Rethinking Who I Am as a Designer
Inspired by a Roster Room session with Hence Creative
Earlier this week, I joined a Roster Room session hosted by Hence Creative, led by Executive Brand Strategy Director Andrew Butler. The central question on the table was simple, yet deceptively heavy:
“Who are you, and why should they care?”
It is the kind of question that feels easy to answer until you are asked to actually say it out loud.
For me, it triggered a much deeper reflection on who I am as a designer, how I work, and what I believe about the profession I have dedicated my life to.
This article is the result of that reflection.
Questioning the Answers I Thought I Had
Over the last year, I have been writing design insights on my website, hoping to share thoughtful reflections on the creative life. But recently I have been wondering whether my voice truly stands out in a sea of designers doing the same.
The Roster Room made that question louder.
When the group was asked:
• How do you describe yourself to new clients?
• What makes you different from everyone else?
• Why should anyone care about what you do?
• What makes you different from everyone else?
• Why should anyone care about what you do?
I realized my most honest response was:
I do not fully know.
Not because there is nothing unique about me, but because self-analysis is incredibly challenging. Designers spend so much time understanding other people’s brands that we rarely turn that same lens inward.
Imposter Syndrome: The Unwelcome Companion
Imposter Syndrome surfaced during the session, as it often does in creative circles. I have seen it discussed everywhere from meetups to industry talks, and I have felt it myself for years.
Especially toward the end of my agency experience, I often felt like I was pretending. Like my ideas were not good enough. Like I was falling short of some invisible standard.
But those feelings were not truth.
They were echoes of environments and opinions, not reflections of actual ability.
They were echoes of environments and opinions, not reflections of actual ability.
Still, the residue of that insecurity affects how I interpret conversations about what design should be. And recently, the art versus design debate has been impossible to ignore.
Where the Art vs. Design Debate Falls Short
A post I came across not long after the session declared:
“Art is expression. Design is purpose.”
Another claimed:
“Art sparks emotion. Design drives action.”
I understand the intention behind these statements. They are trying to champion design as a strategic tool. But reading them felt strangely deflating, almost like a dismissal of everything I find meaningful in design.
Because here is the truth:
• I admire design for its creativity, not just its performance.
• I feel emotion when I see great design.
• I believe design can be fluid, intuitive and expressive.
• I do not think design loses value when it becomes personal.
• I feel emotion when I see great design.
• I believe design can be fluid, intuitive and expressive.
• I do not think design loses value when it becomes personal.
To me, these definitions flatten both disciplines into rigid boxes that do not reflect the reality of modern creative work.
Design can solve problems.
Design can communicate strategy.
Design can drive action.
Design can communicate strategy.
Design can drive action.
But design can also:
• move people
• spark discussion
• break rules
• make statements
• express lived experience
• spark discussion
• break rules
• make statements
• express lived experience
I do not see any reason to pretend it cannot be both.
The Intersection I Have Been Standing In All Along
What the Roster Room made me realize is that nearly all my uncertainties come from trying to choose between two opposing ideas:
Design as function
and
Design as expression
and
Design as expression
For years, I thought I had to pick a side.
Be the strategic designer or the creative one.
Be the strategic designer or the creative one.
But the work I am most proud of, and the work I most admire, sits exactly in the middle:
Clear enough to communicate.
Expressive enough to feel.
Expressive enough to feel.
That is the intersection where my practice actually lives.
I create design that serves a purpose, but also design that carries emotion, humanity and a sense of lived experience.
I do not want to strip out the parts of design that feel personal to me.
And I do not want to pretend that emotion has no place in purposeful work.
And I do not want to pretend that emotion has no place in purposeful work.
The Roster Room helped me see that I do not have to choose.
So… Who Am I?
I still do not have a perfectly packaged elevator pitch, but I have come closer to an answer that feels honest:
I am a designer who believes design is most powerful when it holds both purpose and emotion.
I do not subscribe to the idea that design must be rigid to be credible.
I do not believe creativity and strategy are opposites.
I do not think we should strip the humanity out of design just to make it sound more business friendly.
I do not believe creativity and strategy are opposites.
I do not think we should strip the humanity out of design just to make it sound more business friendly.
I create from instinct, experience, personality and emotion, while still striving for clarity, structure and relevance.
That duality is not a flaw.
It is my approach.
It is my approach.
And maybe it always has been.
A Thank You to Hence Creative
Thank you for asking difficult questions.
Thank you for creating a space where honesty is welcomed and encouraged.
Thank you for pushing us to reflect, not just perform.
And thank you for sparking a conversation that helped me understand myself a little more clearly.
Thank you for creating a space where honesty is welcomed and encouraged.
Thank you for pushing us to reflect, not just perform.
And thank you for sparking a conversation that helped me understand myself a little more clearly.
This article would not exist without that session.