Image-shift

 

I always find it very hard to define who I am as a designer. When people ask me what I do, I tell them I design. When they dig deeper, they get answers like "all of it" or "industrial and graphic design." I want to be able to tell people with confidence precisely what I do so that they can feel confident in my abilities. Imagine, handing over a project to a "designer" who doesn't even know what to call themselves. In the last year, I've become more comfortable with my title as a designer. This mostly happened because my boss gave me one junior designer. Having a job has improved and solidified my feelings about being a designer.

 

 

This summer, I joined forces with a good friend of mine to create a website for a client. We never felt like we were working for our client, but there were times that it felt like I was working for him or he was working for me. We had some arguments about the responsibilities we had on this project that brought a lot of tension to our friendship. After a very transparent conversation, we ended up settling everything. We realized that this type of pressure happens all the time in design and that it was s just a small bump on a long journey. 

 

 

I have put a lot of data out into the internet. As a teen, I used to post whatever picture with whatever caption. In the last three years, I have certainly put more thought into what I send out there and how it might affect someone. This has caused a severe decline in what I put out there. Friends have criticized me for my lack of social media, and I'm okay with that. I prefer to put the spotlight on more important matters than what I do on a day today. 

 

 

Good design. Good design to me is why I became a designer. This program has taught me to not just go for the money grab but to produce products that benefit the environment and the public. The thing is, while this is true, we should not limit ourselves to non-profit-save-the-world-and-the-ocean work for the following reason. The big bad money grab people will always be out there, so why not work for them and do your part as a designer to reduce their impact. Over the past two years, I have worked for a very successful furniture and lighting company. Environmentally, their impact is quite small thanks to our small design team. We have made conscious efforts to use sustainable materials in our products and our packaging. We will never know what sort of packaging terrors this company might have opted for had we not worked there. This is the real world, not school, and we need to make money to survive. So go and get a real job for a real company and try and make a real difference.

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Image-shift's morals follow a pretty standard set of morals. What stands out most to me is their wording. They don't say, "we do not create images to exclude." Instead, they say, "we don't want to create images to exclude. "We try to avoid" is another example of this language. To make everyone's needs into account is impossible. What benefits one person might not be useful or accessible to another. This idea that everything we create must be perfect for everyone is unrealistic. Image-shift does an excellent job of covering themselves in this department. 

 

Their raison d' être is not to harm anyone. To be inclusive with their designs. All this while doing what they can to push back. These two statements run against each other as long as people like Donald Trump exist. It is then essential to know where to draw the line and to know on what side you stand. To be inclusive and respectful of everyone while at the same time, protest for what you know is right is another impossible feat. 

 

 

Design justice network principles

 

The design justice principles, while very similar to that of image-shift, are more aligned with how I feel. The principles are made up of short sentences that leave the reader's mind open to interpretation. That's what defines the design. Design intent should be visible right from the start while still hiding some of the more essential features so that the user keeps finding new and exciting features as they interact with the product.