Month: February 2023

There has been many times where I have failed at something. The most recent one was at SCCA. A little back story, I did great my first quarter! I had things under control and felt confident. It was a lot of work but I had my system and routine that worked for me. I delivered quality work for a first year student with no experience as far as effort goes… Well everything changed this second quarter for me.

In the second week of school I had a loss in the family. It was sudden and tragic and it really changed me. I felt ready for this quarter until that moment when I got the terrible phone call. I felt my world turn upside down and had to finish up my first project for Jason’s class that I had procrastinated on and left for the last minute. I was very overwhelmed and just tried my best but delivered something not as great as I would normally do. I guess I felt like I failed because I hold high standards for myself and know that I am capable of more. I also couldn’t make the excuse of me grieving because well the reality is I had enough time before the loss occurred.

It took some pep talk and advice from loved ones to realize I was being too hard on myself. Even if that project was a failure I still tried my best during one of the hardest experiences. I guess the biggest lesson I learned was to communicate what is going on to be better understood. I also learned that sometimes things out of our control happen and we just have to accept them and go through the emotions and motions. I have learned to communicate and to never leave something for the last minute. Procrastination makes easy things hard and hard things harder!

My top three hard skills are Bilingual, Ideation, and Design Principles. I am fluent in English and Spanish. I know being Bilingual has its advantages. I the design world you encounter people from all across the world. I know for a fact speaking Spanish is beneficial towards my career. I feel strong in Ideation for projects. I find I can create a clear mood board that leaves an exact clear impression towards the direction of a project. With Design Principles I feel confident in being able to convey an intended message with strategically using different elements of design.

Two Hard skills I would like to develop here at SCCA are Typography and Adobe creative suite. Typography is one of those must have hard skills for every designer. I am currently taking typography 1 with Jill and find it doesn’t come natural to me. I hope all the future projects help with the learning curve. The other skill I mentioned was the Adobe creative suite. And yes technically I know how to use Illustrator now thanks to Jason and now learning InDesign but I feel like I have a long way to go with many of the other software. Same as with Typography, I know that hard skill will develop and sharpen with time and practice.

My top three soft skills are Communication, Interpersonal skills, and Organization. I am strong in these skills because of my background in Childcare and Teaching. I had to clearly communicate to my students, parents, peers. I am strong in interpersonal skills because I am empathetic and actively listen to better communicate with the people around me. My Organization skills have been sharpened over time. As a teacher I had to organize my day not only for myself but for my students. Right now at SCCA I have been loving jotting down all of my to-do’s for the week. I find I execute my projects with efficiency!

Two Soft skills I would like to develop at SCCA are Teamwork and Creativity. I usually dread team projects but am aware being a good team player is very important in the real world. . I am hoping to sharpen that skill. Although I do consider myself to be creative I think creativity with intention takes a lot of practice. I have already surprised myself with the ideas that a came about since being here at SCCA and can’t wait to see more of the creative side develop more!

Hi, My name is Stephanie Vasquez. I am a first year Graphic Design student at Seattle Central Creative Academy. I am currently working on a magazine project using Figma for the design process and Dreamweaver for coding. I am also venturing out on some packaging label design projects using InDesign for text formatting and Illustrator for vector graphics. I am loving the problem solving, and all of the skills that I am learning. I am hoping to apply this summer at a professional setting and hopefully learn from other designers!