Introduction

Not too long ago, you would have found me sitting in my engineering classes writing down what seemed to be notes just like every other face in the crowd. The only thing was that I wasn’t writing down note. I was always in my own little world brainstorming new ideas for my web magazine or the many websites I worked on in my spare time. My name is Lexie Mantlo and Graphic Design is my passion. I love creating new beautiful things. I went into engineering because I was told that it gave you an opportunity to express your creativity. However, much to my disappointment, I found that it was lacking in opportunity to use my unique skill set. The academics were never too difficult they just didn’t appeal to me.

Person of Passion

My entire life I spent in art classes and creating new projects for myself. I am a person of passion and it is an amazing driving force in my life. When I harness my passion then I can do great things like develop and run a web magazine, a feat accomplished by several dozen people generally, by myself or start a software design company with a handful of my friends. Passion enables me to do the impossible and it also made me realize engineering wasn’t for me because I just wasn’t motivated to do it. I had no passion for it and seeing that it is one of my biggest assets it only makes sense to embrace it when it comes in to my life and seek it out when it’s missing.

The Right Decision

At first I was hesitant about switching out of engineering to graphic design. As my professors pointed out, I was entering a whole new tax bracket and with my student loans I was worried about getting a job. However on my first day of my first design class my instructor tried to convince me to go back to engineering by saying that graphic designers have to make their own jobs. When she said this my eyes were open to the fact that graphic design was perfect for me. I had already been creating my own jobs before I was even officially in the major. My passion for the subject will open doors for me and my success will be determined by how much work I put in. So I am now a Visual Communications Design Major. I am still getting a Math minor and a Biology Minor because I still do enjoy the Math and Science that brought me to engineering and I think getting these minors will show my unique duality.

My Future in Design

In the future I would like to get into graphic design management. Either in a design firm like, I Love Dust, or in a magazine. It has always been a dream of mine to be a design editor for a magazine because I love using designs to better communicate a message. I see myself eventually having my own design business after I get connections in industry. I want to make myself know for my work and sought after for my unique spin I put on my design. I also want to be a very adept manager that can efficiently deligate the design work so that the best product is provided to my client. The client is the most important thing in the design industry. They need to be happy both with the design and the results of the design work so my design work will be focused on demographics and numbers in addition to the design so that the designs will be effective. This is something I feel many amateur designers over look. I am excited for my future in graphic design and hope to work with you someday soon.