Bridgette Goes to College

I’m doing something different this week. This isn’t your regular “what I’ve learned this week about Graphic Design” post. It’s more like… “ what I’ve been learning about myself over the last two years.” I’ve been meaning to talk about Imposter Syndrome.  It was brought up in our very first week of class this month and I’ve been sitting on this blog post ever since. Hoo, boy. I’m familiar with it, but probably not in the way that you think. Imposter Syndrome, to put it simply is when you feel you aren’t as good at something as people say or seem to think you are and one day they’re going to find out you’re a big liar who’s been tricking them all this time and you’re actually a bog mummy in disguise. Lots of people feel this way. I feel this way. But not about my design skills, or my intelligence, or my ability to perform a task. I keep proving to myself that I’m capable enough. I’ve had straight A’s the entire time I’ve been in college. I got an A in algebra for math’s sake, and I...

              I’m supposed to write a cover letter for a job listing of my choice as a homework exercise. I haven’t quite worked up to it yet, because first I have to pick the job I’m fake applying to, and then I have to…you know…write it. It shouldn’t be an impossible task because I believe I have a certain amount of skill when it comes to writing, but it will take twice as much energy and brain power as this blog post here because it’s supposed to be purposeful and good and professional , or whatever.               Not that this blog isn’t supposed to be those things, but this is supposed to be “heyo here’s my personality. Let me tell you a fun thing” and not “Hello, yes, I am uniquely qualified for this position because of xyz reasons – but interesting.”               I can make excuses left and right about how I i...

One of the things that is so interesting about Graphic Design is that it is everywhere, and it is so everywhere that most people don’t even think about how everywhere it is. Not only that, but there are so many different specific kinds of Graphic Designers that most people who are hiring Graphic Designers (which is more people than you think) don’t even call them Graphic Designers. A designer who is animating graphics for a video game does not do the same kind of work as a designer who formats books for print. So, that makes sense. Why call both jobs Graphic Design jobs when the work is completely different? They might be called a Graphic Blandisher and a Layout Artist. Ok, Graphic Blandisher is a joke from Peanuts cartoons, because apparently Charles M. Schulz hated animation or something and all the animation on stuff like A Charlie Brown Christmas is called Graphic Blandishment in the credits.  Photo credit https://peanuts.fandom.com/wiki/Peanuts_Wiki  So, the j...