I majored in Applied Arts so my job is a bit of both 🥹
Artist or Designer?
I have always struggled with calling myself an artist.
When I was younger, I was that kid that always had a sketchbook on them. I was voted 'Most Likely to be an Artist" in my high school class. I was always making something. Always creating.
But I never felt that the term 'artist' described who I was by what I was doing.
Artists, in my mind, are people who are motivated to create from their hearts. They are driven by their passions to express themselves in such a way that the world around them can experience their inner world. Their art pours forth from their hearts for the simple purpose of being heard, seen, experienced so that the world might be changed in knowing them.
But I was never thing that motivated me to create.
For me, creation is a form of problem solving; of story telling. A way to take things with no purpose and breathe life into them. Give them form AND function. Knowing where my journey ends is is often the beginning of my work, only then can I blaze the best trail to get there.
Ironically, it wasn't until I became a designer that I understood that type of creation had a name.
Designers are people who create unto an end. They have a goal they are working to achieve, an audience they are creating for, and that guides their decisions. They take what does not work and give it life so abundantly that it can bless the lives of those who use it.
Being able to accurately describe why I make things has been such a gift. One I would like to pass on for those of you who may feel that 'artist' doesn't describe you too.