Design for people, not for brands | by Andrea Pacheco | Medium

O nce somebody asked me “Why you left digital agencies and went to work on the product-side?”. My answer was simple as that: “because I wanted design for people, not for brands.” I worked at various agencies for years and for the most part, I loved it. Designers could work on Nike one day and have a portfolio full of big brands. I can’t lie, that felt like a dream job. But I noticed that not only I, but a lot of other “agency” designers, started to feel like something was missing after a while. The big-brand-projects became less and less fulfilling. I realized that all of that work was been done for someone in particular: the brand. Making things beautiful and creating crazy interactions is nice, but I couldn’t see my designs improving someone’s day-to-day. When your job is to focused on solving problems for the client, and not the customer, it’s hard to know what kind of impact your work has. When customers use your product every single day, one little change made can save them a ton

O nce somebody asked me “Why you left digital agencies and went to work on the product-side?”. My answer was simple as that: “because I wanted design for people, not for brands.” I worked at various agencies for years and for the most part, I loved it. Designers could work on Nike one day and have a portfolio full of big brands. I can’t lie, that felt like a dream job. But I noticed that not only I, but a lot of other “agency” designers, started to feel like something was missing after a while. The big-brand-projects became less and less fulfilling. I realized that all of that work was been do