Our Designity community is full of self-starters and fresh young talent from some of the most prestigious design colleges in the country.
Sometimes that fresh young talent finds its way here after a long, winding journey full of unexpected twists and turns — and sometimes, that talent lands its very first professional opportunity right here at Designity.
Graphic Designer Aaliyah M. has been a part of the Designity community since she was still in college! And with her passion, love for design, and willingness to learn new things, she’s quickly become a valued part of the team!
So, how did Aaliyah manage to balance student assignments with professional design projects? Today’s blog has her full story!
Today, we’re shining the spotlight on Aaliyah M so you can hear her story, see some of her incredible work, and get to know her just a little bit better!
Get ready, because it’s time to meet Aaliyah!
How did you get into graphic design? What’s your origin story?
I first got into graphic design when I was a sophomore in high school.
For my school at the time, it was new for them to have that graphic design program, because it was a more middle class kind of school. They didn't even have access to Adobe and those kinds of things. So, it was newer when I got there. And I just fell in love with the class that I took; I had a lot of fun in it.
I feel like when we first started, it was more taking things that were already designed and kind of learning how to use the tools that were in Photoshop and Illustrator and just playing around with those things.
But as I progressed through my high school career, I stayed with the same teacher, so I was able to learn new techniques and start working on creating things on my own. So, that's when I just fell in love with it.
Was that your first experience with art, or did you take classes before that?
I did an art class first, and, because the graphic design class was new, it was in the same classroom.
The art classes were in the center of the room, and around it, they had all the iMacs with Photoshop and stuff like that. So, the teacher would let us play around with them at times.
And then, the next year, I was finally able to use them, and that's when I just fell in love. It was so much fun for me.
Is your family creative as well?
They are.
I have an uncle who is an artist. He owns a company where he does airbrushing for clothing and backdrops, and things like that. He works in downtown Detroit, where they do auctions for art pieces. He’s also really good at drawing. I have cousins who are really good with drawing as well, but my specialty is not drawing in particular.
So, I didn't always think that I was necessarily as creative as them, because they were more into drawing, and although I can draw, their skills are much more developed. But, then, learning how to do graphic design and making things look and feel better was definitely something I found a lot of interest in.
And my mom's the same way. She's very crafty; I think a lot of people in my family are crafty and can draw things. My sister's also in fashion design. We all have a creative spirit.
What was your first creative-related job?
Actually, my first job was Designity; people are surprised when I tell them that!
I took a class when I was in college where my professor, Meaghan Barry, was trying to teach us how to get into the industry at the time. So, she was teaching us how to write a resume that was more design-based instead of the typical resume, how to update our portfolios, and we did a bunch of different stuff like that.
And a part of our assignment was to apply to a job. So, I chose to apply to Designity. And in my head, I was like, “I'm not going to get this.” I didn't feel like I was quite qualified yet.
But we went through the process; she helped me with working on my resume, updating my portfolio to kind of tweak the fit to what they were looking for, and then I actually got the job.
So, I was really surprised because I was still in college; I think I had one year left. I had no expectations of taking it at the time because I wasn't ready. But then I kind of realized how flexible Designity was, especially when you first get there and you're still a freelancer.
It actually really worked out well with my schedule. I was able to take a few projects at a time, kind of get the hang of it, and then by the time I actually graduated, I was able to fully get into it. By then, I was already familiar with their process, so that really helped out a lot.
Wow! That’s a teacher who’s really confident in her students!
Exactly! And I thought she was insane.
I did not expect it to go well, but she’d always tell us, “You guys are good designers. You're going to be fine." I think a few of us got different jobs at the places that we tried for. So, I was really surprised. I don't think any of us were expecting to actually get the jobs.
She actually wrote a book to teach new designers and freelancers the tools and resources we learned in class. It's called Designing for Local Communities. I also have an interview in this book explaining how her class helped me become the designer I am today.
So, I started Designity in May of 2022, and I graduated that December.
(Check out the book by clicking the link above!)
What’s your favorite part about working at Designity?
I like the Creative Directors the most, because I feel like a lot of them are willing to teach you stuff, especially if they have the time on the project.
That’s what I get the most out of, especially when there's things I know I want to learn and sometimes I'll like peek at them in Slack and be like, “I don't know how to do this, but if you have time to teach me, I totally would learn it.”
I get a lot of Creative Directors who do that, especially Kensie and Collins. They’re like, “Okay, I'll send you a Loom and you can learn how to do it.”
And I think that's cool that everybody can teach you when they have time for it. I think that's really helpful.
What is your favorite kind of project to take on?
I really like web design projects even though I know nothing about coding.
I hate the coding aspect of it, but I like actually being able to design things for websites. I love Figma and have a lot of fun designing things there.
Then sometimes CDs will ask me to put my designs in WebFlow, and that's where things get intimidating, because it isn't my skillset. But in web design in general, I have a lot of fun with that, especially seeing the work being completed and published.
It's so satisfying.
What are your most challenging types of projects?
That's tricky.
I feel like I always have a lot of challenges with new clients in general, because they still expect you to work at a similar pace as a designer who may have been on the project for months, so getting the hang of things can be challenging.
