Selen Erciyas Ozturk, brand strategist, designer, and unofficial brand architect of The Drawline Design Studio, has a simple tip for aspiring designers: keep an open mind. “Stay curious and try things,” she says. “You never know what will shape your work. Pay attention to the world and ask why things look the way they do. Make mistakes and learn fast because design grows when you do.”

This advice dovetails with Ozturk’s personal philosophy, which is to accept the mess and keep going. “Life is not a straight line, and plans shift,” she says. “Growth comes from discomfort, and fear shows what matters. I own my choices and learn from what goes wrong.” Ozturk firmly believes in letting failure teach, rather than define her, and aiming for progress rather than perfection. “My philosophy is simple: do the work, stay open, care about people, and move forward,” she says.

As a child, Ozturk was drawn to design. “My love for creating started when I first played with Legos,” she says. “I stacked and built small worlds. I saw ideas take shape in my hands, and that feeling never left.” Initially, this desire to create and build led her to pursue a career in architecture, where she learned to shape space and solve real-world problems, but as she was studying, she also worked as a graphic designer. “I kept my focus on how things looked and worked,” Ozturk says. “That mix of skills still guides me today.”

Her architecture training also taught her how to take criticism in stride, remembering that it’s rarely personal. “It’s about the work, which can always improve,” Ozturk says. “Staying open to feedback helps me grow.” While she’s receptive to criticism and changing course, she believes that design is a collaborative experience and that the client is not always right. “Many clients know what they feel, but not how to say it,” she says. “Better feedback comes from guidance and simple questions, where we can find the real issue and solution together.”