Graphic Designer Burnout: 10 Reasons Designers Are Burning Out & How to Prevent It

The Angry Designer Graphic Design, Freelancing, Branding & Creative Business Podcast

The episode explores the multifaceted causes of burnout within the graphic design industry, moving beyond the myth that overwork is the sole

Key takeaways

• A WeTransfer study revealed that over 75% of surveyed graphic designers were experiencing burnout.
• Burnout is often driven by a lack of professional boundaries rather than just the number of hours worked.

Main topics

• Graphic Designer Burnout
• Client Boundary Setting

Notable quotes

Burnout isn't just about bad clients or industry trends... it's all about how we let this shit affect us.

Conclusion

The takeaway is that burnout prevention lies in the designer's ability

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) It's a fucking pressure cooker, man. Speaker 1 (0:01) It is. It is. We have to deal with shit. We have to deal with tight deadlines, tight deadlines, right? Crazy customers, then vendors that they're dealing with, right? And we're constantly on the go. But the thing is, you know, burnout isn't just about, you know, bad clients or industry trends, right? Like the reality is it's all about how we let this shit affect us. Speaker 2 (0:23) Right. Speaker 1 (0:24) Okay. And how we react to it on a regular basis. Speaker 1 (0:35) There was a study done by WeTransfer. Okay. And, you know, everybody's favorite, you know, file transfer program. And they interviewed, oh, geez, hundreds and hundreds. I think it was thousands of like graphic designers globally. Okay. And 70, over 75 % of those people, okay, were experiencing burnout during that interview, which is ridiculous. During the interview. Out Speaker 2 (1:00) of everybody. So they Speaker 1 (1:01) interviewed. Okay, it was a big number what they interviewed. And 75 % of the people were like, I'm feeling burnout right now. And there was another study by, I don't know if it was Creative Hut or something, but it said over 80 % of the people they interviewed said that they experienced at least one day of burnout a week. A week? A kind of a weird way to go about it. And I get it. Sometimes I get, you know, like by Thursday night. Thursday night's my night. Like, don't don't expect anything fancy from me, you know, like I'm usually mush. And that's when I'm like, I have to just kind of unwind Thursday night. So I get I get what they're saying. But burnout is such a huge part of this space. And I think it's something that not enough people they don't. Well, if they talk about. They sugarcoat shit. Speaker 2 (1:47) You Speaker 1 (1:48) know, what you should do is you should journal your feelings and, and get in touch. And, and it's just like, fuck guys. Like this is, this is not legit. Yeah. Speaker 2 (1:58) Right. A full on spa day isn't going to cure that. Right. Exactly. Speaker 1 (2:03) And, and then again, I, you know, maybe this is, this is some tough love in this episode. Cause I mean, we're not, we're not exactly known for pussyfooting around things, you know? So some of you might actually get offended by this. who've actually experienced burnout. But the reality is, I think by the end of this, everybody will get stronger by listening to this. We'll be stronger because you know what? It's not an easy thing to go through. Have you suffered burnout? I think I've suffered it a few times in my space. Me too. Over the past 25 years, for sure. Did you survive? Absolutely. I'm still fucking Speaker 2 (2:32) here. Speaker 1 (2:32) You know, and the funny thing is, right now, I can genuinely say that I, and I've mentioned this before in this podcast, I think I'm creatively. burnt out right now. Oh, you are. I genuinely feel right now. And I think I've been going through this the past year, but love the space. I am now acting as creative director. I'm finding it a lot easier to help everybody else with their journeys. I think my passion for the space has shifted from the hands-on doing, which is what I've loved to do for the past 25 years. I fucking love the problem solving part of the space now. Speaker 2 (3:07) Right. Speaker 1 (3:07) And that's where it's like, you know, I had an interview with somebody and she said, what's Speaker 2 (3:11) your Speaker 1 (3:11) favorite part? And that was it. That was my favorite part was when you that aha moment when it's like, I know what the problem is and now I'm going to help you get that solution. Yes. But, you know, I guess I guess if we were to go through a list of like burnout symptoms, I can't see I have any. Maybe I'm just going through a phase right now where it's like I'm more energized by other parts of the space other than the hands-on doing. Maybe that's right. And I don't think that's a Speaker 2 (3:35) bad thing. I think as we get older, we have a natural progression away from that kind