[rwhitman]

This was a good attempt, but I don't think this really nailed why designers don't move into founder roles. It has a lot more to do with the psychology of the type of person that goes into being a designer in the first place. It has a lot to do with the nature of art and the fear of failure.

The best designers are often frustrated artists that found comfort in design, where (perhaps subconsciously) they could use their talent without having the success or failure of their work fall 100% on them.

Being a collaborative process, design is kind of a shield from artistic criticism to some degree. If it fails, well it was the client's fault. But when you are known as a designer, and known as the founder, all the creative control comes down on you, which is akin to creating a work of art - with product primarily, but also the entire business as well. Everything you do subconsciously reflects on you as an artist instead of as a designer. Its scary. It can drive a creative person to madness, all of the things that go into a company, all the details that are completely fucking wrong all the time and you can't get control of any of them. Its like a painting with paint that never dries, and keeps dripping down the canvas. You constantly need to be painting or it looks like total crap, and it is hanging in the gallery, right now and everybody can see it. It makes me freaked out just thinking about it.

So while there are few designers who have made the leap to full-time founding entrepreneur I'm fairly certain that every designer has attempted to dip their toes into becoming the founding entrepreneur at least once, hit on this nightmarish reality, and then stepped back into the designer comfort zone with a sigh of relief...

[mrxd]

One way to say that with less speculating about motives is that entrepreneurial designers do exist, but they go into art, not business.

Another point I'd make is about disruptive business models. According to Clay Christensen, it's about creating a product that's cheaper and offers a better value than incumbents. In many cases, competitors are providing too much performance, and disruptive businesses offer less performance for much less money. The designer mentality tends to see problems as ugliness, and solutions as beauty, but this doesn't fit into the disruptive innovation model. To a designer, disruptive innovation looks like taking something beautiful and replacing it with an ugly knockoff–the opposite of what they want to do!

This isn't really exclusive to designers. Lots of programmers are the same way, they love elegance and beauty in their code and hate dirty hacks and kludges.

[rwhitman]

Thats a really good point. Its a hard lesson for any type of craftsman to understand that beauty doesn't always translate to a successful business

[onoj]

As a designer comfortable with my choice, I always saw design as the tool used to capture and manifest the dreams of others. This creativity is then placed in the view of the world to meet with brutal success, failure or mediocrity. By definition, a designer must be public. They also must imagine themselves in everyone else shoes and use their creativity for others. Artists, for me, are narcissistic. Trying to create only for themselves. And ideally, they should not care about the opinion of others. I strongly believe that good design is harder, more professional and more demanding than art. Having said that , and having started four businesses. I agree that start-ups are much more difficult.

[rwhitman]

Edit: Downvotes? Really? I write a thoughtful introspective comment based on my personal experience of being a design-trained single founder and you give me downvotes? Ugh

[fleitz]

Fear not, truth is severely undervalued. If you want points tell feel good lies.

[ulisesrmzroche]

It's useless advice. Designers can't be founders because they're pussies? Is this really what you think?

[ulisesrmzroche]

I still don't understand why ya'll are supporting the position of 'Designers are just art school-dropouts, too neurotic to be founders.". What sort of reasoning is that?

[melvinmt]

I didn't downvote your original post but complaining about downvotes = a downvote. Ugh. Get over it.

[rwhitman]

Well to be fair I was in negative territory when I posted that

[ulisesrmzroche]

You're projecting hardcore dude.

'The best designers are often frustrated artists that found comfort in design, where (perhaps subconsciously) they could use their talent without having the success or failure of their work fall 100% on them."

Yeah right. Are you sure you went to design school? Is that what they taught you? That it's where all the failed artists go?

Sometimes, I hate you a lot HN.

[rwhitman]

Assuming that I made these observations by learning it in art school is "projecting hardcore" as well.

The observations I make are based on an inner circle of friends and business associates I've had over the last 13 years who are predominantly made up of brilliant graphic designers. Not that it puts me in a position of absolute authority on the subject, but I think thats a fair rebuttal.

[ulisesrmzroche]

Honestly, you're armchair psychology-ing from your Cabal of Elite Designers, Lords of Silicon Valley, which is the WORST part of HN - apart from the subconscious need to upvote walls of text they haven't read, because well, whatever, it's long it must be smarter!)

Your argument has absolutely no weight, and it offended me. "Yeah, the thing about designers is that they're failed artists and they're so neurotic. Always worried about what people think so they can't be good founders. That's for people like ME."

Pffft. Whatever. Thanks for ruining my morning again HN.

[dasil003]

Well at least it comes from a place of actual experience vs your pithy responses. Honestly, feel of a failure is a thing (to use language that won't trigger your elite-o-meter). I don't necessarily agree that this defines the designer "type" but I applaud the self-awareness to consider something like this.

[ulisesrmzroche]

Everyone has fear of failure, that's just normal. My point is that designers are not just art school dropouts, and I certainlyI still don't understand why ya'll keep supporting that position as if had any merit.

[talmand]

I have a degree in design, I didn't learn such things in school. I've worked numerous jobs in design-related positions for around twenty years now. I've worked with countless people (I won't go so far to say they're "brilliant" because that's a hugely subjective thing) in similar positions or involved in my projects. I, nor anyone I've ever worked with, have had the attitude you are expressing when it comes to design.

You are seriously projecting, the world is bigger than your circle of friends.

[pcunite]

>> Downvotes? Really?

HN is getting to where you can't have an intellectual opposing view. We are being bullied (down voted) into sameness, borg-ness. Are geeks truly petrified of being in the same room with a different personality type? I've up voted you to take the sting away.

[rwhitman]

Thanks. At least somebody understood the reason why I griped about downvotes