ILLUSTRATION BY LIZ BIGHAM
Wednesday, March 27, 2019 // The Statement
My
first
experience
with
graphic design was in seventh
grade, recklessly using Adobe
Photoshop to cut out blurry pho-
tos of volleyball players for my
middle school newspaper. In my
ninth grade journalism class, my
first Adobe Illustrator assign-
ment consisted of inserting a
picture of Nick Jonas and splat-
tering paint and blades of grass
around him. Now here I am today,
building on the skills I first started
developing in seventh grade, as a
designer for The Michigan Daily.
I truly thought my journalism
career was going to end after
high school. After years of being
an editor for my high school’s
weekly newspaper, I was worn
out from dealing with the control-
ling high school administration
and late Monday nights at school.
However, when I got to college, I
felt myself yearning for the chaos
of the newsroom. My retirement
from journalism lasted a mere
four months because, by the end
of September, I applied and was
accepted as a layout designer for
The Daily.
I chose to continue with the
design
aspect
of
journalism
because it is what I know and
like best. During high school, I
can shamelessly admit I devot-
ed most of my efforts towards
improving my paper’s design as
opposed to the writing. A news-
paper with strong design differ-
entiates itself from others and
leads people to read the stories
inside.
When I say I am on The Michi-
gan Daily staff, people assume I
must be a writer. After clarifying
I am on The Daily’s design sec-
tion and getting an excited reac-
tion, I feel like people look at me
differently. They assume I am
artistic. Although I am a graphic
designer, I can say without hesi-
tation that I have never consid-
ered myself an artist. I think that
is why I didn’t give up on journal-
ism when coming to college — I
wanted to continue to call myself
a designer, a label I would never
hold if I never practiced graphic
design. It brings me such confi-
dence to be associated with an
identity that consists of such cre-
ative, unique and inspiring indi-
viduals.
Most of the graphic design I
do is layout. When I come in to
design on Tuesdays, I first get a
sense of the stories, photos and
graphics I will be working with
for the issue. Most of my time is
spent brainstorming how I plan
to arrange the elements in an
organized and interesting way.
After that, it is all about execu-
tion. I don’t think of myself as cre-
ating, but rather presenting other
people’s art. This is why I don’t
consider myself an artist. Artists
start from scratch and use their
creativity to create something
expressive. For me, I am given
other people’s work — usually
articles — and display their writ-
ing in an appealing way. I feel an
obligation to do everything in my
power to make sure their writing
is read and appreciated by those
who pick up the newspaper.
A layout designer’s work can
easily go unnoticed because we
don’t get an explicit credit next to
the work we do, unlike writers and
illustrators. There is a lot of effort
behinds the scenes. So much
skill and diligence comes with
knowing how to utilize Adobe’s
software as well as coming up
with a variance of design styles
to complement each story. The
work never gets boring. I have
been doing this for more than five
years and still learn more about
graphic design every time I open
up an Adobe product.
Sometimes when the design
section is in urgent need of an
illustration, my editors will ask,
“I know you are on layout, but
do you make illustrations?” and I
quickly say no. Contrary to what
I tell them, I do create my own
graphics — very rarely. I don’t
lie because I don’t want to make
one, but because my graphics are
not good enough to be published
in The Daily. Like I said earlier, I
am not an artist and am not good
at starting from scratch. Portraits
are the one exception of art I can
do because it is remaking what is
already there, which usually con-
sists of me tracing over a picture
of a celebrity I get from the inter-
net. I simply transform a photo
into a graphic without anything
new being created.
The illustration above was the
first graphic I ever made that
wasn’t meant for a publication. I
remember seeing a photo of the
model and actress Cara Delev-
ingne on Instagram and immedi-
ately thinking I wanted to attempt
to recreate the photo on Illustra-
tor. After using yet another fake
email to get a free trial of Adobe
and watching hours of Youtube
tutorials on how to properly con-
tour skin tones, draw eyelashes
and mimic bushy eyebrows, I had
my design complete. I never did
anything with it besides show-
ing a couple of friends. I didn’t
even save it on my computer. A
screenshot on my phone is the
only evidence of the graphic I
spent weeks on.
As the slight blurriness of the
graphic shows, I did not really
care about keeping the graphic
because I did not plan on doing
anything with it. I didn’t think it
was particularly good. However,
it is a great representation of my
progression as a designer and
is now being printed on a news-
paper distributed all around Ann
Arbor. I am self-conscious just
thinking about it. I still don’t think
it’s good.
Regardless of how hard I can
be on myself, I am extremely
grateful to my younger self for
sticking with graphic design.
Having an eye for what is visually
appealing is such a gift that can
be utilized in all aspects of life.
Most importantly, being a graph-
ic designer has introduced me to
a group of like-minded individu-
als with the same interests as
me. There is nothing I love more
than bouncing ideas off other
designers and talking about our
favorite fonts. I could talk about
fonts all day.
IN DESIGN:
embracing the
identity of a
designer
BY LIZ BIGHAM,
STATEMENT DESIGNER
3B