Depends who it's for. If it's a design for a product or a building, your hand should be indiscernible and the only thing you should think about is their reaction to it. If they like it, it will get built/made, play to the audience, satisfy their brief and delight them. You are a whore, if they want you to dance, you dance. How you dance is up to you, and you can argue, but dance you must.
If it's for you, forget the audience. You are working to please yourself, no one else.
Very true, that. What you say reminds me of Bowie's line about the music industry (something like "if you're going to work in a bordello you have to be the best whore in it")... I suppose ultimately in the kind of circumstance you described, it has to be as if the client is vicariously designing through you.
It's been a long time since I've done work that was purely for myself though. I almost certainly should do that more often.
He's not really designing through you as he probably isn't a designer. He knows his problem and can recognise when you have solved it, to him, you are a problem solving tool, a commodity to be bought and used.
I tend not to do work for myself, party because it feels hugely indulgent and secondly because I know I will never be happy with it. I prefer to turn tricks in alleyways for a quick buck.
Fair point on your first part. Commodity about sums it up although it's a harsh truth to face up to. As with so many truths really.
I see where you're coming from about not wanting to be indulgent or complacent, and that's a good thing, also doing something that you ultimately won't derive satisfaction from is counterproductive, in that sense I agree.
However... art's one of the few areas where I find I can let go of my overthinking habit when I do it ever, never mind for myself. In the past I've been utterly hamstrung by wanting it 'just right' and then not enjoyed making it; it was really hard to let go of that. I guess in this way the creative process is as subjective as its end product.
For what it's worth I think your own work (or what I've seen of it, I realise it's probably a small percentage) is of a very high calibre.
Was your final line a metaphor or are you simply being a scamp? ^_^
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If it's for you, forget the audience. You are working to please yourself, no one else.
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It's been a long time since I've done work that was purely for myself though. I almost certainly should do that more often.
Reply
I tend not to do work for myself, party because it feels hugely indulgent and secondly because I know I will never be happy with it. I prefer to turn tricks in alleyways for a quick buck.
Reply
I see where you're coming from about not wanting to be indulgent or complacent, and that's a good thing, also doing something that you ultimately won't derive satisfaction from is counterproductive, in that sense I agree.
However... art's one of the few areas where I find I can let go of my overthinking habit when I do it ever, never mind for myself. In the past I've been utterly hamstrung by wanting it 'just right' and then not enjoyed making it; it was really hard to let go of that. I guess in this way the creative process is as subjective as its end product.
For what it's worth I think your own work (or what I've seen of it, I realise it's probably a small percentage) is of a very high calibre.
Was your final line a metaphor or are you simply being a scamp? ^_^
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