Though I learned my lessons from the past and didn’t come to the Design | Media Arts major as unprepared as at my other school, there were some bumpy roads to travel here in my first year, the main reason being that I didn’t live on campus or even near campus, but 20 miles away! Ironically, the kinds of classes I took my first year were very similar to what I was taking when I was at UCSD.

It wasn’t until my second year at UCLA that I started to really get into design itself, which started with my typography class and continued with two other excellent classes by Professor Lucas. It’s important to note that up to that date, the designs that I had made were in response to what I saw around me; that’s a fancy way of me saying that I basically just copied the designs of others, particularly Microsoft. Now before you come & judge me, you gotta know that through all these years, two things were going on: 1) I designed but wasn’t conscious of that, or that I could have a future in that; and 2)  I was self taught, and therefore didn’t have the guidance of others, so I imitated what I saw, and what I liked in particular.

But now that I was going to a legit design school, I had my peers, professors, clients, and an audience to all shape my thinking, and create designs that not copy what others have done, but instead depend on sound design sensibilities such as the use of a grid, creative use of typography, responsible color choices, and other important lessons that I’ve learned and keep on learning.

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