Whether you are a student designer just learning graphic design, a graphic designer looking for design employment or if you have just set up as a freelance designer you may experience design rejections at one time or the other.
For those new designers just looking for their first job in the design industry I should imagine its a pretty tough time at the moment, it has always been difficult to get that first elusive design job but during a recession it will be even worse.
I thought I would share some of my previous design rejections just to show that you should not listen to bad comments people make about you or your design work. If it is constructive work on it, but there will always be another person who thinks that same design is great, that’s the subjective nature of graphic design.
I may have shared a few of these in the past but here goes -
At School
The lows
I was always good at art at school and after A levels my art teacher told me I would easily get into a course at my local college to do a One Year Foundation Course in Art. So I went to the interview, and they said my work was not diverse and developed enough, so they would only offer me a 2 year General Art and Design Course. I was gutted – at 18 years old an extra year of study is a long time, I had deliberately stayed on and done my A Levels in order to go on to that course.
The highs
So I did the 2 year General Art and Design course and while I was there realised I was as good as a lot of the people on the Foundation Course. I got offered both of my first choices for a Degree or HND in graphic design after this course too.
Back in Design College
The lows
It was getting near the end of my graphic design college course so I started aplying for jobs. I think it was actually one of my tutors that set me up on an interview with a graphic design company in Leicester. So I got to the interview they looked through my college portfolio and pretty much told me I was rubbish and – they really did say this – If I was lucky I might get a job in a print company! (no offence to anyone that does – back then design in print companies was pretty basic). So much for encouragement.
The highs
Many year later I went to another design company in Leicester. It was going really well and they were interested, then they asked if I could leave my portfolio to show one of the other directors who wasn’t there. I asked if I could see their work – the work wasn’t good so I had to tell them that I didn’t want to leave my portfolio with them as I didn’t think the job was suitable.
Applying for My First Graphic Design Job
The lows
I remember creating a bizarre pop up curriculum vitae of my head to try and get my self noticed (not sure if it would have been for the right reasons 
), they took a long time to put together too. I must have sent out about 100 of them and got loads of rejection letters back and only 1 or 2 interviews where I didn’t get the job. There were very few design jobs about at the time especially for new designers.
The highs
Getting my first job a position in the college marketing department designing the marketing materials. I remember getting told they chose me as I was so enthusiastic. So remember it’s not just your work that counts but how you come across as a person and if you will fit in with the team. Once you have your first job its much easier to move on to a better one once you have some real design work experience.
Working
The lows
Getting a harsh telling off from a previous design boss years ago for how I had managed a project. My problem being with it that the account manager was so lazy that he would hand the job over in a complete mess that was impossible to work out and then he would not want to get involved. I put in writing to him what I needed from the account handler to be able to handle the job efficiently.
The highs
My old boss having to handle the same job when I was on holiday and realising and admitting what a complete shambles it was.
The lows
One of my clients a design and print company (that I do some work for) referred a client to me for a logo design. I thought it was a little strange as they would normally take it and give me the work through them (ie taking their cut). I met with client, who hadn’t filled in my logo design questionnaire (she told me she hadn’t had time) so I tried to go through it with her. What she was saying seemed to go against what she was showing me – ie. he scribble of one possible angle she was thinking of. Alarm bells were ringing but I thought I would give it a go. I did the initial concepts and she didn’t like any of them, to her credit she offered to pay for the work to date but I declined, suggesting she should think more about what she wanted before hiring another designer.
The highs
Ok, well its not quite a high, but whenever you do a job like that and the cleint doesn’t like it you wonder, did I do a bad job. My mind was put at ease when I went out for a drink with one of the girls who worked for the company who referred her to me. She said oh, that womans a complete nighmare she is never happy with anything, we have done work for her in the past. Since then I have also had great comments from other clients about my logo designs -
Cut and pasted from a client email
“Wow! I’m seriously impressed! They look fantastic – exactly what I hoped for and better than what I expected.”
I have had some knock backs but now make a good living working from home as a freelance designer wth nearly 20 years (yikes) experience behind me – so what did those people know anyway! Don’t take the critisism to heart, work on anything you feel is right about these peoples opinions and ignore the others.
What have been your highs and lows in your graphic design career?
