Design Talent: Natural or Learned?

January 16, 2004 | View Comments (11) | Category: Our Thoughts

Summary: Is the ability to design websites, or anything in general a talent that one is born with or can it be learned?

In this interview of Dan Rubin over at zlog, there was one statement by Dan that really stood out.

Can design be taught or are you born with it?

Both, for the most part, and by that I mean you have to be born with some sort of eye, some natural ability which allows you to see things in a different way than a non-artistic person. Education (whether self-applied or institutionalized) expands and refines that natural predisposition to skewed thought and vision. I do not believe that someone can be taught design without being born with talent or ability...

This stood out because my whole life I thought I was one of those unfortunate souls who did not have a creative bone in his body. Anything that had to do with the arts I stayed away from, simply because I was only embarrassing myself by trying to either paint, draw, or color. So then of course I did what any non-creative person would do. I started designing websites.

Now I have said many times before that I don't think I will ever be fortunate enough to produce the kind of work that a Rubin or Hicks does, but does that mean I am not creative or have no sense of design? I think everyone has a different "taste" for what looks good and in that sense doesn't everyone have some design skills inherently inside of them? We might have to break down the different levels of design and also distinguish between design and art here.

Are there not sites on the web that are mostly text with the only image being a logo, yet are still attractive? I don't know if the creators of these types of sites are artsy per se, but if they are not, they still seem to produce some incredibly beautiful sites. I do think that people born with an artistic nature can produce more artistically beautiful designs, but from a design point of view are they really designed that much better?

My first sites that I did were really ugly. I have no problem admitting to it. This site right now is nothing that will wow the audience, but I do think its design is clean and aesthetically pleasing. It took some time to finally arrive at this stage, but I don't think I got here because I was born with the talent, but because of the many trials and tribulations that I went through with many of my designs. The purpose of all of this is to continue to grow as a designer and according to Dan if I wasn't born with a natural eye for design then I am just wasting my time. I guess this means though that I was born with a natural eye for design. But I like to think that design can be taught. Can art be taught? No. But creating effective designs can be taught I believe. If not, there is just no hope for me.

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Comments

#1

I like to think of design as problem solving. I think if one goes through the process of analyzing a project, such as you have done with your site, he begins to find more creative and artistically rewarding solutions to the identified problems, even if he is not a "natural" designer. Once we know the problems, solutions just seem to present themselves.

Jack Burman

#2

I think that your /index.xml feed needs some work - it looks like the HTML tags are coming through as plain text, instead of HTML.

milbertus (http://www.milbertus.com)

#3

Ah, here we come again to what is it to be a designer. It's a bit of a pain to explain what it realy is. It certainly not writing HTML and CSS. The are just a means to an end. Exacting tools that are of benefit to realizing your vision.
In my view it's not a question of design but of how you see things around you. What they mean and what they represent.

Not picking a colour because it looks nice but because that it may resonate with your audience. It must feel right. Many designers also look at other design disciplines like fashion, interior design, industrial design and print design. Not because they gain inspiration but also because it's something that feels familiar to them. Drawn to a attractive quality reaffirmed by a unquestionable build quality. In this sense design is a bit like art but as a profession understanding what you are doing is necessary. So a designer is often split between two worlds. How much you lean into one side or another is a personal choice. But if is one interest is lacking than you should move on.

BTW. Paul I don't think that this entirely applies to you. You obviously lean to the 'understanding' and production side but if you hadn't a clue in aesthetics and style this site wouldn't exist. Example in point I don't think of Zeldman as style and visual wizard far from it, but I do think of him as a designer and a pretty good one at that.

Egor Kloos (http://www.dutchcelt.nl/weblog/)

#4

Just reread my comment; my apologies for my poor grammar.

Egor Kloos (http://www.dutchcelt.nl/weblog/)

#5

I can't say I agree entirely with the "natural" talent argument. I do think that there are people who are predisposed with "natural" ability and a good design sense. There are always going to be those exceptional talents who exist on another plane. However I think creativity is the essence of the human condition but one that is supressed in many by circumstances and upbringing. Either way natural ability means nothing if you don't hone it, if you don't work at your craft. What I think training does is to release and focus latent creativity/abilities. Obviously the work of the truly gifted will always show but I think training and lots of hard work will make the rest of us better, today than we were yesterday, at we do and better still tomorrow.

dez (http://dezwozhere.com/blog/)

#6

The ability is inherent in all of us. It's known as the human brain.

Lewis

#7

You certainly need some talent otherwise there is, like Dan said, very little to no chance you will ever become a good designer. The other thing you need, is passion for design. If you have those two then there are in my opinion (and experience) absolutely no limits to what you can achieve as a designer. Some designers will improve faster then others but slowly improving, is still improving.

Percept (http://percept.be)

#8

I agree that there are different kind of levels. Talented people are able to
do a great design in photoshop and then just code it into a website. I'm not talented so I don't even touch photoshop for anything ohter than my header. I will mostly play around with CSS making a couple of styles untill I get what I want.

Darice (http://www.darice.org)

#9

I completely emphasise with you. I'm one of those creative-less people as well. I started designing, looked at some of the cZG entries, tried to create my own, failed, and basically gave up designing.

I'm trying to get into it. My new site, I believe, is a great example of what I think can be achieved with not-many-images design. It uses a whole one banner image, and nothing else, yet I love the design. As soon as I can, I'll post a link or image.

Kottke (www.kottke.org) is another great example of this, naturally.

David House

#10

A lot of people will disagree with me, but I think this is utter crap. The "artistic gift" so often extolled by self-righteous artists of so many mediums is a transparent attempt to justify professional elitism. On the flip side, many people will claim a complete inability to do something they find difficult to learn, simply because it is difficult.

All things humans do above and beyond animal instincts are learned. Anyone may have a greater or lesser predisposition to performing any mental task, but it is the degree to which we can learn becomes the foundation that talent is built on. Motzart didn't play beautiful music when he was an infant, he had to learn how to use his fingers and what made a lovely sound. He had a great predisposition, but if the lad was forced to become an athelete, he likely would have.

Now, as aritstry goes I think a lot of it has to do with one's ability to tune into soft knowledge like feelings, and empathize the condition of his fellow man. The songwriter's heartbreak makes great blues songs, the poet's struggle with himself makes great poems of introspection; and the visual artist's eye for color, line and space give him the ability to reshape the world. Perception a skill of fine tuning, but a learned one nonetheless.

Will Pate (http://www.willpate.org)

#11

I think everyone has a natural flair for creativity and it manifests in various ways. For me it's the art of playing the piano and all things music.

I also know what I want to do to my website but what hampers me is the 'how to'. I'm a strong believer that one day I will finally unlock the secrets to a great design, and then, it will be like spreading my wings and taking flight.

Sian (http://www.webdiva.co.uk/blog/)

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