You don't need to be t-shaped
Being “t-shaped” is a popular concept in design right now. The idea is simple: develop a broad range of skills before going deep on one.
You don’t need to do this.
In 2012 I was designing album artwork and lyric videos for bands. Since then I’ve made t-shirts, conference branding, print collateral, animated videos, websites, brand identities, and mobile applications.
I’d design anything I could.
When you don’t have much experience, it’s unlikely you know what you want to do simply because you haven’t tried everything yet. If you‘re unsure of what to do, but you know you want to design, that’s okay.
Woods vs. Federer.
In the book Range, David Epstein tells the story of two athletes.
Tiger Woods
Born with a golf club in his hands. His childhood was laser-focused on golf. Life centered around improving his skills in one area, and they did. Tiger is a textbook example of why it pays to specialize.
Roger Federer
One of the best tennis players of all time. Roger didn’t take tennis seriously until his teens. Before this, he played every sport he could. With a late start he still became an exceptional tennis player.
In fact, he got better faster than people like Tiger.
What does this have to do with design?
Tiger and Federer became experts in their craft. They implemented opposite strategies with similar results. This demonstrates how much skill development varies from person to person.
The same is true in design.
Not all learning is domain-specific.
Some technical skills (prototyping, creating design systems, running user testing sessions, etc.) are not applicable to a wide range of disciplines, but soft skills (stakeholder management, resolving conflict, prioritizing concurrent deadlines) remain important throughout life.
I had some great (and terrible) freelance clients in high school.
This work honed my skills and taught me lessons on file organization, setting expectations, writing contracts, and collecting payments.
I’m not making videos for hardcore bands anymore, but what I learned in these experiences is still with me. Some skills you pick up today remain applicable for life, even in a completely different line of work.
Multiple paths lead to the same destination.
Tiger and Roger took different paths. Both became professional athletes.
Some people attend a bootcamp to obtain skills for a job in design. I didn’t. Bootcamps help you learn at an accelerated pace while making industry connections, but it’s not the only way.
Gifted designers can come from the fields of sociology, psychology, and business. A non-traditional path into design is still viable, even though skill development is not t-shaped.
Uniqueness > Expertise
When I started designing my dream job was working at a record label. Then it was animation, and then working at an agency. I keep changing my mind.
Specialization doesn’t account for is how fickle people are.
The average person changes careers 5–7 times in their lifetime. Our interests today don’t represent our interests in the future.
Given the pace at which the world is changing, it’s an asset, not a liability to change with it. Instead of gaining specific skills to be qualified for a job, focus your efforts on amassing a wide range of unique experiences in order to create a competitive advantage for yourself.
The better you are able to synthesize multiple different disciplines and domains of knowledge into your work, the harder it is to replicate you.
That doesn’t come from being t-shaped.