Erol Ozan wrote “beautiful paths can’t be discovered without getting lost,” this is true for majority of my life. For the most part people who pursue a career in arts have been expose to it since the first time they were able to hold a crayon; this isn’t the case for me. Unfortunately, I always struggle with creating a straight line, or finding the right color, or even choosing the right font to convey a message. Pursuing a career in graphic design happened by accident, originally I was convinced I was going to have a career in computer system, or software development. My high school helped me develop the passion to design through an internship at Educational Video Center.

I was introduced to Graphic Design through Educational Video Center (EVC). They were offering an internship, the official title was New Media Apprenticeship, I didn’t know exactly what it meant but I wanted to find out. This was the first time ever I had to do an interview and have a resume ready, I was so nervous. Once I got the internship, I learned that the main idea was to create a collaborative website based on a documentary created by students who were part of EVC internship. In the apprenticeship I was introduced to Wix, photoshop, premiere, wire frames, etc. In addition to the website, we also had to create a graphic to promote our project. I wanted to further explore those tools for a career.

I sent application to schools that had both a design program and computer systems. I took one course dealing with computer information system and new it wasn’t for me. Once accepted to City Tech I pursued my associates degree on advertising & arts design, slowly I learned the path I wanted to take. The first two years I spent time learning about the design principles, also about typography; before City Tech I haven’t heard the word typography, everything was new to me. Slowly but shortly I began to design different things, manly for project purposes.

Based on the work I have gather, I wouldn’t mind working in advertising, design different campaigns, besides campaign, I feel confident when creating logos. I rather work with a brief, that sets guidelines and standards on how design should be. I envision the place I would be working at would have a lot of natural lighting, work wit multiple company’s and hopefully a snack bar. I want to use my last two years in school to focus on a design style, so far I’ve just used previous designer work as inspiration and try to mimic what they done, but I want my work to stand out from theirs.

Maybe I did have to get lost through my high school years to find the beautiful path of design. It might have started with a collaborative effort, but it creating a path that I wanted to pursue. Working with a non-profit really changes your perspective of your future, you no longer care about fame and money but instead you want your work to have meaning. Going forward I hope to find my own design style and a job with a lot of natural lighting and a snack bar.