When I was growing up, people often called me “creative.”

 

Looking back, I’m not sure that was entirely true, at least not yet. I loved to draw, and I was good at it. Good in the way I could see something and translate it onto paper almost exactly. I was praised for that, and naturally, I chased more of it. Art felt like home.

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By the time I was a teenager and thinking about my future, the idea of living off paintings felt uncertain. I wanted stability. Something that could ground my love for creativity in a more structured path. Graphic design seemed like the answer.

 

Digital art?
How different could it be?

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It turned out, very. My first exposure to design was humbling. I wasn’t a natural at all. I struggled to understand why some things worked and others didn’t. The balance, rhythm, tension. That moment when something both soothes and surprises you. It took time, practice, and an obsessive attention to detail. But I kept at it, overtime learning when to trust my intuition. I treated creativity like a muscle. Something you have to train, stretch, and challenge until it becomes instinct. I’ll never forget the day a professor asked what had changed in my work. I revealed I finally learned how to trust the process, not just react with fear of not finding a solution. 

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Once I understood that, everything opened up.

 

Design stopped being about making something look good and became about making something mean something. Strategy, storytelling, emotion, all woven together. I learned to push boundaries, to challenge norms, to take smart risks. That shift, from creating visuals to crafting experiences, is where I found my most passionate momentum.

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Today, I feel lucky to report that I feel this curiosity and hunger just as intensely as when I first discovered the world of design years ago. Even when the work is demanding, I remind myself that I get to do this..to build, to experiment, to lead, to keep evolving. Every challenge is another chance to grow, and I’m thankful for the experience that is creating this work.