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CTS B | Week 2: Connecting Theory and Practice

Design identity operates on a paradox: it demands deep internal authenticity, yet its professional success is judged entirely by external perception. Defining my "unapologetic self" (intuitive, silly) felt effortless (Fig. 1), aligning with Elizabeth Gilbert’s call to live creatively without fear (Big Magic, 87). But that feeling was pure internal bias.

The turning point was creating the external identity collage for a classmate (Fig. 3). Its unexpected accuracy proved my identity as a communicator is a social construct, shaped by how others see me. While my classmate’s perception of me (Fig. 2) was accurate but surface-level, this exercise confirmed that the designer must adopt the audience’s worldview and prioritize their reality. Don Norman argues great design requires discarding the designer's personal assumptions in favor of the user’s external mental models (Everyday Things, 13).

This tension is constant in my coursework. Developing the Food Hood app (Figs. 5-7) in Digital Skills -empowering home cooks displaced during the pandemic - was an immediate test of this external perspective. This required deep acting, adopting the role of a distressed cook seeking income or a user trying to order food. A practice Arlie Hochschild defines as essential for ethical social communication (The Managed Heart, 7). That is the ethical burden of design. My "creative whirlwind" self-portrait (Fig. 4) isn't just an inner vision; it's the processing space where my energy integrates those external realities. Ultimately, as Carl Jung noted, externalizing the unconscious self is necessary to integrate and understand profound societal connections (The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, 16). My designer identity is dynamic: a mix of inner world, social context, and the creative act that joins them.

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