There are no backwaters.

When I was a young designer working in niche magazine production, sometimes I would get discouraged. Australia is a long way from the rest of the world, and designing industry publications (I cut my teeth on some pretty obscure things) seems a long way from the mainstream.

I was wrong to feel it then, and there are no excuses for feeling it now. If you do great work anywhere it will get noticed. You will get noticed. If you find yourself designing a magazine for accountants (as I did), then your job is to find ways to be interested in accounting, and then to convey that enthusiasm and interest to your audience. If you can’t be interested in whatever you’re working on, then find a job that does interest you and give the seat to someone else.

If you’re working as a designer or any kind of communicator, your career is part of a global discussion on how we best convey ideas to our audiences. Look outside of your niche, outside of your city, outside of your country –– find out who is doing the work you admire and then try to get to the guts of why you admire it.

Then go out and do some admirable work yourself. Because there’s nothing stopping you.