My Story

Who I Am

I’m Janine, a freelance writer and SEO specialist with a graphic design background.

In late 2019, I did a three-month graphic design boot camp in New York City. Subsequently, I completed a 365-day design challenge, amassing over 150K followers across various social media platforms.

Today, I’m a freelance writer and SEO specialist writing AI software reviews. I love finding the latest design tools and inspiration to help graphic designers optimize their workflow and maximize their time and resources.

Why You Should Trust Me

How I Got Here (My Story)

Read on for the long and detailed version of my story and how I got here!

In May 2020, I impulsively designed one poster a day for 365 days, which got me 10k+ followers on Instagram, 150K+ followers on TikTok, and an inbox with dozens of potential clients.

I learned a lot of things during that time, but one thing stood out for me: you don’t have to go to school to become a graphic designer. 

Instead, it might be best to regularly produce work and share it with others to attract opportunities rather than trying to impress people with your credentials.

Probably the most common question I would get from other people wanting to pursue design would revolve around school. They would ask things like:

• What school did you go to?
• Should I go to school for graphic design?
• Is design even worth pursuing?

Obviously, you can go to school if you want to, and I’m not “anti-school” or anything (although I think it’s flawed in many ways). I have a Bachelor of Arts in Media Communications, and following that, I did a three-month graphic design course that I really enjoyed.

Although I learned a lot through these experiences and made me who I am today, it’s not what really got people to notice me and my work. Instead, putting myself out there and designing every day is what got people’s attention.

Here’s my story to explain this in more in-depth.

A Creative Genius is Born

Growing up, I was often labeled as the quiet art girl. I always kind of knew I had a thing for art and drawing and making things.

I Didn’t Choose the Design Life; the Design Life Chose Me

Fast forward to high school.

In High School, we had to take a Careers course, and we took one of those career test quizzes to see what we might be in the future. A lot of my classmates took it as a joke and got lame things like “garbage man” or “janitor” (no hate for actual garbage men or janitors out there – thank you for your service).

I, on the other hand, took it pretty seriously. 

I did the quiz multiple times to really solidify my results, and time and time again I kept seeing “Graphic Designer” come up. I Googled it because I didn’t know wtf that was. 

When I looked into it more, I thought, “Huh. Cool, cool, cool. That might be something I’ll look into in the future.” And that was pretty much it at that time. I kept it in my back pocket.

NYC, baby!

Fast forward again, and I’m in the Big Apple! Whoa.

I had just graduated with a Bachelor of Arts but wanted to take graphic design more seriously. 

This led me to a school I found online called Shillington, a 3-month graphic design program to help students kickstart their design careers.

I was in love.

I was a sponge to my environment, classmates, and teachers. 

This was the first time I’d been in an environment where people had the exact same interest in design as I did, and it felt pretty damn good!

I came out of NYC with a full-blown design portfolio, so you can only imagine how intense that course was, considering it was only 3 months long. I was pooped by the end of it.

Early 2020

With my portfolio in one hand and my resume in the other, I was ready to hit the ground running to find a graphic design job. So I did what most people do.

I hit up many companies in the nearest big city to me and did some interviews. I didn’t really care what the job was. I pretty much applied to everything that was an entry-level design job.

One company was a real estate agency looking for someone to help design signs and advertisements for real estate agents. The guy who was interviewing me showed me some samples, and I remember thinking that, honestly, it looked boring as hell. Like most designers, I wanted to work on exciting and interesting projects. Not whatever this was.

Shortly after: BOOM. Pandemic hits. The world is ending. People are losing their minds buying toilet paper for no reason.

Meanwhile, I didn’t get any of the jobs I applied for. I didn’t move to a big city. On top of that, I was laid off from my job as a server due to the pandemic.

So what now?

I did what many people do in situations like these and tried to escape reality. And for me at the time, I was playing Animal Crossing, AKA arguably the most wholesome video game ever.

