Ex-Buzzfeed and Facebook creative guru Jeff Greenspan reckons many creatives need to find "a way out of victimhood". Do you agree?
Jeff Greenspan is a well known name in tech and media circles. Now freelance, he was Buzzfeed's first chief creative officer, a creative strategist at Facebook, and a creative director at BBDO. So when he has something to say, people take notice.
Webydo, a pro-level, browser-based website design tool, recently interviewed Greenspan as part of a series of design talks on their blog. And he had this to say about a certain "victim mentality" among designers...
"To me, being a brand or having buzz around you is about the style in which you contact the world," says Greenspan. "I feel a lot of creative people contact the world in the style of being a victim because they feel they need to get a brief or a project from a client before they can move forward with an idea. Or if their ideas are subverted or not 'bought' by the client, then they don't have some creative success."
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To me being a brand or having buzz around you is about the style in which you contact the world
"I found that the way of moving out of victimhood as a creative person, and moving out of the brand of being put upon, was to do work that was self-directed, self-motivated and self-controlled." Greenspan goes on to suggest how you can go about taking control of the work in the interview, which is available to watch in full above.
But is it really a problem that needs solving? We'd love to know what you think. Have you ever been guilty of exhibiting a "victim mentality" as a designer? Let us know in the comments below!
Webydo's series of design talks has also featured Aaron Draplin and Justin Ahrens is up next. There will be six interviews in total.
Tom May is an award-winning journalist and author specialising in design, photography and technology. His latest book, The 50th Greatest Designers, was released in June 2025. He's also author of the Amazon #1 bestseller Great TED Talks: Creativity, published by Pavilion Books, Tom was previously editor of Professional Photography magazine, associate editor at Creative Bloq, and deputy editor at net magazine.
