From Fine Art to UX design: What designer can learn from an art practice

I’ve been a designer for 10 years. Before that, I was an artist. I made installation, performance & sculpture.

Perceptions of art and design are that they aren’t different. Inside the design world, an art background was frowned upon.

I believe art education lends a unique perspective to design.

No one university experience is the same as another and different courses offer different perspectives.

I studied during the time when career changes and pivots were less accepted and the Design world was one that had a whiff of elitism to it. I remember clearly at one of my first design meet ups where I was tentatively networking, I was asked where I studied design. I said I hadn’t studied design and I’d done fine art, only to be asked why I was even at the event then?

Rude.

I’m here to advocate for the career changers. The unconventional routes into design and tech and the myriad of skills that adjacent or completely unrelated professions can offer you when you enter tech. Tech is used by (near enough) everyone so why shouldn’t it be a profession where everyone can participate.

Spoiler: It shouldn’t

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