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  • August 21st, 2008
  • Design
  • 6 Comments

You know your a graphic designer when…

A post by George

Not the first I know but these are all things that make me smile/cry about my job lol. How do you know your a graphic designer?

  • You practically take caffeine intravenously.
  • Your hand is permanently stuck in the shape of a mouse.
  • You can name more than 200 fonts in under five minutes.
  • You’ve been spending three days non-stop on a project and it still looks like shit…
    You find yourself overcome by Deathlust.
  • You buy a CD or DVD for the artwork, even if you have no idea what the actual music or film is like (even worse, you don’t actually watch or listen to it, just stare at it for hours and hug it in adoration).
  • You look at the clock and see it’s about midnight and think ‘I’ll go to bed now’…
    You actually go to bed about 2-3am.
  • You need someone else to point out that you’re sitting in a room in front of the computer with all the lights off, and haven’t noticed.
  • When you know what “kerning” is and you really, really like it.
  • If you could go back in time you wouldn’t go back to see the rise and fall of civilizations, you’d go back in time to destroy comic sans and papyrus.
  • Seeing someone use Lens Flare or Comic Sans adversely affects your blood-pressure.
  • You maintain a grid system for your refrigerator magnets.
  • You organize your CD collection according to the Pantone chart.
  • You sit at work for eight hours straight just looking at your monitor, waiting for a spark of inspiration that doesn’t come.
  • Then you’re up ’til 5am because you came up with the best idea ever while brushing your teeth.
  • You know Lorem Ipsum by heart.
  • Your kid knows Lorem Ipsum by heart.
  • Activating your entire font collection makes your computer crash.
  • You deliberately butcher your perfectly cross browser compatible site in IE by placing a “Too Cool for IE” banner on it.
  • You spend $200 on a font for your personal website because “it’s the only one where the lower-case g is just right…”
  • Apple+Z is the first thing that goes through your mind if you drop and break something.
  • You use words about fonts you dislike that other normal people reserve for fascist dictators and serial killers.
  • Kerning and leading on your shopping list actually matters to you, and you don’t see a problem with that.
  • Several South American economies suffer noticeably any time you try to give up coffee, or even cut your consumption of it by half.
  • You know that “bleeding” doesn’t hurt.
  • When your significant other/ friends have threatened to never speak to you again if you point out one more font to them.
  • You Know You’re a Graphic Designer When deciding on the right crop doesn’t involve a choice between corn or wheat.
  • You’ve considered naming your children things like ‘Kern’, ‘Pica’, ‘Bézier’, and ‘Serif’.
  • You refer to your privates as “the Magic Wand”.

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6 Comments on “You know your a graphic designer when…”

  1. Andy
    August 21st, 2008
    12:45 pm

    when…after having spent ages on a world class design……..your “non-design” related boss says………..dont think those colours work…….could you ….try that in this colour…etc.etc

    …there is one that i wont be saying i did now!!

  2. charlie
    August 21st, 2008
    3:01 pm

    Great list!!

    I think I definitely agree with the “Your hand is permanently stuck in the shape of a mouse”

    I find my left hand is always positioned over the [Apple] button on the keyboard… no matter what I’m doing.. I like to think it’s because I’m a whizz with keyboard shortcuts but I think it’s actually more like my hand is ready for the inevitable [Apple+Z]

    /sigh

  3. woody
    August 21st, 2008
    7:46 pm

    How about… Looking at a menu makes you go “hmmm, ITC Baskerville italic” rather than “mmmm, lunch!”

  4. jeff b
    August 30th, 2008
    12:01 am

    When you would rather buy fonts than food ;)

  5. Mimsy
    August 30th, 2008
    12:02 am

    When you haven’t even read a word in the magazine, you just bought it for the pretty page spreads and layouts.

  6. Lula
    August 30th, 2008
    12:10 am

    How about “because you group and grid all your desktop items, pictures and folders in perfectly lined up columns”

    If you are anything like me then it’s in sections like… to read, read and needs to be filed/blogged and possibly for the bin. Designers and their desktops – a work of art in itself!

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