Last week I posed the question to the design community: What is it that you dislike about your peers? We all have something against those in our own field be it a difference in ethics, habits, etc, but we rarely voice them. I gave designers the chance to voice their concerns about others in the design community and here is what they had to say!
Name: Aaron Irizarry
Website: http://www.thisisaaronslife.com
What does he hate about other designers?:
Unwillingness to share their tips and knowledge, we are a community, we should be willing to help others just like someone has helped us along.
Name: Eric Swain
Website: http://www.thegamecritique.com
What does he hate about other designers?:
Hate is a strong word, but I dislike when designers experiment with changing with practices that have become standard without the basic understanding of why theose practices became standard. Experimentation for the sake of learning is one thing, but then they tout out finished products with these changes and call it innovative when its really just broken.
Name: Brian Hoff
Website: http://www.thedesigncubicle.com
What does he hate about other designers?:
There’s really nothing that I can say I hate about other designers, but what I do dislike is individuals that “own” a copy of Photoshop and all of a sudden they are designers. Design must be learned and understood. It’s about communicating a message and problem solving, not applying a few fancy effects in Photoshop and calling it a design.
Name: Meroko
Website: N/A
What does She hate about other designers?:
Hmm..maybe not hate, but I’m jealous that it seems like all the designers I know already know how to use the web/design websites effectively and I come from a print background, so I am way behind. I’m working on that for 2009 though. Watch out! 
Name: JAC
Website: N/A
What does She hate about other designers?:
preconceptions, arrogance, and ignorance.
1–most people are narrow-minded and are set to think that the way they perceive the world is right (the only way and reason). or, whatever they learned if they went to school for it, or learned from other people (art masters or not) is the first and foremost reason. granted, people go around living with the various accumulated knowledge that they acquired throughout their lives so far, but many are not open into seeing things in other ways or perspectives (tipping the balance of design they don’t understand as inferior works, if it doesn’t fall into their end of the scale [which would be the "superior"]).
2–going along with the first peev, arrogance is a folly. to truly appreciate and understand the concepts behind design or art for that matter, requires one to be completely accepting of any ideas that may come through. it has been a great debate to whether function is more important than form, but in the end, the style and technique of the final product are the essence of the result. i hate it when people say they could’ve done things better, especially when they have a completely different style. their ways of thinking of the concept may be the same, but the outcome will be visually different. none can be better than the other if they are in different genres. some people don’t get this… others that are worse, THINK they can do better when they don’t have the skills to, or don’t produce (so no one ever knows if they really could have done better or not. usually, these people under the arrogance umbrella are talkers, non-action-takers.
3–finally, “ignorance is bliss?” well, maybe sometimes in LIFE. but in design, one really doesn’t want to be. politics, worldly events, even weather all have their own narratives when they get tied into a piece. research is one of the foremost things that is required when a project is started. essays are like this too. the process must start out with a concept, followed and backed by actual facts, which could either be transformed or used to express the piece. satires (like the new yorker covers) are popular because although the art is in poor taste, they are always up-to-date, based on reality, but share a mocking fantasy that the masses can understand right away (if they weren’t ignorant).
many people are different. i’m just pointing out the people that fall under these categories, because they are marked permanently on my bad / avoid-or-else-will-be-pissy-for-the-rest-of-the-day list for the reasons described above. even the best designers can fall under these. i try not to judge, since i don’t know the history of people’s lives, but if it is blatant, well…AVOID. waste of time.
Name: Angie Bowen
Website: http://arbent.net
What does She hate about other designers?:
I really don’t hate anything about other designers. The design community has some of the friendliest and most helpful people I’ve ever met
Name: Marnie B
Website: http://www.marnieb.com
What does She hate about other designers?:
Egos, in some cases. But I think most of all I hate those that devalue the work we do. Ie. Charging $80 for a logo design that’s worth $600 or $200 for a website design
Name: Emily Veras
Website: http://hcggd.com
What does She hate about other designers?:
I really dont hate something in particular about any designer because designers are well in fact , people. I can say that as designers we are very competitive as well as judgmental as we should be in some cases and what pushes us to not only become better people but designers as well.
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