1 post tagged “college”

Tuesday night my friend, Kris, helped me write "about me" copy and descriptions for my print work for my new portfolio site. She asked me a several questions about what I had written and helped me get at specifics of what I was trying to express, not to mention cutting out some unnecessary elaboration. "So this type treatment related to the spirit of the event? What was the spirit?"  She asked about "my story" - why it is that I became a graphic designer. Here is that story. As a child I never doubted my ability to draw. As the daughter of a sometimes painter/sculptor I believed it was in my blood. Through my first years of elementary school I competed with Erin Hughes for the distinction of class artist. Hearing another classmate say that Erin could draw horses better than I inspired a friendly competition. From this competition grew my lifetime love of form, texture, color and even type, though I had no idea of this terminology at the time. I remember cutting up the JC Penney's catalog and collaging new pages and glueing them together into my first catalog layouts. In 2nd grade Math class a classmate and I would draw arms and legs onto our numbers and draw background for them to live in. Our "number people" had flowers in the yards and stairs to climb within the houses we would draw. So I guess there really wasn't much of a choice for me other then to pursue art. Not that I didn't try to be more "sensible." Undeclared and considering a science major, I remember the twinge of jealousy as the art majors were called to convene at my college orientation. My fascination with herbal & Eastern medicines led me to consider a career in naturopathic medicine but first there would be many science classes. I loved botany and geology but chemistry proved to be my foe. I didn't even do that terribly but I knew that I could not do that for 2 years undergrad plus another four years postgrad. So happily I walked away from a summer chemistry course in the knowledge that my elective classes would no longer be just that. I thought I didn't want people interfering with "my vision" or to ask "do you want fries with that?" after graduation. Turns out people tweaking your concepts isn't nearly as bad as a variable equation and the "want fries with that?" thing is just one of those myths that math teachers like to scare you with. So after a few false starts, I'm a working designer at 28 and finally giving my career precedence over travel. I expect great things from myself. And I'll still travel - I just need to fit it neatly within my two alloted weeks.