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15 Comments
My advice for anyone just starting out and looking for their first job – keep trying and don’t stop designing. Set yourself some made-up design briefs to work on and add to your portfolio while applying for jobs.
Highs: winning an award and the satisfaction of doing a job I love!
Lows: clients who don’t really know what they want, keep asking for changes, then go for the first design you showed them. And the biggest lows while freelancing are when there is no work for you.
Nigel.
Hi Nigel,
Thanks for commenting. I think we have all been there on the client who doesn’t know what they want. As for freelancing its always feast or famine.
Tara
Yes, design rejection is often difficult to deal with.
On the other hand, can you imagine what it must have been like to be a Jackson Pollock or the “worm painter” and attempt to convince others that they should pay big dollars for your canvasses.
If that can be done, surely an orderly WordPress Theme should be easier in any economic climate.
I know I am speaking about very different things, but the idea here is that if you have a design vision, there are clients out there who will appreciate it.
So, hand in there.
Beth
I found out myself working as an in-house design and development studio, you learn a lot about design through pushing out your own web projects you have tailored and seeing what kind of responses you get from the public and this is so very helpful when it comes to client projects. You find yourself much more able to see the project through there eyes and tailor your designs to exactly what they want to see.
I’ll be blogging about this element this evening on my own blog.
Hi Beth
Thanks for your comment. I agree those artists must have at one time thought they would never have anyone believe in them. It just shows again that what one person hates the other loves – the marmite factor. A bit of being in the right place at the right time and knowing the right people always helps too.
Hi Geoff
Thanks for your comment. Trying things out for yourself always makes you learn a lot. I didn’t know what RSS, blogging and CSS was until a few years ago! Working in a design team you can pick up tips from others too.
Thanks
Tara
As a self-thought designer, I was having moments of doubts many times – if I should keep on doing what I love but not seeing any visible results immediately or should I land in some secure, boring job.
However, I decided that I can’t just abandon what I love, because it’s creating from nothing what give me the power.
I try not to get my feelings hurt when working on a project. Being a designer is hard and the work we do is highly subjective. And if they keep asking me for more designs, so what. As long long as there’s work to do, that’s a high for me.
Hi Darc Vanilla Design
I think everyone has those moments, hopefully the good ones make up for it.
Tara
Hi Laurent,
Doing more designs is fine as long as they don’t mind paying for them
I have worked on pitches before won some lost some. On the ones I lost sometimes you see the idea they went with and its awful – there’s no accounting for taste.
Tara
It goes with the territory that you will get designs that your customer dose not like. You just have to start again. I suppose that it comes down to managing your clients expectations.
I certainly do not like the elitist attitude of some designers ( such as the one that turned you down for a job ) that design studios run by printing firms are inferior. I do not know what it is like elsewhere in the country but hear in Pembrokeshire the two finest studios are run by the two oldest printing firms in the county and that has been the case for many many years. Indeed people would travel grate distances to get the services of my Father for this very reason in the 1960s 70s and 80s.
I regularly get sent work by so called freelance designers that is of a shockingly poor quality and yet they have somehow manged to get through higher graphic design causes.
You get good and bad in all professions it is unfair to label one particular branch as being worse than any other.
Hi Trevor,
There are some very good design studios which are part of print companies near me too, but there are also some real jobbing printers that just have an an artworker inhouse in order to get the print work (from people who supply word files that need sorting etc). This is what the company that were trying to put me down meant. I didn’t mean to offend
Tara
I think that as long as the client is paying for the time spent on the project, it’s ok to revisit and maybe redo it all again. It can be frustrating to have to start all over again on something you think is perfect, but I try not to get attached to what I create, because in the end, who is going to spend the most time with it is the client.
You’re successful because you have the right attitude. Its sad that many designers either take criticism way too seriously or discount them totally. I’ve worked with many who failed to see that its hard to learn anything new when they’re always right.
Hi Joel
Thanks for your comment
I try to be the same, you can always keep the version you like for your folio
Hi Berg
Thanks for your comment
I think there are people who learn from criticsm and those that just don’t want to know in most professions.
Pulling strains of my hair and crying for a few days tends to calm me down in these situations…
Jokes apart, whatever you do, there’ll always be more people to criticize than people to congratulate you, it’s simply human nature. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t do a great job.