Engineering as essential to design

I have never felt comfortable with the ‘artist’ title. Not having any training in the arts and with NO fine art talent to speak of, I’ve always thought of what I do as problem solving. My strengths are more in visual organization, layout, and balance, not so much in fine motor skills or imagination.

I am, however, learning how critical engineering can be to design. Nancy Sharon Collins wrote (in her article: The Measure of a Designer) about a design shop in southern Louisiana and their hiring philosophy: “A deal breaker is when they ask, by what percent does the candidate more enjoy design: the artistic part or the engineering part? If the engineering attraction is not at least 50 percent, the applicant is immediately disqualified.”

Maybe my puzzle-loving, problem-solving bent is just the ‘engineering’ aspect of design! I had always equated ‘artist’ with ‘design’, never with ‘engineer’.

I have never felt comfortable with the ‘artist’ title. Not having any training in the arts and with NO fine art talent to speak of, I’ve always thought of what I do as problem solving. My strengths are more in visual organization, layout, and balance, not so much in fine motor skills or imagination.

I am, however, learning how critical engineering can be to design. Nancy Sharon Collins wrote (in her article: The Measure of a Designer) about a design shop in southern Louisiana and their hiring philosophy: “A deal breaker is when they ask, by what percent does the candidate more enjoy design: the artistic part or the engineering part? If the engineering attraction is not at least 50 percent, the applicant is immediately disqualified.”

Maybe my puzzle-loving, problem-solving bent is just the ‘engineering’ aspect of design! I had always equated ‘artist’ with ‘design’, never with ‘engineer’.

I have never felt comfortable with the ‘artist’ title. Not having any training in the arts and with NO fine art talent to speak of, I’ve always thought of what I do as problem solving. My strengths are more in visual organization, layout, and balance, not so much in fine motor skills or imagination.

I am, however, learning how critical engineering can be to design. Nancy Sharon Collins wrote (in her article: The Measure of a Designer) about a design shop in southern Louisiana and their hiring philosophy: “A deal breaker is when they ask, by what percent does the candidate more enjoy design: the artistic part or the engineering part? If the engineering attraction is not at least 50 percent, the applicant is immediately disqualified.”

Maybe my puzzle-loving, problem-solving bent is just the ‘engineering’ aspect of design! I had always equated ‘artist’ with ‘design’, never with ‘engineer’.