The In-Between

Designing in the Space Between Disciplines

For most of my creative life, I worked with my hands — shaping clay, cutting fabric, dyeing, painting, stitching stories together. I taught. I made. Some days, I imagined opening an art studio in the Himalayas and spending my life painting in peace.

And now, here I am —

Working in a corporate world as a UI/UX and graphic designer — a space that feels a universe apart from my hands-on, material-driven past.

Was the transition easy?

Absolutely not.

Switching disciplines after 15 years felt like standing at the edge of a cliff — overwhelmed, unsure, and often scared. I assumed my creative background would be enough. It wasn’t. I thought I could figure it out intuitively — but UI/UX has its own language, systems, and accessibility rules. Without enough experience, it was hard to trust my decisions — and it showed. Meetings became spaces of quiet hesitation, clouded by the fear of sounding like an outsider. Asking for help felt daunting. The pressure to “prove myself” was constant. Every day was filled with questions — Was this the right choice?

Would I ever find my footing again? For a while, I even tried to leave my past behind, convinced it didn’t belong here.

Yet, in that unfamiliar space, I began to relearn how to trust myself — gently, slowly, honestly.

I know I'm not the only one.

Many of us are navigating the “in-between.”

Between jobs. Between passions.

Between who we were and who we’re still becoming.

We’re the ones who carry more than one story.

The ones who’ve started over. Questioned everything.

The ones who’ve had quiet moments of doubt, away from the noise.

The ones who can’t — and won’t — choose just one path.

Because the old boundaries no longer fit.

We are the in-between designers.

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And here’s the truth:

Every messy, uncertain step led me somewhere real.

Fashion taught me to design for the body.

Art taught me to pay attention to emotion, form, and silence.

Facilitation showed me the power of listening. It taught me that growth doesn’t follow a straight line, and that every learner — myself included — needs room to pause, reflect, and restart.

UX taught me to design for behavior.

And life taught me that I don’t have to fit into just one box to be taken seriously.

To be honest, I don’t love sitting behind a screen all day.

I miss the smell of muslin, the dirt under my nails, the way paint stains my hands more than it flows, and the soft touch of clay.

But I do love mapping ideas, researching with empathy, getting lost in user journeys, and solving problems through design.

So no —

I’m not “just” a UX designer.

I’m not “just” an artist either.

I’m something in-between.

And that space — undefined, layered, evolving — is where I feel most alive.

To anyone else walking an undefined path:

You’re not scattered.

You’re not late.

You’re not lost.

You’re building something original — with everything you’ve ever been.

And maybe, that’s exactly where you need to be.

That in-between? It’s not a waiting room. It’s the real thing.