Design is important to me because it allows me a direct way to communicate my ideas, my message visually and diminish barriers. My ultimate goal is to use my design skills to help communities solve problems. This includes raising awareness and solving issues in our global community including our health, the environment and other impactful problems.
When I first began in design, I examined the work of others that I saw in the media and some of it promoted negative behaviors such as having a certain body type, consuming things that were hazardous to oneself and I thought how I could be different. A good different. Design should promote positive change.
I grew up in the midwest in a poor family and this deeply shaped my thinking. It made me resourceful, creative and understanding of people in this situation today. It has revealed to me how to find my own opportunities and pave my own way because of the lack of resources in these communities. This has prompted ideas for me to create designs to help solve these problems and provide resources for children and families as a whole in these communities.
Today I am a culmination of my experiences and have used these to become an ethical designer who is highly inquisitive and a seeker of innovative ideas. I am an artist who creates to solve problems. My strength is the ability to find connections and use those visually to communicate my message. My desire to solve problems is rooted in problems I have encountered personally and ones I have seen others experience.
My love of writing/art is deeply connected with reading and learning. I am most certainly a lifelong learner and am always wanting to understand the world around me, the people, the earth. I explore new ways of creating designs. I use writing to solve problems, fine art, photography, graphic and web design and now UX/UI design.