What Graphic Designer Am I?

This question often comes up in my mind and usually ends up with negative thoughts following up. The reason is I am not sure of my exact niche. I am indecisive and unsure what exactly of what is my best asset but yet am aware of my weaknesses. This may sound worse being that I am in my junior year but there are some benefits of this mindset. One benefit is that I am humbled by my experiences and I can use this mindset as motivation to improve.

In the summer of 2015, I landed my first experience and only was interning for Brand Connections. Brand Connections office is located in Midtown and has Dunkin Donuts, Nissan Cup Noodles, and some other lower named companies under their books. At first I did what every intern did which was working on tasks that weren’t challenging and leaving the office picking up random objects or products that were needed to be in the office.

As a couple weeks went on I gained the respect of my creative directors by my punctuality, the effort I put into content calendars for twitter and Facebook posts and the speed of how I delivered designs. Around October, my creative director had to leave due to the arrival of her first child. This was when my opportunity came to surface. We were without a creative director for a couple months and were in the process of finding a replacement for the mean time. During the process of cycling through freelancers and finding the right person to replace the creative director, the junior creative director and I were given a lot of work in preparation for the busy holiday content calendar. This was in the fall, my internship was supposed to end after thanksgiving but after mentioning here and there with product managers that I would be willing to comeback. I was offered to comeback, along with a raise. Of course, I accepted the offer.

During this time I was extremely busy, working as a junior designer three days out of the week, attending school two days a week, and working in retail on the weekends. The term no days off was real and eventually burned me out by the time I ended the Spring semester of 2016.

I chose to leave the agency and was happy to do so. Towards the end, I lost interest working in there. O the last two months of the time I was there, I realized I was doing the same work over and over again The new creative director in place didn’t teach me much nor was able to due to the heavy workload and the junior creative director that mentored me left for another company.

There were many signs indicating it was time to leave and I decided to. I left due to personally needing a break for the summer for myself and also because of family reasons. The spring semester was stressful to balance working full time, being a full-time college student, and spending time with my father who was struggling through tough chemotherapy treatment. Leaving all jobs made sense at the time and since then I have no regrets.

As time goes by and my father’s cancer continues to run its course, my attention towards my career and design has been slowed down the last couple of months. I’ve considered taking a semester off but the reality is, I need to finish school and get a job as soon as possible. I am looking forward to this semester to continue my growth as a designer.

So to answer the question of who am I as a designer? I am still not sure but I am confident the answer will become clearer as time goes by. I am unsure of what kind of designer I want to be exactly so for the time now, I am focusing on expanding my abilities to be able learn as much as I can in all areas of design to be flexible to obtain a job when I graduate. As of right now my interests are advertising, branding, and page layout design. I want to improve my web design skills, photography, and there is always room to improve conceptual skills.

My dream job, is to work for the NBA or any NBA team as a designer that does brochures, posters, branding, advertising etc. Fortunately, my brother works in the NBA and the perks of the job are amazing. If that dream doesn’t come true I also would like to be an in-house designer for a brand that I like. Nothing is set in stone as of yet but I am aware and ready for the challenges that arise knowing that failure is needed for success.

This question often comes up in my mind and usually ends up with negative thoughts following up. The reason is I am not sure of my exact niche. I am indecisive and unsure what exactly of what is my best asset but yet am aware of my weaknesses. This may sound worse being that I am in my junior year but there are some benefits of this mindset. One benefit is that I am humbled by my experiences and I can use this mindset as motivation to improve.

In the summer of 2015, I landed my first experience and only was interning for Brand Connections. Brand Connections office is located in Midtown and has Dunkin Donuts, Nissan Cup Noodles, and some other lower named companies under their books. At first I did what every intern did which was working on tasks that weren’t challenging and leaving the office picking up random objects or products that were needed to be in the office.

As a couple weeks went on I gained the respect of my creative directors by my punctuality, the effort I put into content calendars for twitter and Facebook posts and the speed of how I delivered designs. Around October, my creative director had to leave due to the arrival of her first child. This was when my opportunity came to surface. We were without a creative director for a couple months and were in the process of finding a replacement for the mean time. During the process of cycling through freelancers and finding the right person to replace the creative director, the junior creative director and I were given a lot of work in preparation for the busy holiday content calendar. This was in the fall, my internship was supposed to end after thanksgiving but after mentioning here and there with product managers that I would be willing to comeback. I was offered to comeback, along with a raise. Of course, I accepted the offer.

During this time I was extremely busy, working as a junior designer three days out of the week, attending school two days a week, and working in retail on the weekends. The term no days off was real and eventually burned me out by the time I ended the Spring semester of 2016.

I chose to leave the agency and was happy to do so. Towards the end, I lost interest working in there. O the last two months of the time I was there, I realized I was doing the same work over and over again The new creative director in place didn’t teach me much nor was able to due to the heavy workload and the junior creative director that mentored me left for another company.

There were many signs indicating it was time to leave and I decided to. I left due to personally needing a break for the summer for myself and also because of family reasons. The spring semester was stressful to balance working full time, being a full-time college student, and spending time with my father who was struggling through tough chemotherapy treatment. Leaving all jobs made sense at the time and since then I have no regrets.

As time goes by and my father’s cancer continues to run its course, my attention towards my career and design has been slowed down the last couple of months. I’ve considered taking a semester off but the reality is, I need to finish school and get a job as soon as possible. I am looking forward to this semester to continue my growth as a designer.

So to answer the question of who am I as a designer? I am still not sure but I am confident the answer will become clearer as time goes by. I am unsure of what kind of designer I want to be exactly so for the time now, I am focusing on expanding my abilities to be able learn as much as I can in all areas of design to be flexible to obtain a job when I graduate. As of right now my interests are advertising, branding, and page layout design. I want to improve my web design skills, photography, and there is always room to improve conceptual skills.

My dream job, is to work for the NBA or any NBA team as a designer that does brochures, posters, branding, advertising etc. Fortunately, my brother works in the NBA and the perks of the job are amazing. If that dream doesn’t come true I also would like to be an in-house designer for a brand that I like. Nothing is set in stone as of yet but I am aware and ready for the challenges that arise knowing that failure is needed for success.