Artifacts from a past life

Some people know they want to be a product designer right away. They study human factors, symbolic systems, or computer science in college, or they pony up for a design bootcamp to get there.

For me, the gag is that, until I accidentally got hired at a tech giant (the big, blue one), I actually refused to touch anything that ends up written in code. As a minor act of resistance, I spent years studying graphic design and print production, as early as high school (shout out to my fellow trade school grads!). And when I got to college, I went on to study anthropology, among several many other things.

When it comes to skills like design, everyone learns best from doing, and I am no exception. So, I spent the first 7 years of my career working graphic design and print operator jobs, from when I was 16 and all the way through college to support myself in NYC, building toward what I anticipated would be an illustrious career in publication design. Evidently, that didn’t work out, if me seeking product design work is any indication. But I found something cool in this new, silicon-powered realm of design, and it turned out to be the perfect way to stitch together anthropology and traditional graphic design. That being said, I still love to take print work when I can get it — because nothing beats feeling the thing you made in your hand.