Month: October 2022

I’ve lived in 3 different states in the last 15 years. A lot of my experiences of saying yes through these years were in times I was least ready, but they have brought many pivotal life changes. Some good, some bad, but all a lesson nonetheless.

One that stands out concretely in my mind is the day I was asked to try out for a band by an individual, Mike, I had not previously met. My (then) partner Sean was acquaintances with Mike through the Minneapolis music scene, where I had just relocated to from Oakland that same year. Mike and Sean had ran in the same circles and played many a show together. 

When Mike approached me to try out to be a vocalist in his already established sludge metal band, Former Worlds, I was quick to give a firm no. I had never once attempted to sing in front of people, let alone growl like a metal vocalist. It was insanely intimidating to think about making ridiculous screaming noises in front of strangers. So I turned the opportunity down and went about my business.

Sean was my best friend. We did everything together and enjoyed many of the same activities. Most of our time together consisted of playing Magic, riding bikes, or making noise and playing instruments in his basement. Lots of times until daybreak. Still, I never once had it in my mind to be in a band. I wasn’t a musician, and I sure as hell didn’t know what I was doing.

Little did I know, Mike was in a conversation with Sean about asking me to join Former Worlds. Mike was quite persistent and asked Sean to give me a little encouraging push to give the audition a try. One night I had arrived at Sean’s house for our normal night of hanging out, playing music and probably playing some rounds of Magic. He greeted me with a 6 pack of my favorite beer and told me to crack one open. And another one. And maybe even another one after that, because apparently we were headed to the practice room to learn how to do vocals. I was not enthralled, but I obliged.

It took me an entire hour before I could let out a single sound. Sean was patient and accommodating; playing guitar in the adjacent room with a 30’ long guitar cable so he could not physically see me when I finally attempted to scream… because I simply could not be watched while doing something so ridiculous. 

Sean’s encouragement and support meant everything to me. He wouldn’t stop talking me up and motivating me until he saw me succeed. This eventually led to me joining Former Worlds, where I am still an active member, and it has given me some of the most memorable moments I’ve had in life. It’s even the reason I eventually landed 1700 miles away from home in a new city I had never been before- but had a built in community through friends I had met through tour and performing through the next 4 years. Without uprooting my life and giving a new city a shot, I wouldn’t be in this program today and be giving myself the chance at a better future.

Sean passed away in an accident about a year into our relationship, and while that loss still deeply hurts, I am so lucky he pushed me to saying yes to something I wasn’t confident enough to say yes to myself. I’m thankful for him everyday and try to keep in mind saying “yes” more often, despite feelings of uncertainty, can lead to paramount life changes. I will forever take comfort in knowing whenever I do say “yes”, wherever Sean is he is rooting me on.

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When I begin to imagine where I would like to land professionally when my schooling at Seattle Central comes to an end, I reflect a lot on the last 10+ years of working in a small realm of the design field. For the last 13 years I have worked as a letterpress printer. My role has been largely rooted in producing and not creating. With the exception of being able to print my own passion projects, my work is largely centered in bringing other’s creations to life. While I very much love my craft, its history and the attention to detail it requires, I have found myself wanting to be the creative mind behind the object produced.

Working in letterpress has its benefits and its setbacks. It has given me the chance to live in 3 different states, to experience working in small teams, and even be the sole production worker managing my own production floor. I have learned on many different machines, honed in my skills in many components of producing print work and learn all of the foundational elements of design through executing detail oriented prints. It has also pushed me at times to pick up a second job (on top of working full time) just to get by, I have never once been offered benefits, and I don’t think I have ever been afforded a paid holiday or PTO benefits.

In my early 20s these weren’t much of a bother. However now, I am more hopeful on building a stable life and working towards a goal of being a home owner and prioritize health and wellbeing. I don’t love the idea of big corporations, but hearing Joe speaking of how long he has been at Microsoft and how candid he was about how he viewed his relationship with corporate jobs and how he viewed merging his beliefs with the work he does, it was clarifying and really inspiring.

If you asked me 10 years ago if I would ever consider working for a big company like Microsoft, I would have laughed. The more I conceptualize life in the design field it seems more attainable and I’m hopeful to find a place that is larger than the companies I’m used to being employed by. Whether it be in branding, UX or another design focus, I hope to find meaningful employment that will set me up for a stable career path going forward.

For my mashup, I used the mediums of digital painting, creating vector artwork, and a hand rendered text element that I digitally collaged onto my graphics. For the type I chose to keep my hand moving quickly continually with no break until the word (or words) was written. I felt this as a good fit due to how quickly time has been going by since classes began.

I wrote a few words that have stuck (like a web) with me through my experience the last few weeks in classes and displayed it in a venn diagram format with the other side’s only component reading “learning”. In the middle of these two circles as the common ground is me.

As for the color choices and content, I’ve been inspired by watching a lot of horror lately with Vanessa’s narrative filmmaking course and the fact that it’s October and a great time to revisit all of my favorites (but mostly because Vanessa’s class has been inspiring and it’s a lot of fun to look at film under a different lens.)