My design career

Amongst the many things during my childhood I could only remember drawing to be the most enjoyed. I cannot recall when my passion for drawing began but it is what I still call today my best skill and has always been my personal pride. Despite my love for drawing I also disliked particular ways of drawing, especially copying, recreating something on paper while starring at the object which already exists. Essentially creativity was the vibe to my drawings, through the years all my works be it scenes or objects are all made up; the only copies of existing objects are only done when I am forced to (i.e. at school). This naturally kept my interest away from art classes even thought I later found artistic relevance and value when applied in design.

My decision of future career initiated during my late middle school years.
Obviously a drawing chance in subjects namely maths and sciences were minimal. Naturally I chose the options of graphics and technology design simply for the sake of maximising the opportunity to draw within an academic environment. I never regretted such options, not much of the “design” factor was actually marked; more often the key procedures within a design practice. I enjoyed it nonetheless, having the freedom to use creativity and personal hobby in a school subject made me decide; this shall be my future. Naturally most my effort is put to these subjects; I was satisfied by the rewards I gained (not only academically), which arguably became part of the signature of my decision. Subsequent to this decision the passion for drawing has now evolved to designing as I now enjoy not simply creating a compilation of random but also the whole process; how it gives a reason and defines why I did such. The term for me is now “design”.

The actual designing side during my high school days were in fact very functionalist, I found myself good at following a set process and meeting a brief. Making sure the product works occupied the majority of my explanations however the aesthetics of the actual product was always a side term, barely reasoned and always strongly tide to the function. I saw this to be an issue and tried to overcome it, putting thought into the actual beauty of a product and not just making it look like that because its “cool”; that I believe would make me more a consumer than a designer. Doing so however proved me the difficulty of describing a good design, giving a reason for its looks. I carried this thought to my first year in uni and hope to enter a more serious phase of my designer development. Again I found myself to be in the right place at UNSW. It was just the break I have been looking for; lessons on how to reason a good looking design. It’s an extremely demanding course but it’s also the first time I felt welcomed to real life design, excitement and passion continues to grow.