Work affecting my mental health

[soutraboy]

Hi everyone. I honestly never post about this kind of thing but a young girl ( well she's in her 20's but 'young' compared to me ) sitting across the office from me at work opened up to me about her struggles with mental health and how it led to her giving up something she really enjoyed and was very good at (competitive swimming in her case) and I was so close to empathising with her as I have my own struggles with MH but didn't - I guess because a. I'm a stupid bloke and b. I'm from a generation that grew up not talking about that kind of thing or even being aware 'it' had a name. Anyway, I'm in my 50's and have been working in the arts and design for the past 30 years or so. I've never felt I am good enough and struggle every day to sit down at my desk and 'do design' so to speak. I originally trained in fine art at college and sort of fell in to design about 20 years ago initially to supplement my income as an artist. I now have no time at all to paint and spend evenings trying to work out why the design I am producing is so shit! I look at other designers work and am amazed at their ability to create such slick work, choose just the right font, just the right colour palette, leave just the right amount of space in the layout etc etc.
Having not trained as a 'designer' as such and living in quite a remote location with really no access to other graphic designers that I can meet up with to discuss things or ask for advice etc. I am hoping that there might be some friendly advice here on whether I should continue and struggle on, whether there is something I can do to improve my skills or whether I should just jack it in and be a poor artist in my old age - impossible really with the current cost of living bollocks!

Sorry for the long post. I will attach one of my latest design tragedies as an example!

 

[Wardy]

Sorry to hear about your struggles. Poor MH is rife at the moment, don't be afraid to get professional help if you need it. You shouldn't be taking stresses home with you, you need down time and relaxation,
otherwise it will reflect in your work when you go back the next day. Easy for me to say I know. You must be doing something right at work, no-one is expected to be great at everything.
Maybe go back to the girl and open up yourself, ask her advice on your work and vice versa. An office environment can be awful unless you have friends there too. You certainly need to try and find time to do some art in your spare time,
even if it's just for your own enjoyment. But you're certainly not too old to train up and try something else, even if it's just in your spare time, and there are lots of outlets in this internet age.

The site plan itself is ok, it's almost too designed, like you're trying too hard to make it look nice. Don't forget it needs to show clearly where things are too. A slightly more defined outline might help instead of just the arrows and dotted lines etc.
Maybe add a faint indication of where the cabinets and tables etc are? Is there a reason why it's at an angle? Maybe it's just the fact that the main areas are a very pale grey and need to be green or something.

 

[hankscorpio]

Saw you posted this on another graphic design forum - what's the angle here - it's not the same latest version as the one I saw there.

Can you share your latest design? Or have you reverted?

 

[soutraboy]

Saw you posted this on another graphic design forum - what's the angle here - it's not the same latest version as the one I saw there.

Can you share your latest design? Or have you reverted?

Sure @hankscorpio. I've been working on it today after the feedback I have received ( much appreciated ) so here is latest iteration. Happy to receive your thoughts.