winter quarter
Tools I have:
Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign. I was able to develop these skills working at Sky Printing. There’s always more to discover, but I feel pretty confident about them.
Drawing. I love to sketch, and I have a good eye for it. I need to get better at finishing my drawings though.
Work ethic. This is probably the only benefit of being bored by social outings.
Attention. I love to read. I have developed a long attention span by reading books.
Tools that need work:
Motion design: I recently made my first animation in our AR module and I am really bad at it.
Working with groups: This is a tough one for me. On the one hand, I love how huge tasks become manageable in a group. On the other hand, I hate when people change things that I’m proud of.
Finishing stuff: It’s not that I lose interest in things that I start, although that can happen. It’s that I hate the way it looks when I start to refine it. For example, sketches seem so alive in my sketchbook, but as soon as I ink them or try to turn them into a finished thing, they look dead and bad.
Self-confidence: We all lack it.
Tools I don’t have:
Screen printing: I think this is a skill worth developing. Not only is it awesome, but it seems like there will be steady, if moderately-paying, work for screen printers.
3D: I don’t know anything about designing in 3D.
Photo/video: I don’t know anything about taking photos or editing video.
Lettering: This just seems like a fun skill. I know I’d use it in my poster designs.
Painting: I’m trying to find skills that would set me apart from everyone else, and I think the ability to paint would change my skill set for the better. I’m thinking about Andrew Loomis, JC Leyendecker, and Norman Rockwell, those guys were more designers than fine artists. I don’t want to ape their style, I just want to understand form like they did. And it seems like painting is a big part of that.
Social media: I hate social media, but I know that my hatred of it limits my opportunities.
Schmoozing: It embarrasses me to to fawn over people I admire. It embarrasses me because if I were the one being fawned over, I would be embarrassed. So whenever we have guest speakers, I usually don’t go up and talk to them. I imagine that this will also limit my professional opportunities.