Author: Cui Zhang

This is my first year here at City Tech. I am an Asian-American who is majored in Communication Design in pursuing my career to become a designer in advertising. As a child growing up, I don’t know what to do in life or what I am really good at other than photography. I’ve thought to myself before “Is photography is all I can do? Is there anything else I’m good at other than taking pictures”? Of course, there are, I answered to myself. Everything changed ever since then. I’ve realized designing is something I want to do for the rest of my life other than photography only.

This semester I’ve definitely learned many things. As a writer, a college student, or even a design student there is still more to improve on. “No one and nothing is perfect, or we wouldn’t have uniqueness” ― Jasmin Morin. I strongly agree with this quote because no one will ever consider themselves the “best”. You as a person is constantly improving and making changes to yourself in becoming the best version of what’s best for you. As a college student, I’ve noticed it’s difficult to stay on task and maintaining whether it is school, work or at home. I found it difficult to work at home since I help babysit my niece and nephew. I try to do most of my work in school whenever I have breaks in between classes, however, it’s still not enough time to finish the work I need since most of my work is on the Adobe software. Working on projects whether or not it’s in Photoshop, InDesign, Adobe Illustrator it takes a lot of time to accomplish most of it. 

One thing I’ve always struggled with is English. Since it’s not my first language so it’s difficult for me still. I think when attending English 1101 I’ve definitely improved a lot in writing. The projects I’ve previously done had helped with my grammar and punctuation. although there is still more to improve on. Doing the glossary does help me a lot with the words I don’t know at all. I’ve learned a lot more words I don’t know before but now I know. Words such as zines, juxtaposition, adornment, contrast, hierarchy and etc. The readings we did in class also helps me understand somewhat, even though I don’t quite understand at all and don’t know how to rephrase it in some ways.

“Creativity is nothing but a mindset free.” –Torrie T. Asai. I really like this quote because as designers you’re using your creativity to express your work. In this major, I get to see the different art styles people have. I was fascinated by seeing how other designers approach the same project I did and make it into their own style. For example the value portraits. We all have different ways to approach this project. Some students really get into the details and some just go straight painting the shades and I was proud to say I one of the students who went straight to just painting the different shades of grey. Something I love is about this semester was I get to see the grace gallery up on the eleventh floor. Overall, I’m proud of myself because one of my works which is the self valued-portraits were in the gallery. I never expected my self valued-portrait would even be in the gallery since I messed up mine due to some issues.

As soon as I saw the grace gallery,  I told my mom that self valued-portrait was up in our school gallery for other people to see. She was shocked at first then said “你做得很好” meaning you did great in Chinese. When she said those words I was proud of myself honestly. I never would thought she’d be proud of me ever. My mom wanted me to take a different path other than being a designer. She wanted me to be either a nurse, lawyer, doctor, teacher, radiology technician…etc. Growing in an Asian household I am often compared to my brother. His grades are all straight A’s, he received many invitations to attend ceremonies since he’s in honors, he received scholarships from high school and college. I know for a fact this will not change the way how my mom looks at me. Up to this day, I am still being compared to my brother no matter what. Nevertheless, none of these will prevent me from doing what I want to become a good designer.  I’m proud to say my mom thinks the same way, I have proven to her that design is the right path for me. 

This is my first year here at City Tech. I am an Asian-American who is majored in Communication Design in pursuing my career to become a designer in advertising. As a child growing up, I don’t know what to do in life or what I am really good at other than photography. I’ve thought to myself before “Is photography is all I can do? Is there anything else I’m good at other than taking pictures”? Of course, there are, I answered to myself. Everything changed ever since then. I’ve realized designing is something I want to do for the rest of my life other than photography only.

This semester I’ve definitely learned many things. As a writer, a college student, or even a design student there is still more to improve on. “No one and nothing is perfect, or we wouldn’t have uniqueness” ― Jasmin Morin. I strongly agree with this quote because no one will ever consider themselves the “best”. You as a person is constantly improving and making changes to yourself in becoming the best version of what’s best for you. As a college student, I’ve noticed it’s difficult to stay on task and maintaining whether it is school, work or at home. I found it difficult to work at home since I help babysit my niece and nephew. I try to do most of my work in school whenever I have breaks in between classes, however, it’s not enough time to finish the work I need since most of my work is on the Adobe software.

One thing I struggled with is English since it’s not my first language. At home, I don’t speak English at all. However, when entering college I’ve definitely improved a lot on writing although there is still more to improve on. Doing the glossary does help me a lot with the words I don’t know at all. I’ve learned a lot more words I don’t know before but now I know. Also some of the readings, I don’t quite understand at all or I don’t know how to rephrase it in some ways since they’re really hard to understand. I still tend to struggle with

In this major, communication design, I get to see the different art styles people have. I was fascinated by seeing how other designers approach the same project I did and make it into their own style.

Something I love is,  I get to see the grace gallery up on the eleventh floor. Overall, I’m proud of myself because one of my works which is the self-portraits were in that gallery. I told my mom about how my self painted portrait was up in our school gallery for others to see. She was shocked and then said “你做得很好” meaning you did great in Chinese. Originally my mom opposed me into becoming a design because she wanted me to be something I don’t want to. But as of this rate, I can tell, or she can tell designing is something I will love to do.