Hi! My name is Sheana Brown and I am a graphic designer.

I love all areas of design, but I’m most interested in graphic and web design. I’m starting this blog with the hope of inspiring young designers and sharing tips, tricks, and resources. I hope by sharing I can impart some wisdom on designers who are just beginning their journey, and I really hope they can teach me some things too!

A little about me: I moved to Santa Monica, California from a small town in Western North Carolina a little over four years ago. At the time, I was working in retail and was absolutely miserable. I decided I had to make a change and spent a few weeks researching career paths. When I read about the graphic design program at Santa Monica College, I got really excited about the idea of going back to school and enrolled for the Fall 2013 semester. I’m now in the final class of the program and I have learned SO MUCH! I may get the chance to learn even more next year if I get accepted into SMC’s pilot Bachelor’s program in Interaction Design (fingers crossed). The classes I’ve taken have gotten me a pretty great part-time job at an environmental nonprofit called Heal the Bay in Santa Monica. I started interning there in February of this year and got hired in June. My duties at my job include, but are definitely not limited to, designing graphics, updating our website, maintaining our social media presence, and occasionally working company events.

When I decided to become a graphic designer, I knew that I had good ideas but absolutely no skill to turn them into good designs. I still have a long way to go to reach the skill level I aspire to, but looking back at my first several projects–well, it’s safe to say they’re just bad designs. And that brings me to my first point: If you’re passionate about design and this is something you really want to do, do not let your lack of knowledge or skill stop you from pursuing it. I had never touched an Adobe product prior to Fall of 2013, and now I know those programs like the back of my hand. My advice for you is to keep practicing, keep learning, and most importantly, keep an open mind and welcome feedback. One of my favorite quotes is by Joseph Chilton Pearce, “To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.” He’s referring to child development, but I think it applies to designers too. You will be wrong many times and you will fail many times, but you have to learn to get back up and try again and again. When you finally create something great, it will be so much more rewarding because you fought for it.

Thank you for visiting my page! I hope this helps you in your journey. And for fun, here is one of my very first design projects (eek!):

tl;dr THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF VERY BAD DESIGN FROM MY FIRST SEMESTER OF THE GRAPHIC DESIGN PROGRAM! NEVER GET DISCOURAGED!! 🙂

-S