New Blog Under Construction!
First Blog Post
May 25, 2024
Hello there. My name is Staci Smith and I’m a designer. Creativity is my passion. My creative pursuits are varied, and it has been a challenge to showcase the different things I’ve worked on. The purpose of this blog is for me to share my journey into graphic design with its joys and challenges along the way.
.
I’m a life-long journaler, and I’d love to use that experience to write about my creative journey. I want to open and honest about the ups and downs of my adventures. I’m definitely not perfect, and I fail spectacularly sometimes. But my secret weapon is my growth mindset. No longer do I dwell on my mistakes. I ponder what I’ve learned, and turn that into a dialogue in which I am teaching someone else how to do it better, while explaining the ‘why’.
As long as I can remember I’ve pursued creative projects. I loved cutting things up as a child, and I made collages from the pretty pictures in magazines. I also loved to cut up old and thrift store clothes to see how they were constructed, and then use the elements to make something else entirely. I would draw, color, paint, craft, all the things. When I was about in middle school I realized that when I had control over the color palette I tended to use ALL the colors resulting in a psychedelic aesthetic. This earned me the nickname Psychedelic Staci, which I love.
My love of this colorful aesthetic has remained, and is my default. But, part of the challenge of design is to suit the needs of the design, and so I can drop the rainbow colors when necessary. I’m adept now at using branding colors, and I can adopt a more demure palette anytime. Not everyone wants their retinas burned when looking at an image. I just find the combination of all the colors of the light spectrum to be harmonious and delightfully stimulating.
.
When I reached high school I signed up for a graphic design class and loved it! I learned about Photoshop, and expanded on those skills for the next 7 years, past high school and into college and even after. I graduated early from high school and started studying architecture at Texas Tech University. I learned much more about design, and loved it! I especially appreciated the technical aspects of design on the engineering and drafting side of architecture. I loved learning how to draw in 2D and 3D, for physical drawings and also in the computer.
.
After college I went to seminary school for a while until I got married. I didn’t pursue a design career then, but went into hospitality instead. I still pursued creative projects, and dabbled in all sorts of things. My husband and I decided to move to Washington state, and we’ve been here for 10 years now!
.
I’ve worked at a cool lodge that sits on top of a waterfall for almost 10 years now. I’ve learned so much! Back in 2022 I moved forward with a long awaited career switch. I have not switched 100% yet, but I hope that will be soon. In the meantime I continue to build on my skills! I picked up my MacBook Pro on September 1, 2022 and I consider that the first day of my graphic design journey. I also picked up a set of Sony noise-canceling headphones that were expensive but totally worth it because I literally use them every day to help with my misophonia and ADHD.
.
I had very little experience with Apple products, and there was quite a bit of a learning curve for this Android & PC girl. I laugh that I had to Google the simplest things. But now I’m so glad I learned because I am Mac and PC literate, which is an asset. I can switch seamlessly between both, and as a bonus skill I’m good at transferring information and files between Apple and non-Apple products, like my Mac and Android smartphone.
.
When I first learned graphic design back in 2000 YouTube didn’t even exist! Funny enough Photoshop is still the same (but better). Even through 2007 when I stopped doing computer design Social Media was still in its infancy, and smartphones weren’t around yet. Fast forward to 2022, everything is different! There are so many great resources to learn, from YouTube tutorials to free courses online, and so much more!
This has been such an awesome journey so far, and I’m excited to share it with you! So much more to come!
