How I became a graphic designer

Here's what I'll cover:

• Me in a nutshell

• How I got into design

• Key things I've learned

• Biggest failure

Me in a nutshell

I grew up in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. When I was 19, I flew 10,000 miles (by myself) to the U.S. to study graphic design because I received a scholarship. Today, I'm based in Florida, working as a graphic designer at the University of Florida. When I'm not on screens, I enjoy playing badminton with my friends, going to the gym, and doing watercolor paintings.

How I got into design

Since I was a kid, I would always look for scrap papers and a pencil to sketch. I first studied architecture because I was interested in physics and design. But I learned quickly that I did not like it and I was struggling in class. After a year, I transitioned to studying graphic design. I instantly fell in love with it. During junior year of college, I came across UX design and I got interested in digital designs when I took a class about web design.

My first website design project: A Chinese restaurant online order website in desktop and mobile app

So, I went to pursue my masters degree in Human-Computer Interaction. Throughout my education, I worked as a UX designer at 3M and Enovation Controls (they design dashboards for jet ski boats). I learned a lot from the experience and I felt fortunate to work with talented teams.

Once I graduated, I got a job working at a global nonprofit as a graphic designer. At the beginning, it was very tough because I was the sole graphic designer so I had to handle all of the visual materials from creating social media graphics to flyers to spatial graphics. I also did not have a mentor so I was learning through online and through my fellow designers. Unfortunately, the organization started using AI to generate designs and I was not valued anymore as a graphic designer. Hence, I landed on my current role at the University of Florida.

Key things I've learned

Expose yourself to new things to develop your taste

• Over the years, I've developed my own design style and taste through many factors such as background, environment, people I met, trying a new instrument, and traveling to new places. I've developed my "taste" based on many many years of experimenting, exploration, and exposing myself to new things.

  
  

An image of my trip to Nami Island, South Korea.

Learn to adapt and be flexible

• With the rapid changes of technology and how graphic design has shifted over the past years, the bar of graphic design became higher. Businesses and clients expects a graphic designer to work on a logo design, website, photography, videography, social media content. I learn to adapt by having a growth mindset to constantly learning new skills and adopt AI tools.
  
  

Surrounded with people who are better than you

• I’ve found that I grow faster when I surround myself with people who challenge and inspire me. Being around people who are more experienced or skilled pushes me to learn, improve, and see things from new perspectives. Sometimes, the best way to grow is simply to surround myself with people who make me want to become better.

  
  

Biggest failure

My biggest failure was thinking that I'm not capable or smart enough to take a computer science class during college. I had free elective credits, which means I could take whatever subjects I like to fulfill my degree requirements. During that time, I thought computer science are for engineers so I assumed that I wasn't qualified to take it. That turned out to be the biggest mistakes as I missed the chance of learning programming, which would be a great compliment to graphic and UX/UI designs.

Since then, I have been taking a couple online courses about HTML, CSS, and Javascript. I am a beginner and still have a lot to learn.

If you’ve made it this far, I hope you’ve learned a little bit more about me and my journey as a designer. If you have any questions or want to say hello, follow me on LinkedIn or drop me an email.