My career blossomed because of digital art. Digital Art is the perfect tool for your career toolbox.

Digital Art In School

My earliest exposure to digital art was my first year of High School. It was the days of floppy disks using the program Print Shop. I was the Manager of the high school wrestling and baseball teams. The night before the matches and games I would create signs for everyone’s lockers to promote team spirit and to advertise the event location and time. I was self-taught and the signs were a huge success making the team feel special and getting students to the games.

I wish graphic design had been offered at my High School, but I was pleasantly surprised it was later offered in college as a part of the business school curriculum. At that point it sounded like a fun class, but I still had not grasped how important digital art would be to my career. I graduated with a degree in Business Management.

Digital Art At Work

My first career job was as a Project Manager for a data center. The company was new and everyone pitched in where they could. The company needed an Annual Report created for their investors. I volunteered to help put it together. Making things look good was something I was always good at. I used the basic graphic design skills I had learned to that point to put together a professional looking annual report for the company. The owners were happy with the work I did, and before I knew it I was made Marketing Manager.

Creating that annual report completely shifted my career path. The power of digital art was easily noticed and I saw how it could be used as a tool in marketing. I researched graphic design programs and I convinced the company to send me to art school at night. The company paid for my tuition for an intensive evening program where I received a Certificate of Graphic Design.

Digital Art Bolstered Marketing Career

Being skilled at graphic design helped blossom my marketing career. Often in corporate marketing or at advertising agencies someone creates the strategy and then dictates what they want created. Someone then helps write the copy, and someone else helps design the layout. The special combination of my practical business degree with my creative design skills, let me fulfill all three roles – strategy, writing, and graphic design. This was a golden combination!

I was able to quickly and efficiently create strategy and then produce the items I dreamed up. As I moved up the ladder, I was able to seamlessly talk to creatives and manage others because I knew all the pieces needed. I could completely design things myself, or do a quick mock-up to then hand someone else. This saved the companies I worked for thousands upon thousands of dollars and helped me quickly advance in the marketing world. My favorite job was working for a software company where I was able to completely build the marketing program from the ground up. From there I was able to work as the Marketing Director for a global company.

Digital Art As a Business Owner

Following corporate marketing I started my own marketing consulting company. I have a passion for entrepreneurship and I love helping companies grow. I have taken my same skills – strategy, writing, and design – and helped dozens of companies with their marketing. On top of helping companies I have been able to help charities. Organizations always need help communicating their offerings to the world. My success is thanks to my skills in digital art. Digital art is the perfect tool.

Digital Art As an Artist

I am starting a new project I am excited about – creating an Etsy store to sell art prints for people’s homes. In this projects I am taking my graphic design skills and creating wall art. I love that I am able to use my digital art skills in a brand-new way to help add beauty to people’s homes.

Digital Art As a Teacher

CreativeONES faced a huge challenge when COVID-19 hit. They had been teaching in-person afterschool programs where they took iPads and taught digital art live. They are one of the companies who had to make big changes this year to stay operational. CreativeONES converted their programs to an online offering for individual student memberships as well as after school programs through school districts. They now have students from all the US times zones, as well as international students from Mexico and Spain. Students can take classes virtually after school, and login 24×7 to access the school’s video tutorials. They have done a great job transitioning to the remote environment.

My Recommendation To Students

Students in today’s era are tech savvy and digital tools are a natural extension of their creativity. Digital art had a huge impact on my career and I highly recommend digital art classes to today’s students. The world is moving fast and the digital world is growing exponentially every day. Creativity is highly valued in today’s workforce and digital art is a strong skill to possess.

Digital Art – the Perfect Tool!