That’s “ID Life” For You

For the sake of industrial design, I lost who I was

10.16.25

I wouldn’t say I had the typical college experience, I don’t think most design students do. We often give up extracurriculars, sports teams and Greek life for extra time in the studio. While my roommates were off at parties, spending an afternoon by the pool, or going on weekend adventures, I was sitting in my room staring at my giant Wacom or inhaling foam dust in the workshop. To me this was normal, it was just “ID life”.

This concept of “ID life” quickly became part of my everyday vocabulary whether joking with friends or as a half-hearted excuse for another all nighter or skipped meal. This was my way of life, which I have been trying to unlearn ever since.

In “ID life” the expectation is to always be working, I would end up feeling so guilty if I wasn’t being productive 24/7. Even if that break was for dinner or for a walk outside. I used to call weekends or holidays “extended work hours. Going to bed at 2am was considered a good night. Sometimes, when the exhaustion was so bad I would go to bed “early”, but set my alarm for some ungodly hour to keep going. And even with that it never felt like enough and my professors reinforced that idea when they told me I wasn’t committed enough. My solution was to do more, in my third year I applied for Offsite where I took six classes along with my five for school. And while yes I do think I proved my point and I loved my Offsite experience, sometimes I question if it was worth the stress, burnout, and lack of self care.

Looking back I feared that maybe it was my own internal pressure that made this my reality, but I recently heard that one of my former professors had told the current seniors that they should quit their jobs to focus more on design school and that they too weren’t dedicated enough. I couldn’t believe a professor would say that, but was then reminded of this perpetual narrative that constant productivity equals dedication.

It almost became this competition of sleep deprivation or hardship. We’d come into class and start comparing how many hours of sleep we got. I almost felt this twisted sense of pride when I had stayed up the latest. Even at a recent design conference I caught myself doing this as I shared about the time my friend and I stayed on Facetime for a week straight leading up to portfolio review. In response, they recounted the nights they stayed at school napping under workshop desks and sponge bathing in the art room sink. It’s like our suffering has become some weird flex and proof of how much we put into design. It’s not just who is the best designer, it’s who sacrificed the most physically and mentally.

We were expected to live and breathe design. To be constantly creative, coming up with products that don’t exist on a weekly basis. With this the only logical result is burnout. My burnout hit hard by senior year, I used to tell people it was just senioritis, but looking back it was so much more. Professionals often ask where the disconnect lies between design students and those that stay in the industry and I am beginning to hypothesize it’s the result of living in the state of burnout for four years and never fully recovering before being thrown into the workforce.

Even now, three years later, I think I am recovering from my school experience. One thing I’ve been working on is rediscover my passions and who I am when I am not constantly working. Last year, I decided to enroll in dance classes again. I grew up dancing but gave it up in college as I did most (if not all) of my hobbies. Returning to dance had this restorative effect, I somehow love it more now than I did when I was a kid. I also started to draw again but only when inspiration strikes and not design related. I found my love for making drawings of Broadway theatres and then gifting them to actors. It’s been so fun to create without pressure and to find that glimmer of my past self.

This idea of “ID life” that so many subscribe to as normal, is not normal. To those of you still in school working all the time doesn’t make you a dedicated designer. Taking a little break to go outside, for lunch or a nap doesn’t make you unproductive, it’s the opposite of that. If my hypothesis is correct, it’s these things that will actually lead to a more successful career. Don’t let burnout stop you before you even get started. You don’t have to suffer to be a good designer and you certainly don’t have to lose yourself or the things you love in the process.