No. 1: New is Nice Always

How I switched from a career in fine art to tech.

From Fine Art to UX: My Design Journey

The path from painter to product designer isn’t something you’ll find in a career guide. But when Scott Berkun — who’s writing a book called Why Design Is Hard — asked me about my unusual transition, I realized it was time to share it.

Product Designers Make More Money

Before we dive in, I’m Eva Petersen, a Miami-based Venezuelan designer with a background in fine art. I found my way into UX while teaching myself to code. At the time, UX bootcamps didn’t exist.

By the time I became a full-time UI designer at a tech company, Tinder had just launched. AirBnB was changing everything. Suddenly, every CEO and marketing team wanted to “delight users.”

With practice and patience, I got really good at what I do. My skill and the value I bring is why I get paid.

Product designers in tech earn more than most other designers. That’s because we understand a fundamental truth: business goals come first.

From Art to Design

I started with art. I was born creative as we all are, but art was the only thing I felt confident in growing up. I was painfully shy until my twenties.

I began studying pre-med at Emory University. My dad wanted me to go and I after art, was also good at science.

What convinced my dad to let me transfer to art school was the scholarship I received from SCAD after submitting a research paper on urban development and colonial architecture in Caracas.

Being an artist is hard, underpaid work. I never made a living off my paintings. In product teams, we’d call that kind of career path “not viable.”

For a while, I worked at the Miami Art Museum (now PAMM) as a curatorial research assistant. But getting into galleries that sold work was tough. In 2007, a gallerist from New York implied I’d need to sleep with him to get my work shown during Art Basel. I didn’t. I ran to my car and drove off on Collins Avenue.

Even with representation, galleries take 50% commission from each sale. After a while, I became disillusioned. I was ready to move on.

I became a designer for the same reason most people get a job: I needed to make money.

Money and Freedom

And it turns out I love design. I taught myself Photoshop and Illustrator, and the whole time I kept asking: Who designed this? Why is it so hard to use?

That question is what ultimately led me to tech.

I didn’t have a roadmap, but I was curious. And that curiosity turned into a career.

At 34, I was a single mom planning a divorce. My daughter was in private preschool (there’s no public education in the U.S. before age five), and I had to triple my income to afford rent and school.

Working in tech as a product designer gave me freedom.

The kind of freedom my mother and most women before her never had. Tech gets criticized for being sexist (it can be), but the art world is much worse.

In tech, I work with engineers and product managers who are endlessly creative. Tech is demanding, exhausting even, but always interesting. And it pays well.

I’m an Artist and a Designer

In hindsight, I do see why my dad was so resistant to an art career. He worked hard, an office job. On weekends, he’d take his sailboat out to sea to clear his mind. Everyone in my family was a sea captain until the mid-1900s. Then they all went into finance. Except a few of us, including me.

We don’t live in a world of sailors and artists anymore.

My dad passed away two months after I turned 35. He never saw me earn a six-figure salary or buy a home on my own. But he would’ve been proud. Even more so now that I’ve started painting again, after ten years of not touching a canvas.

I’m both an artist and a designer.

If you found value in this story, I’ll be sharing more thoughts on design, creativity, and tech here each month in New Is Nice Always a space for inclusion, wellbeing, and growth.

With love,
Eva

Further Reading: Check out Scott Berkun's book 'Why Design is Hard' on Amazon.

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