Life is a lie. The individual you become is an amalgamation of other peoples perspective on you. You never truly know what your personality is like, what others truly think of you, and how your demeanor is received. No one will ever come up to your face and tell you that you dress horrifically, that your voice makes them want to kill themselves, or that your body odor transcends the test of time. When someone steps beyond these conventions and actually speaks the truth, the receptor tends to become defensive and unwilling to hear the truth.
A few months ago I was fortunate enough to receive a pretty prestigious internship at TBWA in Shanghai, China. My mentor, this free spirited Chinese lady named Asunny, was always my biggest benefactor and ate up everything I designed. Let's fast forward to a this week, when I submitted my portfolio to her. In broken english, she commented "This is not good enough.." then started comparing my portfolio to an egg... some ancient chinese proverb. I was taken back by this comment because my whole life as a designer, when displaying my designs to other people, I have been recieved positively. Has this bubble of commendable reception been a mere mirage? Have people been complimenting me because they wanted to polite? Has my decision to become a graphic designer been constructed through factitious, amiable commentary? If so, I am in deep shit because I have placed all my eggs in the basket labeled "graphic designer," and donated the others to the good will...
2 comments:
life isn't necessarily a lie. it's all just perception. for instance, i remember people thought i was weird wearing cardigans long time ago and now everyone is wearing them! we all have different tastes, etc which is influenced by what we're exposed to and how we were raised. for me, i have different styles of designing. theres safe and commercial and then experimental. i'd definitely like to experiment more but for the dollar's sake you have to be safe first. oh and speaking honestly, i love your designs. i would love to hire you in a heartbeat to make me graphics.
-r
i also feel like your interest shouldn't be completely reliant on how other people feel about it. a lot of people don't think i should pursue what i'm pursuing but i love it too much. it doesn't matter if i'm good or bad in it.
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