I used to think graphic design was all about the project. Now I know it's all about the solution.

When I first started out on my own, my pride rode high. My designer-snob was in full effect. I had a view of what my business was going to be, and it was determined wholly by the projects I focussed on. I called it "Branding" but now I know that what I was branding was a too-good-to-design-for-you image that was more about pleasing other people than satisfying my desire to make the world a better place.

As designers, at any stage of your creative life, whether in school, first job, 50th job, running your own small biz, I think we suffer from a distorted sense of entitlement. (Can you hear all of the account managers of the world pounding their desks?) My point is not that we need to be more submissive to clients necessarily, though there may be some truth to that as well. My point is that we need to be more submissive to the project.

Here's what I propose: Fight the idea that tells you I am better than this project. Fight the idea that an artist of my talent, wouldn't waste his/her time on this. Embrace the solution. Embrace your inner problem solver, and excel at each project, no matter what capacity it requires your attention.

After all, you are only as successful as your clients are happy with your solutions. When I began designing, I thought that the ultimate job, would be one in which all the projects were what I considered creative. Where I was constantly being asked to stretch myself creatively, in an artistic sense.
In a way I was right, but what I didn't understand, was that being a creative problem solver has less to do with the project, and more to do with the solution. After all, that's the only part I can control, so why shouldn't I do my best to excel in it?