Personal Brand

Why did you choose the design industry? How did you get involved?

What is it about design that you are passionate and excited about?

What are your three strongest/weakest skills?

What are your three most positive/negative personality traits?

How does your business best take advantage of your greatest skills and talents? How are you utilizing these skills and talents right now?

Above all, I am very good at learning new systems and working within them. Coming into the graphic design program, I had already taught myself a great deal about cameras, photo editing, and vector graphics. Since then, I have become proficient in a number of skills I had never before considered, such as interaction design and html. My greatest skill is to learn the existing systems and improve them from within.

The most recent challenge has been understanding SEO. This past semester we built a wordpress website and learned about the terrifying way algorithms dictate success on the internet. We must now consider the specific words used in our headlines and body text. Variety of word usage is valuable in prose, but it confuses search engines who send you to the bottom of their results list. Understanding SEO increases my marketability as a freelance web content creator.

What new business skills have you learned in the past year?

One year ago, we were introduced to Design Research, which is a field unto itself. The various ethical and legal concerns were difficult, and the act of interviewing was antithetical to most “creative types”. Despite these issues, we all persevered and learned a great deal of essential information. Regardless of whether we retain the specifics, we all now know the basics of how to use the audience and research to direct our designs in an officially approved manner.

What professional organizations are you associated with? What do you contribute to these groups?

I am a member of a vacation fishing camp on Georgian Bay that consists of about four hundred members. I have advised and contributed to a number of projects that are graphic design related. I have helped create forms and documents, as well as contributions to their website, photographic and written.

What business or work success are you most proud of having accomplished?

I made a binder for a bakery/lunch spot where I was the front-of-house manager. After leaving that job, I heard from more than a few sources that it continued to be used and referred to daily with great appreciation. I used typesetting skills and vector graphics to indicate the most efficient approach to every task required, drawing diagrams where necessary.

What are the three most interesting things you have done or experienced in your life?

I have been a documentary photographer for the Burning Man festival

I was part of a nonprofit development program in Brazil for six months in 2000 and learned to speak basic Portuguese.

I am in the process of becoming a permanent resident of Canada as a US citizen.

What obstacles have you overcome to get where you are today, both professionally and personally? What essential lessons have you learned from your mistakes?

I was significantly jaded about education after my initial enrolment in University. I was the product of a private liberal arts prep-school and I wanted to leave my hometown, so I chose a school in Chicago because it seemed like a cool place to live and figured I would decide what to major in later. I was a good student in high school but I completely lost interest in anything but the art classes and could not force myself to read novels or learn languages on the side. Graphic design would have been a great choice for me then, but I did not consider it, and I have no memory of anyone suggesting it. In the early 2000s, the tech interaction was nightmarish by today’s standards. Enrolling in classes each semester was like trying to buy concert tickets on crashing servers. It was first come first serve. Digital cameras were on the way but prohibitively expensive for most, especially students. Traditional photography programs were in flux and fewer classes were offered.

There were a number of things which caused me anxiety and later anger about my schooling. I felt my high school ill-prepared me for the world and my university over promised its capabilities. The socio-political landscape and the national student loan debt created a great deal of dissatisfaction towards higher education institutions in general and made me glad that I wasn’t in unmanageable debt.

I have since gained life experience enough to understand the value of a certified education. Working through the program at SLC has been a great opportunity to demonstrate to the world and to myself that I have skills beyond food service. Overcoming my cynicism about higher education has enabled me to grow my skills beyond what I learn from youtube.