IDIAMM

Pip: IDIAMM — where the advice arrives without padding and the point lands before you’ve finished reading the title.

Mara: IDIAMM has been writing about how you grow as a designer, and today we’re looking at one idea in particular: the role of competition and rivalry in pushing your work forward.

Pip: Let’s start with the chase.

Find someone to chase…

Pip: The question this post puts on the table is a simple one — what actually forces you to do your best work? Not deadlines, not briefs, but a person. Someone ahead of you, setting a pace you have to match.

Mara: The post is direct about it: “Like every race or challenge, you need a rival, someone who sets a benchmark for you to aim against. This can be a general allrounder or in a specific field i.e. CAD or Photoshop visuals.”

Pip: So the rival isn’t abstract. It’s someone in your year, in your studio, doing the thing you want to do — only doing it better right now.

Mara: And the post is clear about what happens without that pressure. Staying in a set lane at a set pace is described as easy — too easy. The “I’ve pushed myself enough” attitude, as it’s put, gets adopted without you even noticing.

Pip: Which is the honest part. Nobody decides to coast. It just becomes the default when nothing is pulling you forward.

Mara: The post frames the payoff in terms of self-reckoning — being able to look yourself in the mirror and say you pushed and excelled. And then, crucially, you start the next project at that new level. The benchmark resets upward.

Pip: There’s a kicker at the end that earns its place — the reminder that while you’re chasing someone, someone else is chasing you. That’s not a comfort; it’s a second source of fuel.

Mara: It reframes the whole dynamic. You’re not just the pursuer. The pressure is mutual, even when it’s invisible.

Pip: Competition as a closed loop rather than a one-way race. That’s a more useful way to think about a studio year than any skills checklist.

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Mara: The underlying point is about what conditions produce your best work — and the answer here is: someone real, setting a real standard.

Pip: Find the person ahead of you….and the sooner the better!