Opinion

MATT BAXTER SHARES FOUR KEY SKILLS FOR DESIGNERS WANTING TO MAKE A START AT PUBLIC SPEAKING

- Matt Baxter

A big fat wedding. A significantly round-numbered birthday. A much-loved colleague leaving a long-held job. All of these special occasions call for a few well-chosen words to mark the moment. In short, they all need a speech.

I’d say that 300 issues of your favourite monthly design magazine is a similarly significant milestone, wouldn’t you? So who’s going to stand up on stage and say something? You? Me? No?

Because here’s the thing: most designers hate speaking in public. In fact, some of us hate it so much we’d rather eat a D&AD annual (even a really fancy one from the late 90s) than speak in front of an audience. It’s against our very nature. Think about it: many designers enter the profession because they’re naturally predisposed to the sorts of behaviours that make us good designers (and bad public orators) in the first place: we’re quiet, introverted, diligent and obsessed with detail and minutiae. We love nothing more than quietly losing ourselves in a creative challenge. Ideally alone, with a posh pen and a swanky sketchbook. Not on stage under swivelling spotlights, with a head-mic and some booming intro music. Yoinks!

The requirement to present publicly in front of audiences becomes increasingly pressing as our careers progress. And I’m not talking here about presenting to a design team or a small audience of clients or stakeholders. Both of these things are vitally important for the success of your projects, but they’re also both things that we eventually do with enough regularity for them to become a natural part of the job.