My name is Charity Ray, When I was younger, I always enjoyed, drawing and creating anything with my hands. I didn’t care if I was good or not but just seeing the final product was all that mattered to me. I’ve always been nervous around people, and I let it consume me, I had to figure out how to express myself better, so I experimented with my interests; sculpting, painting, theater, photography, and landscape sketching. Then one day in high school, planning for the future was a huge topic. I finally settled on graphic design, it was the one thing I haven’t tested yet, and how technical it was, I was nervous but later learned that was how my brain worked. So, no matter how hard it was, I kept learning new techniques every day. I entered trade school in 11th grade, and I was able to learn how to print on huge machinery, let’s just say I fell in love with creating pieces, and watching it develop in my very eyes was fascinating. That’s how I made the decision to settle on graphic design for my future career.
Graphic design is a powerful form of visual communication that can be used to create memorable and impactful messages that is what inspired me the most. Looking at my body of work I believe it's not completely consistent but there is beauty in that, it just seems that I’m willing to test anything and try to step out of my comfort zone which I need to attempt more. What I have learned in the past 3 years is that; using color is scary and can represent the wrong things, less is more, grids are going to be your best friend (if you like it or not), and you have your own opinion and communicate with your peers often. These are some rules that I brought with me everywhere to be successful. I want to be able to have the opportunity to test out different clients and be open to new ideas. Me realizing what this time in college could mean for me is amazing, to say the least. I worked in professional settings before and was allowed to say my personal feelings, it is foreign to me, but I need to realize that I could hold value to the conversation, and staying silent isn’t the best thing to do.
Becoming a junior was the hardest of them all since I’m used to having structure, being able to make my own decisions was concerning at first but putting my knowledge to the principles of design this whole experience was eye-opening to me. As a designer, building strong relationships is important to me, I just don’t know how to get started. The goal for next year is to keep moving forward with my design progress and to perfect my communication skills since there lacking.