Navigating career:
Having a burnout
Having a burnout
If you’re struggling with finding meaning and strength for your work, you’re definitely not alone. In 2020, “It’s Nice That” carried out a survey that showed that 57% of its audience had experienced burnout. Read two personal stories where top-notch designers share their encounters with this nasty condition and give hope and advice to everyone passing through burnout.
If you’re struggling with finding meaning and strength for your work, you’re definitely not alone. In 2020, “It’s Nice That” carried out a survey that showed that 57% of its audience had experienced burnout. Read two personal stories where top-notch designers share their encounters with this nasty condition and give hope and advice to everyone passing through burnout.
I’ve been enjoying my career in design for about ten years, but burnout rears its ugly head at least once a year. We organize the International Assembly design festival alongside running our design practice, Warriors Studio, and this combination can often result in long, tiring days, juggling multiple urgent tasks, stressful situations, continuous firefighting, and endless to-do lists. By the end of the year, we’re often burned out. Our team takes the full month of December off to rest, recharge, and enjoy life outside of design. My best advice for when you have burnout is to take a substantial amount of time outside of work to focus on things that make you feel calm, happy, and healthy. In my experience, there’s no other cure. For me, it’s pottery, podcasts, and boxing.
I’ve been enjoying my career in design for about ten years, but burnout rears its ugly head at least once a year. We organize the International Assembly design festival alongside running our design practice, Warriors Studio, and this combination can often result in long, tiring days, juggling multiple urgent tasks, stressful situations, continuous firefighting, and endless to-do lists. By the end of the year, we’re often burned out. Our team takes the full month of December off to rest, recharge, and enjoy life outside of design. My best advice for when you have burnout is to take a substantial amount of time outside of work to focus on things that make you feel calm, happy, and healthy. In my experience, there’s no other cure. For me, it’s pottery, podcasts, and boxing.
Beth Wilson:
Director of Warriors Studio and Founder of the International Assembly. She experienced burnout several times and knows a great way out.
Beth Wilson:
Director of Warriors Studio and Founder of the International Assembly. She experienced burnout several times and knows a great way out.
Whether working in a full-time role or as an independent freelancer, your purpose is to continuously generate original concepts, rationalize and revise them across multiple projects at once. It’s a lot of pressure for one human in 24 hours. In 2021, I ended up in the hospital due to health problems I’d developed from stress over the years. Simply speaking, I didn’t give myself the break I desperately needed at the time. This burnout felt both physical and mental: my body was clearly giving me signs to slow down, and I was becoming less passionate and more jaded about the projects I was working on.
What helps me these days is charging a higher fee for my branding projects. This probably sounds like a bizarre concept to propose in the context of burnout, but you’ll inevitably burn out if you’re spread too thinly across multiple low-budget projects, desperately trying to stay afloat financially. Setting a higher budget will allow you to take on fewer projects and give each one the attention it deserves whilst protecting your own well-being and financially affording regular breaks between projects. I generally take on about one to three projects at once, which usually last about three months altogether. But once these are wrapped up and handover over, I take a step back to mentally refuel, reinspire myself, and often use this time for a personal passion project.
Whether working in a full-time role or as an independent freelancer, your purpose is to continuously generate original concepts, rationalize and revise them across multiple projects at once. It’s a lot of pressure for one human in 24 hours. In 2021, I ended up in the hospital due to health problems I’d developed from stress over the years. Simply speaking, I didn’t give myself the break I desperately needed at the time. This burnout felt both physical and mental: my body was clearly giving me signs to slow down, and I was becoming less passionate and more jaded about the projects I was working on.
What helps me these days is charging a higher fee for my branding projects. This probably sounds like a bizarre concept to propose in the context of burnout, but you’ll inevitably burn out if you’re spread too thinly across multiple low-budget projects, desperately trying to stay afloat financially. Setting a higher budget will allow you to take on fewer projects and give each one the attention it deserves whilst protecting your own well-being and financially affording regular breaks between projects. I generally take on about one to three projects at once, which usually last about three months altogether. But once these are wrapped up and handover over, I take a step back to mentally refuel, reinspire myself, and often use this time for a personal passion project.
Carla Palette:
A Brand identity designer and Art director currently working in Berlin. She found herself burned out but managed to recover by raising prices, carefully picking clients, and taking regular breaks between rounds of projects.
Carla Palette:
A Brand identity designer and Art director currently working in Berlin. She found herself burned out but managed to recover by raising prices, carefully picking clients, and taking regular breaks between rounds of projects.
