Art lessons from design school
Learning design from a design school is an overwhelming experience. There are too many things to grasp and everything is equally exciting. It is so fulfilling to let oneself grow into a design practitioner and channel the passion to drive impact through the work. As I complete my postgraduate program at the National Institute of Design, I couldn’t help but reflect on lessons learned while studying design. It is not just about design abilities, but a mix of many soft skills that prepare us to be true to our craft.
Here are a few non-design skills I learned while studying design.
The art of navigating through ambiguity
The ability to deal with the unknowns should be declared as a superpower. Starting a design project is like getting into the maze where you have some clue but not the complete idea. It taught me to explore multiple possibilities, look at the larger picture, and embrace the ambiguity for some time to come out with a great solution, many failed ideas, and a lot of experience to handle the work emotionally. Learning to be comfortable with unknowns and keep exploring further are incredibly strong skills to have as a designer.
The art of questioning
The solution is not at all difficult if we have our questions in place. The research is a game of right questions. The problems have many layers to them and only the right questions have the power to highlight the hidden issues and core of the problem that needs to be solved. Design projects offer opportunities to ask a lot of questions internally as well as to others to get to our destination. Learning the art of questioning solves half of the problems already.
The art of collaboration
The design does not work in isolation. It is meant to serve a purpose and it involves many more people than we can expect. The design projects allow us to collaborate at various stages with people from different fields. It is super exciting to learn from different experiences and fields while working on a design solution. It makes a lot of things easy and allows us to reflect on our work and share our experiences as well. Collaboration is not as easy as it sounds but multiple attempts to collaborate with different industry domains make it a smooth process. Collaboration is a crucial part of the design process and it adds immense value to the work in many ways.
The art of thinking
Knowing how to think is another strong candidate to be a superpower. There are many ways one can think based on the available knowledge and information. The multiple perspectives to look at the problems and solutions. Different design projects enable us to think differently. While thinking outside the box is a mandate for creatives, the possibilities outside the box need to be evaluated in many ways. Thinking is a timeless skill and it keeps on evolving with every project. The buzzwords of design thinking and systems thinking make better sense when practiced multiple times in projects.
The art of taking feedback
Designing is an iterative process. It means that the solution keeps on improving according to the feedback from the people involved in the system including the users. This part of design projects makes it exciting to receive feedback instead of avoiding the critics. I look forward to getting feedback for all my work as it opens up new possibilities for improvement. The skill of taking that critical piece of advice is very helpful to improvise and grow as a designer.
The art of enjoying the journey
Design projects are as much about the process as the final result. The whole purpose is to bring meaningful change through our solutions as a designer but the journey to reach these solutions matters a lot. The outcome may be a small tweak but the process of identifying the right problem, exploring various solutions, collaborating with the right people to guide the solution, implementing the solution, iterating it according to the feedback is an enriching journey. Design projects make me love the process every time I begin to work with a new problem. The ups and downs of the design process shape the designer within.
