Call it my fixation, my complex, my infatuation with creating a great design, but don’t say my obsession is unhealthy.

I’m totally obsessed with design and it’s been this way for quite some time. My obsession with design began at a time when being a graphic artist meant cutting (with scissors) and pasting (with glue) images and ideas together on paper. I literally constructed my graphics with pens, pencils, papers and paints. I had to think about what came first, what goes last and what kind of message hierarchy I needed to visually communicate to pull my entire designed piece together.

Computers have made this whole idea of ‘designing’ easier, which goes without saying, but when the tools and software we use as professional designers makes its way into the mainstream of the general public – I have to wonder: Can anyone be a ‘designer’?

That’s really not a question for me to answer. Instead, it’s a question of passion – only answered by how much someone wants to apply towards being what they want to be.

For the last twenty years, I’ve bought, built and rebuilt over a dozen Mac computers. I’ve bought, installed and upgraded over a dozen versions of the Adobe creative software suites. I’ve been paid to create original artwork, hung in galleries and hotels and restaurants. I’ve been paid to develop logos and create corporate identities. I’ve designed annual reports, sales brochures and websites. My designs have been published in all the major design publications. But, none of this makes me a designer. My obsession with design makes me a designer.

Do what you love, obsess about it, and let that guide you to great places.

Mike Magestro