25 Reasons You Might Be A Hardcore Graphic/Web Designer
It’s that time again. I thought I’d let you peer into my head for a post, so I sat down with a notepad, a pen and a 12 pack of Bud Light. After some deep thought, I came up with this list of signs that you might be a hardcore designer. A lot of these signs can overlap other professions too. From my experience, the following list contains mostly truths, mixed in with a little humor.
25 Reasons You Might Be A Hardcore Graphic/Web Designer
(In no particular order)
- You’ve almost rear-ended the car in front of you because you were analyzing a font on a billboard.
- You get pissed when a free Photoshop brush you download is less than 1000px in size.
- You’d rather study the paisley pattern on your boyfriend/girlfriend’s shirt than listen to what he/she has to say.
- You can use keyboard shortcuts at light speed, blindfolded, but you can’t type a paragraph of text without staring at the keyboard.
- You’ve had “Software Nightmares,” when you’ve been working way too much.
- You consider meals interruptions.
- You’ve learned your lesson and stopped using the word “final” in any file name when saving.
- You clean your keyboard more often than you wash your car.
- You’ve intentionally given up trying to explain your projects to non-designers.
- You see CMYK and RGB like Neo sees the Matrix.
- You’d rather organize your desktop than your sock drawer.
- When you heard that Adobe was acquiring Macromedia, you had a Design Orgasm.
- When you look at Album art all you see are grunge Photoshop Brushes. (Then you see the album art a couple minutes later)
- You’ve Photoshopped out a watermark for a comp or mock-up.
- You’ve actually $paid for a font.
- You’ve totally slaughtered a great design concept because the client thinks he/she knows best. (everyone thinks they are a designer)
- The amount of words you’ve written with a sharpie labeling burned discs total more than the amount of words you’ve read in novels.
- You’ve had to explain to a client that a layered file wasn’t part of the deal.
- You’ve kept a ragged concert ticket just so you could scan it.
- You’ve nicknamed the OSX spinning wheel. (and not affectionately)
- You bookmark a resource more often than you have a fun night out on the town.
- You’ve intentionally overbid a project because you can sniff out a bad client from a mile away.
- You can’t go to a restaurant without secretly critiquing the menu design.
- You have an amazingly huge font collection, and an amazingly short temper.
- If you had a penny for every mouse click, you would have been a trillionaire 3 years ago.
After you have sat your Microsoft exams and attained the Microsoft certifications, you are ready to launch a quality website. You can use Microsoft software .Net framework to develop the website. Once the development phase is over find web host for yourself. Use Google Adsense for financing your site. Make sure you apply search engine marketing techniques to increase the link popularity from your site. This will pay off in the long run as it will get you good advertisements are better rates than Google Adsense. For the maintenance of the website it will be nice to have a broadband internet connection so necessary updates can be made efficiently.
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- Design Inspiration
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- Mac Users: A Note on Adobe Keyboard Shortcuts
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Nice work - I find myself in almost every line you wrote :-)
Haha..well i can see myself too in some of them (3, 6, 16, 18, 22, 23..)!
I especially like the points 9 and 16.
Unfortunatelly your clients never know what is good for themselves.
23 is the best… hahahaha
I always do that……
HAHA… great… 20 RULEZZZ :D and i agree with 9 and 16 :D but all the points are right…
?You?ve almost rear-ended the car in front of you because you were analyzing a font on a billboard.?
not almost. :
[...] guys over at Bittbox have compiled 25 reasons why you might be a hardcore graphic/web designer. If you want to while away five minutes and have a laugh whilst you’re at it, head over and [...]
nice list! particularly enjoyed the comment about naming things “final” - big mistake!
Very Nice!!!
Whew! It’s nice to know I’m not alone!
Great list!
@Paul,
I knew someone had probably done that! Oops!
~BittBox
Excellent. I love this article.
Now I can prove to my girlfriend that I am not the only one like this!
Hey BittBox,
I love number 3…
“3. You?d rather study the paisley pattern on your girlfriend?s blouse than listen to what she has to say. (Sorry Ladies)”
Of course, this could be the sign of a bad date or she may think you’re just a perv. Excellent post. Very funny :)
Luc
I can definitely relate to #5. I was haunted for a week but an unsolvable Minesweeper in my sleep.
“I should be able to clear this area, but I can’t! Why? WHY????”
