Joel Lower is an up-and-coming designer with an interest in all things animation, video games and graphic design. We have been privileged to see him develop as a designer this semester as part of his education at Tulsa Community College. Along with his professor, Brandon Colley (our general manager) put together a curriculum that allowed Joel to get experience working with clients, animation, logo design, creating vector artwork and much more.
We wanted to know about his experience, what he learned and what skills he wants to grow in moving forward.
Q: How did you become interested in graphic/web design? What steps did you take to pursue education in design?
A: I have always loved to draw and liked computers. I enrolled in Multimedia Design at Tulsa Tech during my junior and senior years of high school. There I learned Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. For three years, I have been enrolled in Tulsa Community College and majored in Digital Media.
I’ve learned it’s important to always stay in communication with co-workers.
Q: What was your favorite project and why?
A: The animated Army Earth Day 2019 poster. It was a lot of fun to make. When I asked to animate twinkling stars, I was a bit unsure how to pull it off even with my experience with After Effects from the semester before. But the trial and error was actually fun and really liked how it turned out!
Q: Is there a particular skill that you learned here and want to develop in the future?
A: Communication. I’ve learned it’s important to always stay in communication with co-workers. The incident where I accidentally uploaded a broken InDesign package, before I went home for the day, is a good example. I was at home and got a call that the file wasn’t opening and it needed to be sent to the client that day. I was lucky to have a copy on my USB drive. There were some complications sending it through different emails but I kept in contact until they received it. I will surely grow my communication skills in the future.
…It’s about the client being satisfied with the result. I’ve learned that the clients are always right.
Q: What have you learned about working with clients from this internship?
A: I’ve learned that clients are always right. After showing the project to the client for approval, they often ask for changes. The revisions they ask for may not always be good design choices, but it’s about the client being satisfied with the result.
Q: What are your future plans?
A: I plan to get my bachelor’s degree in Digital Media at Oklahoma State University and find a job after graduation.
Thank you, Joel, for all your hard work! We wish you the best at OSU and wherever your career will take you!
Author, Laura V. Boston
The C3 Group