Stop telling designers to find a niche.

If you’re a designer, you’ve probably heard this advice at least a hundred times.

Find your niche.

Become an expert in something specific. Focus on one industry. Build your reputation around a particular style or skill.

Want to design logos? Great. Become a logo designer.

Love packaging? Fantastic. Make that your entire personality.

And if you happen to enjoy illustration, typography, branding, motion graphics, and about seventeen other creative disciplines?

Well, apparently you need to pick one.

But here’s the thing.

What if you don’t know what you want to specialize in yet?

What if the most exciting part of being creative is having the freedom to explore?

During a recent episode of the Cosmic Sans Podcast, I sat down with illustrator and designer Fiorella Granda, better known as Fiorella Doodles, to discuss her journey from architecture and competitive sports to working with major brands.

And when the conversation turned to finding your niche, her advice caught my attention.

Especially considering how she built her career.

The Designer Who Found Her Niche by Not Looking for One

Fiorella has built an impressive creative career at the intersection of sports, illustration, and design.

She’s worked with organizations across the NBA, WNBA, and NFL, developing a recognizable visual style that’s vibrant, energetic, and unmistakably hers.

From the outside, you’d probably look at her work and think she’s a perfect example of someone who found their niche and ran with it.

But her journey wasn’t quite that straightforward.

Before becoming a full-time freelance illustrator, Fiorella studied architecture at the University of Toronto, where she also played basketball.

After graduating and entering the professional world, she realized something was missing.

She had always loved sports. She had always loved creating. But she hadn’t necessarily considered how those two passions could coexist professionally.

So she started experimenting.

Drawing during lunch breaks. Creating after work. Exploring different styles and ideas.

Eventually, those interests started coming together.

And what began as a creative outlet grew into something much bigger.

That’s why I found her response so interesting when I asked whether younger designers should focus on finding their own niche.

“I would say don’t niche down.”

Wait. What?

Coming from someone who’s become known for her sports illustrations, that might sound a little contradictory.

But the more we talked, the more it made sense.

You Can’t Specialize in Something You Haven’t Discovered

There’s an enormous amount of pressure on designers to figure out their creative identity as early as possible.

We’re encouraged to build portfolios, establish personal brands, develop recognizable styles, and position ourselves as experts.

Sometimes before we’ve even figured out what kind of work we enjoy.

And I think that’s where things get tricky.

Imagine you’re just starting your design career.

You create a few logos, discover you’re pretty good at them, and suddenly decide you’re going to become a branding specialist.

Nothing wrong with that.

But what if you would have absolutely loved editorial design?

What if motion graphics would have completely changed your career trajectory?

What if you discover an unexpected passion for designing packaging, book covers, or video game interfaces?

You might never find out if you’ve already convinced yourself that you need to stay in one particular lane.

Fiorella’s advice was to explore as much as possible, especially while you’re still discovering your strengths.

And I think that’s incredibly valuable.

Exploration isn’t a lack of direction. Sometimes it’s how you discover where you want to go.

Your Interests Are Part of Your Creative Identity

One of the things I love about talking to artists and designers on Cosmic Sans is discovering how their personal interests influence their work.

Some grew up obsessed with comic books.

Others were inspired by music, skateboarding, video games, or the visual culture surrounding them.

Those influences don’t disappear when someone becomes a professional designer.

They become part of their creative identity.

Fiorella is a wonderful example.

Her background in basketball gave her an authentic connection to sports, while her education in architecture helped shape her visual thinking.

Neither experience existed purely to prepare her for the career she eventually built.

But both became incredibly valuable.

It makes me think about my own journey.

I’ve spent years creating content around Photoshop and design, but my interests have never been limited to one creative discipline.

Photography, video, branding, typography, and experimenting with new ideas have all influenced the work I create.

And I’d hate to imagine how different things might have looked if I’d decided early on that I was only allowed to focus on one of them.

Your hobbies, experiences, and seemingly unrelated interests aren’t necessarily distractions from your creative career.