I fished. 

I foraged. 

I built shit. 

I put blood, sweat, and tears into that island, man. And who could blame me? What else could I do in a lockdown other than create the life of my dreams in virtual reality?

Mid-2020

One night I was lying on my bed after a long day of making shit happen on my virtual island. 

I was beat.

I went on my phone to mindlessly watch some YouTube when I came across a video about a guy who got a full-time design job just from making a poster every day and posting it to Instagram.

What if I did something similar?

Excuses started rushing in. 

“What if I fail?” 

“What if I’m not actually that great?”

“What if nobody follows me?”

“What if now is not the right time?”

As soon as the doubts came flooding in, I shut them down.

Who cared if I failed? At least I’d have learned from my mistakes. Aren’t the best lessons you learn from the mistakes you make? After all, it was my journey, so who really cared about what other people might think? 

Plus, there was no better time to start  – I was in lockdown during a pandemic! I only had time on my hands.

I knew this was my time, nay, my destiny. The YouTube algorithm gods had personally sent this video to me. 

It was time to retire from island life.

2020-2021

The next day, I threw my virtual fishing rod in. To hell with it!

I got out my Macbook Pro that I bought in 2013 and made my first poster. 

I’m not going to lie; it took me hours for the first few posters for a couple of reasons:

1. My MacBook was old and slow. (I eventually dropped $2,000 on a desktop computer. Probably the best investment ever).
2. I was being way too much of a perfectionist.

I posted many posters I wasn’t a huge fan of. But I realized that it’s all part of the process, and not everything I posted would be a “masterpiece.” (Think of some of the most famous artists we speak of today. Picasso is thought to have made 50,000 pieces of art during his lifetime. Not all of them were considered to be masterpieces).

The main thing was that I was trying, learning from my mistakes, and putting myself out into the world. Over time, I saw myself getting better and producing work faster.  

As my follower count grew over time, the number of opportunities that came to me also grew. I was finally getting projects that I was genuinely interested in.

I went from applying to boring design jobs for real estate agencies to people reaching out to me to do much more fun and interesting projects that aligned with me.

Takeaways

“Often in the real world, it’s not the smart who get ahead, but the bold.”
– Robert Kiyosaki

I learned a lot during that whole experience, but the biggest takeaway for me is that when you invest in yourself and are bold, better-suited opportunities will come to you.

Only the people who resonate with you and your style will reach out to you, meaning you’ll naturally be presented with projects you enjoy more.

The power dynamic shifts when you put yourself out there and prove yourself. Now you’re in the driver’s seat.

If people want to work with you (as opposed to you wanting to work with them), you can be selective and call the shots on who you want to work with and for how much. That means:

1. You’ll work with people and on projects that you love
2. You’ll most likely end up making more money in the end since you’re in the power seat

It’s a win-win.

Maybe you’re a junior designer at a company and you’re tired of spending endless amount of hours working on boring projects.

Maybe you just graduated from High School and are wondering if it would be worth going to school for graphic design.

Maybe you’re interested in graphic design and want to get better while making some money on the side.

Whatever the case, from my experience, this is the fast track to becoming a graphic designer without a degree and making more money doing projects you love.

The choice is yours.

Would you rather spend four years getting a design degree and sinking into tens of thousands of dollars in debt? Or are you willing to take a risk and take the fast track to make more money doing projects you love?

My advice? Don’t chase after companies or design agencies trying to prove that you know your shit. Rather than trying to prove it, show it. Show that you are willing to take risks, mess up, and continue to get better. Let people see how you’ve grown over time.

Today

Today, I’m more of a freelance writer and SEO specialist focusing on AI software reviews. I share the latest design tools, resources, and inspiring content to help graphic designers optimize their workflow and maximize their efficiency and resources.

Check out the Blog for the best design tools, resources, and inspiration ranked and reviewed by yours truly, and thanks for reading!