How My Experiences Outside of Design Elevated my Design Skills
Image generated by Microsoft Copilot AI, with the prompt: "Designer who has a ton of hobbies that ultimately make her a better designer, watercolor, abstract"
It makes sense that creating design work and focusing on designing is going to help us become better designers, but when I look back on my design journey, I find myself attributing a lot of my design skills to experiences that don’t necessarily go hand-in-hand with the design world. I firmly believe that being a good designer means having a wide range of experiences in life, and when we’re looking for a range of experiences, it’s important to reach and connect with people outside of the designer bubbles. Don’t get me wrong, having design experiences are immensely important, but so are unrelated experiences. Here, I’ll discuss some aspects of my life that had nothing to do with design but ultimately made me a better designer!
Getting Out There
Growing up, I wasn’t the most outgoing, and in all honesty, I’m still far from extraverted, but I have become much more sociable as my life progressed and a lot of that isn’t necessarily thanks to my design work. I find that designing and creating art in general can be a pretty isolating concept. When I work on projects I often find myself holed up in my room grinding out sketches and ideas without branching out to talk to others. As a kid, this was a lot of my life. I was focused on myself and my art and not much else.
This changed a lot when I began to branch out of my shell, especially when I started working in restaurants. At school and with friends I’m being social, but I’m still pretty limited in the kinds of people I would discuss concepts with. Most of the time I was hanging out with people in the same grade, same hometown, same classes, etc. We shared more similarities than differences, and while they were brilliant and creative people, my best ideas rarely came from my discussions with them. The folks at Big Human discuss why diversity is immensely important to design, and this rings true with my experiences; some of my greatest ideas came from people I hardly know or relate to.
I found that through working in a restaurant I was coming in contact with a huge range of people from a huge range of backgrounds. On top of that, restaurants are social settings, and people love to talk. I distinctly remember loving the design of a customer’s sweatshirt. Asking them about it led them to excitedly share where they got it and how the store they got it in designed and printed all their clothing in house. I did research on the store when I went home and it was a small locally owned business in Colorado. I went down a rabbit hole of learning about how sweatshirt prints worked and got tons of inspiration on how sweatshirt and general clothing design worked. To this day I incorporate design choices inspired by these guys, and I would have never discovered them if I stuck to my usual bubble.
Building Communication Skills
Not only did working in a restaurant give me the opportunity to meet people from diverse backgrounds, but it also allowed me to build communication skills I otherwise wouldn’t have mastered. Customers can get pretty upset when things go wrong, and let’s be real, hungry customers can be ten times worse. Prior to working in the restaurant I wasn’t great with conflict management, but this changed when I began work in food service. It’s immensely important to be able to communicate with customers, especially when things go wrong. I learned, through much trial and error, that explaining why something happened or why something needs to happen often leads to an otherwise angry customer being much more understanding and patient. It seems like a pretty simple concept, but you’d be surprised how many people forget to explain the why when something goes wrong!
So, how does this relate to design? The design team at Medium nailed it with their explanation:
“We need to help stakeholders understand why a design decision provides the best possible solution to a problem”
Design choices can be abstract and sometimes non-design thinkers don’t always understand why something looks the way it does right off the bat. Because of this, we need to be able to quickly and concisely explain why we made our design choices. On top of that, sometimes we’ll be questioned further. We need to be able to hold our ground and defend our choices. For me personally, I wouldn’t be able to do this as effectively if I never worked in a restaurant. I am forever grateful that my experiences outside of the design field have helped me learn how to better explain and defend my choices.
Working With Passion
Let’s put the restaurant work aside- as important and useful as it is, there are things I enjoy much more in life. Design is definitely one of my hobbies and passions, but I have many others as well. I learned pretty quickly that if I didn’t engage with my other passions and hobbies I would have a severe lack of inspiration for my design work. One of my (sometimes more embarrassing) hobbies is video games. I love playing them with friends in my free time, and I’ve found that video games specifically have given me so much inspiration for my design work, especially for more open-ended projects.
The stories and characters in the games I play lead to a lot of artists drawing them. I find myself getting lost in the work of others and their creativity and brilliance often inspires me to create as well. You’d be surprised at how creative people can get with simple game concepts! I’ve seen full animations, apps, and illustrations created based off of 8-bit pixel art. Watching others post artwork from their hobbies has often inspired me to do the same. When I receive an open-ended project, I often try to connect it to one of my hobbies. Sometimes this means working with a color palette I love from a video game I play, incorporating symbols that I’ve seen in my daily life, or adding elements that remind me of a friend or family member. These small details motivate me to put my all into my work because it generates a personal and fun connection with it.
On top of allowing me to work with my passions, hobbies provide me a break from work as well. I would love to be able to work 24/7, but ultimately that’s unreasonable. I need time to recharge and take my mind off of design thinking. My hobbies have given me that time to step back and focus on myself, and in the end, it makes me a better designer as I can look at my work with a fresh mind afterwards. The design team at medium makes a great case for picking up hobbies as a designer, and being able to take a break from your work is one of them!
Keep Being You
In the end, we all know that you’re a great designer, but never forget that you exist outside of designing as well. On top of being a great designer, you can be a great sibling, child, and friend. Taking time away from your work to experience the world around you is just as important as sitting down and grinding that work out. Remember that everything in life requires a balance, so don’t forget to find and maintain yours. I guarantee that in the end, you’ll become a better designer because of it!
Hey! I’m Maggie Theall
I’m a graphic designer with a passion for creating work that not only looks great, but functions as intended.
Through my design journey, I’ve made plenty of mistakes and learned lessons from every one of them. This blog exists to document my experiences and research, so let’s learn together!
Have similar experiences or want to discuss further? Reach out, I’m always excited to connect with other designers!
