DDIY - Don't Do It Yourself

Something that's always amused me is that people who make a living doing something can never do that thing for themselves.

Let me give you a for instance: when I lived in Ripon, North Yorkshire, I used to have a favourite walk for when I had half an hour to kill. It wasn't particularly scenic (there was a wonderful route I could take for that, one that war poet Wilfred Owen used to do when he was stationed there), but it was circular and easy.

I must have walked that route for three years on and off and along the way was a house with an extension being built on the side. In all the time I walked that route the extension never got finished. For all I know, it's still being built.
Turns out, the house belonged to a builder, and he was doing a spot of DIY!

Now it's bad enough getting builders to finish work you are paying them for, but it seems to be the case that they are even worse when it comes to completing work for themselves. But this trait is not just something builders suffer from. Apparently it's true of plumbers, mechanics and all manner of tradesmen (I use the non-politically correct term because not only do I hate political correctness when it comes to bastardising the asexual English language, but I also suspect that female builders, plumbers and mechanics actually do finish their DIY).

Would you believe that Mozart never finished anything he wrote for himself or his wife? It's true - the great C Minor Mass ends halfway through, and that was intended for his own wedding!

I find myself caught in this trap too. In all the years I've been designing, writing or consulting I have never had a web page, letterhead or business card that I have been happy with. My current homepage is a mess, and I'm reluctant to give it out as it does nothing to advertise my talents.

I know that what I should do is get someone else to do it for me. Maybe it could be a reciprocal deal? I could do theirs in return?

This has always worried me about design courses. Almost without fail, all graphic design courses include "self promotion" projects, which is basically where students design completely impractical CVs and mini portfolios for themselves, then get marked for it in a typical demonstration of a lack of understanding how intellectually demanding degree courses should be. A better test, and something far more mind-stretching, would be if students promoted each other. Working for a real third party client rather than yourself is a proper test of ability. Doing it for yourself is not, as you'll never be happy with what you do, and at the end of the day you only try to impress your tutor, not the customer.

My advice for designers is take a tip from builders, plumbers and Mozart: don't do it yourself (DDIY) - find another designer and do it for each other (DIFEO)