Good design costs you something. It demands clarity, and clarity is brutal. It demands obsession, and obsession bleeds. It forces you to kill your favorite ideas, one after another, until the one left standing twists your stomach in exactly the right way. Pain is the compass. If it feels too easy, you are coasting. You are recycling. You are wallpapering the world with safe deliverables no one will remember.

Most clients and agencies do not want pain. They want comfort. They want “elevated simplicity” and “refined minimalism.” They want polite decks that slide through approvals without anyone sweating. But that’s not design. That’s decoration for people who are scared of feeling. Real design is uncomfortable. It should sting when you make it and sting even more when people see it.

The work that matters is born from tension. It pushes until it pushes back. It leaves scars on you, and that is why it leaves scars on them. Most people will never go there, because it is easier to stay safe. But safe is invisible. Safe dies quiet. Safe is the reason no one remembers their names.

So lean into the discomfort. Chase the idea that makes you nauseous. Follow the line that makes you sweat. If you are not bleeding for it, why should anyone bleed when they see it?

Good design hurts. That is why it lasts.