Since being a Freshman in college, I’ve been deceiving everyone… I’m not creative.

As a kid, I always enjoyed drawing and coloring, molding Play-Doh, painting with watercolors… Typical artsy stuff. But I also loved Barbies, My Little Ponies and Littlest Pet Shops. Art was always very casual, in between spurts of other interests. I never obsessed over it or really pushed myself to improve. Although, I did see a huge improvement while taking a required drawing class in college.

A lot of my classmates within the Multimedia Digital Art/Graphic Design major were really good, and they were the ones who could draw. I had to work to learn how to be a satisfactory illustrator; through practice and studying logistics. It certainly didn’t come natural.

There were also classmates who were really bad. I didn’t want to be one: one of “those kids.” To hear crickets when it becomes your turn in critique, because your piece is so haphazard and pathetic… No way. So I researched and studied a decent amount more than I’m sure anyone else did. I started projects early, allowing ample time for my trial-and-error approach.

This was the only way for me to really “create” anything aesthetically pleasing, but It worked. I would just mix ‘n match different ideas and elements until the piece looked good. If you study what “looks good” frequently enough, you can easily fake creativity or natural skill in Design.

I did!