Is design a skill or talent?

[klymr]

Well (off the record), I don't think the UVU program is turning out the consistently good designers like BYU does but, BYU also turns out similar designers in terms of the work they are use to / trained for.

The key to being a really good designer is getting beyond the basics of principles and applying them with a voice unique to you. Speaking the visual language in the same way as a good writer uses their native tongue. I don't think many student designers even learn enough to get directions

-mx

That makes great sense. I try to buy every design book that people recommend as great books. Nothing like moving beyond the basics by enveloping yourself in great works from others. I have a few books that I've pulled some ideas from that move my projects from just ordinary to the next level. I think what's really haunting me right now is coming up with my own style like you mention. I don't know, maybe someday I'll notice I have been this whole time. I just don't see it now.

 

[motoxpress]

Well, I think "style" can be a trap to get caught in. Milton Glaser's quote "STYLE IS NOT TO BE TRUSTED". Style is something you use but, shouldn't identify yourself with as the danger is that if your style it is not "in style" then you are no longer valid. I have wrested with this myself and have come to the conclusion that what gives us our unique voice is our process and personal observations - how we have informed ourselves through observing the world around us. I am finding that I feel my design is the most fresh when I am pulling from elements outside of GD like other visual arts, music, nature, etc. and like you said, the work of others.

This is just my thinking though.

-mx

 

[klymr]

Your thinking makes sense. Our "style" should be ever evolving I believe. I'm still having a hard time pulling elements from other sources outside of visual graphic design, but I'm getting better at it. It's for sure not an easy task, at least not for me. I guess practice makes perfect. Right now, in my illustration concepts class we are working on our final project for the semester. We are designing a pair of Ti headphones for Skullcandy. I'm getting a great sense of how to pull other elements into a design. This is probably one of the hardest projects I've had to work on, but it's a great learning experience.

 

[shinji]

I think people can make something that looks "good enough" or that will sell with only learned skill and without much real talent.

A truly outstanding design? Needs talent.

 

[Legolamb]

The vast majority of even great design is done by people who both learned and practiced their craft. The principles of design, how to hone your "native talent", give and take criticism, how to build on and tweak the "rules", and, most of all, how your design field is a social practice, can definitely be taught. Some people are born with (as you seem to think of talent) a set of skills that make it easier to come up with brilliant ideas and the means to execute them. At the other extreme, there are some people who just can't seem to "get it". IMHO, arguing to either extreme for whether or not to go to trade school or college is neither helpful or correct.