My Journey into the World of Design

It’s what my 5th grade teacher wrote as a personal note to me for my journal I’d show her every morning before class. Unbeknownst to her, she lit my creative flame, and it’s been burning ever since. Thought I was always good at it, it wasn’t so much that I enjoyed writing, but rather, that putting words to paper and expressing myself allowed me to flex my creative muscles.

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From that point on, I continued to create: I conceptualized fictional card games from the rules to the monsters represented in each card, wrote song lyrics for musicians, and had plans to develop my own fighting video game before I even started high school.

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While in college, my insatiable desire to create things were calmed by the realities of an approaching working word where maybe card games and indie songs wouldn’t pay the bills, and so I settled into journalistic writing. If I couldn’t be creative, at least I could fall back on my writing.

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For many years, I worked as a reporter covering stories for local government in northern New Jersey. It went decently enough, but my desire to create always gnawed at me, and before I knew it, I delved into the world of novel writing. As my passion for building the world of San Cromata (coming soon to a bookstore near you) intensified, my enthusiasm about reporting on student council meetings dwindled.

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I quit my job and thought about next steps. Creative writing was awesome, but what else could I do?

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“What am I good at?”

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“What can I make my career that will fulfill me?”

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These are questions I asked myself, and for a while, I didn’t get an answer. I was lost, but during my wander through the darkness, I never lost my desire to create.

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An old family friend once told me that when you feel most lost in life, that’s when you’re being challenged to step outside your comfort zone. With those words in the back of my head, I woke up one morning and looked into “jobs for creatives.” I came across Thinkful, now known as Chegg Skills, an online boot camp that teaches various tech skills, and applied for a UX/UI design course.

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With Thinkful, I learned about what it means to be a human centered designer, and rediscovered a new way to express my creativity in a way that not only fulfills my core passion, but something else that means a lot to me – helping people. Hungry for more knowledge, I took on the task of going through another certification program, this time with a giant among giants - Google! Now a certified designer twice over, my mind is brewing with ways I can aid society by elevating their every day experiences. Take a look around this site, and get to know me as I undertake this journey into the world of a UX Creator.

 

Much Love,

Chris “Chris Concepts” Harewood