As humans we love putting things neatly into boxes, including ourselves, but I believe that limiting oneself to just one specific role clips the wings of our true potential and what we may become. Curiosity usually gets the best of me, taking me down unexpected paths, learning new skills and developing various interests. Over time this helped me gain unique insights, enabling me to shift perspectives and take on novel approaches when solving problems in one field with experience from another.
Photo by Colin Stewart
I've been designing digital experiences since before the term UX became widely adopted by the tech industry, before it was even taught in schools, which meant that back then I had to learn most things by doing. My artistic inclinations played a key role in getting me off the ground then, and as the industry matured I was also able to mature with it, gradually shifting from just visual design to more research-driven service design, taking a holistic approach to building successful digital products. It surprises me that, even to this day, many digital services still under-deliver in terms of user experience. User experience is not optional, but it's up to us if it's going to be good or bad. Whether it's design, photography, illustration, music, or even beer brewing... I believe that if something is worth doing then it's worth doing well. No matter what I do, I always strive to walk that fine line between perfection and "good enough". Art, for example, is a way for me to express myself in ways that I otherwise couldn’t. Through it I get to explore my innermost thoughts and feelings, process them, and get closure. Since as far back as I can remember, I've always seen visual art deeply intertwined with music, so much so that both of them eventually also seeped into my brewing side-project, where I craft artisanal beers named after songs from some of my favorite artists, each of which features its own hand-illustrated label artwork. There, as much as in everything else, I'm deeply inspired by nature, fascinated by the impermanence of things and the role it plays in the cycle of death and rebirth. As Heraclitus once put it, the only thing that is constant is change, and this to me is most obvious in nature; be it in the changing seasons, in a fallen tree, or in a perished animal, where for something new to begin another must end.