4 and 6 are so me :P
Damn, too many of those match me pretty well. Excellent list!
> 18. You?ve had to explain to a client that a layered file wasn?t part of the deal.
Not providing source files to a client is very unprofessional (after payment of course). It is a work for hire, and rightfully belongs to them. Furthermore, letting the client know that they are in a position to walk away at any time builds trust and keeps you transparent.
These might be *signs*, but they are definitely NOT *reasons*.
Dboy
[...] 25 Reasons You Might Be A Hardcore Graphic/Web Designer [...]
@_mind
Sorry, but you’re wrong.
Example: A client pays for a poster. You design and give them a poster, Hi-Res, whatever, but a poster.
You give them your layered file with design elements that you have been making and using for years, (these could be clipped images, custom vector files, etc.) and they take your layered file and you never get their business again, because you just handed them years of design hours in a single file. (which they didn’t pay for, and they can get their cousin to drag/delete layers for free) They paid for a poster, not your design library.
Printers are a different story, they need to do color correcting, and won’t steal your business because they don’t design, they just print.
~BittBox
great list dear,
thanks…
This is so true! Funny article
#6: You consider meals an interruption. I used to be like that. I still am sometimes.
I also agree about not giving a layered PS file. Just to cover your tracks all you have do is write it into the agreement.
[...]You?ve nicknamed the OSX spinning wheel. (and not affectionately)[...] I call it the spinning wheel of doom :)
OMG - in that case im as hardcore as they come lol, ticked 25 out of 25 (and can add a few too lol)
You forgot “You have a tattoo of a the pen tool icon..”
I’m curious about everyone else’s experiences. . . . If you want to add to the list!
~BittBox
http://home.comcast.net/~spange/spange_tattoo.jpg
[...] (from bitbox) [...]
7. “You?ve learned your lesson and stopped using the word ?final? in any file name when saving. ”
Love it :)
[...] Hardcore Graphic/Web Designer | BittBox Filed under: Uncategorized — recar @ 11:27 pm 25 Reasons You Might Be A Hardcore Graphic/Web Designer | BittBox It’s shameful how true these are..[technology] [design] [...]
26. you think you’re a rock star, and you would sell your soul to Viacom just like one too.
i laughed out loud at no. 20. i call it the spinning wheel of death. but then i got more ram and i dont see it anymore
I don’t mean to be a bee in everyone’s bonnet but…
Not all graphic/web designers are male
Wtf is up with # 3? Does that nuance apply ONLY to males?
It SHOULD say:
You?d rather study the pattern on your boyfriend/girlfriend’s shirt than listen to what he/she has to say.
Because really, I find myself doing that sometimes. And not only with my boyfriend, but with my parents, boss, people I barely know….etc.
[...] lately. Because of all this, maybe as a result of all this, I came across an article on Digg titled 25 Reasons You Might Be a Hardcore Graphic/Web Designer. I guess I’m at least partially a hardcore designer because I can relate with more then half [...]
@feebs
Sorry, didn’t mean for it to come across that way. I was writing from my own perspective. I know lots of talented female designers.
Edited the post. Thanks.
~BittBox
Thanks BittBox :) It’s not a huge deal, it just gets frustrating for us girls not to be included/considered in this field.
@feebs
No problem, I just didn’t think about it when I was writing. Good thing I have readers to help me out. Thanks again.
~BittBox
so true so true
Well done! This was simply too funny. As a graphics newb, I find myself analyzing illustrations into layers… I drive myself nuts sometimes.
hahahahahaha! Final in document names. The ones with “final” in them are like 6 versions ago. Just learned this lesson in recent months.
hahahahahaha!
s
#17 made me laugh for like a minute straight too.
Not true for me but very funny.
s
Great list. Especially the one where your clients are designers too. Imagine that.
[...] 25 Reasons You Might Be A Hardcore Graphic/Web Designer | BittBox - You might be a hardcore graphic / web designer if… [...]
So true.
#6 is all me.
[...] by BittBox’s fantastic post, I decided to write my own post about my blogging problem. Here are my 25 signs that you might have [...]
“(In no particular order)”
Well, you’re certainly not hardcore. If the numbers next to the items have no significance, then you should have used an unordered list.
Too true, though there was a conspicuous oversight:
"You can, and sometimes do, speak the phrase ‘design porn’ without shame or irony."
