My Background
For as long as I can remember, I have had a love for art and making things look beautiful. I was constantly trying out new things to see what sparked an interest in me, but the thing I kept coming back to was a desire to use my creativity in whatever I did. I knew I wanted to venture into something relating to photography because I had developed a love for taking photos (and, of course, fashion). I decided to major in Fashion Merchandising at a nearby school as it seemed like something I would love; however, as I progressed through my studies, I realized that this program seemed to be mainly focused on the business side of things--becoming a planner, allocator, or buyer, for example--and less so the creative side.
Enter Design
Design slowly introduced itself during the final months of my senior year of college, I had the opportunity to complete a visual merchandising internship in New York City with a company called giggle. Visiting New York was a lifelong dream, and I was able to gain valuable experience that summer while having the most amazing time of my life. During the internship, I picked up technical skills (such as Adobe Illustrator) and worked with a talented visual merchandising manager who taught me so much. I began to realize that this was something that I was very passionate about -- being able to design, create, and build a concept from the top of my head and share it with millions of people was so exciting.
In Conclusion
After my internship, my sister, who had previously completed a coding bootcamp, suggested looking into a similar program for UX/UI design. I did some research and saw many parallels between design and visual merchandising; remembering my time with giggle in New York, I realized this could be something that sparked my interest and provide the artistic element that was missing from my Fashion Merchandising studies. I decided to go for it and sign up for the UX/UI program with bloc.io. While taking those classes, my passion was ignited and I felt an excitement and giddiness building in my chest that was never there before. I began to fully appreciate the prospect of a career in UX/UI design.
From that point on design has become such an important part of my life.
It has helped me realize my full potential by helping me step out of my comfort zone and challenging me to grow as a person, not just through learning something new but also by developing my eye as a designer. It fulfills my artistic side by allowing me to use my imagination and creativity in ways I never had the opportunity to before. Once I finish with the program, I plan on furthering my knowledge and gaining hands-on experience in design. I would love to combine my love for fashion, photography, and design and build a fashion website from scratch. I want to be able to use my designs to help solve everyday inconveniences, and perhaps one day even help inform people about the environment and how it is drastically changing and how sustainability in the fashion world could help improve these changes.