How it started and where it goes.
Because of my graphic design father, I learned how to use Photoshop and Quark XPress before I even opened a Word document or knew about the internet. Even a degree in math could not overwrite the design instincts I grew up with. After graduation it was clear that if starting my career required confidence, I had more confidence, and fun to be honest, around Adobe software than C++.
I started by volunteering my casual photoshop and art skills to anyone who needed some design help and the burgeoning internet was great to cut my teeth on webdesign and digital graphics. Those projects allowed me to have enough samples of work to get a work study job at my University newspaper where I further explored my love for typography and learned print principles in a fast-paced daily turnaround environment.
Even with my imposter syndrome from not having an arts degree like many of my peers, I focused on just offering my help to whoever needed it since I was essentially self-taught. Self-publishing artbooks for friends or interning as a webdesigner, I maximised my chances and found so much fulfillment by helping those who may have thought design would just be for function, a means to an end. I wanted to exceed their expectations of what design can do to enhance their idea and that sometimes you just need the right type of enthusiastic designer to see the vision.
20 years later and a way too many logos and book covers to show, I’m still eager to explore new spaces where design can make an impact. I’m always looking for opportunities to grow and seek to learn about new projects by taking a visual lense to it. Creative work is sometimes viewed as superfluous or a luxury, but I feel great design builds trust and security in a product, brand, or idea. To me, good design also represents the respect to everyone behind the development of the project and that deserves to be seen with confidence. The collaboration and respect of ideas is what makes the process most fun for me and if that can come through at the end with visuals that represents that, then the design is successful.
I started by volunteering my casual photoshop and art skills to anyone who needed some design help and the burgeoning internet was great to cut my teeth on webdesign and digital graphics. Those projects allowed me to have enough samples of work to get a work study job at my University newspaper where I further explored my love for typography and learned print principles in a fast-paced daily turnaround environment.
Even with my imposter syndrome from not having an arts degree like many of my peers, I focused on just offering my help to whoever needed it since I was essentially self-taught. Self-publishing artbooks for friends or interning as a webdesigner, I maximised my chances and found so much fulfillment by helping those who may have thought design would just be for function, a means to an end. I wanted to exceed their expectations of what design can do to enhance their idea and that sometimes you just need the right type of enthusiastic designer to see the vision.
20 years later and a way too many logos and book covers to show, I’m still eager to explore new spaces where design can make an impact. I’m always looking for opportunities to grow and seek to learn about new projects by taking a visual lense to it. Creative work is sometimes viewed as superfluous or a luxury, but I feel great design builds trust and security in a product, brand, or idea. To me, good design also represents the respect to everyone behind the development of the project and that deserves to be seen with confidence. The collaboration and respect of ideas is what makes the process most fun for me and if that can come through at the end with visuals that represents that, then the design is successful.