7 thoughts on “Don’t be a design dickhead”

1. Nicely stated. We are a bunch of snarks, aren’t we?

2. First of all, I agree with the link.

   But I think a root of this is that some people get up to a certain tear of success in a skill and can only look down so much without being dicks. I think there’s frustration in it for them that they’re expressing with that.

   It’s important to realize that not everyone is anywhere near you in whatever skill you’re looking at. And it’s also important to realize that if someone’s way below, you don’t have to pull them all the way up in one pass. In fact, you can’t.

   I find it’s great to pick the single most important thing and help them with that. Explain the what, the why, and the how. If you have time, then you pick the second most important thing. Do the same, but spend much less time on it. And, finally, feel free to touch on a third thing. But stop before you write so much text that they’ll never get through it all.

   Or, if you prefer, don’t say a thing. Just don’t be a dick about it.

3. Everyone on the Internet.

4. There are dicks everywhere, and in every discipline. I try very hard to not be a dick to people I work alongside, and I’m happy to say I’m slightly better at that than I was ten years ago. Fairly certain I’ve never been a dick to a fellow designer, though.

   I find it interesting that graphic designers are among the few practitioners of a specialized skill who are often expected to teach clients about what constitutes good design before being trusted to simply do the work. What other profession is second-guessed to as great a degree?

5. While I agree with the article, I don’t think publicly shaming people who make stupid Twitter comments really helps its point.

6. True dat. Everybody thinks he’s a designer. No wonder designers are often pretty angry about life in general.

7. Haven’t you heard?

   Being a dickhead is cool.