In one of Tobias van Schneider’s recent email newsletters, he discusses why he has a hard time saying what his favorite project is, because he’s never 100% satisfied with any of them.
I relate deeply to this point. I feel it all the time in my own digital design work. It’s not uncommon for me to love the direction a design is going at the start of a project, but by the time it’s complete I’m cringing and wishing I’d done so many little things better.
It’s not just imposter syndrome, it’s also that you have a gap between your vision and your skills. You can picture something in your mind — or you see inspiration elsewhere that you know you can match — but when it comes down to executing that vision, your skills and experience fall short of what you were aiming for.
A young designer who can recognize this gap is destined to become better, as they’ll always strive to improve their skills so they can start to execute their aesthetic visions more accurately.
A young designer who’s always satisfied with their work won’t achieve much. Either their vision is lacking — so even a mediocre skillset is enough to realize it — or their lack of attention to detail doesn’t even allow them to see their execution gap.
Surely after 18 years of digital design, I’d get to a point where my skills are enough to execute my vision?
Well, yes, they are. Most of the time.
But the thing about good designers is they are always learning. Every project I work on teaches me something new about design. Every unique problem solved adds new tools to my design arsenal. By the time I’ve gotten through a complex project, I’m already a better, broader designer than I was when I started it.
So I look back on the design solutions from the beginning of the project, and they can already feel inadequate. All I see are the shortcomings and potential improvements. It’s difficult to appreciate the successes.
Chances are my clients (and their users) don’t see those shortcomings. They don’t have a glimpse into my mind to know what the potential vision could have been, or might have evolved to be. So I can take solace in knowing the inevitable dissatisfaction is reserved just for me, but that doesn’t make it go away.
If I ever start feeling 100% satisfied with my design work it means I’m getting too complacent. I’m not pushing myself to improve. Not improving is the slow death of a designer.
Design truly is “never done.” It’s forced to end by timelines or budgets, and you do the best you can within those constraints. But every project could keep improving indefinitely. When you can see the chance for improvement but don’t get the opportunity to explore that potential, there’s always a twinge of “what if.”
Instead of letting that disappointment get me down or restrict my creativity, I use it as motivation to make the next project even better. Every project I do should be an improvement on the last one. If it isn’t, all things being equal, I’ve done something wrong. I’ve failed my client by not offering the best of my abilities — by not using the full depth of my knowledge and experience to create the best design solutions for their needs.
I’ve come to terms with the fact that I may never feel like I’ve done my best work. I will never complete a perfect project. I will never feel totally satisfied with all the details of even my finest work. And that’s OK. In fact, it’s good.
If you feel like you never do your best work, know you’re on the right track. That feeling means you recognize where you need to improve, and your next project will be that much better for it.
