My name is Samantha Yu and I’m a second year student at New York City College of Technology majoring in Art and Advertising/ Communication Design. In the future, my plan is to be in the advertising field promoting new products that can influence a variety of people. This is the best career for me because I enjoy designing and designing allows me to be innovative, sophisticated, and impactful to the society.
Entering one of the most competitive fields in the world, advertising gives me the opportunity to give my designs a shot during my studies and in reality. Entering New York City College of Technology (NYCCT) for their technology and design as a Communication Design major can help me accomplish my goals. From the 2013-2014 NYCCT College Catalog, it states that, “The advertising AAS degree program provides students with a solid foundation in theory and current practices of the advertising design industry.” (NYCCT College Catalog, 189-190) After my studies at NYCCT, I am hoping to get jobs as a freelance at first, for starters, and then work my way up to being a head designer or even opening up my own agency. In Rebecca Vander Meulen’s, What Can You Do With an Arts Major? she states, “According to the nonprofit organization Americans for the Arts, the arts and culture industry creates about 5.7 million full-time jobs every year, nationwide…art students go into fields like book design, advertising, art law, and medical illustration…art majors possess skills business leaders need: creativity and the ability to communicate.” (Meulen, 22) In this essay, I will further explain my reasons for pursuing a career in this field.
“Foundation Class Drawings” (Yu, Foundation Class Drawings)
One of my biggest passions while growing up was drawing because I like to be innovative. I would always randomly doodle on things or use my skills to develop cards and presentations. During my academic life in public schools, I never had the chance to take any art classes because there weren’t any art classes offered. As I entered NYCCT, I finally get the chance to take art courses as a Communication Design major. Along the way, I realized that entering the advertising field is the only way for me to pursue an art and design future. According to the 2013-2014 NYCCT College Catalog, “Students are offered a broad range of foundation courses- from figure drawing, design and color, typography, photography, and design studio procedures to advanced courses including digital media, video, animation, graphic design, advertising, illustration, web design, packaging design, and an advertising design internship.” (NYCCT College Catalog, 189-190) As I noticed this, I realized that this major is the major that I am going to go with. It states that there will be drawing classes, design studios, and photography, and all of these are things that I am interested in. I like designing and drawing because I have a big imagination. My imagination allows me to create and develop my own unique designs that differ from everyone else’s. According to Graphic Knowledge: Albrecht Dürer and the Imagination by Peter Parshall, “Painting calls for imagination, and skill of hand, in order to discover things not seen, hiding themselves under the shadow of natural objects, and to fix them with the hand, presenting to plain sight what does not really exist. The painter is given freedom to compose a figure, standing, seated, half-man, half horse, as he pleases, according to his imagination.” (Parshall, 396) I think this quote is stating that even though imagination is not something that can be seen, it is something that works behind the scene of every person to make a good piece. Being innovative and imaginative is the first step to bringing me closer to my career goals because in the field of advertising, these are the most important elements.
“Graphic Designing With Indesign and Illustrator” (Yu, Graphic Designing With Indesign and Illustrator)
Designing helps me be more sophisticated in the advertising field because it brings challenges to myself. I can develop new ideas and I want my ideas to be shown to the world rather than it remaining in my head. This field is not only just about drawing and designs though. It also involves knowledge of business, presentation, and sophistication. Even with a good design, a designer needs to know how to show sophistication and professionally present their ideas to their customers. According to A Day in the Life of the New Design Student, Shareen Pathak mentions, “…schools are increasingly combining design thinking (which focuses on user experience through anthropological research) with more traditional business programs. Design thinking is integral to solving business problems.”(Pathak, par.5,12) From these two statements taken from the article, it proves that designing is helpful to even business students. Even MBA (Master of Business Administration) degree students should have a MA(Master of Art) degree to better display professional ideas. As a result, being a design student isn’t only beneficial to me and my presentations, but also to people in the business field.
“Exploring High Value Contrast on Advertisements” (Yu, Exploring High Value Contrast on Advertisements)
Advertising means reality and reality means being impactful to the society or else you will be neglected and thrown aside. Every original idea that I would have to come up with in my future career will have to leave an impression to audiences. As an artist and designer, I would want my work to impact people whether it is positively or negatively. Kim Berman, author of Imagination and Agency seems to agree with what I think too. “Artists often sit on the margins of society; that gives us the opportunity to change its shape and to draw new outlines. Our ability to imagine, to visualize, to innovate, to put together things that don’t naturally belong together, permits us to collaborate effectively with others who are working for positive change in society.”(Berman, 3) Not only do we as artists want to change society, but we aid others into doing so too.
My education at New York City College of Technology prepares me for my future career in the advertising field. In my opinion, before any impactful advertisements are produced, I must take the proper courses first. This semester, I have a couple of very knowledgeable professors, but there was on that really influenced me. To pursue a career in this field, one would need to take Graphic Principle courses because this course teaches people how to visually look at things. I am currently taking the first part of it and we learn how to perfectly make a piece of art fit on a page according to perspective, proportions, colors, and contrast. This is significant to my future career because these things are needed to create a good advertisement. I found this course most useful, so I had an interview with my Graphic Principles professor, Stella Nicolaou, through email, about this field. “I had a great and privileged education, studied with well-known creative people in the field. They passed a wealth of information to me. Over the years, I have developed much curriculum to help students, published and displayed work, made numerous public lectures, work written up in the media, etc. Like any field one has passion for, it is important to always work on being your best. You also need to keep up with technology; software is always changing and the vehicle for communications. One also needs to be patient and persistent when seeking opportunities. Opportunities will come but not specifically when one expects them.”(Nicolaou, par.4,6-7) Like Professor Nicolaou, I would also like to be privileged with a great education, have numerous works displayed and published, and influence many people. So in order to pursue a career in the advertisement field, education is significant and a good impactful impression should be left with your audience and society.
Pursuing a career in the advertising field is not an easy thing. It is one of the most competitive fields in the world and there are many agencies. With just a passion of designing and drawing it is not enough to get into this field. In order to get a career in this field, one must be convincing, educated, imaginative, and influential. With these important elements, opportunities are more likely to come your way. Like Professor Nicolaou mentions, “One also needs to be patient and persistent when seeking opportunities. Opportunities will come but not specifically when one expects them.”(Nicolaou, par. 6-7)
Works Cited
Berman, Kim. “Imagination and Agency.” Matatu: Journal for African Culture & Society 44 (2013): 3-14. Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 Dec. 2014.
New York City College of Technology, College Catalog 2013-2014. 2014. PDF. 3 Nov. 2014
Nicolaou, Stella. Email to the author. 4 Dec. 2014. Email.
Parshall, Peter. “Graphic Knowledge: Albrecht Dürer and the Imagination.” Art Bulletin 95.3 (2013): 392-410. Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 Dec. 2014.
Pathak, Shareen. “A Day in the Life of the New Design Student.” Advertising Age 83.86 (2012): 1-1. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Nov. 2014.
Vander Meulen, Rebecca. “What Can You Do With An Arts Major?” Careers & Colleges 29.2 (2010): 22-24. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Nov. 2014.
Yu, Samantha. “Exploring High Value Contrast on Advertisements.” Flickr. 6 Dec. 2014. Web. 6 Dec. 2014
Yu, Samantha. “Foundation Class Drawings.” Flickr. 6 Dec. 2014. Web. 6 Dec. 2014
Yu, Samantha. “Graphic Designing With Indesign and Illustrator.” Flickr. 6 Dec. 2014.Web. 6 Dec. 2014
