I am on a mission.

I am an avid camper and hiker. My family and I have traveled across the country many times, visiting all 48 continental states and numerous national and state parks over the years. A well-established set of principles for outdoorsy folks says to Leave No Trace. The idea is that you make a minimum impact on the wilderness you visit, conserving and preserving it for the future. If you were ever a scout (boy or girl), you’re probably familiar with the principle Leave It Better Than You Found It. This approach means that you not only minimize your impact but also clean up any debris or fix the damage that may have been done by others.

The concept of leaving the world a better place can be traced back to a quote from 19th-century poet Ralph Waldo Emerson: “To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived — that is to have succeeded.”

When I’m in nature, I’m trying to minimize my impact. But in my everyday life and work, the goal is to have a lasting impact that leaves the world a better place than I found it, even if for one person. And it’s by that impact that I judge my work - not by my intentions.

So how do I bring this to my design work? It’s in how I approach everything! I try to be informed and responsible in my problem-solving, I work to center the experiences of and make space for marginalized voices, I approach every project with curiosity and humility, and I believe that change is possible. And when a project is handed over to a client, I’m not done. To measure my impact, I need to follow up and see what the outcome of the project was. Did their message connect with the audience and was it well received? Did I inspire their audience to take action? Did they have higher engagement from marginalized folks than previously?

By asking these questions and staying connected to my clients throughout the full lifecycle of a project, I not only learn about my impact but I help clients to maintain focus on theirs. And while these may seem like small steps toward meaningful change, those steps are better than none at all! If just one person has breathed easier because of what I’ve done, then I have succeeded.

I am optimistic. But I'm not full of positivity.

If you asked my family and friends, I don’t think they’d describe me as a positive person. I am acutely aware of negativity in the world at large and in my own life. I can rage with the best of them, and my happy place is the boxing gym where I routinely punch a 100# heavy bag (that I often picture as someone or something that’s causing me grief) an hour at a time to work some stuff out. I actually think it is important to acknowledge so-called negative emotions, like anger, grief, and sadness. Denying that they exist or drowning them out with a Pollyanna-attitude doesn’t make them go away, and all feelings need to be felt and dealt with.

But I am an optimistic person. You may not believe there’s a difference between the two, but there is - optimism is a belief that things can be better in the future, while positivity tends to focus on only the good aspects of here and now. When tempered with realism, optimism can be a powerful tool to help us move forward and achieve our goals. I truly do believe that things in my life and the world generally can be better. And this optimism is what motivates me to work towards that better version of things.

My work as a designer can and will create change, in small ways and possibly large - who knows? So I take responsibility for ensuring that the change I create will be for the better. When I shared about my approach to problem solving, I said that I’m always looking for small ways to move the needle towards justice and equity. I do this because of optimism. When I shared about looking to others who are experts so that I can take into account the folks who are directly impacted by my work, I do this because of optimism. When I shared about continuing to learn new skills, techniques, and cultural information, I do this because of optimism.

Optimism is the thing that keeps me moving forward every day - especially in seasons of negativity. By focusing on things that could be better and figuring out how to help make them so, I stay motivated and engaged with my work and the world around me.

I am still learning. And so is my dad.

When I was growing up, my father was a lawyer. He’s now a professional Santa, but that’s a topic for another day. I knew as a kid that he had to take a certain amount of continuing education classes every year, and I thought that sounded like a total drag…all those years of school and college and you still had to take classes just to keep your job? No thank you!

I realize many adults are glad to have school behind them, somewhat in part because they didn’t always enjoy the experience. But even if our professions don’t require continuing education, I think we can all agree that there’s value in keeping up with what’s happening in our fields and learning about new things.

For me, as a designer, the principles of good design haven’t really changed. But technology keeps moving forward at a rapid pace. I recall with amusement now a college professor who told us how important it was to take care of our Zip disks, because that’s how our work would be stored and transferred in the future and if you lost one you could lose your life’s work. If you don’t remember Zip disks, you’re not alone…I haven’t used a disk of any kind for my work in years! In fact, the computer I remember fondly from my younger years is now available as a historical accessory for American Girl dolls.

So yes - continuing education is important to me. I’ve learned new software and equipment as well as techniques, and I will continue to do so. But I think most importantly, it’s learning (and unlearning) cultural information as our society progresses that is key to my success as a designer - and as a human being.