@feebs
Not to be a bee in anyone’s bonnet, but why do women have to stare at the opposite sex to stare at a significant other?
hahaha
I pity all you fools!
Are you for real?
[...] Original article [...]
Everyone that takes computer designing tools seriously grieved over this. So, you just don’t know shit :)
Bittbox’s 25 Reasons You Might Be A Hardcore Graphic/Web Designer
I love this (and I guess quite a few others did as well.) 25 Reasons You Might Be A Hardcare Graphic/Web Designer
Hillarious.
I really do have a nickname for the OS X “spinning pinwheel”, for some reason I call it “the spinning rainbow of death” (doom, destruction, or something similar). You get the picture.
Great list.
Great list, I loved it, I lol’ed a few times!
26. You find yourself thinking “command+S” after finishing normal household tasks like doing the dishes.
“When you heard that Adobe was acuiring Macromedia, you had a Design Orgasm.”
Actually for me it was a design nightmare since (as evident by the CS3 prices) we really did not need adobe to have an uncontested monopoly of the design programs.
Rest of your list was quite funny. thanks!
That’s the best list ever, and it’s all true.
21 and 23 are funny n kinda a true
nice list.
Love it! I tried to share these with my hubby - he didn’t get it…… I ‘ve already had “software nightmares” and I’m still in school!
[...] has a great blog post listing the “25 Reasons You Might Be A Hardcore Graphic/Web Designer.” Here are the ones that apply to [...]
One more: You mentally adjust the levels of what you see - off screen.
Ok … ok … so how did you get to know me so well… ! Have you been talking to my husband (lol)
Great list!
Great list ;-)
Some of them apply to me, #23 is the best. There’s no restaurant/whatever where I don’t comment on the design/layout/typography.
Spot on.
Thank god it’s not just me that has ’software nightmares’ :P
Too true, 90% of that list is me, through and through.
Well, some of the lines fit to me… I have to reconsider my way of life, don’t I? ;)
aargh, i’ve done /am all those things.!!
I am not alone. What a joy.
[...] Source [...]
My husband actually described a computer as “sexy” once. This list is so him, with a couple exceptions.
Haha, these are great..
I’m not surprised that I fit in most of them..
I think 23 is the closest to any graphic/web designer..
This is great, too true.
10+ times a day - “How will that Live Trace?”
[...] Fun list over at BittBox for all us designer/illustrator freaks out there. One of my faves: [...]
oh god, its me
@CD Designer
Nice addition, guilty.
~BittBox
[...] 25 Reasons You Might Be A Hardcore Graphic/Web Designer [...]
?You?ve almost rear-ended the car in front of you because you were analyzing a font on a billboard.?
Well, it was the text on the rear end of other car I kept analysing when I smashed in the car in front…. nasty one.
I laughed so hard at #10. Thats the best one. LOL
I think this is great list- on item #12 although, being a Macromedia fan (especially of FreeHand) I thought the combing of Illustrator and FreeHand would become “Frustrator’ (sorry).
And yes I am a hard-core designer, I am working on my laptop outside by the pool on a Sunday…
How about “The first thing that comes to your mind when you mess up away from a computer is ctrl-z”
#33FF5A! and you just can’t argue that!!! BANG, another rear ender. Nice shirt babe, I wasn’t looking at your b**bs, serious. To eat, oh no, just looking at the menu… design, hehe, all so true.
[...] also recently read a great article while messing around on DIGG. “25 Reasons You Might Be a Hardcore Designer”. It gave me a chuckle and made me start thinking about the big wide world around me. If you have a [...]
These are great but I have a small add.
You know you’ve used Maya too much when try to rotate around in a picture on the web!
Bittbox man you are my hero! It’s totally great to have a reminder of why it is you do what you do. Might as well have a laugh while you’re at it too, right? I am currently working on a personal portfolio website…but bittbox has inspired me to possibly take it a step further and provide a blog with free content as well! I’ll give you an update when it’s all worked out… and I totally agree with Bill about Maya ;)
@Josiah
Thanks, and I’m happy to hear that you are interested in blogging. I love to share. I think it truly makes all of us better, as we can learn from each other and comment/share - our thoughts/ideas/design methods/shortcuts.
Also, for everyone else: Glad to hear that I’m not the only one that has “Software nightmares.”
~BittBox
Agh! Typeface! Typeface!
You had me at #20. We call it the “gay wheel”.
