It’s Never Finished


There’s that moment in summer, when you’re just finished mowing the lawn, trimming the edges, cleaning up all the clippings. You put the mower away and look over your yard, the smell of fresh-cut grass filling your senses. And for just a moment, you feel the satisfaction of completion.

Aaaah…..

Then a moment later you see the weeds in the garden, start sweeping the patio, and that moment of completion passes.

One of the reasons I love graphic design is because of that feeling of completion. Of creating order where there was disorder, of clearly communicating something that was previously confusing.

But the longer you work in the field, the more you realize that the job is never finished. Particularly in the world of the internet, where there’s no definite print date, and where users and devices are a constantly-moving target, you must adopt a philosophy of continual iteration.

Peter Zimon (Lead Product Designer) and David Gauquelin (Director of Design) of Prezi touch on the humility of “never finished” in this article:

We accept that no design is ever done or perfect. Our designers have the humility to say that nothing is ever done or finished and things can always be made better.

This is what drives us—always iterating, step by step, sometimes taking a bigger step, but always considering everything we do as just a step towards something better.

At the end of the week, take a moment to enjoy the smell of fresh-cut grass, but remember that the grass will keep on growing.