It's been a great while since I wrote here and it's not really because I wanted to stop writing or give Hive some space.
The truth is I've just been aligning myself to my new space, my new life, and my new routine. I once mentioned that I resigned from my job to start working for myself and build a brand. Honestly, it's not been easy. It's really been a great feat for me because I left my job without knowing what else to do apart from the mindset that I want to design. I want to be a really good brand identity designer. I had not even started learning how to design on Photoshop Adobe Illustrator or anything. I just knew how to design using my mobile phone and I gave my other phone to my brother because he lost his and I was left with my iphone which really can't do much as regards graphic designing because obviously we use different apps like pixellab, pixart, and all of those apps needed to to design on mobile phone because ios does not give us the leverage to download such apps. We are only left with Canva and I'm not really a Canva freak. I really had to start learning Canva just this month during which I got some certifications.
Most of the obstacles I faced after I left my job were first of all coming back to the house and meeting my parents who did not believe in staying at home to work. It has really been a great struggle convincing them. My mom especially and my dad they really are not in support of it but I think right now they've come to accept it; not fully but partially.
The second issue I faced was not knowing what to do because it has to do with online visibility and positioning yourself for greater things and so I found it hard to find a web2 platform where I could post or even know what to do at all. I was just clueless about where to start from or what to do first because I had already paid for a graphic design tutorial class using Photoshop and obviously I wanted to learn while still gaining online visibility and still earning. It was not really easy because I didn't know which one should come first but little by little I started gaining clarity and I started my classes fully which were not really consistent based on the kind of tutor I had. It was really really crazy and then I decided to start replicating designs, you know, going on YouTube and watching videos, replicating designs, learning the tools step by step. God was really backing me up, inspiring me and then I think everything began to fall in place little by little.
One Wednesday evening I decided to create a design for a fictional shoe brand and when I finished designing it, it felt so good and then I just had to start this consistency challenge online.
It's been two weeks of great consistency and God has been really faithful. I've been posting my designs every single day and it's not been a clean ride nor has it been a smooth ride but it's been fun, like really fun, you know.
Another good news is that I got a real paying remote job which was what I loved and it gives me the time to do other things like learning and also evolving.
A few days ago, I was checking some of my pictures and I found the design I created in 2023 around May-June and it was amazing to see how much I had grown over time. It's really been something that I never thought I could do because when I began this design journey in 2023 it was not really something I thought I would be great at, because I received so much criticism from my friends and honestly right now I see that those criticisms really paid off.
After all, even though they were harsh I listened to them, understood where they were coming from, and decided to improve myself. Honestly, I love the fact that I stayed true to what I wanted even though at some point I stopped designing for a while because I wanted to focus on working for somebody else. I think that fire did not quench and the dream did not die. I just made sure that I didn't allow anything to derail me and right now I wouldn't say that I am where I want to be but the truth is I'm far from what I used to be and it's really a great achievement for me.
Right now I'm back on Hive because I think to some extent I've sorted myself out. I've cleaned up my act. I've made sure to arrange my schedule. I've streamlined my activities and I don't think that there's anything stopping me right now from knowing what to do per time even though I still look forward to more jobs but for the time being I feel like my schedule have been arranged and I'm seeing that things are beginning to fall in place little by little. I'm so grateful to God for the clarity. I'm so grateful to my friends for believing. I'm so grateful to everyone who called who checked up who made sure that I wasn't left alone you know. I'm so grateful that I'm here.
All images are mine
