At the Registered Graphic Designers Conference in Vancouver BC 2017 Timothy Goodman premiered as the first presenter, and I was quite surprised who he turned out to be. A day or so before the conference I did research as to who was going to be there and after I found out who Tim was, I quickly went to his social media accounts to research what his main focus was as a Graphic Designer.
To tell you the truth I felt unfulfilled when I first saw his work and I blame this on the idea that I have been surrounded with peers who are incredibly talented and always superior to me from my perspective. Through this struggle I have wanted to do better but have actually only ever in true honesty substantiated my own personal value.
Of course Tim’s work is great, I just didn’t understand when I first saw it; and despite my initial impressions I ended up purchasing his book at the conference for sake of the mental benefit that he was able to instill within me as a Graduate Designer.​​​​​​​
One of his opening quotes was:
“With all of this professional creation & development, I make and tell stories for the sake of connection [and] I find that the memories of a girl I never knew -help[ed] me seek and want to be as human as possible. So I share my vulnerabilities and weaknesses in my work.”
and that’s what I saw when I first researched his profile on Instagram. Hand done crude work of quick-jet quotations that seemed very spur of the moment, eloquent and perhaps fulfilled in-part to a following who had grown to understand and love him over time.
“Graphic design is about being human, how can I take old work and make it contemporary? (Tim Asked) I want you to think differently…”
He worked for Apple in New York and he mentioned that through his work experience that he further wanted to express the value of privilege, because even though he had obtained employment at Apple, he felt like it wasn’t right for him after the first week.
A common enquiry to himself was: “Did what I do matter?” and he also stated that another question he asks himself was:
“Out of all of the projects I worked on, what kind of function was the result?”
His inclination was very relative to David Carsons’ professional standing within the industry, whereas the social benefit of the works were the focus rather than their visual appeal per say.
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I suppose really that it is the sustainability that stands behind graphic works that he wanted to enthuse. Which I full agree with on a full-heart scale as a lot of my commercial work has personally been focused on nutritional products that are intended to re-align lost inclinations of ‘royalty’ diets, and mis-guided plans from the old world. It really helps to produce graphic design works for products & ideas that are functional and not exploitative to contemporary life.
Some of the inspirations that Tim noted include:
“[I mean] how does someone get paid to scribble on the side of a building?” as he displayed a literal full brick wall graphic mural on the side of a small tower consisting of a lewd like scribble, white on black in a chalk-like texture.
and: “[A man once told me, that as a designer, the work he did was focused on]: “doing anything & everything [that he could] get away with” – Which I love, and believe that it is a wonderful concept to be accepted within the industry and to actually be taken care of in this sense is a dream in its own.

@DavidAirey#LogoDesignLove (My first graphic design book ever).

Tim explained to us that his first design project ever was a tardy slip for his elementary school, and his foundation in education led him to write a thesis on growing up without his father. Even though his thesis paper was not the core focus of the conference I want to express the value of associative credibility when it comes to the design industry.
Yes it’s great to be working with advertisements, promotional materials, inspirational Instagram quotes, web task flows, product lines, digital media, and video outlets, but there is so much more value in being formally diverse in your social skills while at work.
The tools we get from design based majors are wonderful, and people love them so much that they claim to be self taught ‘pros’ who get to do whatever they want. My opinion is that this is a concern for the industry as it is a privilege to be a designer.
Whether you have a diploma or a degree these certificates should really be the social standard for practice and the best thing I can recommend for fresh graduates who are going to be stepping into an office or design-based environment is that you need be practical in the way people talk & communicate with you as a designer.
Graduate Designers are just that, majored in design and credible within their field of interest.
Self taught individuals who use the Adobe creative suite, are just creatives and they focus their ‘private’ means of investment into the subscription of these services that have just been passed to them through word of mouth.
In my opinion the graduates are the members of the public and the self taught individuals I would still recommend that they undertake the same trials as the graduates in order to re-focus their credibility in the industry as a whole. They should be able to get certified given they can count on their family to support them, and if not retail should always accommodate for the sake of their benefit.
I’ve faced adversity in this regard with my first employment and have had to substantiate my confidence
-where from my perspective, did not think that it would be necessary for me to do so.
The worst thing is that the individuals who think they are ‘designers’ when they simply are not do not understand that they are not, and we as certified professionals need to incline to them that we are confident for a reason beyond the overtly bearing idea of their ‘opportunity’ that we never got before going to school; or ever even knew was possible before we endured the immensely packed regiment of educational class multitudes; with simultaneous deadlines guided by already successful mentors; and in accolade through public finance programs.
Don’t be afraid either if you’ve defined your major with a diploma to also have other interests in regard to your education.
Personally I have the equivalent of 7 and a half years public post-secondary education. 60 classes I have taken in order to get my career at the age 30, and I’ve been in and out of post secondary with retail work since I was 19.
I’m so overqualified I said, and I thought everyone was going to work with the same mind set that I had. The thing is, a lot of Graphic Designers don’t know sociology, don’t know sustainability, don’t know ethics, and don’t know psychology, nor advanced formalities for concept developments, corporate identities and may have not even earned the title of being a professional. When you hear the word font, something outside of the industry standard tends to set the alarm off in my books. This of course degrades the industry into spoil sports, and creates bandwagon vulnerabilities for everyone who wants to design for income.
