"Eman, we need to break the artist in you and build a designer"

When you have work experience for more than 4 years in design and then get back to learning design you feel a bit arrogant about your skills and abilities. Yes, I said arrogant and not confident cause there is a fine line between the two.

Little did I know that I have a huge way to walk and learn from. Graphic Design 2 was taught by a famous and well-known Korean Graphic Designer, a professor that shifted my way of thinking about design.

I still remember his words when we had a one-on-one meeting to improve my skills, ways of seeing, and thinking about design. "Eman, we need to break the artist in you and build a designer".

In the beginning, I did not understand what he meant by that. I am not a designer? Then what was I doing in the past years? Here is where we go back to the fine line between confidence and arrogance.

Week by week and class by class I started to understand what he meant when I let go of my arrogance and know-it-all hat. Listening to his feedback not only about my work but how he advised all the other students with me I started to see the development in my work.

Our professor told us at the end of each class "You are not people who create beautiful imagery, you are designers who think and create solutions for your clients. Bringing them something different and unique."

Here is a question for you: What makes a graphic designer?