This is so hillarious!
I can relate to most of the things in the list. I am glad I am not the only one doing them. But I’m not hardcore.. I have a long ways to go.
Also, one time I caught myself comparing a song to a multi layer .psd.
you have post it notes covered in hex values and pixel dimensions all over your desk
Shit fucking lists like that want me to hit the cunt that wrote it You sir are a class A bellend.
[...] Bittbox, comes a cheeky list of ways to tell you’re a true design [...]
All I have to say is, if you liked the fact that Adobe bought out Macromedia, you can’t be that hardcore. Macromedia rocks/ed. Adobe needs to pull up it’s designer socks.
What a load of populist rubbish spouted for ‘designers in the know’.
Get real and stop trying become a memeber of this ‘cogniscenti’ by propogating this ‘them and us’ rubbish.
Haha, every time I have to compromise a good design to what the client thinks would look better, first thing I think is “Oh great, now I can’t use this in my portfolio.”
Great list, though.
you must be a designer, you spelled acquired incorrectly…
HaAhAHAHHHA… This was the best blog yet, Deff. a print out and poast on the wall piece……keeps up the great stuff.
I’m a marketing person with graphic design “knack”…aka I can do more than non-designer but not really one. So I’m not a full-fledge designer but I found myself doing at least 10 of these already!!!
I’m a total font hag….love them fonts!
I’ve actually said out loud at a restaurant, while staring at the menu, “Ha! I guess Rosewood isn’t the go-to font anymore! Look, they switched to regular old Garamond!” Then secretly tried to figure out WHICH Garamond it was. Needless to say, my girlfriend’s reaction was, “…what? What the hell are you talking about?”
And, it’s the spinning pinwheel of death.
I enjoyed 4 because somehow that is so true.
while chatting with my business partner “SBBOD” means…”Spinning Beach Ball of Death”…which is also interpreted, “I’m gonna flippin’ throw my computer through the wall”
Awesome post!
[...] 25 Reasons You Might Be A Hardcore Graphic/Web Designer | BittBox 07 at 2:27 am ? Filed under Rants It?s that time again. I thought I?d let you peer into my head for a post, so I sat down with a notepad, a pen and a 12 pack of Bud Light. After some deep thought, I came up with this list of signs that you might be a (tags: toread designer) [...]
True True, guess this is our curse for being designers :p lovely curse though lol
Am not a designer but Reason No. 25 is pretty true in my case… rather i would be a zillionaire…
By the way check out the design of my blog hashout and do offer your expert opinion and suggestions….
Did you go on vacation again?
Minus the short temper and the macromedia thing (I was afraid for macromedia) that is a great write-up. I do have to say I know designers with short tempers though. I wish I could sniff out bad clients… I have started to be able to a lot better though.
26. You wanted to add #26-35 to the list, but realized that you just stretched your 10-minute “mind clearing break/breath of fresh air” into 90 minutes of youtube, flickr, cnn, and marginally project-related “research” at design-sponge and that your project isn’t designing itself like you thought it might!!!!
The 5, the 6 and the 7 got me, but, about layering a song, that is interesting…. i found, whe was still teenager,looking from the window of the bus, thinking in terms of parallax layers; and since I am a old protracker user, i disassemble the songs in tracks, trying to figure fade in-out, volume, vibrato,etc….
Well, as a developer/enginerr, I still have to admit to almost all of your points (actually all except those that metion fonts [and even a few of those] but definately not the mouse clicks: the mouse requires leaving the keyboard when TAB and Search as You Type are equally useful).
Every line of that is 100% true! Haha. That’s genius. I find mysel looking at people’s teeshirts and saying “Did you know that fonr is called ‘Selfish’ “… And then I realise how dull my life has become! Hahaha.
You have entered my mind and labeled me like livestock to slaughter.
I love it:
“The first thing that comes to your mind when you mess up away from a computer is ctrl-z”
#16 You?ve totally slaughtered a great design concept because the client thinks he/she knows best.
I don’t hesitate to put my original design in my portfolio though.
at our magazine it’s the spinning beach-ball of death
[...] ??????? ??????? ??????? 25 Reasons You Might Be A Hardcore Graphic/Web Designer. [...]
haha jay, I just wanted to submit it digg and then realized it was already and had some 1000 diggs. So much for my current lag on reading up on your blog mate:)
Seeing as you got some 120 comments on here you should consider switching to paged comments (there is a wordpress plugin around). All it does is break up the comments in chunks of (say) 10 or 15 comments, then displays a “more comments” or paged navigation. Sometimes loads of text in comments can make the page laggy and annoying. My5cent on that. If you need help embedding those changes, let me know.
