Video Recap: How Designers Destroyed the World

How designers destroyed the world, by Mike Monteiro

I found this video very easy to watch (which says a lot for me), it was a great mix of humorous and informative information that can be applied to our future design projects.  This video gave us a unique insight into the working world of Graphic Design, and provided us with information on what to do/not to do when taking on work from a company or client.  I feel Monteiro was really trying to make us understand, that as designers, it is our choice as to what projects we take on, and what we choose to create.  There were so many interesting and quotable points in this video! Too many to list unfortunately; BUT below I shall write about a few of my favourites:

“We need to fear the consequences of work more than the consequences of speaking up”.
A major part of Monteiro’s video was telling us that it is our duty to ourselves and the world, to make sure that we are producing good design. If something doesn’t seem right, or if we don’t agree with what is being done, we have to speak up and make ourselves heard.  We are hired for a purpose, and we shouldn’t be letting the people who employed us have say in how we do our work.  We need to “Risk getting fired to do the job right”. If we don’t push the boundaries, and challenge ideas, things will never change.  We risk becoming “agents of recklessness”.

Monteiro also emphasized that we should be taking on work that will make a difference;

“…we used to design ways to get to the moon, now we design ways to not get out of bed in the morning”, and “…design things that push the world forward, instead of ways that push the apocalypse of maximum comfort”. 

I completely agree with this statement.  We should be pushing boundaries, challenging ideas, and trying to change the things that are important in the world. Although… I don’t see the harm in taking on a ‘trivial’ project every now and then; after all, we do have to make a living (and who doesn’t want to stay in bed all day once in a while if we made it possible).

Before finishing up Monteiro left us with a few good quotes:
“destroy your ego, destroy your fear, (you will not get every job, you will fuck up the jobs that you do get. Never trust a designer who has never been punched in the mouth), destroy your apathy, destroy petty authority (don’t let people tell you how to do your job. Say something!),destroy the voice inside, destroy misogyny!"

“YOU ALWAYS HAVE A CHOICE - you might get fired, but you can always get another job or client”.