At some point after settling into a career or even while navigating success almost every designer or artist faces a familiar question: Why did you choose design? Was it a conscious career decision, like choosing coding or testing, or is design something more instinctive, something you’re born into? Let’s take a closer look.
For me, the answer has always felt like a blend of both.
I come from a background rooted in creativity. Growing up in an interior designing and art-oriented family, creativity wasn’t something I learned later in life it was something I observed every day. I watched my father sketch interior design projects by hand on paper, patiently translating ideas into lines and forms. My brother spent hours crafting paper models, while cousins experimented with charcoal, drawing faces directly on walls without fear or hesitation. Whether it was lineage or environment, I can’t say for sure. What I do know is that creativity was always around me.
One memory stands out clearly. When I was about eight years old, our neighbour had a computer. Every time I visited his house, he would let me use it freely. I didn’t play games or explore software I opened Windows Paint. Using simple lines, shapes, and scribbles, I would design random forms, unknowingly chasing balance and composition. One day, he noticed what I was doing and appreciated it. At that moment, I didn’t understand the value of what I had created. I was simply doing what felt natural.
As time passed, drawing became a constant companion. I sketched temple idols, mechanical parts, and motorcycles shaped entirely by imagination. Art didn’t feel like practice it felt like expression. Still, life took its own route. I moved through various jobs waiter, marketing executive, gym trainer, salesman, interior decorator, front end developer before finally landing in design. Each role added perspective, but none fully defined me.
That’s when I realised something important. Being a designer is more than mastering tools. At the age of eight, with nothing more than a basic paint application, I was already designing something meaningful. Tools evolve, software changes, trends come and go but design thinking starts much earlier than any professional toolset.
After my interior design career, I took a break. I had no clear grip on where my career was heading. During that phase, I reached out to my cousin, a creative head working in Bangalore, seeking advice. He suggested graphic design and UI/UX fields that were still relatively new to me at the time. I enrolled in a front end development course that also introduced me to design principles. Slowly, pieces began to connect.
There’s a saying that our surroundings shape who we become, and I strongly believe in that. Design isn’t just a profession it becomes a lifestyle. Learning tools is never the real challenge. Tools are temporary. Inspiration, observation, creative thinking, and sensitivity to details that’s where design truly lives.
Nature itself constantly teaches us design. Look closely at a bee, and you’ll notice intricate patterns and perfect symmetry. Who designed that? Observe a butterfly, and you’ll see balance, color harmony, and structure that no design system could ever fully replicate. These fundamentals exist all around us we just need to pay attention.
This belief is something I carry forward through my work at Brahmative design agency coimbatore, where design is not treated as a service driven only by tools, but as a process shaped by observation, intent, and human experience. My journey has taught me that design is not chosen overnight, nor is it limited to those “born talented.” It grows through exposure, curiosity, and the courage to follow what feels instinctively right.
So, is design a career choice, a learned skill, or something you’re born with? For me, it’s a blend of all three woven together by time, environment, and an unexplainable pull toward creating meaning through form.