Everything that ever exists in this world never pops in ready and final. The world itself to the people living in it change, move, and grow. It is always a process. Design comes with a process. Research, ideation, sketching, refining, refining, and refining. This process is what I learned to love when it came to my creative brain. See, before graphic design I was whole heartedly set on being an artist. Whatever that meant. However, that is rarely realistic. I jumped into graphic design thinking it was going to be the same thing as drawing. It is not. It is a whole other beast. Regardless, I did not give it up when I realized it was not the same. Graphic design sometimes led itself for illustrative solutions, for which I am grateful, but I have gained an appreciation for type. Although we live in an image-heavy society, I think nothing is better said than in your face with words you understand. This gives graphic designers an edge that I had not thought about before. Funnily enough, when I started drawing, I started with words. This all-coming full circle to where I am currently at in my life.
I value clean and simple design and that is what I gravitate toward. Most of my work consists of these elements, but I certainly had to learn what clean and what simple design looked like. This was through many mistakes through my sophomore year. Less is often times seen as more and I could not agree more. I also challenge myself to stay simple often is because when you design simple, you cannot hide anything. Everything must be crisp. Everything must be intentional. Intentionality when you are a designer is especially important as it shows you put thought and effort into every decision of the design. You do not put elements on a page, you place them in a way that expresses something like no other. Intentionality was the hardest for me to learn. Because of that, I value it greatly. As I have homed in intentionality with what to look for, my eye for design vastly improves which impacts the work that I create.
Furthermore, a graphic designer is not only just a graphic designer. A graphic designer is also: a writer, a photographer, an illustrator, a presenter, a researcher, an idea maker, and many other hats that I have not found myself in yet. This was something I had learned my first semester of East Carolina’s Graphic Design Program and I learned it early on as well. I was not just assigned to make a singular design. I was tasked with a project that required research, sketching, ideating, many versions of a single design, and other things that pushed me far out of my comfort zone. Many that I did not realize came with the graphic design label. Many of which I find myself enjoying now. Researching fuels my want to learn. Writing helps me put my thoughts into coherent sentences for other people to understand. Sketching fulfills my drawing background as well as being able to be illustrative. Presenting improves my skills to talk to people and about the work that I create. I enjoy all my hats under the term graphic designer. I enjoy graphic design.