In the beginning, you're still trying to figure out how to or not to use their logo or how to use your color palette. You might want to push things, but you can't push it quite as far as you think you can because it's not a part of their branding.
I dealt with a lot of that with this new client I worked on with Pooyan. It was like a luxury brand, but I haven’t done luxury brands as often. They like things really simple and elegant, and they don’t like to push outside of that too much
And then sometimes they're like, “Okay, it's not enough, we need more.” And then you do more, and they say it’s too much. So, you're just on this back and forth, and you don’t know where in-between is.
I do a lot of the print projects for them. So, that's usually where I have the biggest challenge is print projects for new clients, because you want to push things for them so they can get outside the box, but you're also trying to stay in it just a little bit.
How do you keep yourself up to date with design trends?
A lot of it's through social media for the most part.
I keep up with a lot of the professors that I had in college, and then some other students, because they work in different industries. Some of them are specifically posting for more corporate things, so when I have a new project, I always go through their social media and get info because they do it all the time. It kind of helps with the current trends for that kind of industry. I feel LinkedIn is pretty helpful also, because my feed is pretty graphic design-heavy. So, I find different people who know new software and things like that.
Also, a lot of the CDs are always willing to tell me new things — especially Medi. Like, I never thought to use ChatGPT to figure out how to make a graphic for an ebook. Initally, we just had these paragraphs to design for and he wanted visuals for them as well.
So, in my head, I'm like “I have no idea what I should do with them.” And he told me just to type them into ChatGPT and ask for inspiration. It told me, “Okay, you can do Venn diagrams for these, or make them into pie charts,” and different stuff like that.
It definitely helped a lot to enhance the creative process with AI. I wasn't really familiar with it, and didn't use it as often, but now that they're teaching me more things, I definitely try to put it to use.
Is there any insight you can give about current graphic design trends?
A lot of my clients are doing things that are a little more bold in their text, is what I've noticed.
I find a lot of that in some of the brands I work with that are for kids. All the text is in your face and really bold. Typically, people stare away from that kind of stuff, but I think it adds more of that playful aspect to it that probably makes it feel a little more childlike and interesting.
It's new for me because a lot of times I'm trying to fit in everything; they're always about white space, and they want things to feel like they have space around it. But I feel like now they want everything to kind of push it. Everything's close to the edge.
It's different for me, but I do like it for the most part.
Where do you see yourself going with your graphic design career?
I'm not sure entirely.
I think being a Creative Director could be a fun job, but I also really do like the creative aspect, so I don't know if I want to be the person that's in charge of dishing out what you're supposed to do, necessarily.
But I don't know. I think that's a tricky one. I still haven't decided yet.
Because I don't know exactly what they do behind the scenes. I do know they help us out in our creative process, but I just don't feel like they do as much with actually physically designing things, but more so giving us detailed creative direction to bring their ideas to life. They also do help a lot with mood boarding, brainstorming, and kind of giving ideas, so I feel like they probably do get a decent amount of still being creative while still being the leader in the projects also.
What do you like to do when you’re not working?
I read a lot. I’m a bookworm at heart.
I remember there was a CD that worked here temporarily, and she taught me about this app Libby, that I could use to find books from a library, where I didn't actually have to go to the library.
It helped with eBooks and audiobooks, and I fell in love with that ever since. I use it consistently now, and I play audiobooks half the time when I'm working.
I like to read romance and fantasy things. I have a lot of favorite authors. I would say, two of them are Ana Huang and Elle Kennedy. I like books where they're not necessarily series, but all the characters are kind of affiliated with each other, and you see them pop up in other books.
So, that’s what both authors do. There’s three different series, but all the characters are kind of intertwined. I enjoy that the most.
<div class="c-blog_comp-cta cc-component-2"><div class="c-blog_comp-cta-left"><div class="c-blog_comp-cta-left-wrap"><img src="https://global-uploads.webflow.com/61cdf3c5e0b8155f19e0105b/63695243d096983691046ac3_Potential-Creative.png" loading="lazy" alt="" class="c-blog_comp-cta-left-img"></div></div><div class="c-blog_comp-cta-right cc-dark"><div class="c-blog_comp-content"><div class="c-text-wrapper cc-mb-32"><div class="c-title-4 cc-bold"><strong>Like to work as a freelancer with consistent income?</strong></div></div><div class="c-text-wrapper"><div class="c-text-2">Designity's collaborative model is designed to give you all of the perks of being a freelancer without the income instability.<br></div></div></div><div class="c-blog_comp-wrapper"><a href="http://designity.com/creatives" target="_blank" class="c-button w-button"><strong>Join Our Creative Community</strong></a></div></div></div>
Do you have any inspiration for aspiring creatives?
I would say, honestly, for me, it would be to apply for the jobs that you think you're not qualified for.
Because I definitely had no expectations of getting this job, and if it wasn't for my professor pushing us to apply for it — even if you didn't think your qualifications quite match — to do it anyway.
Definitely was a good thing for me because it worked out great, and I've been here for a few years now, and I've been promoted throughout the process. So, I think really just kind of taking that jump, even though you don't quite feel like you're there yet, you might be better than you think.
