Can a Good Writer Become a Good Designer? We’ll See!

While I do admit I can craft quite the sentence, or essay, for that matter, crafting a great masthead or full fledged magazine spread is something I can admit I have never excelled at, and it is this creative art form that I have always been quite intimidated to take on. Though, I guess ultimately designing is just like writing at the end of the day in that there is a lot of drafting and experimenting (as Student 7 has suggested)- it is a process. It is helpful to know that a lot of the time your first design and even 10th design is not what ends up being the final product, because I can use the same patience I use in my writing process whenever I feel myself getting frustrated in the designing process.

I may certainly get even more frustrated at times at how inexperienced I am with Adobe software and other technical programs in general, but I am not a graphic design major and the last thing I should be doing is comparing myself to people who have basically been doing this their whole life, as advised by Student 1 and 5. I just hope to gain even more skills as a journalist and become a better designer on a personal level.

I definitely hope that some of my writing skills will transfer into some design skills. For example, I imagine that my precision in writing will benefit me when it comes to precision and intent in design. Student 6’s advice about every design having a reason behind it impressed me because even in my own writing I am always choosing specific vocabulary with intent and there is always a specific reason for why I went with one word over another. Thus, I will use this same precision in my writing to help me choose the ideal images, typefaces, and colors for my designs.

Ultimately, I am totally stepping outside of my comfort zone even enrolling in this course rather than taking another writing course (as Student 2 suggested) so I hope I can make the best of it and add some  technical skills to my education while I’m at it!