Design, graphic arts, and the like are very popular majors right now, particularly because of the ubiquity of the Internet. There are so many choices for school beyond community college that it can make your head spin, but the career opportunities out there for designers are incredible. However, with the development of your design skills as you move on from community college to art school, liberal arts college, or wherever your plans may take you, you may start hearing the age old debate about design, and art in general: are you born with it, or can you learn it?
Many people feel that artists are born that way, with a certain creative streak that seems to be part of their DNA. Support for this claim comes in the form of child prodigies who are incredible artists or musicians at a very young age, or designers who seem to just have an eye for the incredible. However, it also appears that this talent still needs to be drawn out of them in the form of lessons, practice, and more, which leads to the debate of talent versus skill, which is discussed at length in a whitepaper from online colleges resource eCollegeFinder. The conclusions drawn from the article there seem to lean toward design being an innate talent.
However, skills are taught, and skills can constantly be built upon. While this may enhance talent, developing and honing your skills as a designer will help you improve as the years go by. Some designers may seem like “naturals” – but skills can also be just as if not more important, as elucidated in this blog post from Inspiredology. So on the other side of the coin, talent can only get you so far, while continual training and development are key to a successful design career.
What do you think? Do you feel your design ability is innate, learned, or a combination of the two?
