My past designs.

I never got to freely explore art as a kid. There was this stereotype that if someone was good at math, they can’t be good with art. To some extent, I believed that. I would try drawing during the summers, but it used to always turn out terrible (according to my then perfectionist eyes). During school days, I was too busy trying to stick my grades up on the roof so no one could reach them that I barely had time to do anything besides that.

After 9 consecutive years of grade-chasing, I vowed to myself (on my highschool graduation day) that grades would be the last thing I cared about from then on which allowed me to explore art and graphic design during college.

Fun fact, most of these designs were made within a day. One thing I learnt from doing graphic design gigs is consistency. For six months, I had to create at least one design to be posted on social media pages or internal platforms.

Another fun fact, I worked for a company that spoke primarily French. I don’t speak French. I attended hours-long meetings trying to understand the topic using the few French words I could remember from my middle school French classes.

I mostly did illustrations. But, they’re too personal to be roaming around on the internet.

Why I think Graphic Design is not Art? Art is about expressing yourself. Graphic Design is about understanding others. GD has measurable outcomes. But, both tap into the human psyche and trigger some feeling. In some way, I think GD is manipulative. It triggers emotions that compel people to take an action we want.