Top Designers Share Strengths & Weaknesses

Talking about strengths and weaknesses is a difficult topic for anyone because it requires a good look inward and be honest with yourself. As designers, we keep developing our style and improving our process the more we work. At some things, we become better, what once was a liability becomes an asset, but some things never seem to improve. Many times it depends on our personality and some things may be against our nature but we’ll keep rejecting and we will look to improve other issues. Eventually it will become a habit.
Working as a freelancer can be a lonely business at times with missing colleagues input and observations. Most people are motivated to become better and change, when they see others around them performing at a higher level. Without that, it’s all about self discipline: working conscious day by day to overcome your weaknesses.
As I thought about the topic of this article, I hardly believed our rockstars designers have design flaws as they are great members who deliver professional work in under tight deadlines and win most of the challenges they join. Well…read below and be surprised!

I guess my strength is the ability to understand and visualize clients’ thoughts /requirements - including the ability to apply, analyze client’s feedback. There are many perspectives when looking at design problems, and I believe there are always simple solutions for them. It also depends on clients as well and which direction they want to take.
I don’t think I have weaknesses - sorry about that...! (haha)
Talking about weakness, I have many. I work too slow, keep adjusting, trying things, different layouts, etc. Besides that, I’m a lazy type of person and I hate to push myself to work if I don’t enjoy the project. Another thing is that I think too much, worrying about the flow, even sometimes when it’s a concept design where you don’t need to make it work in a real scenario. Lastly I suck at Illustrator.

People say I design fast. I think it’s because I’ve become used to what I’ve been doing for years. Besides design, I have a strong photography skills. It’s affected how I do composition in design, set points of interest in a mockup, and how better to set the hierarchy of the page. My illustration skills also help me in creating decent wireframes and interesting user stories while designing a flow.
My weakness point is I don’t really spent much time on updating myself with the latest consumer app design trend etc. So I am not really able to follow the hype - most of the time. I design based on my common sense as a user. I love to explore what I think is good rather than be influenced by the latest design trends. But since I am focused on industrial design things, I don’t think it’s a problem.
The second thing is I love to learn everything autodidact by exploring the feature of the design software myself; I was bit lazy to learn tutorial and manuals. Sometimes my design approach was bit odd and quite messy. Now I am trying to spend a specific time of my day just to learn how to use the software better and learn how to deliver a good source.

TCO16 cendhika’s unique approach

I don't really think I have specific strengths when it comes to design. I think of it this way: I consider design as a hobby. Any type of design problem as long as I enjoy it can become my strength which also goes the other way around... I guess.
Logo design stresses me out the most - so I could say that it's there where I'm the weakest. Sometimes it takes me days just to come up with one, only to find out in the end that it's a pile of crap. Well, I always try to look into other good logos and strive to find out what makes it tick or what makes it special.

I believe my strength is my fast working, as I always try to improve work efficiency. Such as my keyboard: I use a Mac keyboard with numeric keys that gives me F1-F19 with specific shortcuts (but not all of them). I tried working with new software Sketch, cool one but editing shortcuts need more improvement. Having two monitors is better for fast workflow, one for PS or AI and the other one for wireframe or inspirational sources. And yes, no music while working to keep me focus.
My biggest weakness is procrastination because I feel like I am working fast with shortcuts but not fast enough. Also reading long challenge summary counts as another minus (I guess copilots must learn to write straight to the point! haha!).

I think that my strength when designing is the care of small details. Things like pixel perfect, same font sizes for elements like titles, paragraphs, labels, etc across all screens; elements positions. I don’t like when content is jumping from screen to screen. This is something I have learned with time; that I’m a very critical person. So I always try to push myself forward.
My weakness on design is still the user experience itself. Coming with the habit of making beautiful designs, now I’m learning to focus more on the UX. I think I have also improved a lot, but I know I still have a long way to go. For now I keep working hard and studying a lot.

I’m a skillful adobe photoshop user so I can work fast and efficiently. For me “Understanding” design application is very important as I always look for the most efficient/fast way to use its tools and features so I bring that trick into other design apps. When learning a new design app, I always explore & exploit its tools & features. While other times I’ll spend a couple seconds using the mouse to find or activate a tool to do it faster.
I am also good at concept design because I want to try new things in my designs.
Talking about my weakness... While I’m good at concept design, sometime it won’t work because this simple & basic design process. I call it “drawing your concept/idea” process. I almost never draw concepts/ideas; I just apply my concept directly to the design app. And sometime it backfires on me, I’m wasting my time changing back and forth my design concept, but nowadays I'm disciplining myself to make sketch drawing ideas/concepts before I start using a design app, and you know what.. it's pretty useful!
I am also weak at picking colors and typography. Yeah a very basic skill or information that every designer must have. To be a better designer, I must improve all my weaknesses so for color combinations I started checking color trends in many sites like Pinterest & Dribble, and reading some articles about color also opens my mind.
This learning process can be a fun part of our development. There are many solutions for any weaknesses, the main question is...