A non-linear journey of a design explorer
I am a millennial, woman of color, a designer and like many others, my design career has seen a lot of ups and downs.
At home, I was an outlier who chose a career that was unknown and disapproved by family. At design school, I was not the best in my craft, probably too distracted and mischievous, yet steadily headstrong, opinionated and a girl of many interests. Life gave me a ton of chances to grow deep into my craft as well as laterally across disciplines. But I always enjoyed learning and erred to the side of exploring something new. My curiosity took me to many different countries, taught me many different tools and decades later, I have become a hybrid creator that doesn’t really fit into a specific bucket of a design discipline. I write, I design, I draw, I photograph, I cook and now more than ever, I continue to observe and explore.
But while, I continued my growth as a designer, life happened. I moved between cities, traveled, studied, learned, explored, fell in love, got married and became mom. There were many chances to reflect and think over how life affected work and vise versa.
So as I went through my yearly self-review, I reflected on what moves me as a designer and human? What are my superpowers, my method and what makes me stand apart from a sea of talent and creativity out there? To find answers to these questions, I turned to my own journey and drew it out like I always do for every design challenge – Where did it begin, what motivated me to choose my path and how that changed me forever. This journey is still on and hopefully far from complete. But it does give me a perspective on my own method and motivations as a designer and a woman. And most importantly, it tells me who I am – A storyteller.
