First Impressions of Design

First impressions last a lifetime. Although it is hard for me to pull from my memory bank what my very first impression of design was, I know design has definitely made a strong impact in my life. Design and artwork that surrounded my childhood immensely helped me decide on my path toward majoring in design: visual communications. Although I have just started studying design in college, I have had many experiences with art projects and practicing with assignments I had. In the end, I know that slowly, but surely I am determined to reach my goal of working for Pixar.

One memory that stuck by me was when I was in elementary school at Lawton Alternative School in San Francisco. My fourth grade teacher, Mr. Greene, helped me realize I would like to become an artist when I grow up. He was in love with art and many times he would incorporate art into our daily lessons in class. He inspired me to become an artist because of the many artwork we did in class that he eventually sent to the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco for a weekend exhibition on student pieces. He constantly encouraged me that my work was good and could take me places in the future as an artist. I kept that thought close-by and eventually became intrigued in becoming a designer.

The memory of my fourth grade teacher stuck with me all these years and helped me further my interests in art. My most recent piece is one of my proudest work yet. I used magazines and cut them into bits and pieces to form a collage of my hometown. I combined the Golden Gate Bridge along with the Bay Bridge and used gold magazine scraps for the city in the background. I also added white magazine pieces for the fog. I was able to submit this piece into the American River Review, which is a magazine created by students of American River College in Sacramento. They select a few of the  best pieces in the school to be presented in the magazine each year. I received many positive feedbacks from this collage from friends, family, classmates, and my professor. This further encouraged my dream in becoming a designer.

The effort I took to create the collage took a few days to put together, but the design was inspired by my beautiful city. Those that designed the bridge inspired this piece, too because of their skills in photographing the city. Different types of art like photography and architecture, the designer creates how they want the bridge to appear and how to perfectly set the camera to snap a picture at the perfect spot and time. In the end, my creativity  put together the architecture design of the bridge and a photograph of the city into a collage.

Design comes in different techniques and forms. Through almost anything or anyone, it could inspire a lot for one’s mind.