I’ve been told that I use big words, but I believe it just means that I’ll be more capable when the time comes to speak the way I need to speak.
When you first start you may even be written off and have to go through the most major sense of mental anguish you’ve never experienced in our life, but you will dream and your friends will find you.
I found that working at home double-time to create my own standards of work caught the attention of my boss, and it did re-instill my value when I changed my desktop background at work whenever I felt confident with my applications.
To break it down entirely though: diversify your major and be certain that you can bring credible social skills like psychology, mental health, sociology, sustainability, communication, critical thinking, and corporate identity to the office. Otherwise high school may never end for you, and you might find yourself acting out, instead of being humble, professional and functional macro-sociologically.
The originators of the brand you work for may have a perceived edge of opportunity over you when you first start, but over time you will be able to prove yourself and your confidence will soar once you’ve finally been acknowledged. Perhaps before you know it, you can have such a strong form of work that you’ll want to forget the formality of commercial design and actually scribble on that side of a building, getting away with it for ca$h, calling it design to the ones you may have sent back to school.
I believe Tim is aware of this and his opinion is that: “We should tell a story that we [can] all [be] a part of.”
In his presentation he mentioned terms that he found to be considered as loose ended and jargon-esque towards new people in the office. These can include any term or phrase, but they point the direction of you not being fulfilled:
“strategic thinking”;
“design thinking”;
“systemic platforms”;
“cross pollination”;
claims that individuals “just didn’t work”;
“the mistakes you made”;
or “on the other hand”;
That’s why social science isn’t a joke, it saves natives from being outsourced, anguished and permanently anti-socialized because one person came and gave the opportunity to others who they then thrived into capital instead of being sustainably appropriated through a diversification of wealth. It’s a foundational understanding of sociology that not every one gets a fair opportunity to be “elite” or perceptually “normal” within society and it’s a syndrome to have a perceived need that goes beyond the inclusion of everyone.
The solution of course is to be prepared with the foundational disciplines in design that you can combine as playing cards for projects subjective to the capital investment you managed while performing to achieve adequate qualifications for.
The world has a funny way of limiting capacity when it’s under-qualified so be sure that your disciplines cover the major points and priority focuses required for design.
Tim discretely pointed out these values of having formalized credentials and how even if you have earned them will go un-noticed, scoffed, not cared for and even unacknowledged as invaluable. Most likely because you weren’t there to generate branding materials from day one and the company hired you out of a proposed need instead of comprehending the capacity of your skill-set.
Just remember that you need not to perform necessarily right away in the way you want when you first start and that your need for good work is and will be valued by the client.
Capitalists should love the idea that they are the citizen for funding you. You chose the career, you went to school and are the one being taken care of by them, so feel confident and let that be your notion for subordinating to their needs. Not only will your work shine beyond the others in the office because you formalized, but the investor also shines in society as a good patron for assisting you with your investment in post-secondary education.
So even if you make 'mistakes' and you’re pressured over them, keep in mind that the CEO or person paying the checks is the one that is most important. They should understand intuitive applications and social developments while immersing oneself into a new brand or company, otherwise it’s their loss because they become defined as not being sustainable.
Let your mind function at this greater value in social science formality.
Tim Goodman:“If you want to change your look, then you have to change your tool.”
I have adapted to my role as a designer over time since my cap & gown and through scholarship have found that the discipline is always worth the epiphany, especially after it’s been cultivated. Every time your work is turned down or anyone who shuns your credentials without adequate re-direction and social involvement for the completion of a proposed assignment; fails in their role also, and over time if this happens to you then the CEO generally needs to step in and break the cookie into a more stable environment.
If you have any understanding about history and the achievement of post-modernism, you’ll understand that baby boomers in specific got to make a lot of babies, but did not get a lot of social science education, and that’s why social science is so important right now in any field of work.
Tim mentioned in his presentation further more that: [he] found reaching out to mentors via e-mail and twitter [was] fine and that having mentors is more important than your job or what you’re doing.
It turns out that his Instagram account is focused on Self-Help, and that he does intend to challenge sociological dynamics while at the same time implies diversity for the sake of equality.
I walked into the conference with that lack of understanding to the entire side of the industry and personally mis-appropriated the value of Tims’ work.
“[But] If no one hates it, no one really loves it”-Tim Goodman
Tim signed his book I purchased in his own way and the connection that I defined as I met across the table with him was:
“Your work and your presentation has opened mental flood gates for me. With the combination of your hand-done and iconic muraling, I can now understand how your field of interest can be incredibly liberating and healthy for other designers.” Here is an image that I worked on based on Tims’ Inspiration:
“I Just Might Text You A Set of Emoji’s Only You Would Understand”
It gave me the understanding that I don’t always have to do projects worth a ‘million’ to be satisfied because rough/crude works can be just as loved and even perceived as glorified greats or landmarks within the historical realm of Graphic Design.
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