"I have never believed that art is part of design. One is a commercial interest and one is a personal interest. The one thing a designer does most is deal with other people’s interests.
When you have to compromise and deal with business realities, that’s being a designer. When you are solving a problem, that’s being a designer. I don’t like to conflate the two."
So many nuggets of gold in this interview that 99u did with Dave Snyder. A lot of it really aligns with the lessons I've learnt over the course of the last 3 years since graduating from ArtCenter and getting into the industry.
"When you are younger you think you have it all figured out and you’re not really taking into account all these other factors— market conditions, someone’s boss, etc."
"A couple of things I’ve learned over the years are learn where your clients’ bonus comes from and you’ll have a better opportunity to position your ideas in a way that will earn them more money."
One thing I found particularly true was what Dave said about when you're a design professional, it's not just about designing for the user, it's about meeting the needs to your client's career objectives.
Especially as I've made the transition from a design consultancy into a bank, understanding the objectives and motivations of the many stakeholders is part of the job as much as actually designing something. This is where it's been a good learning opportunity for me, where it's an exhausting process of juggling the opinions and perspectives of so many different people. I guess true to the quote, being a designer really is about problem solving.