Digital Design

I’ve been a graphic designer since back in the 1990’s. I was originally trained on the job. Working for a movie production company, it was my job to produce a variety of print media, in addition to Web Mastering the website. At first, I wrote the copy, and we hired a printing company to do the typesetting and design. But that was expensive, and ever the penny pincher, I decided I needed to learn the skills myself. 

Back then, Graphic Design was the big “thing”, and people who were good at it made good money. So, it was more or less a guarded secret, and for the most part, colleges didn’t really have majors in the field, at least not in my area. The print shop agreed to train me to run PageMaker, and the rest was history. One of the best things they ever taught me was that designers have to be able to control the design, meaning that the more the designer can manually set things, the better. That was strong advice because I have never wanted to use templates. They just get in the way of a great product. 

Throughout my career, I continuously designed everything from newsletters to flyers to magazines. I even produced a recurring flyer for Arby’s. Then, in my 40’s I went back to school. At the time, I prayed quite a lot about what direction I should go. Most people ridiculed me for trying to get my degree so late in life, and I heard more often than not that I need to go toward either nursing or secretarial skills. But I felt lead to major in web development. People laughed and told me I would never get a job in it. And they are still laughing.

At the time, I was extremely limited financially, so my only option was the local college. I enrolled in their Web and Graphic Design program. It wasn’t a great program, and because the college had declared me an expert in web development years previous, they wouldn’t let me take any web classes. So, I graduated the Web and Graphic Design program without taking a single web class. I then enrolled in University of Maryland Global Campus, and my web education actually began. I now feel confident about my skills in both web development and graphic design.

Graphic design experience is a must in web development because the developer needs to have a firm understanding of what looks good on the page. Even if it is designed by someone else, the developer needs to have the knowledge so that the design can be well communicated.

Today, I work for an affiliate of the United States Department of Agriculture and the Maryland Department of Agriculture as their Web Developer and Administrative Specialist. The Administrative Specialist title means I handle a variety of things, including all their graphic design, digital and print media, and whatever else needs done. Interestingly what I don’t handle are those things that would have traditionally been considered Administrative tasks.