Yours,
jez
@ gabriel
stooooopid! Look at CS3 now, foooool!!! you’re just one hypocrite if you go buy one!
@ bb
yes we are for real!!! you’re no designer so get out of here! it says “Hardcore Graphic/Web Designer” not “Hardcorporate Ass”. ;P
I’ll gut yer bellies and feed ‘em to the sharks!!! ARGH!
An additional to your list maybe:
you’re a Hardcore Graphic/Web Designer when a set of words becomes art.
(mmmm. lorem ipsum looks goooood!)
#20 ftw
Spinny Color Wheel of Doom w
woot!.
[...] I found a amazing post today about 25 Reasons You Might Be A Hardcore Graphic/Web Designer [...]
[...] 25 Reasons You Might Be A Hardcore Graphic/Web Designer - After some deep thought, I came up with this list of signs that you might be a hardcore designer. A lot of these signs can overlap other professions too. Indeed. [...]
#20 - DeathBall
very nice work. I almost compare with any point, but the most point i find myself into is 23. God damn, yesterday i entered a restaurant and i didnt had the menu 1 minute in my hand and the critiquing started.
[...] and too little coding/web, so I’ve taken some of the original reasons (which can be found here) and added a few of my own, lets label the [...]
Doubly so for designers in the UK, even though the UK/US exchange rate just hit $2, CS3 is twice as expensive over here as it is in the States because of the $1 == ?1 mentality most US companies seem to have.
1. I don’t drive
2. Not really, most good ones are big enough
3. I’m a listener
4. Yeh sort of
5. I have imsomnia when I’m overworked
6. Absolutely!
7. Never used it
8. I clean nothing
9. I have to… part of the work… damn!
10. Yeh!
11. Haha yes
12. Almost!
13. ???
14. I did
15. A few, Adobe, T26, FontShop, Miniml
16. I don’t let that happen
17. Nah…
18. Once
19. I keep all sorts of thing
20. Never named it but I hate it
21. True
22. I always do that
23. Haha I’m guilty of this
24. Again absolutely true
25. Maybe 5 years ago
#4 … toatlly
I thought I was the only one that considered meals (and sleeping) interruptions.
[...] Source (In no particular order) [...]
Hillarious.
I really do have a nickname for the OS X ?spinning pinwheel?, for some reason I call it ?the spinning rainbow of death? (doom, destruction, or something similar). You get the picture.
Great list.
that’s weird. i design buildings and i do all the same stuff.
Hey i got an addition now that i think about it: You keep on nudging and nudging with your keyboard just to get the position just at the right pixel.
[...] Bittbox - 25 Reasons You Might Be A Hardcore Graphic/Web Designer [...]
Lol , I still name my files final , and end up with like 4 files (final1 , 2 , 3 , etc…) I have another one for your list
26. Whenever you browse the web you always accidentally type .psd (or .indd) instead of .com
[...] 25 (or so) Reasons You Might Be A Hardcore Graphic/Web Designer (Full/original list at BittBox) [...]
Great List!!!, I agree with most points! I’d like to add a couple though: 1. Whenever I am looking for something (a document of a disk or whatever really) my brains first instinct is Spotlight! 2. While drawing a diagram of sketching something if I make a mistake my brains first instinct is the UNDO (Ctrl+Alt+Z) command. Tell me I’m not the only one.
speaking of why I might be a hardcore web designer, what is the Bittbox font? I really like it.
Republika (slightly modified) I forget what weight, there are a ton.
http://www.dafont.com/republika.font
~BittBox
#12.0.604 : or you were biting your nails for the next few years in fear that Marcodobe would get rid of Fireworks.
i’ve read about this kind of post somewhere.
the one my fav is “You think about UNDO when you drop or break a glass”
how about you?
agus. Every day, Every day I do this. . . . .
~BittBox
whoa!
[...] ?? ???????? ????? ??? ???????/?????????? ??? ?????? ??? bittbox [...]
[...] - 25 Reasons you might be a hardcore web/gfx designer A great fun little post with 25 simple reasons of why you might be a hardcore designer, ranging [...]