What’s Your Focus as a Designer?

How far will you go as a designer? How far do you want to go? It really depends on your focus. You can either focus narrowly on only (or mostly) skills versus focusing on a broader view of both skills and higher-level problem-solving.

Imagine the skills-only focus as a telescopic view of the sky and the broader view as a windshield. One is more focused on the tactics and techniques of design while the other focuses on the larger picture using design as the vehicle:

A skills-only focus

• Choosing good fonts
• Building competency in favorite software program
• Keeping up with graphic trends and styles
• Mastering the pen tool and pathfinder tools
• Implementing eye-catching color combinations
• Strengthening technical skills

A skills + problem-solving focus

• evaluating and understanding the larger business case
• seeing the whole puzzle versus just one piece
• idea maker vs. order taker
• using the software that’s most appropriate for the use case
• asking meaningful questions to get insightful answers
• helping to increase…