I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the tendency for many artists and designers to dabble in multiple forms of visual expression. From photography, to Web design, to coding, businesses have come to expect people in these creative fields to be proficient in multiple areas of expertise. But can being versatile be a bad thing?
Take myself for instance. I currently work full-time as a Web designer, but I also do illustration work and am in the process of learning photography, traditional graphic design, and concept art (which I consider a subset of illustration) as my time allows. I also have an interest in 3D modeling & animation that has fallen on the backburner. Of course, I’m hardly a master at the things I currently do “professionally”. I’ve only been out of school now for around 8 months. I’m not so naive as to think I could ever become a true master of Web design, though I certainly try my best—I’m constantly absorbing information from various design-related sites and RSS feeds and observing and learning from the work of those greater than myself.
I’ve come to realize, however, that the more I spread myself out across these various disciplines the more difficult it becomes to do them as well as I feel that I should. Reading all of these various design sites and working on Web-related work leaves me with very little time to work on my true passion, art and illustration. Very few clients like the more “artsy” designs of sites such as Web Designer Wall, preferring more conservative looks using basic shape elements. So I can’t usually express my interest in more illustrative looks in my professional work, which leaves only sites such as this one for creative experimentation. But with the little free time I have keeping up with the Design World™ and still trying to learn as I go, there isn’t much time for all of that, as this site’s current non-existent skin indicates.
I do think there can be a lot of good in experimenting with these different methods of creativity in that it helps to broaden your horizons, and helps keep things fresh. But when you’re somewhat of a perfectionist like me, once you start getting into something you want to go all out and become the best you can be at it. I guess since I was never much of a sports nut growing up this is the way that I get competitive, even if I’m competitive against myself and a faceless “them”, the other designers that are out there doing their thing.
Ultimately though, I guess eventually I’m going to have to decide on what I want to be my main area of focus, and relegate the rest of my interests to side projects. I’ll just have to see how it goes.
