My Journey to Becoming a Graphic Design Student
Hello Everyone!
This is my first official blog post on my new website! I excited for the possibilities this website holds to share my passion for art and design with others. I also hope this website allows me to connect and inspire people.
Currently I am an aspiring artist and designer pursuing a degree in graphic design. I am excited for the opportunity to grow as a designer and for possibilities this career holds for me! Part of the purpose of the blog is to inspire other designers and to document my journey. I also want to share what I have learned as I gain experience in art and design.
One passion that I have is travel and exploring new places. Therefore, I also want to use this website to share my travels and the exciting things I have learned along the way.
Since this is my first post, I am going introduce myself and share a little of my artistic background. From a young age I loved creating art and trying to reproduce life around me. I was always captivated by picture books and graphic novels. The artists of those books were able to create their own reality that no one else could recreate. Their drawings made stories come alive and I could spend hours looking at those books.
Another form of art that captivated me was animation. Beautiful images, characters, and scenery somehow came alive because of animators. They were able to create something alive simply using pencils, pens, ink, computers, and many other mediums. On my Disney DVD movies they would have extras giving behind the scenes information about how they made the movie. I used to always watch those extras every time I finished an animated movie and I never failed to be inspired. Today I am still in love with animated movies, and I feel inspired to create art every time I watch one.
Due to my love of picture books, drawing, and animated movies, I knew I had to pursue a field in the art realm. I thought about several different options such as illustrator, animator, story board artist, graphic designer, interior designer, and fashion designer. However, I never knew exactly what I wanted to do. Additionally, I never knew anyone in those fields growing up, so I had no one to ask about it.
My parents fully supported my passion of art and design, but as I got older, I began to see my passion as impractical. I compared myself to other artists and began to think I was not talented enough to pursue a career in art. Therefore, I turned my sights to other things that would secure me a job. That was until Covid-19 hit in 2020.
During 2020 I was stuck at home a lot with my family, so I had to find new ways to entertain myself. Then one day I picked up a pencil, opened a sketchbook, and starting drawing again. At that point I had not drawn seriously for a few years. However, the moment I picked up a pencil I was captivated, and I wanted to improve my drawing. Over the course of the next year, I watched tutorial after tutorial trying to learn everything I could. I realized that I still had a passion for creativity and that was not something that could go away. However I still tried to ignore my passion again once my senior year of high school hit.
Artificial intelligence became a big thing and once again I began to see it the arts as an impractical career and endangered career. I needed a job where I could make money and be sure that I could get a job after I graduated. However, I decided I still wanted to pursue some sort of art in college, so I decided to get an art minor instead.
That all changed when I toured graphic design programs at various universities. I looked at various project’s students had worked on, and I got really excited. It was at that moment I finally realized which career I wanted to pursue.
Since then, it has not always been smooth sailing, but in the long run I think this is the career for me. I love being able to practice my creativity every day, and often I still find my assignments fill me with excitement. I do not know what my future has in store or what kind of job I will end up with. However, something I have learned is that God has given us all different gifts and each one is important. Therefore, pursue your dreams and goals even if you are not sure if they will work out. It may seem scary, but you never know where the journey will lead you.