I’m winding down my professional career as a designer and getting ready to ramp up a new one as a programmer. What kind of programmer I’m to become has not really presented itself yet but it’s plainly clear that after about 20 years working as a professional graphic designer I just don’t have the taste for it anymore and can’t see a future in it any longer. While I do enjoy the building of projects for people, those enjoyable projects have become few and far between and it seems like all the fun’s been taken out of it. I’m a bit sad but somewhat relieved at the decision to exit the field because I still do enjoy working to create with type and imagery, my future in that will come exclusively from a pure want to create and it’ll have to be the right project at the right time and not just because it’s my job.
I’ve seen the field change in some ways but what really got me was how it didn’t change and I never learned to accept how design in certain companies is viewed as a necessary evil of sorts and the opinion that decisions are largely arbitrary and can be made by anyone with the power to tell someone else to do it. There’s just no respect for design talent in certain companies and it’s left me cold. I’m tired of fighting a battle that will never be won and even if it was won, wouldn’t be worth it in the end.