What is the difference between an average and a good designer? A short answer:

The average designer – thinks… too much.

He considers design as mostly done when he has concluded the ‘more important’ planning-for-the-design stage. He will spend endless hours curating to present the excruciating process often with more dedication than the actual design deliverable. And quite obviously, the actual design is not much of a worry since he has successfully reduced possibilities and automated the delivery thanks to deep analysis and planning.

The average designer is a child of the age of mass production – analysis leaves no room for intuition, technology leaves no room for aesthetics, and process is king.

The good designer on the other hand is a craftsman. He does not begin by considering the tools at hand, neither does he draw up mind boggling ‘problem statements’. That is not his primary universe. Projects are simply – projects, not necessarily ‘problems that can only be addressed by high level design thinking’ or some such.

Mostly, his type are patient and quite ordinary. They tend to doodle a lot, think as they draw or draw as they think. They also have both passion and talent to see a ‘project’ through. They also don’t run out of skill half way through a project. And finally, because he is a craftsman first and a problem-solver second, there is visible delight in his work.

Good designers don’t have to prove a point.