Q. What is the highlight of your career?
A. I’ve been able to work with so many different kinds of people and their businesses, and I still get to see the results of a lot of those projects on almost a daily basis—I drive past signs or billboards I’ve helped develop visuals for, I visit websites that I’ve designed, and I walk into stores whose logos or marketing materials were past projects that I once worked on. It feels pretty incredible to develop designs that customers love and continue to use even years later.

Q. What are challenges you encounter in your career?
A. Communication is key in design! Making sure your designs are telling the right story and getting the right message across is always an important aspect to the job—but also knowing how to talk to people and effectively communicate across email, phone, and everything in between is vital. And keeping up-to-date on best industry practices—there are always things to learn and always ways to improve!

Q. How did you get to this career?
A. I’ve always loved art, but taking several design-specific courses in college really got me interested in Graphic Design. I worked at several agencies in Montana and Wyoming as an in-house Graphic Designer and Creative Strategist before working for myself full-time!

Q. Are there scholarship or internship opportunities available with your career? If so, where can more information about those be found?
A.

There are so many opportunities for internships in the design world! A big part of getting into the industry is networking—which includes reaching out to companies you think you might want to work for early on, even if that means you’re still in high school or just now preparing to take college-level classes. The earlier someone knows you’re interested in working with them, the better!

Your high school, college, trade school, or university may also have several resources when it comes to internships, partnerships, and design or art-specific scholarships; discuss your interests with a school counselor or advisor and see what’s available!

(Lots of internships and scholarships will require a portfolio of some kind, so start building examples of your work as early as you can!)