the cutting edge of the latest trends, and I remember greatly admiring him for his ability to reinvent his style from project to project. That’s a really hard thing to do, and I was in awe. However, it wasn’t until we worked together on a project for the first time that I learned the secret to his success: stock illustrations and “borrowed” design elements. What he essentially did was take existing elements from other designers, modified them a bit, and arranged them into compositions relevant to the project he was working on – and he wowed the client every single time. He did very little illustration and layout exploration on his own, and I was totally bummed when I realized what he was doing. It was like revealing the man behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz!

That’s an extreme case, but the truth is that I learned a very important lesson from him. Sometimes it’s ok not to reinvent the wheel and struggle to solve design problems that have been solved long ago. Illustration, for example, is extremely time consuming and can easily eat up entire project budgets really quick. More often than not, I find myself reaching for assets left over from old projects (and even from my own stock illustration collection) in order to meet tight deadlines at or under budget.

Additionally, ask to see the contents of your designer’s bookmark folder. You’re likely to find scores of links to award winning (and really cool) examples of projects just like yours. We look at this kind of stuff a lot to help spark ideas for the work we are creating for you. Just don’t be surprised if we “borrow” an element or two that we found somewhere else.

We don’t like it when clients give us laser-specific design direction

I may be nodding my head in agreement when a client tells me to change the button colors from blue to orange, but the truth is that I already tried orange and it clashed with other elements on the page. And although I’ll try my best to give them my expert opinion as to why that doesn’t work (possibly creating an updated mockup right then and there in the meeting), I know that these battles are not easily won.

The fact of the matter is that we are the style and design experts, so we appreciate it when clients respect our opinion when it comes to knowing what looks good and what doesn’t. Our reputation is on the line as well, so this project is as important to us as it is to them.

The Oatmeal did a brilliant job of summarizing this point in a comic strip, so much so that it’s not even worth reading any additional thoughts from me on the matter. He totally nailed it.

We care more about our own portfolio than your product

Don’t worry – I’m not saying that we don’t care about making you and your product look good. What I am saying is that we tend to skew our output towards styles that we favor and are likely to enhance our full portfolio of visual design work. Even I fully admit to steering clients into particular design directions that would help me learn new techniques and fill in empty spaces in my own portfolio.

I can hear you all gasping from here. But fear not – even though I’m looking out for myself, I’ll do whatever I can to address my client’s issues and make sure they get what they want. The key here is negotiation – both sides listening and respecting one another, and making adjustments until everyone is satisfied. I’m not going to just throw ideas at them that I know they won’t like – I’ll integrate my needs in with theirs, and I’m hoping they will do the same.

And yes, we will turn down projects that don’t seem interesting. I’ve certainly done it in the past, and a long time colleague of mine is notorious for this. He’s incredibly picky, selfish…and very smart. He’s also one of the most talented designers I know, so he can afford to be choosy.

Indecisiveness will cause us to lose interest

I admit it. I’ve dropped clients in the past who kept changing requirements all throughout the design process, causing confusion and chaos for all involved. It’s a mentally draining experience to have to go back and redo design concepts over and over (and over) again in order to incorporate last minute feedback and product tweaks, and I do what I can to avoid getting stuck in that trap. There are so many other things I’d rather be working on that would feed my creative soul and further my career.

Most of the other visual designers I know have that same “abbreviated” attention span, and I’d be willing to bet that they’d agree with me when I say that clients who don’t know what they want are usually the most difficult to work with.

We secretly wish we would have chosen a different career

I’ve always wondered if I was the only designer that had rouge thoughts like this, but after 18 years of being deep in the trenches of corporate design studios, I’ve found that many of my visual design colleagues feel exactly the same way. Why the heck did we choose a career that is so incredibly subjective? Everyone has an opinion on style and design, and it’s impossible to make everyone happy. Our ultimate goal, it seems, is to deliver design solutions that will annoy as few people as possible.

I should have chosen a career with very clear objectives. Moving furniture is a perfect example – there’s only one way to deliver furniture from one building to another, and once complete, you punch your time card and go home. The world of graphics and design is not like this, especially when dealing with clients from hell. Once the preliminary concepts have been presented, then begins the endless stream of revisions, more brainstorming sessions, design explorations, last-minute requirements changes, and more revisions. All due within incredibly short deadlines, of course. I just want to finish gracefully and move on to the next project!

The bottom line

I realize that all of this probably sounds selfish and arrogant (so much that I was even thinking about not posting it), but writing stuff like this helps me vent. Being a visual designer is a lot harder than most people think, so don’t be too hard on me for shedding some light on what’s really going on.

Anyone need some furniture moved?

Several years ago I wrote an article in which I offered some advice for young designers just coming into the profession. The purpose of that article was to share some of the mistakes that I made early in my own career, in hopes that others could learn from that and find a somewhat smoother road than I took when I was first starting out.

I’m always thinking about this kind of stuff, so I thought it would be a good time to write it all out. Here are five more useful tips for young designers:

Don’t be afraid to spend money on the design software that you really want to use

Not being an expert in my “dream” software packages has probably been one of the biggest regrets in my design career up until this point. I started out in Photoshop and Illustrator just like most other designers do, and I’m confident when I say that I’m an expert in both. I had unlimited access to these tools at every design job that I’ve ever had, and it’s to the point now where I don’t even flinch when purchasing upgrades (or new licenses) for these packages out of my own wallet today. These are necessary tools for me and my business.

