From Art to Graphic Design Basics
Before I ever heard of graphic design, I loved art. As a child, I loved to paint and draw. By middle school I knew that I wanted to do something creative as a career, but I had no interest in becoming an artist in the traditional sense and even less interest in becoming an art teacher. My art was personal. Painting and drawing was an outlet, and I could not imagine selling my original work.
That’s when I heard about graphic design. I was intrigued and wanted to learn more. I was in ninth grade when I took my first graphic design class through my high school. This class taught me the very basics of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, which are the industry standard softwares. I fell in love with it and knew that this is what I wanted to do. Below are some examples of my early work from high school.
LL League Competition – Introduction to Branding and Marketing
My teacher encouraged me to continue learning the Adobe softwares, even when I wasn’t in classes. He let me work in his room during my study halls and sometimes even over lunch. In tenth grade, he told me about a competition he thought I should join.
The LL League, a sports league for the Lancaster-Lebanon region in Pennsylvania, was holding a logo design competition and workshop for high school students in the area. I submitted a design and became the youngest of five finalists.
The following months, I missed an afternoon of classes every two weeks to attend a branding workshop. The finalists and I met with the lead graphic designer from Clarke Associates, who helped us refine our initial designs, create variations, and prepare a pitch. By the end of the process, I pitched my designs to the LL League board, was interviewed by our local news station, and was named the runner-up.
Strategic Communications and Graphic Design
After the competition, I realized that I loved branding and wanted to know more. I also realized that I loved marketing. Now I was confused – do I pursue marketing or do I pursue graphic design? I continued taking classes and decided to major in graphic design with a minor in marketing. Or so I thought. That’s when I decided to go to Liberty University and heard about the strategic communications program.
So what is strategic communications? Essentially, it takes advertising, marketing, public relations, and branding, and combines them into one major. Combined with a graphic design minor, I am able to do graphic design and specialize in advertising or branding. This gives me the flexibility to move into related fields if I choose to, but more importantly, it allows me to apply strategy to my designs. While my design classes teach me how to make my designs visually appealing, strategic communications teaches me how to create designs that accurately reflect who brands are and that strategically reach their audiences.
Now I’m over halfway through the program and am excited for what my future in graphic design holds!