12 Years in the Making

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Well, come to think of it, it’s actually more like a lifetime.  You see, I’ve been the artistic sort for as far back as I can remember.  As a kid, there never seemed to be a shortage of paper and pencils, or coloring books and crayons.  Birthday and Christmas presents were often art-related.  I attended various summer art classes and used the family Tandy 1000 computer to create rudimentary digital designs – in 16 stunning colors.  This continued into high school, where I took nearly every art class I could get my hands on and even took private lessons for a short time.  But that’s where it ended, for a while at least.

When I started college in 1993 I believed art wasn’t a “real world” career.  Instead, I wanted to become a computer programmer, with lofty ambitions of creating gaming software.  Those ambitions were quelled after my first semester, after it became painfully obvious that this was not my calling.  Who thought I would have to know all of that advanced math?  For lack of a better choice, I opted to major in communications instead, a decision that would eventually lead to my ultimate career path.

I decided on the media concentration, which covered everything from journalism to broadcasting.  It also offered elective art classes.  I took some basic art classes which allowed me to be eligible for the introductory graphic design course.  I excelled in this class and went on to take the follow-up course my senior year.  That spring, my professor pressed me to enter a few of my pieces in Opus, our college’s fine arts festival.  I never expected to win anything, so you can imagine my surprise when I was awarded first place in the graphic design category!  You’d think this would’ve prompted me to look for a design position upon graduation but, alas, it did not.

I graduated college with no job prospect in sight, and honestly no real clue what I wanted to do.  I landed my first job later that summer and knew from the start that I wouldn’t make a career of it.  I left there eight months later, feeling called into the graphic design field.  I didn’t have a new job, so I worked from home earning money with sporadic freelancing.  It was a great chance to not only increase my design skills, but I also taught myself HTML programming and site design during this time.  It all paid off seven months later when I was hired for my first full-time graphic design position.  3 years later I left there for a senior designer position which I will have proudly held for 9 years this month.  The years are just flying by!

All of those years bring us to the present day, and the launch of the re:Design blog.  The name relates to how I perceive the world around me.  I’m an improver by nature.  I tend to see the beautiful where it doesn’t exist.  I see an ugly logo – I want to change it, a dated sign – I want to modernize it, even a rundown building – I envision what it can become.  And I get excited with each improvement, even if it was done by someone else.  I am regularly impressed and inspired by the talents of others!

Thanks for taking a few moments to indulge me.  My future posts might not all be as personal as this first one, but I’m hoping re:Design will be a place to share glimpses of my design process and what inspires it, along with a good mix of fun and practical articles on a variety of design-related issues.  Heck, maybe this blog will even inspire you!  Thanks for joining me as I strive to better our world with each and every design.