EVOLVING AS A DESIGNER: The Value Of Learning New Skills

My career and evolving as a Designer…

I graduated with an Associates Degree in Digital Art & Design. To be honest, I wasn’t the greatest at school, but I did well in all my art classes. I landed my first job 6 months after graduation. Back in the MySpace days I loved coding and styling my profile themes, making them extra cool for my friends to see. I took 1 website development class during college, and this helped me in the creation of my portfolio after graduation. With my portfolio up and a few printed flyers and wallpapers, I went on my first job interview as an intern for a fashion E-commerce site SHOPgrl founded by Arielle Nachmani. After the first interview, I was hired. I was so excited because I had no idea such a job existed; my job was to create weekly banner ads for the store’s homepage, newsletters, social posts and infographics for the blog… It was the coolest job in the world. They would give me the images from their photoshoots and I would come up with a campaign, It wasn’t even a job I was loving it. With every paycheck I thought it was a dream that I was able to buy the things I liked by working as a designer, it was amazing!

CREDIT : TIMO KUILDER

After a year I moved on to doing graphic design for a non-profit organization, nothing big. My third job was with another e-commerce store, I was able to develop my skills, and do my first project as a web designer. After this project, I was hired by the second-floor agency as a UX/UI designer. Up until this point I had always worked with the fashion industry which I knew I liked. But it was up until this point that I came across projects related to the corporate world. Right from the start, I knew it wasn’t my thing, I didn’t hate it but It was just plain, no excitement. Also, my style was way ahead of the corporate style. After 6 months I quit my job to become a freelancer…

LEARNING HOW TO CODE ON MY OWN

During this period of 6 months as a freelancer, I had no clue what I was doing. There were weeks where I would just sleep it off and do nothing. I had no clients or contacts, no real projects to be involved on. I knew I had to work on redesigning my portfolio at some point so I can apply to jobs since this freelancer move didn’t work. (I was a lot younger and I had no clue what it had to be done to be a real freelancer.)

I worked 6 months coding my website from scratch. No pre-made themes, it was my own creation, and I was proud of it. After a month I landed a job at a lifestyle creative agency, I was able to rebrand the agency, work on website projects, and create my first billboard.

More Skills = More Money

As I look back, I realize how I’ve been able to expand my skills and increment my income. I began as a graphic designer, to becoming a web designer, website developer and now art director. I’ve learned that you have to evolve with time, you can’t settle with one skill, especially now that it is so accessible to learn things for FREE (youtube.com). I don’t work for money, I’m not rich but money isn’t my drive, creativity and art are my passion and I enjoy doing it.

New Goals/Skills

My new goal is to learn Instagram’s algorithm, which I feel is very important at this point in time. Everything revolves around social media, and as a creative person, you have to stay up to date with design trends, and how to combine these two as a business plan for yourself and clients.

What skills have you learned over time, or would you like to learn? Comment Below 🙂

Thanks for stopping by!

Erika O.

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