This "restlessness" that the you describe is normal, especially if you are a young creative type and especially if you have just finished some kind of art or design program. You need to find a way to channel all this energy into something positive and meaningful, though, otherwise you risk becoming a "victim of advertising" as someone mentioned earlier. Here's my view of what's going on:

First off, the art-school life immerses you in a whirlwind of production, experimentation, skills-development, discussion, criticism, craziness, etc. 24 hours a day. It becomes easy to "produce" on demand when you have instructors assigning mind-bending projects and classmates to face at presentation time. The pressure is on, and we learn how to step up. This is why we go to school. And, yes, it can be a blast.

And then school ends, and it is a shock. In graphic design, fortunately, there are actual jobs to go to. If we are lucky, the "assignments" our boss gives us are interesting, they pay decently and allow other good things to happen in our life.

But suddenly we have no one giving us those quirky assignments that we got in school, and so we have to muster up the will to maintain the momentum—as REAL artists we now set our OWN personal "assignments." We are responsible for keeping alive that "fire in the belly" and it is very difficult to do this if you are isolated from other interesting, supportive people and challenging, thought-provoking experiences. And it is impossible if you don't have some personal "higher purpose" that makes it worth the bother.

As a graphic designer, I am sure you understand the difference between making "art" for yourself and producing something appropriate for your client. Sometimes, a design career becomes so all-consuming that there just isn't any time or energy left at the end of the day to delve into another demanding, creative project of our own devising.

Trust me, unless you are one of those hardcore design purists, this issue is a KILLER for many of us in the field who have our foot in both worlds. We are drawn to design because it is a good "visual arts" career, but yearn to also use our rare and valuable creative skills to express our own voice.

This is not a trivial matter. If it is not addressed it can cause people to burn out and waste years in jobs that don't utilize their most important skills: creativity, critical thinking, social awareness, and entrepreneurship. And please remember that these very skills are the ones most needed in the world today.

Remember that not everybody can do what we do. We make it look easy, because we'e been doing it all our lives, and we may have expensive, specialized training in it. But we know that it is not easy, even if we love it. Ignore those people who don't understand the difficulty and necessity of true creativity. (As an aside I hope you are billing for your time and knowledge accordingly. Don't undervalue yourself.)

Dear LW, it is OK to "want more" in life—this is what keeps human beings alive. This includes our material needs. We need a home. We need good food, shelter and clothing. We need comfort. We need beauty. We need dignity. We need space for families and friends. We need safe and uplifting surroundings. We need community. We need places to learn and play. We need tools and conveniences that are useful and well-made. We need to communicate. We need solutions to our problems. We need love. We need to create.

The trick is to make sure that the "more" that we want is genuine and authentic, something we truly want, something that improves our life—and other people's lives.

Only YOU can make the choices. And since none of us can own the whole world, it's ALL about making choices. You made a bold decision to pursue design studies, so I know you understand the power of choices.

You have completed one important phase of your life, your formal education, but you still have much more work to do: on your design and business skills, on your artistic goals, and most importantly on your VALUES. You need to find out who YOU are, and how you are going to make the best use of all those skills and abilities that you have.

You may no longer be a "student" but that doesn't mean that you are done with learning. There is still so much more to learn, so much more to do. This is what life is. Learning and doing. Clearly, you are a person with many gifts. There are so many people who need what you have to offer, and your new "assignment" is to start finding new ways to use all this ability and energy that you are so fortunate to have.

. . . but the bass player RULES!

Who cares?