The talent debate…

An entry by Paul Scrivens at 9rules.com poses a question that has plagued me for a long time… Can design be taught or are you born with it? Dan Rubin responded in an interview:

Both, for the most part, and by that I mean you have to be born with some sort of eye, some natural ability which allows you to see things in a different way than a non-artistic person. Education (whether self-applied or institutionalized) expands and refines that natural predisposition to skewed thought and vision. I do not believe that someone can be taught design without being born with talent or ability…

I, like Paul, have questioned my own birthright to the design community at times. I can’t draw, except with forgiving mediums like charcoal, and even then I tend to be more abstract. When I started I could only construct color palettes through theory and trial and error. It was only through a lot of practice and work that I learned to do what I do today. I had to want this. I do not believe I was born into it.

On the other hand, I agree to a certain extent with one of the comments made on said article. It was a trackback from a related post…

My firm belief is that everyone (yes, everyone) is born with the inate ability to be creative. Whether that is drawing, painting, designing websites, designing nano devices, anything. People are born creative. I tend to think that gene has to be genetically tied to the opposable thumb gene.

I can buy into the idea that everyone has some version of creativity, given that even the coding side of my brain requires a creativity that non-programmers don’t understand. And that creativity spills over into an uncanny problem-solving ability. Which, hopefully, spills over into my design. A creativity waterfall, if you will.