Painting Is Sex
Before I became a designer, I was a painter. And painting was like having sex. If intercourse is the deepest physical connection you can have with another human, then painting was the deepest spiritual connection I could have with my own soul. As you learn the anatomy of color and the pressure of each brush, it can be better and better each time. Painting is messy. It can be euphoric. There’s a science to it, but also a romance. It has a purpose, but it can also be about pleasure.
Design Is Cooking
Design on the other hand, is more like cooking. For someone else.
Design is about anticipating the needs of others more so than self-expression. It’s not deciding what food you’re craving today. It’s coming up with ingredients that your client will like, considering their dietary restrictions, and empathizing with their needs. Design does have best practices, just like cooking. Don’t give your client food poisoning. But also understand what they can tolerate, how they react physically, and how they communicate emotionally. Don’t force spicy food on a client that hates “anything that makes their tongue tingle” (as my grandma would say). Recognize that different people perceive colors and fonts differently than you do. At one point I was factoring color-blindness into my color palette choices for a disabilities employee resource group's brand identity. Respect that your client’s associations with different phrases and images may differ from yours. I once had an employer of mine give me all their kombucha because she had a pickled-tea-loving ex who committed suicide and the beverage became a trigger. I adore the stuff, but some people can’t stand being around fizzy, fermented drinks. Got it.
If your client says they hate walnuts, take the feedback into consideration. Perhaps you make a batch of muffins with walnuts and another without so that they can compare. You make your argument for why the toasty, nuttiness brings out the banana flavor. You provide your rationale for how the bitterness balances out the sweetness of the chocolate. Maybe they’ll taste what you taste, but maybe they won’t. At the end of the day, they may never love walnuts.
There have been numerous times where I resisted incorporating constructive criticism, only to later look back and see what my client saw. Design requires a delicate balance of humility and assertiveness. You must have confidence in your expertise, but also know that there may not always be a right or wrong. Know your boundaries and when to fight for an idea, but also know that when it all comes down to it, you’re not the one eating the food. You’re just making the recipe, and it’s subject to change.
Design Isn't Precious, Painting Is
Choose your fonts. Be prepared to change your fonts. Design isn’t precious. Painting is. Painting is intimate and indulgent. Design is meant for the world to see and involves problem-solving to develop a functional product that communicates concisely. Painting is tactile and slow. Design is digital and fast. A painting may never be perfectly replicated. Design is generative and iterative. You may never remix the exact amalgamation of zinc white and cerulean blue oil paint again, but you can copy and paste a HEX color code. If you misplace a brushstroke, certain paints are forgiving, but most hold at least a mild grudge. If you misplace a pixel, you “Command”, “Z”.
In a way, design is stretching to see things from the world’s perspective, whereas painting is telling the world what you see.
Feed Yourself Literally and Spiritually
I hope both design and painting always stay in my life, at least in some capacity. In terms of being a personal-chef-designer, other people need to eat. I don’t mind feeding them, especially if it feeds me in the process, literally and spiritually. At the same time, how could an idealist like me ever give up romance and sex?
Keep Painting,
Brainwave Blog ❤️