How side projects reveal your true creative taste and vision
When junior designers ask how to stand out, the advice is the same one veterans get: show what kind of weirdo you are. In this clip from You’re Not the Audience, Parliament Creative Director Calvin Ross Carl explains why side projects reveal what you believe deserves to exist, why taking initiative beats waiting for client permission, and why designers are only as good as their taste. He defines taste as having a vision and sticking to it in the face of others’ doubt, and describes side projects as the place to get weird, grow, and cultivate your own originality. It’s from the You’re Not the Audience episode on side projects, Why Every Designer Needs a Side Project.
Watch the full episode
Outline
Summary
Calvin Ross Carl opens the episode’s main argument with the advice he gives student, junior, and veteran designers alike: show what you can’t stop thinking about when you’re not being paid. That doesn’t have to be design. A deep hobby can make you memorable, too.
Client work shows what drives your clients. Side projects show what drives you, and what you believe deserves to exist. Taking on self-initiated or unpaid work you’re passionate about is a way of saying that to the world instead of waiting for client permission.
Calvin then turns to taste, which he calls simply having a vision and being willing to stick to it. Side projects reveal the references, worlds, and obsessions that shape that taste, and they’re where designers can experiment, grow, and reconnect with their own originality.
Highlights
The same advice applies to junior and veteran designers: show your obsessions.
Side projects answer what you believe deserves to exist.
Designers often wait for client permission instead of taking initiative.
In branding, designers are only as good as their taste.
Side projects are where you’re free to get freaky and grow.
Key insights
Be memorable for your obsessions
Sharing a deep interest, design-related or not, makes you the designer who does that thing, which is easier to remember than one more polished student project.
Don’t wait for permission
Running your own projects is a statement about what should exist, rather than waiting for a client to approve the work you want to make.
Taste is conviction
Anyone can learn the basics of design, but taste comes from a primal curiosity and the willingness to hold a vision when others doubt it.
Side projects keep generalists original
For a proud design generalist like Calvin, personal work is a reminder of his own original direction.
Detailed analysis
The clip treats side projects as evidence rather than decoration. A portfolio full of client work tells a reviewer what the designer can execute. Personal work tells them how the designer thinks, what references inspire them, and what worlds they naturally build, which is exactly what a branding agency needs to know.
Calvin’s definition of taste is notably practical. It isn’t an innate aesthetic gift but a vision held with conviction, and side projects are where designers can practice that conviction without a client’s constraints.
Conclusion
Side projects show the spirit that drives you. For designers who want to stand out, Calvin’s message is to make the things you believe deserve to exist, and let your taste show.
Transcript
Let’s get into it. Let’s talk about why I think every designer needs a side project. So, this comes up a lot when I meet with a lot of student designers, a lot of junior designers. Shout out to Portland State University. I spend a lot of time over there meeting with designers, doing portfolio critiques, meeting with them, chatting about things, and they always end up asking me, “How do I get noticed as a junior designer? How do I stand out from everybody else when we’re all working on the same student projects?” And I think the most consistent advice I give them is the exact same advice I give veteran designers: I kind of want to see how much of a weirdo you are. I want to see what kind of freak you are. When you’re not being paid, what are the things that you just can’t stop thinking about? What are the things that you’re making obsessively, no matter what? Gorgeous.
And I think the thing is different for designers, because I think the big separation here is always that I’m not necessarily meaning design projects either. And so I think that’s kind of the other side of it: even if it’s just a hobby that you are deeply, deeply immersed in, I think actually sharing that can be a good thing, because then you become the designer that does this, the designer that becomes that, and it becomes a little memorable moment. So, we’ll talk more about that later.
Oh, Ryan says, “Not working on side projects, unfortunately. Sasquatch beer cans from years ago, but that wasn’t anything I’m particularly proud of.” Oh, no. The Sasquatch cans are great. They’re great. I’m going to show some beer cans that I just recently designed in a very quick, frantic project just for a friend, which I’m like, they look good. And I think actually, let’s talk about that. Let’s talk about what level of polish and pride needs to be involved with side projects. But we’ll talk about that later when I get into some of my side projects.