of stuff into the more top of the... biosphere of what graphic design is. Right. And I think that's where you're, where you're landing. Like you said, Speaker 1 (3:50) the problem solving, that's a, that's a big deal. And there's probably my most, I think I'm so excited about it. And there is nothing wrong Speaker 2 (3:56) with, with Speaker 1 (3:57) being a specialist in that. Ah, right. Yeah. So, so what we're going to do is we've got, you know, we got 10, you know, reasons, you know, and these are the most popular reasons that these were surveyed. Okay. From over, over. Okay. Like it was like 7,000 people were surveyed this. Okay. And I'm on a newsletter. So I hijacked some of this information and I added some of our own on top of this, but this is legit out of this giant survey. I went through this. I'm like legit, legit, legit, legit. Right. And we're going to do our own spin on this. Okay. Because again, so we've got 10 reasons why designers feel burnout and the hard truth bombs that go along with this shit. Okay. Because again, you know, I agree with a lot of these, but at the same time, it's like, you know, is this self-sabotage? Okay. Is this self Speaker 2 (4:45) -touch? Oh, right. Okay. You know, Speaker 1 (4:47) one thing I want to clarify though, is most people think there's this myth. Okay. That burnout is, occurs from being overworked. Right. Okay. Yeah. And that sounds like that would be the reason why somebody would be burnt out. Right. But in actuality, it's just a myth. Okay. overworked doesn't necessarily cause burnout. No. And the reason for that is because, you know, if you have the right clients, if you have the right pricing in place, right, you have, you know, you set the right boundaries. So nobody's calling you at 12 o'clock at night asking for changes to a project, right? You know, you could work 12, 14 hours straight on projects that you're passionate about. God knows I've done it for many years. I used to do that, right? Yep. Overwork doesn't necessarily translate to being, to, to, to burn out. Okay. It's everything else that goes along with it. That is right. Yes. Passionate, high performing graphic designers. They commonly put in long hours. Okay. Look at like the sag Meisters, the Jessica Walsh, all the, all the designers that are actually living and breathing in New York. Yeah. They're pulling all these crazy hours and shifts and this not because they have to. Because they fucking want to do it. Exactly. And that I love. Number one, unrealistic expectation. Ah, this is good. Okay. And this was a twofold. Okay. Speaker 2 (6:10) So Speaker 1 (6:11) obviously everybody's going to be like, oh yeah, my, my clients these days, they're asking for too much. They expect me to be a designer. They expect me to be a copywriter, a social media expert. Plus, you know, answer phones and, and understand this and be a mind fucking reader. Right. And it is true. Right. Like if you, the truth bomb to this whole thing is of course, you know, that will lead to burnout. Speaker 2 (6:33) The Speaker 1 (6:34) truth bomb in this situation though, is, you know, the control is up to you. When it comes to setting boundaries with these customers. Right. Okay. And, you know, it is up to you to set this. If you don't set these, if you don't set these boundaries and put them in place, you are actually part of the problem and you are going to lead yourself down that road. Okay. And again, there's nothing wrong with the client expecting you to do all these tasks. Okay. This is another, you know, another truth bomb to this whole thing. Right. unrealistic expectations on the customer side is one thing because they will always ask. But the reason why they always ask is because they want one partner. Yes. They don't want to have to go to a social media company to do this and go to a video company. If they can find one person to do one person that can do all of this. Right. They're, they're gonna, they're gonna push their luck and see if they can. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Doesn't mean you have to take their out, their, their calls and work on weekends. Right. It's up to you to set those boundaries, but you can't blame the client if they want to give you all of their work. Exactly. And Hey, bring in a friend. You Speaker 2 (7:37) know what I mean? Like network and, and you could very well create your own agency from this kind of thing. Absolutely. Yes. Or be out. Look at it as a performing. freelancer. Exactly. Speaker 1 (7:49) So here's the other, you know, the other edge of the sword on this, you know, expectations, right? Or the unrealistic expectations. I think also graphic designers are probably leaving school. Okay. Or they've got some sort of attitude that, you know, they're thinking I'm only, you know, doing this to design. I wasn't asked. to do copy. I wasn't asked to do social media. And so all of