They say "Don't judge a book by its cover," but I probably wouldn't be here right now if I had followed that advice. When I was younger, I would check out huge stacks of books from the library and spend hours lost inside the pages. But it wasn't the story that made a book stand out to me; sure, I loved the stories, but it was the cover art that really stood out to me. Before I read the back of a novel to see what it was actually about, I found myself searching for hints in the covers. After reading it, I would decide whether or not I thought the cover had done it justice. When a family friend asked me the classic "what-do-you-want-to-be-when-you-grow-up" question, I remember telling her I wanted to be the person who made book covers. She told me she was pretty sure those were called “graphic designers.” I thought this meant you got to read books all day and then make some cool art about it, which sounded pretty good to me.
Lots of high school art classes and 4 years of art school later, I realized that’s not quite all there is to graphic design; I don’t get to read all day (that’s for after work), but I do get to tell stories through design. Whether it’s through an entire company’s rebranding or a small social media campaign, figuring out how to effectively tell a story visually is one of my favorite parts of design.
Since graduating college, I’ve had the opportunity to tell stories through stickers, Instagram posts, posters, animations, emails, and much more. And, I even got to design a book cover.