It always makes me smile when you attend design talks or presentations and the speakers bang on about their own self importance as if they’re helping instigate some sort of major social change. As communicators, graphic designers have a role to perform, but that role is usually to tell the world about the exploits of others rather than our own. After all, we’re the message givers, not makers.
But some see themselves as far more important than that, and it’s usually comedy gold, particularly when they don’t see their own pomposity. They talk as if they’re Gandhi!
It’s not just graphic design of course. You see it in all professions, and yes, it’s all over Linkedin. Seriously, you ain’t going to eliminate the world’s problems by setting up a few hashtags and patting yourself on the back for doing so. So you’ve created a social media campaign. What do you want? A gold star?!!!
This is not about running myself or anyone else down.
As graphic designers, it’s true: we do have an important function to fill.
Done correctly, we can make a noticeable difference.
But we’re not changing the world, only the aesthetics and effectiveness of communication :-)