I'm Hayden Allen, and I am currently a Junior at East Carolina University in the Graphic Design program. Even as a kid, I have always been interested in art and design, Whether it was my interest in all the different logos companies had or designing contracts for me, and my siblings to sign as kids. I knew being a graphic designer was my calling, growing up I always did construction or roofing and it wasn't for me. Starting off last semester, we started the class with a beer bottle/advertisement project, which was a great project. We got to learn a lot about designing a product as well as designing advertising billboards for the product. The process we have been doing in design classes is starting with a large amount of ideas and designs to narrowing down and forward with only a few ideas until we have found the one we have perfected. This process really helped me with my final product. I tend to use this process in all areas of design now as I have seen a huge improvement. I find that getting all of the ideas and concepts out of my head and seeing them in front of me helps me narrow down my ideas, although sometimes I can have an idea about a project or job and run with it to the end to design something that fit to the parameters. What inspires me to design is the future and past of it. It's amazing to me the beauty of design throughout history and the changes through the years. I want to be a part of that, I want to have something designed so beautifully that people are still talking about it even when I'm not around anymore. I believe that everything can be over complicated nowadays and that more isn't always better. My style tends to be more simplistic because to me more isn't always better. I am in love with the 80’s and 90’s, so sometimes my art tends to lean more towards that era, especially in things I tend to design for myself. I am heavily influenced by the concepts and traditions of the past. For example, I really like the design of MTV in the 90’s. Wild imagery, trippy text, and bright fluorescent colors are really appealing to me. In a project I am currently working on I am designing a magazine and I designed it like an old MTV magazine without realizing it and I find it to be one of my better pieces I have done. I tend to focus on more image heavy design rather than text. Which to me doesn't seem like a big deal. Depending on the project, I can always incorporate more text than image but I tend to use imagery more in projects currently. I think there is so much to learn and design is constantly growing. I am still learning and growing as well and I am excited to be a part of it.
