The 'Call Yourself a Designer' Program, Available Now at No Cost!

At first we found this post over at LifeClever a little upsetting, “How to Be a Designer in 2 Seconds,” which advises its readers, basically, “If you want to be a designer, just say you’re a designer!” Initially, we found it a little to broad, being as they opened up to include “design” as something you do when you’re doing things like “planning a vacation.” Granted, in a very general sense we suppose that’s true, but then we got even more upset in the second part when the piece got into “Once you’ve said you’re a designer, now you can make money being one!” That seemed a little absurd. But once we’d caught our breathes and backed away from jumping out the window (we’re only on the second floor anyway, so that was also a deciding factor), we read the comments, went back and re-read the piece and realized that we (along with some of the commentors) had read the advice incorrectly. It’s really all about gaining confidence as a new, fresh-faced designer in being able to really call yourself what you are. And that’s the tough hurdle for anyone in any creative profession. We’ve had friends who wrote for a living, making good money at it, who didn’t feel comfortable calling themselves “writers.” Even this writer, who has made his fair share of scratch at directing spots and writing for things like this here website, still feels weird giving himself a title in either profession (though, strangely, feels incredibly comfortable writing about himself in the third person). So it’s good advice and we salute them.