Why I Don't Believe in "Talent" (A Note to Junior Designers)

I often hear new designers, or even clients, say things like, "I'm just not talented enough to do that." They look at senior designers or agency directors as if they were born with a stylus in their hand, blessed by the Design Gods with a perfect understanding of grid theory and colour harmony.

I’ve always struggled a bit with the word "talent".

"Talent" is a dangerous word. It implies magic. It implies that good design is a biological trait, like having brown eyes or being tall. It suggests that if you weren't born with "The Gift", you might as well pack up your laptop and go home.

This is a lie. And it’s a lie that holds a lot of creative people back.

I prefer to think of design as a trade. It is much closer to carpentry than it is to poetry.

Think about a master carpenter.

• They weren't born knowing how to build a table.

• They learned how wood behaves under different temperatures.

• They learned which joints hold the most weight.

• They learned to sharpen their chisels.

• They built 50 wobbly tables before they built one perfect one.

Design is exactly the same.

• We learn how colour behaves on a screen versus on paper.

• We learn how to structure layouts so the human eye flows down the page naturally.

• We learn our tools (Figma, Adobe, code) just like a carpenter learns their saw.

The best designers I know aren't necessarily the ones who were sketching masterpieces at age five. They are the ones who are obsessively curious. They are the ones who are willing to make 50 bad versions of a layout to get to the one good version. They observe the world, take notes, and practise the fundamentals.

The "Gap"

There is a famous quote by radio host Ira Glass about "The Gap". He says that when you start, your taste is good (you know what looks good), but your skills aren't there yet. So your work disappoints you.

The only way to close that gap is volume. You have to do the work. You have to make the bad websites to learn how to make the good ones.

So, if you are sitting there feeling like you lack "talent", please don't worry. Just focus on the craft. Treat it like a trade to be learned, practised, and refined. Show up, do the work, and I promise you will be amazed at how quickly you improve.

Stop worrying about being gifted, and start worrying about being disciplined. You got this! ♡