Category: inspirational

My thoughts after graduating from college

 

Here’s a picture I took of my table at the portfolio show. I was pretty happy with how it turned out. The overall look at feel was to get people to look through my portfolio which worked out great. There were some very interesting people that came through the show.

But lets get to my thoughts about how I feel after graduating. This was my 3rd time taking portfolio class. The first time I took portfolio I was not ready at all. Mainly because I was finding myself as a designer. Then the second time I was not able to continue because of not having a way to pay for the class.

I am so proud that I was able to make it through easily. One of the things about it that made it easy for me was because I was prepared before the class. The reason for being prepared was knowing that I did not have a choice this time around. Also realizing that I am capable of graduating.

After the graduation ceremony was over I thought ok you graduated from college now what are you going to do? Are you going to continue waking up at 5 am every morning and going further each day? I am not going to think just because I graduated from college I made it which is not the case.

I’ve been applying to many design jobs in Fort Lauderdale where I’m moving to with my brother and sister in the next couple of months. Also I realized the many opportunities I have been missing with not being a member of AIGA. Hopefully I’ll be able to join soon and land a Job in Fort Lauderdale. I’m going to hustle hard to land a Job and continue designing daily.

Before I end this post I just want to say thank you to every single one of you who has followed my blog/left a comment or even read a post or watched a video I posted. Thank you.

Knowledge is useless unless applied

Many people will end up getting faked out about learning. When I say faked out I mean they will miss the real reason behind it, and the application of using the knowledge. This can apply to anything in our life.

For example if you are learn how to cook but you do not cook you will eventually forget and your skills will deteriorate. The main thing is to apply what you have learned. There is a big difference in those who want to be the best and those who are just interested.

I’ll leave this quote with you from Jim Rohn

“Don’t let your learning lead to knowledge. Let your learning lead to action.”

How I graduated from college after failing the first time

Many people could not even think of getting a college education or that could just be me. I had chosen that I wanted to go to art school and get an associates degree in graphic design. Then first time around I had got to the end and I ended up getting burnt out.

What caused me to get burned out was I had tried to do too many things without focusing on whats most important. I’ll admit that I was not as confident as a designer as I am now. The class that I had failed was portfolio class by a letter grade. I am glad that I did not pass the class.

Because the time that I took off to immerse myself every single day in design doing tutorials, learning about design, learning about other types of design, looking at the world around me in every detail changed my mindset and approach to design. When you get out of your comfort zone you will do more then you thought you could.

A person that really help me to stop playing with college and thinking of it as a game is Eric Thomas. He’s one of the many people that inspired me to set goals and to not give up. I used to think that I would just get a job and live a regular life but I realized that I’m capable of more then that and so are you. It all depends on what type of life you want to live and if you believe you can do it.

Some tips to graduate college and stay focused

  1. Realize why you are there
  2. College is not a game
  3. You are going to have loans to pay back
  4. You are setting an example for others in your family to follow
  5. Stop hanging around your loser friends and get new ones
  6. Cut out things you were doing before you got to college
  7. Focus on what is important
  8. Quit making excuses
  9. Partying? graduating college is more important and there will always be parties going on

 

Robert Greene on Mastery

 

I recently finished Robert Greene’s book mastery and 33 strategies of war. Mastery is one that will give you a great explanation of what it truly takes to become a master of your craft. If you have heard about or read malcom gladwell’s outliers mastery will actually teach you how to become a master.

Benefits of taking criticism constructively

In whatever profession you have chosen for your life you will have people who want to tell you how to do certain things. Then you will also have people critiquing your performance. If you are a designer like me you will have set through a critique about your work and have gotten some great feedback and other times not so much.

There are some designers who take critique’s personally if someone does not love everything they have done. A couple of the many valuable things I learned while presenting is to always be prepared for the response if a client or professor does not like your work. While they are saying what they do not like telling them what you did and why you did it will not really do much in changing their point of view.

I’m not saying that is not possible for them to change after you explain why you did such and such, just say thank you for the help. The more you defend yourself it is as if it will only make you appear weaker then you actually are. Also it could be that they just did not understand what you came up with.

If you get off of your high horse thinking you are better then you actually are and take criticism constructively, and use it to improve your work it will benefit you tremendously. Because those who have less of an ego will last longer then someone who does.

M.C. Escher Documentary

I had heard about M.C. Escher in class a couple of times but never really knew too much about him. This documentary shows how dedicated and infatuated an artist can get with their work and exclude everyone else. One of the many parts that amazed me is when he spent a whole year coming up with his own style of illustration or division something along those lines.