Visible Intelligence
For as long as I can remember, I wanted to become a veterinarian.
Every time I would go for my sports physicals, Dr. Adema asked my brothers and I the same single question:
“So what do you want to be when you grow up?”
My brother’s answers were constantly changing. From video game designers, to pro fishermen, their desired careers were different every new appointment but Dr. Adema always expected my same answer and that was to become a vet.
It wasn’t until about middle school that my mom finally explained to me that one day I might have to save someone’s dying lizard, or stick my hand up a horse in places where the sun doesn’t shine, or have to break the news to a family that their pet isn’t going to make it.
This conversation scarred me as this was nearly 7 years ago and I still recall exactly how it went. And after this I realized that maybe this wasn’t my true calling in life.
If I’m being completely honest, I don’t quite remember the exact moment that I transitioned to wanting to pursue Interior Design.
I know my professors hate when students say they chose this major because they loved HGTV growing up, but hold on, there’s more depth and progression to this autobiography, I promise we’ll get there.
What I do remember is wanting to find the Chip to my Joanna Gaines.
I remember rearranging the furniture in my room every other day.
I remember spending hours organizing my Pinterest future home boards, personalizing my Webkinz homes, watching Youtube room tours and DIY’s, and trying to find every piece of furniture from iCarly’s ultimate bedroom makeover.
When I first brought up this new career goal of mine, I got shot down by a lot of my family members.
“Art majors never make it out alive.”
Well Pablo Picasso lived for 91 years and I’ll be stoked to make it even that long.
“What about an accountant since you’re good at math?”
What? And be locked in a cubicle from 9 to 5 every business day? That sounds horrendous in which I’d probably die from boredom before making any big sum of money.
“You’ll need to marry rich then”
Well who says I can’t just become the rich man I’m supposed to marry?
This frustrated me beyond belief but no other job interested me as much as design did and I knew that if the passion was there, so was the success.
I was touring college campuses with a friend of mine our Junior year of high school and he had told me that the majority of college students end up changing their major at one point or another in their four years at University. I guess it is quite odd to have 17 and 18 year old’s choose what they want to do with the rest of their lives at such a young age but that’s kind of how college works. So I took what he said with a grain of salt because again, I couldn’t really see myself in anything but an artistic field.
I followed my heart and applied to 8 different California schools under either an Interior Design or Interior Architecture major and got accepted to every single one.
When considering CSULB, I stopped by to look at the campus and get a better feel for it. I found the student recreation center and the first person I talked to just so happened to be an Interior Design major. She ended up taking the time out of her day to unlock the Design department building for me, show me all the shop classes, and describe what it’s like to be in the program. I was even more awestruck and saw this as a sign. I could’ve easily ran into a Kinesiology major that day but no, the universe had a different plan for me.
After much thought, I chose one of the largest publicly funded schools of art in the United States and the 3rd best Interior Design programs with the Best Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in which both of these astounding titles fell under Long Beach’s name and since then, I never looked back.
I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into when I accepted my offer of admission.
I should’ve known that with such top tier titles that this wasn’t going to be an easy ride.
Drafting homework with no desk in a trailer
I remember Jeffrey Adair, a Design professor here at Long Beach, told us our first semester of freshman year to break up with our boyfriends, say goodbye to our social lives, and start getting used to at most, 5 hours of sleep every night because that was the typical life of an Interior Design student.
Now, here I am, two years into the pre-major with no boyfriend, feeling guilty every time I hangout with any of my friends, and countless all-nighters pulled for projects, to say, he was right.
An all nighter production
And although this sounds rather exhausting, there’s something beautiful about doing the linework for a floor plan of a record label company when the sun is going down and rendering it with color when the sun is coming up 10 hours later.
Fall 2020 Semester
But I don’t think I would have the drive to do it for anything else.
Design intrigues me.
I quickly realized being an Interior Designer is much more than picking out couches and matching paint colors. Much like when I was little and I realized being a vet isn’t just getting to see cute puppies everyday.
Although my expectations were a little off from what I originally thought, I’ve loved every second learning what it actually is and the intelligence it takes to be a Designer.
Cube studies
Half of my friends still think my major is arts, crafts, and macaroni necklaces, while the other half sees me working on projects from the second I wake up to the second my head hits my pillow at night and knows it’s a lot more than just string and uncooked pasta.
If designed incorrectly, one mistake can unfortunately cost an innocent person’s life. As devastating as that would be, it is important for Designers to know exactly what we are doing when making placement, material, and dimensional decisions, putting lots of pressure on us and our teams.
Design has taught me to have trust. Trust in your team, trust in yourself, trust in materials, trust in designs.
Much like beams trust columns and columns trust footings and footings trust foundations.
Sunlover Records Corporate Office on trace
Design is in everything and this realization has fascinated me to a point where it’s all I think about.
My biggest inspiration derives from nature.
Soil in the ecosystem, transpiration and evaporation, photosynthesis in plants.
Bananas, mangos, pomegranates, all fruits so intricately created.
Oranges.
Whether we’ve adapted or they were put on this Earth to simply be deliciously enjoyed, oranges have a way in which they seem to be perfectly consumed.
