What makes for a professional designer or a mediocre one? This is a question that has many answers. Does someone who recycles and remixes other people’s designs considered a professional? Or does a designer who creates all-original works the one to be considered professional? Depending on who you ask these questions, the answers are anything but definite.
Lets take a look at how some of the industry stalwarts answer this query that got more shades of grey than a certain novel.
According to Gerald Vinci, this question is a quagmire of epic proportions since it relies on subjectiveness instead of a cut-and-dried answer. But he does have a simple answer for this as well.
‘The more I think about question the more it is completely off base. The judgment of what sets a mediocre from professional designer apart is completely subjective. As many have said, there are plenty of designers who are professionals… i.e. they get paid and make their living as designers, but they are certainly mediocre. A PROFESSIONAL DESIGNER is a PROBLEM SOLVER. They diagnose the problem, they prescribe the solution, and then implement the solution as suggested. If they fail at any point they were unsuccessful. Does failing make them mediocre? Not always as failure is sometimes outside our control since our job relies on creating in a void, and often with far less feedback and direction than we should be getting from our customers. So, mediocre or professional doesn’t matter. A great designer consistently identifies the true challenge, presents an actual solution, and then sees it through to completion.’
Sometimes being a mediocre designer doesn’t mean that you won’t make it big in the marketplace. Quite the contrary as Ed Carreon says that even mediocre work that is successful, can make a person be regarded as a professional:
“Some of our clients are just like many of us in that many cannot tell the difference between great or mediocre. Just because we are in a creative field does not mean we are inherently different than our clients; although I entertain the notion often. Many of us are brilliant creatives but many are brilliant at business and or social networking, and therefore succeed where brilliant creatives do not. I see it all the time as a photographer but I don’t begrudge anyone their success.”
Some design professionals like Melissa Fritz give a short answer that can differentiate between a mediocre designer from a professional one:
“Knowledge and confidence sets a professional design form a mediocre designer.”
This debate between a mediocre designer or a professional designer is a complex one, one predated by the dictates of the marketplace. A lot of designers who would be otherwise out of work, are in the business because of their ability to adapt to the design industry and its demands. And that’s how you judge professionalism nowadays.
