Live Responsibly

Responsibility isn’t a lesson taught in art school, but is a necessity of design. Own the failure, it makes us better. If a design fails in its execution, responsibility of the failure needs to be taken by you the designer, because it’s the only way to get better. Design bombs? Say “I should’ve done this or this, and will next time”.  If you have a tendency to get scared and pass the buck when something fails, start working it out on a smaller scale, such as social interactions.

Example: a couple months ago I took my little bro to a car show, where I ran into a co-worker from another department. He works in a small 4-person team, 3 named Scott, 1 named Steve. When I said, “Hey Steve” I immediately realized he was one of the Scotts, in front of his wife no less. He was polite and didn’t correct me, but I knew it stung.

Next day, I shot him an email:
Hey Scott, I am extremely sorry I referred to you as “Steve” initially when we ran into each other yesterday. It was an embarrassing mistake on my part. I know if the roles were reversed, I would not appreciate someone I work with calling me by another name. I hope you found a car to your interests and had a great evening, and again I am sorry.

I could’ve left the car show saying “oops, my bad, oh well” but I would’ve made the same mistake down the road. By taking responsibility in these smaller scenarios, you unintentionally carry the good habits into larger ones, and improve your work.