Creativ(m)e: Designer's statement

One cold February day in 2011 a co-worker said to me “you love being creative and have such passion

for arts and crafts, why don’t you choose an education which includes those things?” That day it felt like I opened my eyes for the first time, at least in the sense of what my future would bring me.

One month earlier, I started working in an after school program for kids between the age of nine and ten in Norway. Since the day I started working there, I had noticed that the amount of creative activities had been reduced to a bare minimum. I wanted to change that and in no time I was in charge of all the creative activities. They handed me a thick catalogue of crafts supply and I could order whatever I wanted, it was like handing me a bucket of gold! From that day on, I had so much fun with the kids. I loved my job and I loved being able to be creative at work and inspire the kids. Even though painting, drawing, macramé and decoupage in some ways are different from being a graphic designer, I knew that I wanted to have a future job where I could have fun and be creative at the same time.

It would take me another year before I was completely sure that I had to follow my passion. I had been studying a year of marketing and found out that economy, finance, accounting and statistics was completely wrong for me (even though I kind of knew that already). The only part of marketing I liked, was the creative part with advertising. I could no longer deny the fact that I didn’t fit in to business school so I decided to apply for graphic design at UEL. It was a big step for me, applying for a university in a different country on a different language, but I was ready to take that step.

It’s important for me to tell the story of how I ended up choosing graphic design and choosing to be a creative designer, because it has been a long road, full of obstacles. But the obstacles have made me even surer that I finally have chosen the right path and made me into the designer I am today. The artist/designer in me has always been there; I have just deliberately and non-deliberately ignored it.

It’s difficult to explain or describe my artistic/designer style since I have created so many different things throughout the years. But I like to make figurative art with colours, combining graphics and photographs, cut and paste (collage), making logos and advertising. I like to draw and make things by hand, but also to use digital editing programs such as Photoshop and Illustrator. My style is in one way feminine, but at the same time versatile to whatever I am working on. I like to explore new creative styles and I am very open to develop new artistic skills. During the three years of studying graphic design I hope and know that I will become the artist I want to be. And that my future dream will be one step closer: starting my own graphic design business.