Hip-Hop Taught Me How to be a Designer
DJ-ing for a crowd is essentially a usability test. You’re constantly feeding off the vibe of the crowd and adjusting your composition in real time responding to that feedback. If you aren’t processing the data correctly, you’ll end up losing the audience and never be invited back to play that venue ever again!
As a DJ, I can equate creating music to composing a visual design. The space in between each beat is your white space. The tempo is your grid. Graphics and color are your instruments, and words and typography are your lyrics. It’s a carefully composed and curated process.
Though my DJ-ing days are rare nowadays, it’s influenced me so much in becoming the designer that I am today. These two pieces were created eons ago, but I hope you enjoy them nonetheless.
