How I Became a Designer
When I was a kid, I never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. Everyone would always ask me, and I would change my answer every time. The top contenders were usually teacher, marine biologist, and after watching Grey’s Anatomy with my grandma for weeks, a neurosurgeon. Let me just say that my grades were not good enough to be a neurosurgeon. A girl can definitely dream!
At 17, I was a senior in high school. My last year in the hellish landscape of American public school. I was put in what they called “Digital Photography” class. Basically, they put me and 12 other 17–18yo students in a room with computers and access to photoshop. Every class we got a new assignment and got to learn the different ways to use photoshop. This was when I first met and fell in love with Adobe.
I was always a computer nerd anyway. Growing up, my parents always had a computer that we shared as a family. My grandparents each had their own computer as well! I played 3D pinball and solitaire, graduating to the games on Disney which snowballed into me being absolutely obsessed with anything having to do with games or the internet in general. When I finally got introduced to photoshop, it opened the creative doorway in my brain and I fell in love with all the new and exciting things I could do.
I remember when it was nearing high school graduation and my school made all graduating seniors participate in a sort of exit interview from school. This consisted of standing before a panel of teachers and showing them a powerpoint of three jobs you were considering and colleges you thought about attending. I pulled everything out of my ass and bullshitted an entire powerpoint about schools I never even planned on applying to for majors that didn’t interest me at all.
At the time, I was also working two jobs. One of which was volunteering to watch my aunt and uncle’s store for a few hours. My cousin Alex, their son, was working during the day and I relieved him after school. I remember walking into work and talking with Alex and explaining to him that I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and I was upset that everyone else around me did.
Which is true! I was friends with some really smart people who took AP classes and had their college plan down since they were 13. My friends knew what they wanted to do and where they wanted to go. I was envious of the fact that they knew the trajectory of their lives and I didn’t. Looking back on it now, I don’t find that to be true anymore. I think they, like me, just made a decision and went with it.
I started talking about my classes with Alex, mentioning Digital Photography and how much I loved that class and the freedom that photoshop made me feel. He said “have you ever thought about being a graphic designer?” I was confused when he said this to me. “What’s a graphic designer?” He laughed at my lack of knowledge and explained to me that designers were artists who made art digitally, basically what I was doing in that photoshop class but as a job.
I was amazed, I could get paid to fiddle around on a computer program like adobe all day? I’m in! And that my dear friends, is how I figured out what I wanted to be when I grew up. I was scared at first, “Don’t you have to know how to draw? Like actually draw?” I was an artist in the simplest of terms (after going to art school though, I was much more of an artist than I gave myself credit for.) Alex chimed in “Not really, you mostly work on the computer. Just think about it, you might like it.”
Fast forward a year later, I took time off between graduating and college to recover from a death in the family, my mom moving out of state, and my childhood home being sold. (That’s a lot to just breeze over, but we can talk about that another day) I wake up one day and decide I want to go to college. I found a college near me and decided I was going to be a graphic designer.
I was so nervous my first week of college, I didn’t know what to expect! After a few weeks, I knew I made the right decision. I worked my way through four years of college and earned my bachelor’s degree in fine arts! I (mostly) loved every second of college. I learned so much not only about myself, but about what I can create and put out into the world. I met some of my best friends through college and I don't regret a single thing.
Now, as a young adult, I am currently typing this from my laptop in my office of the cushy designer job I have. I can actually say I really love my job! Alex will never read this, but I hope he knows without his sage advice I would be absolutely lost in this world. I just knew I liked making pretty pictures with photoshop. I didn’t know the world of opportunities this would create for me.
I guess my final thoughts are, take chances no matter the outcome you never know where they’ll take you. Also? trust yourself. That I’m still having to work on myself, but I’m getting there.
