I Admit: I’m a Hack

A friend of mine shared “Artist, Designer, or Hack?” with me today, with an aside that she, too, admits to wearing the title of “designer” rather dishonestly. Reading through the article, I realized that what I had concluded about my own position in the web design industry (read this post to learn more) ran parallel with the fundamental differences outlined in the article about the different between artist and designer. The third category, however, made me sink in my chair a bit.

Despite my gradual deviation to artistic endeavors, I still bear “web designer” like a plastic toy badge on my chest. I do so out of habit. It is true that I have designed this website, it is true that I have designed the prototype version of Outspokes, and it is true that I have designed various little websites whose names and URLs elude me. But my last active design project was this website, which I view as more an artistic work rather than an example of great UI and accessibility design. I placed much effort in getting the UI just right, from the placement of the main navigation to the Lucida font used throughout to the related categories section on the right of most pages. But admittedly, it wasn’t fun. It wasn’t fun pushing pixels around and clearing floated elements, and wrinkling my nose when IE6 decided to moon me right in the face. It wasn’t fun finding out that I’m missing an RSS icon – and I have yet to put one up.

But damn, was it fun to draw the little menu icons and the title of this website. Several people have delighted at the figure of a girl finding new mail in her mailbox or wrestling with a new operating system. I still use my mouthless avatar on almost every Internet profile that I have, despite temptations to switch to a real-life photo. And if someone asks me to style a website with personalized handwriting, I wouldn’t say no.

The point is, as I stated in my previous post, I am an artist at heart. My professional title is web designer or front-end engineer, but my personal title is artist. I really don’t deserve the professional title, however.

Maybe it’s time to toss my designer badge in the recycle bin, but if I do so, what will I lose? Pride? Faith in myself? Job opportunities?

What of my true desire: illustration and general art? Can I make meaningful and secure living out of it?

What would you do?