We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cynthia Clark. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cynthia below.
Cynthia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?
The key to being successful is seizing every opportunity that’s handed to you, and taking advantage of everything you can.
I started out at Nashville State Community College during COVID 2020 and my first year was absolutely horrible— it’s no one but COVID’s fault. Once my second year started and we started in-person studio classes, I started studying under an incredible designer named Pam Esposito who moved from California. Once I learned design, I started learning how to apply it, and after community college, I transferred to Austin Peay where I’m currently earning my Bachelor’s.
I’m taking advantage of every course I can that can help me be successful, while doing freelance on the side. It’s impermanent to learn as much as you can to be successful later on.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I’m a full-time college student, and a part-time freelance designer. I started design because I thought, “this is how I’m going to make money, and do art.”
I was wrong, partly.
Graphic Design is such a huge field with so many different opportunities. You could be a motion graphics designer, UI/UX Designer— you could be just a branding designer where you make logos all day! But, it’s much more than that. I learned so many aspects of being a designer that we have to think about every single day— with many different clients.
As of now, the type of services I’ve been providing is social media/content creation design. I’ve been working with a content creator and their manager to start building their brand and assets. I’ve done promotional design for different social medias, both motion and still design, thumbnail creation, and logos.
I’m proud of the ability my design has to help elevate not only my brand but my client’s brand. I’m building a strong portfolio and getting real, albeit soft, field experience in design.
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
Soft skills are the number one thing that gets you jobs in Graphic Design. Your design can be top notch, but if you can’t talk to people and work with a team, you won’t get far. I wish I started developing those skills and doing internships way before my junior year of college.
If you’re looking to build soft skills, start with this book called “Burn Your Portfolio” by Michael Janda. This book has everything you need,
How did you build your audience on social media?
While my social media presence is not as big as most, I do have a small audience on Instagram and Tik Tok. The way I did it, was working with my content creator and the work I designed had me attached to it. This gained me a small boost in following. With this small boost, I began posting my illustration work, any video art I’m doing, and design projects I’m working on.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://cindyclarkdesigns.myportfolio.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cindycdesigns6?igsh=czV3Z2E2cHZxZXpx&utm_source=qr
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cynthia-clark-7691b7238?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app