The Dreaded Question

There sitting in front of me was one of my students. Young and innocent. Looking for some answers to their prospects as a graphic designer. Then came the dreaded question. The question that strikes through me every time a novice asks me it. A question that is hard to answer, and therefore maybe the reason I dread it so much; "Can you give me some advice on what it takes to be a graphic artist?" I looked at her and at the same time another student turned with interest to see what I was to say.
Where can I start, I thought. Funny thing was I did reply, and the sort of things I answered were also reflected in a sentence I had in a discussion with my very close friend, about the very same subject.

Now, I started my trek over thirty years ago. Didn't know at the time that it would lead to much. Didn't know at the time that my parents would not like the idea of my career choice and my insistence in going to college. Didn't know then that there would be ups and down in income (mainly downs), or that there would be all these issues I would encounter with technology and clients. What I told my student though, is the one thing that I did know. That I loved picking up the pencil and drawing. Loved to create. And again this is the thing I said this morning about this inherent skill that creatives have. It shouldn't be the fact that people pay you that makes you want to be creative, it should be the fact that doing it gives you that thrill and its just one of those amazingly lucky things that means people will be obliged to give you money for your love.

This is something really hard to explain to a person just starting off. How do you describe passion as a career tool. How do you motivate people by getting them to use their feelings. Most modern students rely very much on the computer or tools that seemingly ease their passage. They rarely bounce into the class with that spark that I think is necessary, to get the creative juices going. Rarely do they seem to abundantly populate a page of a sketchbook with ideas and observations. And most of all, they do not look. However, you can teach people about Photoshop, or how to make a line with a pencil even. You can't teach someone the fuelling mechanism that is required to make that pencil move correctly and with beauty. To draw ideas from the brain to add to the canvas on the computer screen.

So, what did I end up telling my student. Well I told her, and the inquisitive ears, about dealing with clients, dealing with the long hours and the fact that this type of work is basically of the strain that denotes the expression; 24/7. I told her that it was about practicing and experimenting and learning. Of the hours of research that will be needed to achieve something that some people believe was done in a thought. I explained it was about the knowledge of media and timescales and the transfer to the printers, and the plethora of many things that really does make this job simple. However, what I tried to add as a cementing element to the whole aspect of being a designer was that if she was to ask this question now and not feel happy with the answer, would she be able to do the same in thirty years time. That for every single day of this drawn out career, it was the feeling to creative that needs to be present. The enthusiasm that will make them (and me) pick up a pencil and draw first thing in the morning, because that was more important that breakfast. That I could not explain this and could not even teach this. I explained that if they could not find this then the should consider if they have it, or if they will survive so long, trying.

I believe I am lucky. I wake up on even the coldest day and still get a buzz and a kick out of creating for even the lamest of commissions. I still work late into the night for deadlines that seem to not pay as much as you feel you are worth. And maybe, at the end of the line, I wont be famous, or rich, or prolific as I would like to be, but the wealth I could explain is in the doing and the living of this dream like state of creation. Now how can I teach that to someone?