125 - Awareness

What this episode covers

Self awareness. It's an important thing. Subscribe: ITUNES | ANDROID | STITCHER | RSS FEED   Music and links from this episode Suspension by Jorge Mario Zuleta Effects of Elevation by Revolution Void Ahead Of The Curve by Creo Line-by-line notes Hello, it’s me again, Craig Before we start the episode proper I’m going being a dirty tease again Just a quick update on the whole interview podcast thing I’ve got a couple of guests lined up And I’m going to start recording some of the episodes soon I still don’t have a name But the format will very likely be a couple of hour episode every 2 weeks I’ve decided not to edit the episodes beyond just making them sound better So they’ll sometimes be long conversations The first episode will likely be out within the next 2 months I really can’t wait to release it  And I think you’re really going to love it Maybe even more than this podcast, if you prefer listening to conversations Anyway, back to this podcast. Cue the episode! INTRO I don’t envy young designers All the stuff you have to learn can be overwhelming And especially now, where’s there’s so much new stuff ALL THE TIME You’ve lots of stuff to learn, constantly And it’s not easy Because you’ve got to be good at everything as well But one thing a lot of young designers struggle with And young people in general really Is awareness This is AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess MUSIC Self awareness is a tough one You won’t find self awareness listed on any curriculum anywhere And you’d probably even struggle to define it And if you went to any other seasoned designer They’d probably never even mention self awareness But having said all that And after probably making you think this whole thing isn’t even important I’m going to tell you it is And it’s probably one of the most important things designers need to know So, what is self awareness? Well, it’s an awareness of yourself Obviously It means you’re really aware of what you’re good at And you’re really aware of what you’re bad at Basically, you’re really aware of yourself Yes, I’m aware I’ve just turned the words self and awareness around a few times to explain the term self awareness Knowing what you’re good at and what you’re bad at is harder than you think though It’s some parts confidence Confident in your abilities And it’s some parts being pragmatic And some parts being honest Admitting things that you’re not so good at Isn’t easy for most people Especially as a young designer, you’re just not aware of what you’re best at And you want to try everything, so you’d probably never admit you’re not that good And actually, some people just plain aren’t aware that they’re bad at things And if you’re not aware of what you’re bad at There’s no way you could ever improve  And that means there’s no way to ever become a better designer And that is why self awareness is the single most important thing to develop This is definitely something I never realised when I was a young designer And it lead to some really uncomfortable conversations with my boss about my design work that wasn’t up to scratch I didn’t have the design knowledge to know that the work I was producing wasn’t good enough And I didn’t have the ability to step out of my own work and admit it wasn’t good enough I actually developed self awareness without being aware of myself Which is weird But if I could go back now And talk to my 18 year old self This is the single thing I’d be shouting out  Go learn to some self awareness And forget everything else MUSIC This was AADA and I’m Craig Burgess Music featured in this episode was Suspension by Jorge Mario Zuleta Effects of Elevation by Revolution Void And this quirky little song playing right now, Ahead Of The Curve by Creo For a line by line rundown of this episode go over to askadesigneranythingdotcom/ep125 I’m back tomorrow Support Ask a Designer Anything Ask a Designer Anything Website