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Why great design doesn’t have to come from nowhere.

Photo Credit: Samantha Palazzi for NYABF 2025

Design is complicated. Maybe I get in my own head too much, or get on a high horse regarding my profession, but I think to make anything look like it belongs there is quite hard.

Another thing that complicates my work as a designer is that I am a huge fan of graphic design. I love to collect beautiful design examples in my camera roll, in folders, on my walls—basically the limits to my collection are truly only space and funds. When you consume this much design, it starts to obscure what you could possibly add to the ever growing design landscape.

In a visually driven medium, with conventions and trends informing audiences as well as designers on what is new, important, or institutional. With such a large pool of inspiration to pull from, it can make the task of coming up with something new or more importantly relevant to your project daunting at the very least. It calls into question, can I make anything original?

I think there's a way to compare a supposed "overexposure" of design to instead developing your fluency in design. The old adage "reading more books makes you a better writer" can apply here, too. As you immerse yourself in the world, the conventions, the fundamentals of experienced craft, you naturally improve your taste and expectations in your own work.

The best design can come from that breadth of information (I think my initial mistake was strictly conflating originality with excellence). A good designer will stay informed on what is fresh and what is current in the design world, and translate it accordingly for their creative needs.