Sometimes they’re what make your work interesting in the first place.

Specialization Has Its Place. Just Don’t Turn It Into a Prison.

Now, before anyone accuses me of suggesting that specialization is terrible, that’s not what I’m saying.

There are obvious benefits to becoming known for something specific.

If a company needs an incredible packaging designer, they’re probably going to look for someone with experience in packaging.

If a sports organization wants a distinctive illustration campaign, someone like Fiorella is going to be an attractive choice.

Expertise matters.

Reputation matters.

And developing a recognizable creative identity can absolutely open doors.

But there’s a difference between becoming known for something and becoming limited by it.

During our conversation, Fiorella explained that while sports has become a significant part of her career, she’s also interested in expanding into industries like beauty and food, as well as collaborating with Latin American brands and creators.

She doesn’t want her existing success to dictate every opportunity she pursues in the future.

And why should it?

Creative careers aren’t necessarily supposed to follow a perfectly straight line.

Sometimes the skills you’ve developed in one industry can bring an entirely fresh perspective to another.

A designer with a background in editorial design might approach packaging differently.

Someone who understands motion graphics might think about branding in ways a traditional print designer wouldn’t.

And an illustrator who spent years playing competitive basketball might have a completely different understanding of sports culture than someone who’s never stepped onto a court.

Those differences can be strengths.

Finding Your Style Doesn’t Mean Finding Your Industry

There’s another distinction worth making.

Your creative style and your professional niche aren’t necessarily the same thing.

During our conversation, Fiorella shared advice she received from another artist early in her career: establish a few visual rules that you consistently follow.

Maybe it’s how you draw shadows.

Maybe it’s your approach to color.

Maybe it’s a distinctive detail you incorporate into your illustrations.

Over time, those decisions can help make your work recognizable.

But recognizing someone’s work doesn’t mean knowing exactly what industry they work in.

A designer can have a distinctive visual language that translates across sports, fashion, entertainment, and countless other fields.

And personally, I find that much more exciting than the idea of being permanently attached to one category of work.

Because when you start building your creative identity around how you think, what you value, and what makes your perspective different, the possibilities become much broader.

Your style can be recognizable without your career becoming predictable.

Give Yourself Permission to Explore

If you’re early in your creative career, here’s something I wish more people would tell you.

You don’t need to have everything figured out.

You don’t need to know exactly what kind of designer you’re going to be in five years.

And you certainly don’t need to limit your portfolio to one discipline because someone on LinkedIn told you that’s the secret to success.

Try things.

Design a poster for a fictional music festival.

Create packaging for a product that doesn’t exist.

Experiment with illustration, animation, typography, or something completely outside your comfort zone.

Some of it will be terrible.

Trust me, we’ve all created work that we would prefer the internet collectively forgets.

But some of it might surprise you.

You might discover a skill you didn’t realize you had.

You might find a creative direction that genuinely excites you.

Or you might discover that something you thought you’d love isn’t actually for you.

All of those outcomes are valuable.

And if you eventually discover a particular industry or discipline that you absolutely love?

Fantastic. Go all in.

Just make sure you’re doing it because it genuinely interests you, not because you’ve been told you have to.

Don’t Confuse Focus With Freedom

The creative industry is already competitive enough without convincing ourselves that our curiosity is something we need to control.

There’s nothing wrong with being a specialist.

There’s nothing wrong with being a generalist.

And there’s certainly nothing wrong with changing your mind as you grow.

The important thing is recognizing that creative identity isn’t something you need to finalize before your career even begins.

It’s something you develop through experience.

Through experimentation.

Through taking opportunities you didn’t anticipate and occasionally discovering that the work you thought you’d love isn’t the work that makes you happiest.

Fiorella didn’t abandon her interests to build a successful creative career.

She found a way to bring them together.

And I think there’s a lesson in that for all of us.

Maybe the goal shouldn’t be to find your niche as quickly as possible.

Maybe it should be to discover what makes you different—and give yourself enough freedom to find out.