So, that’s where this idea for me comes from: I want to see the things you are passionate about in your portfolio, not just the client work. And so, yeah, the idea that side projects show what you actually care about on a personal level. The idea that as branders, as designers, we spend all day solving other people’s problems. And the best brand work captures the spirit of your clients. It twists their problem into a good thing. But I think for designers, creatives—this applies to copywriters, too, really any creatives in our business—seeing how you look in the mirror at your own problems is really exciting and tells me how you think and what spirit drives you. Whereas all your client work kind of says what drives them.
So, it just tells me, what do you believe deserves to exist? I think that is what side projects do. What do you believe deserves to exist? Also, Ryan, if you have the Sasquatch beer stuff somewhere, throw a link to it. We should look at it. We can talk about it.
So I think that is kind of the important part. We’re always waiting on clients to give us permission to do something, to work on a project we want. And when you take initiative, run your own projects, or take on those free projects that you know aren’t going to pay you but it’s just something you’re super passionate about, that’s you saying to the world, “Hey, I think this deserves to exist.” And I think that’s a thing that we don’t think about a lot as designers, because we’re often waiting for permission from clients.
So, the other side of this, too, that I always tell junior designers, or also just hardcore veteran designers: the reason I like side projects is because I think they reveal your taste. And I think, especially in branding, we are only as good as our taste. And taste is always an indefinable thing.
Oh, dang. For some reason, I’m not seeing your link in the chat, Ryan. I wonder if that’s a thing I can adjust in here. They should be popping up here. Let me look at something really fast. Maybe I can set it so links will appear. No, it should be showing up. I don’t know. Who knows how the YouTube comment moderation stuff works.
So, okay. All right. [unclear] on Behance. All right, we’ll look at it. We’re going to pull it up. I’m going to pull it up right now. If I knew how to spell Behance. All right, I’ll get it loaded up, and we can take a look later. That’ll be fun. It’s like your 16th project down. You’re behind. Okay, this is great. All right, that’s going to be fun. We’ll get there.
So, I talk about taste, and taste is always this amorphous thing. It’s hard to describe, but I always like to clarify what I’m talking about when I talk about taste. I think taste is simply having a vision and being willing to stick to it in the face of doubt from others. I think that’s really all taste truly is: having a vision, having an opinion about it, and being willing to put all your effort into it. Because I think anyone can learn the basics of design, and they can become a decent designer, a decent creative, but I think taste is a harder thing to develop, because taste comes really directly, I think, out of a deep, primal drive within you, your curiosity.
Side projects show taste in the way that they show the things you’re obsessed with, like what references inspire you, what kind of worlds you’re naturally drawn to, and what kind of worlds you naturally build. And so I think that taste is evidence of your curiosity and how you research things and how you perceive the world.
And the other reason why side projects are really fun is because I think this is where innovation can happen in your own work. I hate to call it that. It feels very odd to call it innovation, and I don’t think of it as being innovation in my work. But that’s kind of, I think, what the essence is. That’s the place where you get to come up with new ideas, branch out into new territories, that maybe when you’re working for a giant global financial company, or, for some of us here who’ve worked for unnamed giant global athletics companies, you don’t get to necessarily stretch out and do some things that you really want to tackle.
So, with side projects, you’re free to get freaky a little bit. That’s your opportunity to do weird type, crazy aesthetics, some abrasive messaging. That’s always my favorite. Or in my case, I feel like my messaging always gets very poetic in my side projects. So, I think being free to dream up whatever you want is great. And I think those end up being pretty major growth opportunities for yourself, and a chance to cultivate your own originality. I think that’s one that’s really hard to do. For myself, I’m a really proud design generalist. I like to apply my thinking across a lot of different styles of work, a lot of different types of brands. And so when I get those moments to step back and challenge what is my own original direction on a thing, I think it’s good to have that little reminder.