Thread 2

Excess of
Everything

When do we reach peak
overload?
Oversaturated, understimulated, total meltdown. Navigating today’s abundance of information is the core of designers’ Catch 22: to find success almost guarantees you’ll be overworked, but take a beat and you risk becoming obsolete. Faced with peak overload, designers are looking in the mirror for answers, only to find that mirror is their phone: equipped with millions of options that make choosing one path forward feel impossible. Cue infinite brain melt.

INDEX

2.1

Stuck in Lightspeed

2.2

Sea of Sameness

2.3

Multi-hyphenates Anonymous

2.1

Stuck in Lightspeed

“Everything’s moving way too fast; when do
designers get to pause and reflect?”

Our world has never moved so fast. The speed of tech, abundance of channels, and acceleration of microtrends has created its own form of tunnel vision: blink and you’ll miss it so stay glued to your screen. When technology moves this quickly across so many different directions, what are the consequences of keeping up?
If you’re lucky enough not to know the feeling, look no further than Everything Everywhere All At Once, for the emotional whiplash that comes with being very online all of the time — and how quickly the mood can shift from blind optimism to pure chaos. This always on mode leaves many designers feeling stuck in a cycle they can’t escape. There must be more to design than devouring the latest trends only to spit them back out with a button to BUY NOW.
Beyond the speed that our brains work to process a flood of “content”, we’re also losing how these images, quotes, gifs, videos, memes, and texts originated in the first place. Social-media scholar Danah Boyd coined the term “context collapse” to describe what happens when different audiences occupy the same space and information is passed to them without preserving the original context. Armed conflict intersects with NYFW coverage. Neighbor GoFundMe’s are sandwiched between gnocchi recipes and newly minted NFTs. Our resulting attention spans are both desensitized and disoriented, and designers face even more pressure to create work that breaks through to them.

2.2

Sea of Sameness

“It’s a really great looking pointless bag
of glitter and garbage.”

Abundant access to references plus 24/7 internet connection is one recipe for aesthetic sameness. “What does originality mean in today’s post-modern, post-web, post-social, post-AI world?” asked one interviewee. When every designer is looking at the same decontextualized images, moodboards, posts, and campaigns, that new bland looks so familiar because it is. And when CAC-driven clients ask for more of the same, designers are being paid to replicate rather than invent: "I worry about being innovative and developing new ideas when clients ask for reinterpretations of existing design ideas rather than something new." When the measure of a designer’s work is based on engagement — likes, follows, clicks — there is data to support playing it safe, and pushing outside the known can be a hard sell.
If the amount of designers expressing concern over “same-y” designs is any indicator, we could all be victims of what Elizabeth Goodspeed terms the moodboard effect. When design is shared and remixed endlessly on social platforms, “styles operate less like trends and more like memes” — but instead of promoting innovation and play, we’re left with “narrower thinking and shallower visual ideation.”
With a steady drip of content in conversation with itself, we’re left paddling through a sea of sameness with no land in sight. Are we tapping into trends or just hitting command C? Is design (un)comfortably numb? Is it still possible to make something original?

2.3

Multi-hyphenates Anonymous

“Like a clown with three balls, we deal with a lot
of things all the time. And we try to manage
everything, to not fall apart.”

Better-faster-stronger mode extends to the many roles that designers are expected to play on the daily. What began with designers as interpreters of visual language has evolved into the standard that designers be fluent in all languages. Flexing outside of your role can be fun. Juggling all of them is not, and most designers dread seeing “many hats” on their job description.
DESIGNER POSITION JOB DESCRIPTION FOR MEDIA COMPANY

DESIGNER POSITION JOB DESCRIPTION FOR MEDIA COMPANY

The expectation to do the most doesn’t always come with the support to get it done. A majority of interviewees spoke candidly about the persistent realities of being overworked and underpaid and a struggle to find personal meaning while being treated like “a hamster on the wheel.” “We’re all creative people, we all want to make things we love and things we’re proud of. But it is an industry where the most creative fulfilling projects sometimes pay the least.” Most are frustrated that the choice between creative and financial fulfillment is often a mutually exclusive one that, in reality, has to pay the bills: “I still work for clients that call me and say ‘I need a logo’ — I’ll do it because it pays my rent.”
If reading this stresses you out, you’re not alone. Faced with the demands to consume, create, then create consumption, designers are seeking ways out of business as usual. While stepping off the wheel isn’t a viable option for most, we all deserve an environment where it’s possible to find creative freedom and advocate for the right to rest. If designers are the poster children of burnout, then they are ready for a rebrand.

UNRAVEL

1. How has the abundance and speed of information influenced our working habits?

2. How do we break away from the moodboard effect in how we research?

3. Can designers advocate for the right to rest without sacrificing financial stability?

4. How important is personal fulfillment in a professional job?