Advice for the Aspiring Designer

If you are considering taking the leap and pursuing a career in design, I have some advice for you! Even if you aren’t looking for a career change, or aren’t at the beginning of your college journey, I hope you read this advice and get inspired to create!

Photography: Jenna Lynn Photography

Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t make your passion your career

A large portion of my blog is dedicated to preaching the importance of self love. So to piggyback off of that, my best advice is to love yourself enough to take the leap into the career you love. The realists of the world got to me high school and convinced me that music and design (my 2 passions in high school) were no way to make a living, so I chose pre-med. At the end of my first year, I was miserable and just before the start of my 2nd year I took the leap to transfer schools and pursue a career in design. I was terrified, and I honestly didn’t know if I could do it. I did know, however, that if I didn’t bet on myself to pursue something I loved, then I would always regret it!

Please, don’t let anyone set your limits for you. That is the best part about design, there are no limits! 🙂

There is no right answer in design

Just as I said in the point above, there are no limits and there are no rules! Sure, in your career there are always clients and budgets that you will ultimately have to abide by, but the design process leading up to the final product has limitless possibilities.

My favorite part of design is that there is NO right answer! There are no word problems or long math problems to answer. The best part about school was that the final products were completely left up to me! Design, is a nutshell, is identifying a problem – any problem – and creating your own avenue to arrive at a solution.

One success does not make a successful career, one failure does not make you a failure

Sometimes a project doesn’t pan out the way you hoped it would, but that doesn’t define you as a person or a designer. Seeing something you poured your heart into not live up to it’s full potential can be really disheartening. Something else I love to touch on within my blog is this – out of our failures come our greatest successes. Sometimes, we can take a project that wasn’t the success we had hoped for and turn it around with a new approach.

Alternatively, a successful project can make us feel like we are on top of the world. We have to remember that this is another learning opportunity just as our failures are. My advice to you once you produce your first A+ project, or deliver your first home run design to a client, is to use that as a platform to continue to learn. One successful project does not make us successful designers, but rather gives us a precedent to continue to develop and grow.

Use your other passions to enhance your designs

My career is in Architecture, but I love music, photography, writing, graphic design, and many more things. I encourage those of you looking to pursue design to explore many areas outside of one facet that you may be interested in. The ability to pull from many passions and interests can make your designs that much more compelling. From hiking, to cars, to math, reading, or computers, anything can lead you to an amazing design! Don’t ever stop learning or looking for inspiration. You never know what could be the inspiration for you next masterpiece!

Be patient and be persistent

Have confidence in your work and trust that, over time, your work will grow as you grow. I remember feeling defeated quite a bit in school, and even today in my career I feel lost or worried that I won’t be able to produce what is being asked of me.

Don’t let your fears stop you from persisting, and please don’t be impatient when it comes to your work. Allow yourself time to grow and learn. Allow yourself to fail, and I promise you will become a better designer because of it.

I hope you enjoyed these pieces of advice and found them helpful! One of my main goals this year is to inspire others to love themselves a little more. I hope this inspired you to take a chance on something you love.

Shop this look: