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2024 CATLab Creative Team Member Julia Lottes reflects on how she expresses her authentic identity in both art and business.

As a graphic designer, I often experience the tension of being stuck between two worlds: the art world and the business world. Being a graphic artist means most of your work is done on a computer and saved to a cloud. You design, and redesign, and redesign again. 

Layer after layer. Draft after draft. Ultimately, only your best designs are sent to print and become physical copies. Because of this, you spend less time in a traditional studio and more time behind a screen. In this way, you are different from your artist peers who are in the studio every day and can never completely scrub the paint off their fingers.

Receiving an art education nudges you to envision your work in a gallery. Your piece and your name hang on a wall for everyone to see. However, I’ve never felt particularly attached to galleries. Of course, it is always an honor to be featured in one, but I’ve always found myself more interested in making art for practical uses. I want to make art that people see every day and don’t even realize is art. I want to make art so that companies can better understand other humans and better reach their customers. I want to make art that does something, not just is something.

My art education has allowed me to develop so much as an artist and I am immensely grateful for that. However, as I look ahead, I feel the tug of the business world. This challenges me as a designer. There are so many things I don’t know about building a career. I had so many questions going into this summer: How can I grow professionally? How do I make art for a corporate audience? How do I make art as a team, and not just by myself? What can I learn about the business world to better equip myself for my future career?

I’ve begun to find answers to all of these questions throughout this summer at CATLab, which came into my life at just the right time to fill the art-business gap I was feeling. My favorite thing about the program has been fostering the connection between these two worlds. It’s been a journey of retraining my brain to make art for a new audience.

Work projects like our new merch undertaking, the annual magazine, and printed materials for the Impact Conference are unlike my art projects at school. I am no longer making art for pure self-expression. Of course, passion projects are important and necessary for a creative brain, but they are not the only thing I make anymore. Professional projects are not just for me—they are made with a team that is intentionally collaborating to create a high-end product for a corporate audience. These projects take clear communication and a shared creative vision to get right.

Clear communication is important not just with your team, but also with those you meet in other professional circles. CATLab does a great job of fostering networks, which is something I was lacking as an artist. I have learned how to communicate with other professionals at conferences and on LinkedIn. 

My own learning is reflected in the work we did on the Creative Team this year. How can we bring art and connection to a quickly evolving tech market? It was our mission to ground technology at CATLab in human reality through the use of intentional community and eye-catching art. CATLab is a place where creatives, technologists, and business experts can come together, mirroring how these fields combine to make up who I am as a graphic designer.