It’s fall, which for some people means the start of the school year, but for me, fall means it’s Bake Off season.

If you have somehow missed the cultural phenomenon of Bake Off (or the Baking Show as it’s also called), here’s a breakdown of the premise: Each week, a group of 12 amateur bakers are pitted against each other in challenges that test their skills in the essentials of baking. Eliminations take place at the end of each episode after their baked dishes are judged and, quite literally, picked apart. All of this is happening inside of a giant outdoor tent. The winner takes home a cake plate and bragging rights, one of the few reality TV shows currently airing that doesn’t have a cash prize for the winner.

After watching both the Great British and Canadian versions of Bake Off I’ve noticed graphic designers are great at it! Not just great, the show is almost rigged in their favour. In all the seasons I’ve watched, if a graphic designer enters that tent, they always make it into the top 3, and they usually win. I’ve spent a lot of time mulling over what it is about graphic design as a career that gives people such an edge in an amateur baking competition and here’s what I’ve come up with.

Colouring in the lines

Graphic designers are creative, but we normally channel it within the strict parameters of things like brand guidelines and print specs. The goal of graphic design is communication using visual content. Make it look good, but first and foremost, make sure it effectively conveys the message. If art is like cooking, where you can mess with the recipe to make it your own and still find success, graphic design is more like baking. You can tinker with the recipe only after you understand the rules and what makes everything work: otherwise you’ll end up with an illegible ad, or a flat cake.

Sticking with the scope

A feature of the show is that all the challenges have tight timelines. This is something those of us working in design are very familiar with. Even when a project has a smaller budget, it’s still important to deliver a great final product. The key to hitting those tight design deadlines is knowing what you can realistically accomplish within the time allotted. In Bake Off the graphic designers are great at coming up with a concept they know they can execute within the time limits of the challenge. Apparently, not biting off more than you can chew comes in handy, for both making brochures and building animals out of gingerbread.

Type A creatives

In my experience, graphic designers are extremely driven people. They have taken a passion for creativity and turned it into a career centered around handling multiple balls in the air while adhering to strict timelines. I find that many of my colleagues and I bring this passion into our hobbies as well. If you’re interested, we several musings on the website that highlight some of the hobbies we enjoy in our free time. I really believe that if anyone working at Initiate decided they wanted to become an excellent baker, they have all the drive and creative force necessary to perfect that skill and sweep the rest of the competition away.

Think you’ve got what it takes?

If you’re a graphic designer who bakes, and have been wondering about applying to the show, take the chance! If there’s one thing the average graphic designer loves, it’s having all the information they need to execute the job properly. So, based on the (very scientific) evidence outlined here, you are statistically guaranteed to make it into the finale!

If you’re looking for some of the projects that our team has completed on our journey of becoming unstoppable reality TV competitors, you can check out our work here.