I approach my work with curiosity and humility, and am eager to learn new things from folks who know something different than me. I don’t believe that this in any way diminishes my experience and expertise - I think it enhances it! And I think we can all benefit from approaching things with a wide open mind, ready to learn and grow.

You know what? Let’s return to my father…the now professional Santa. He went to Santa School. SANTA SCHOOL. Until he did, I wouldn’t have imagined that such a thing existed! But it does, and he really enjoyed it. Because he was learning about something that interested him and provided a path forward to what he wanted. And I think that by focusing on the path forward, that leads us where we want to go, we can embrace learning about things that interest us with a childlike sense of wonder!

I am not always an expert.

I’ve been in the design field my whole adult life, and I spent my childhood and teen years learning about and making art. I know lots of principles about layout, color, typography, negative space, art history, etc. I also have lots of practical experience designing for a variety of clients in myriad industries. Over the years, I’ve developed some serious expertise in design. It’s my job to help clients make informed decisions about design work and to provide them with work that is responsibly made and well-executed.

But all that education and experience doesn’t make me an expert in all things. When I am designing for a client, I have to defer to their target audience’s lived experience to ensure that my work connects. This may take the form of research about the target audience. It may be interviewing members of it directly or surveying them in some way. I don’t read minds and I wouldn’t want to, so I have to do my due diligence to ensure I’m delivering the client’s message in a way that is meaningful to their audience. It’s also key to remember that while my client probably has a great understanding of their target market, they are making assumptions based on their own experiences as well. It’s part of my role to challenge those assumptions.

I think that often as designers - hell, as people - we tend to make decisions based on our own feelings or thoughts. But it’s important, in design and in life, to remember that I am not the default. My experience is not universal. And it’s not more important than anyone else’s.

I am a problem solver, and so are you.

Last week I shared the creative principles I’ve defined for myself as a sort of filter for making decisions about my work going forward. The first of these principles is that I am a problem solver. And really, isn’t that what most folks do for a living in one form or another? We all spend our days coming up with solutions…the problems differ in type, seriousness, consequences, etc., but we are all just trying to fix something.

This is easy to lose sight of as a visual artist, or as someone who doesn’t understand the work of a visual artist. It can be easy to think that making things pretty doesn’t move the needle on any problems. And there’s some truth there…when you make something pretty it may not move the needle on any problems. So it’s important to focus on how to use your skills to be a problem solver.

The client work I do falls mostly into two buckets - communications and applied arts. Communications takes a lot of forms (print, social media, email, web design) and is more straightforward. The problem I’m solving on a communication project is how do I convey my client’s message in a way that is clear and engaging to the target audience? I use my experience and knowledge as a designer along with research to craft a message that will be received in the way the client needs so that folks in the audience will take some kind of action.

When it comes to applied art (patterns on products, for example), the problem is how do I get people to buy a thing? On the surface, this seems to carry less weight than the problem of communication might. But I’m still bringing my experience and knowledge and research together to come up with a solution. And how I use those tools determines how deep the problem I’m trying to solve really is.

For example, Client X would like me to design some drinking cups for children. In their brief, they have asked for a variety of boy and girl designs. After I finish rolling my eyes (which takes a minute in a situation like this), I begin brainstorming designs that meet the client’s brief, but that also subvert those societal labels of boy and girl designs. I focus on gender-neutral designs that all kids will love, and on changing up color schemes so that something that would’ve read “boy” on the shelf now feels accessible to girls, and vice versa. Do I have delusions of grandeur and believe I deserve a Nobel peace prize? Certainly not! The stakes could not be lower! But I do know that I’ve used my skills in a way that promotes equity in some small way.

Another example: Client Y would like some imagery for their website advertising a business conference. While there are lots of design considerations for me to take into account here, one thing I need to be sure of is to not default to photos of a bunch of white dudes in suits. White dudes in suits have been the poster children for business for long enough - let’s get some other folks in the picture! Again - I’m talking about a VERY minor way of promoting equity and diversity, but every little bit helps.

Do you know what else this does? It lets you know if you’re working with the wrong client on the wrong project. I’ve literally had a client tell me that they wanted only photos of white people for a project. Or that girls don’t like dinosaurs. These are clear red flags that my values don’t align with these folks and I’m not the designer for them. Which brings me around to the most important problem we need to solve when we take on work - just because I can do this, should I?