I am in a different place, now, than when I wrote my last full blog post on May 21st. And by a different place, I mean a different physical place. I wrote that blog in the computer lab in the art building on campus, I’m writing this post in my bedroom in my apartment.

I re-read the old post and found myself wondering how I could have ever used the phrase: “I suck at design” so liberally. I do not suck at design. Since then I submitted my portfolio for junior review, got accepted into my first choice senior focus, and have gotten a job as a designer at the campus publicity center.
But then I remembered the other day when, bogged down by projects and committees and the board, I literally face palmed and exclaimed: “I suck at design!”

And then I briefly wondered what it would feel like to not think I suck at design. Or at least, not struggle with the fact that at any moment I might start sucking. Anyone who considers themselves an artist, or a writer, a creator, is all too familiar with finishing a self-deemed masterpiece only to have it critiqued as ‘sub-par’ or ‘lacking in technique’.

Do I even want to live in a world where I think everything I make is wonderful?
Ok, maybe that doesn’t sound so terrible.
But really, I’m probably always going to think, at one time or other, that I am not good at design. It’s what keeps me striving, working toward the portfolio reviews and job interviews. It’s probably the very thing that keeps me from sucking in design in the first place.

There. Personal quandary solved.
Q.E.D.
(Do you put the periods after the letters? I don’t know, it’s been a long time since I’ve done math.)

And since I like pictures, here are some (old) design pieces that made it into my portfolio.

1. 2. 3.

I decided to include some book related designs, considering how much I (and the rest of the world) love(s) books so much.

1. I did this project last winter. We had to make book covers for three very different made up titles.
2. This is a spattering of my favorite books made from my production class. We had to experiment with simple bindings and techniques.
3. This was my favorite project in book arts. We had to take a 6 foot long piece of butcher paper, paint both sides completely, then use every scrap of it in at least three fully bound books, creating a collection.

Now I have to turn of the computer so I can get some sleep before waking up and going to work to spend more time on the computer.

(P.S. I'm also a writer, although sometimes I can forget it, so at the end tag I'm including the last sentence I've written when working on my stories.)

Watching: The Futurama Movies
Reading: Tell All
Listening: Time, Inception Soundtrack

Last Sentence Written: "There are television shows about that sort of thing, although they’re never that good."