I can’t help but think it’s the way they are designed.
With a sturdy peel on the outside, able to be easily peeled off for consumption, protecting the soft inside where there is perfectly formed grooves, that pull apart, creating bite-size portions with bubble like pockets, keeping in all the sweet juice.
It’s sort of mind blowing on a small scale.
Throughout my years I realize more and more how prominent design is in every little thing. So incredibly important yet so easily dismissed. I aspire my designs to be like oranges, well thought out, functional, but also deliciously enjoyed by the consumer.
Design means purpose.
In our organ systems.
In the ozone layer.
In our ocean waves.
Don’t destroy a beautifully built design, cherish it.
During my second year at Long Beach, one of my favorite professors, Ed Perez, was giving us one of his unplanned motivational speeches.
“You gotta love it.” He said
Be utterly obsessed with everything you do.
Recently I was talking to a friend of mine that told me he doesn’t plan on loving any sort of job. That this was an aspect of his life that he’s just going to have to deal with.
There’s going to be challenges in everything but wouldn’t you rather be challenged in something you love rather than something you don’t?
It’s like a long distance relationship with the love of your life.
Would you rather work through the hardships distance brings with your enticing soulmate or be stuck in a convenient bland one with your neighbor?
Pick your own poison.
I believe soulmates are designed too.
Intentionally put on two different paths that intersect.
There’s no way some things are just “coincidences.”
Everything is designed.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t bad designs. There are. And I’ve seen many of them in my time spent here on Earth.
Sometimes I’ll walk into a public bathroom and have to squeeze behind the grey stall door that was not spatially designed correctly, barely passing ADA compliancy I’m sure.
Or when surfing was new, surfboards were just planks of wood and to appreciate what they are now I can only thank users finding errors and designer brains.
The world is constantly changing and new things are always being discovered.
It is up to designers to keep up with the fast pace of our world and constantly put out new ideas that make living a little more easier for everyone else’s enjoyment.
Referring to my previous blog posts, it is helpful to study human habits, their thought processes, their initial reactions, and instincts because it shows and teaches so much.
How some people prefer to work under warm light, some cool, some moonlight.
working on commissions at ungodly hours of the night
How certain colors make us feel certain ways.
And although awfully hated, those cheesy infomercials kind of know what they’re doing. They identify an issue and fix it with a design.
Shine on snuggies, nonstick pans, shamwows.
Good design makes life easier to appreciate.
Telescopes are designed to get close up looks of our beautifully complex solar system, chairs are made comfortable to enjoy family dinners at the table, boats were designed to travel to places cars can’t reach and not instantly sink.
It’s all so incredible when you think about it.
I used to think I wanted to be a Design major because Fixer Upper was one of my favorite TV shows.
But looking back, I realize there were so many other signs that indicated my future was going to be inventive and artistic.
Sketches in the car seat
When I would pack my own lunches for school and forget a spoon for my applesauce, I would make the aluminum foil top into a bowl like shape and use that to scoop the mush into my mouth.
I was always attracted to different patterns. Wearing plaid shorts, with a camo shirt, and red stitched cowboy boots. It was hard for me to appreciate three different patterns at the same time so I would do them all at once!
I used to take cereal boxes out of the cupboard and draw what I saw on the fronts of them. Not tracing but literally looking at the Frog on the Honey Smacks box and try to freehand replicate his toothless smile and sideways hat.
My room had four different colored walls for a solid portion of time.
I was always the “poster girl” in ASB because lettering and being able to eyeball how much space I needed for certain words to look good just came naturally to me.
Letter spacing for a dye table
I would ask my mom’s friend’s if I can organize their food pantries.
I walk into spaces and immediately wonder how well the foot traffic flows.
I see old tires, broken bottles, and blank walls and wonder, “what could I do with that?”
When I tell you it consumes my thoughts, I mean it.
My brain has become an artistic abyss.
I have at least 10 sticky notes on my corkboard at all times of different side projects I want to tackle when I get any free time.
And evolution and adaptation has always blew my mind.
The crazy part is that it all weirdly reverts back to how things were designed.
Design has helped me understand life in ways I can’t really explain.
Some things aren’t perfectly designed but that doesn’t mean they can’t be changed.
The prison system, the way denim jeans are toxically produced, the judicial system.
All initially created with a purpose but now further down the road are only seen as poorly designed. However, still able to be transformed into something better with enough passion behind them.
Two years ago I would’ve never imagined this is where my headspace or even life would be. My love and drive for design has grown tremendously and I can only pinpoint it back to a few helping factors.
My incredibly supportive parents, my rage for social change, and my zealous professors.
I would’ve never imagined my job is to literally paint shoes for people, or that I would be asked to create an art installation in Slab City, or that I even had the capability of creating the projects I have thus far.
Art Commission with Acrylic
Proposed art installation for Slab City
They always tell you that college is where you truly find yourself and to embrace who you really are inside and although I’ve lived in this freckled body for 19 years and counting, I feel as if my mind has developed more in the past two years in this program than in my entire life.
I know this isn’t my final form but I am confident that I’m walking the path I am supposed to.
