By the definition of design as a skill used to fulfill the needs of others, I'd think it's totally fair to consider me a selfish designer.
Why? Because I no longer wish to work with commercial clients, nor global corporations that pay big bucks for designers and engineers.
Because I no longer want to sacrifice my personal aesthetics for corporate brand identities and big data.
Most importantly, I've decided that an individual's philosophy and output are no less valuable—and indeed, are at times more valuable—than that of commercial entities.
And so I've decided to walk the talk and use my hard earned skills on my personal works, to solve problems not for businesses but for the individual—in this case myself.
Because the individual's voice needs to be heard too.
How is it that businesses' voices always seem more sophisticated and honed and heard than individual ones? In spite of the fact that individuals are the ones that make up business entities to begin with?
Maybe it’s because there are too many talented individuals out there utilizing our talents for the better of businesses, instead of for the individual.
But why is the individual's voice important in the first place?
Because we need our poets and artists, our revolutionaries and philosophers, people who produce the best works when outside the jurisdiction and management of organizations; who are not confined by narrow goals like profits.
Because when their voices get drowned under the noise of businesses, our society become poorer—not financially, but morally and culturally.
I am one of millions of individuals who have been led to believe that our personal ideals and creativity don't matter, because they don't bring in the bread. Because we should drop them for a high paying job that buys us fancy cars and homes and toys and whatnot. And we bought that thinking—in hordes, year after year, generation after generation.
But something's gotta give.
And now I've decided that if mammoth businesses are transforming society using their all-encompassing products, then two can play the game. I can make use of their "free" tools to raise my own voice and to introduce a variant. Where design can be used to promote good news instead of terrible but captivating ones. Where design can be used to sell individual content at affordable prices directly to our audience, instead of trapping them with the illusion of "free". Where it can be used to promote culture and goodness rather than undermine them.
I'm pretty sure my efforts will have a minuscule impact (even the use of that word sounds ridiculous to myself), but it's necessary. And if my efforts have the unexpected effect of influencing other, more talented individuals, then it would have been worth it.
Call me selfish, but from now on I'm designing for me, and me only.