Rookie Of The Year

Well, it’s coming down to the final days of the year, and I have been pretty busy with working for the last few months. I have learned a lot in the four months of working as Graphic Web Designer. It pretty much took me 9 days to get a pretty good grasp on the concepts of how I should structure a site in Dreamweaver. And, my knowledge of design has expanded much further! All of this means that I haven’t had much time to post here on my site, but I am making the effort to make this update.

This year has been long, but great. I have done more growing and learning. It was a year marked by me coming out of school and landing my first design job (graphic UI intern for Sony Computer Entertainment). I had the chance to see behind the curtain of video game design! I learned how to use my design skills in new ways as I created user interface concepts for two game projects, which includes work for my second job (a contract position at Broodworks Inc/Superbot entertainment).

After I finished up working with Sony and the affiliated company, I was out of work for a few months. I kept myself focused on art by refocusing my efforts on my personal artistic expression. I stayed positive through the whole period of unemployment. I continued to reach out to former teachers, friends, & anyone else who could help. I even landed a few interviews which felt good. In the middle of summer, I decided to come here to Illinois for a month to recharge myself and go back to LA even better than I left.

I went back to Los Angeles with a 3 month plan to either make something happen or get an exit strategy. I went back and worked closely with a friend of mine to develop a business idea. It definitely kept me busy and focused for a while, and I hope that we can actually make some things materialize in the future.

But, one day, I sent an email to a company job listing that I found on Craigslist. The listing was a few weeks old, but I figured that I’d just do it. I surprisingly received an email response within a couple of hours and I was being asked to come in for an interview. Next thing I know, I’m driving up the PCH to Malibu, sitting in a relaxed office, and getting asked if I want to start that day or the following day. I simply said “well, I’m already here”. And, here I am a few months later.

I came to that job knowing nothing about web production, and I knew a little about what it takes for awesome web design. But, they saw me as an investment. Someone that could be built on. Someone who has the skill, but has to focus it, learn, refine it, and do something great!

It’s funny because when I told the same thing by my boss/mentor at Sony. I knew nothing about game production, but I brought something else to the table…

During this whole year I felt like I was a rookie in the pros. Yeah, college was good and I shined there amongst my peers, but I became that new green rookie who was a high draft pick. I felt like I had a lot to prove to the people watching me and to myself. I wanted to prove that I could gain the same type of success as I did in school while working in the professional world. My school design work held up and received positive nods while my new professional work has been getting better every day.

Now, I am on my winter vacation back at home in Illinois. Its nice to come back here under different circumstances than last summer. I feel more at ease. I feel like I can just enjoy this holiday season with my family. And, looking back on the year, back to November ’10…. I think I can say that I have achieved “Rookie of The Year” in my own mind.