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 one you'll find in career guides. When Scott Berkun, who's writing a book about 'Why Design is Hard,' asked about my unusual transition, I realized it was time to share this journey.

Product Designers Make More Money

Before diving into my journey, let me introduce myself. I’m Eva Petersen, a Miami-based, Venezuelan designer with a background in fine art. I found a career in UX while learning how to code. When I got started, there were no UX bootcamps and interaction designers only existed in Silicon Valley. The rest of us were web designers.

By the time I became a full-time UI Designer at a tech company, Tinder had just launched and thanks to AirBnB, every CEO and marketing team wanted to deliver delightful user experiences.

With practice and patience, I got very good at what I do. My expertise and the value I bring to the table is why I get paid.

Product Designers working in tech earn significantly more than other designers, partly because we understand a fundamental truth: business goals come first. As Scott Berkun explains in his insightful post Bad Design Makes Money, good design doesn't always align with business success.

From Art to Design

My journey began with art. I was born creative – we all are – but art was the only thing I felt confident in growing up. I was painfully shy until I turned twenty.

My path wasn't straightforward. I initially studied at Emory University – I could have pursued medicine and been a doctor. It wasn’t my first choice, but I had been accepted and my dad wanted me to go.

Being persistent led me elsewhere. After writing a research paper examining urban development in Caracas (my birthplace) and its impact on colonial architecture, I earned a scholarship to SCAD, which helped me convince my father to let me pursue art school.

Being an artist is hard work and severely underpaid labor. I never made a living with my artwork. In product teams we’ll usually refer to ideas like wanting to be an artist as not being viable solutions. They’re not viable because they won’t make money.

For a while, I worked as curatorial research assistant at Miami Art Museum (now PAMM), but exhibiting my work in galleries that would actually sell it was difficult. In 2007, to get my work included in a show at a gallery in Chelsea, I would have had to have slept with the gallery owner during Art Basel. I did not. I remember sprinting to my car and driving off on Collins Avenue.

Even if I had gotten representation, galleries take 50% commission from each sale. After a while, I was deeply disillusioned with the art world and I wanted to move on.

I became a designer for the same reason everyone gets a job. I needed to make money.

Money and Freedom

Design is good business, and I discovered I love it. The transition required self-education – I taught myself Photoshop and Illustrator, becoming proficient despite their notoriously steep learning curves. I got very good at it, but the experience constantly left me wondering - who designed this? why is it so awkward to use?

Answering this question is what truly compelled me to work in tech. I didn’t know exactly how I would get there, but I was curious about it and it’s what I wanted.

Transitioning from art to product design demands persistence and ambitious goals. For me, necessity accelerated this journey.

When I was 34 years old, my daughter was a toddler and I was planning a divorce. In order to pay rent and private pre-school I had to triple my income. The US does not offer public education to children until they turn 5 years old.

Working in tech as a product designer gave me freedom.

I have a type of freedom my mother and every woman before her did not enjoy. As sexist as we hear the tech sector can be, the art world is much worse.

Meanwhile, I get to work with software engineers and product managers who can be incredibly creative. Most people who work in tech are interesting.

Tech is hard, it’s exhausting, but it pays well and it’s interesting. Always interesting.

I’m an Artist and a Designer

In hindsight, I understand now why my dad was so opposed to me studying art. On weekends he’d go out to sea on his sailboat to nurture his soul. Every man on both sides of my family was a sea captain by profession until the mid 1900s. Afterwards everyone went into finance, except for a few outliers, myself included.

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

My dad never got to see me make a six figure salary or buy a house on my own. He died unexpectedly two months after I turned 35. He would be proud though. Even more proud that I started painting again a few months ago after a decade of not touching a canvas.

I'm an artist and a designer – these identities aren't in conflict but in harmony. My technical skills fund my freedom, while my artistic sensibility enhances my design work. This dual perspective is my unique advantage. With each product I design, I bring both analytical precision and artistic vision – a combination that has made all the difference in my career.

If you found value in my story, I'll be sharing more perspectives on design, creativity and tech monthly through my newsletter 'New is Nice Always' – a space committed to 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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