However, I have always wanted to become an expert in Maya and/or 3ds Max. Since 3d work hadn’t been a core part of my profession up until 2006, I had been really apprehensive about spending the money for what would have essentially been a “hobby” tool for me. Even in 2006, it was a scary thought to shell out $3500+ for a single software license and no matter how much I tried to justify it, I couldn’t do it. Instead, I purchased a license of Form-Z (a modeling package I had brief experience with several years prior) for $1600.

Looking back on that decision, I wish I would have shelled out the cash for 3ds Max or Maya instead. Don’t get me wrong – Form-Z is a highly capable 3d modeling and rendering package, but it isn’t very compatible with anything else and the online support community is frustratingly small. If I would have just decided to go all-in on 3ds Max or Maya, I’d have expert-level knowledge of either of them right now. Instead, I’m an expert in Form-Z…which nobody really cares about since not many people outside of the architectural world have heard of it.

So go ahead and spend the big bucks on the software you want to use. It’s an investment in your career.

Go with the flow

Visual design is a subjective thing – what you like isn’t necessarily what your client is going to like, so compromise plays a big part in this career. The naive side of me didn’t fully realize this until I left college and was finding myself being forced to do what the creative director told me, and it was a challenging new experience to say the least. The most frustrating part of it was that I really had no choice – I either had to do as I was told, or I could quit. There didn’t seem like much of an in-between at the time.

Years later, I’ve learned that just going with the flow makes things a lot easier (to a point – see the next tip below). If a client asks me to do something that I don’t agree with, I happily do it – along with an additional design concept that I prefer. Having this second concept is beneficial in two ways:

1). You can use it to explicitly show why your client’s idea may not be the best solution.

2). If your client still doesn’t agree with your proposed design, you can feel good knowing that you’ve still made the client happy, and that you’ve got something nice for your portfolio – even though the chosen design wasn’t your primary choice. If you feel strongly enough about it, you can even use it as a case-study. Show the differences between the two and describe why you feel yours is better.

However, that doesn’t mean that you should always cave in to ridiculous demands – after all, you’ve got a reputation to uphold! That leads me to my next tip:

Don’t be afraid to take a stand and defend your work

Going with the flow can is fine – to a point. But what if your client is asking you to produce something that you would be downright embarrassed to have your name attached to? These are the times in which you need to stand up for what you believe in.

It’s all too easy to cave in to a demanding client – and I’m guilty of this from time to time as well. It’s difficult to pinpoint the exact reason this happens, but I’m willing to go out on a limb and suggest that it’s due to several factors: fear of losing a good job, not having enough confidence to be considered as an “expert”, or perhaps just a general feeling of wanting to make everyone happy. The problem is that these feelings only last for so long and you’ll soon find yourself losing patience with those who are telling you (the designer) how to do things.

If you never take a stand and establish yourself as the expert, it’s likely that your clients will walk all over you and not allow you the creative freedom to do your job.

It’s ok to be introverted

Those of you who know me in real life know that I have somewhat of an introverted personality, and up until a few years ago, I was constantly worrying about whether or not this was hurting my chances of success as a visual designer. After all, I’ve spent years working for companies and extroverted clients who seemed to take great pleasure in yanking me out of my social comfort zone and trying (unsuccessfully) to mold me into the extroverted designer rock star they wanted me to be. Were they right in trying to shed me of my introverted personality? Now more than ever, I know that the answer to that is “no”.

The fact of the matter is that I’ve done well in my career up to this point. I scored highly in design school, I’ve worked at several really great fortune 500 companies, and most recently, I’ve done well freelancing for a handful of great clients. And I’ve done all this with a socially-awkward and introverted personality. Most clients will get past that if I prove to them that I’ve got the design skills they are looking for.

One final thought on this: I give Jony Ive a lot of credit for helping me to accept who I am. Have you ever noticed how he never appears on stage at any of Apple’s large media events? He said before that he’s not a showman, yet that isn’t stopping him from being one of the most influential designers of our time.

Build your own personal brand

Most designers start their career as employees at a design firm of some sort, which is a great way to learn the business of design – as well as building a portfolio of professional work. However, there is a high likelihood that you’ll eventually grow tired of working for someone else and having to deal with their rules and processes and you’re going to want to go out on your own. This is a normal feeling, and I actually started experiencing it it just two years out of college while I was working as a designer for a large Fortune 500 company here in southern California.

The problem at the time was that I was a virtual “nobody”. I had no online presence, a web search on my name revealed nothing, and I really had no idea how to sell myself to potential clients.

Fast forward to May of 2006, and I started the Norebbo brand with my stock illustration collection. To be honest, I didn’t really plan on trying to do any brand building – I just chose the name to represent myself at all the major stock photo agencies and things just sort of took off from there. Seven years later, Google is sending me thousands of hits from people searching for the term “norebbo”. It seems by making a presence for myself via this blog, and social media like Facebook and Twitter, I’ve accidentally established a sought-after brand name.

Anyway, the moral of the story is this: even if you are happy in your cushy design agency job today, there’s a really good chance you’ll be yearning to venture off on your own at some point in your career. It’s going to be a LOT easier if your name (or your brand name) shows up as a top hit in a Google search for “design” or something similar . Get active. Start a blog. Use Twitter and Facebook. Make yourself known.