We recently connected with Jasmine Gonzalez and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jasmine thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

Creativity has been an innate skill I’ve been lucky to possess all my life. In my younger days, I have been the designer of Myspace pages, Black Planet layouts, various personalized phone backgrounds, and more. I found my niche for visual design while upkeeping a blog I had in my 20s. Someone brought it to my attention that I spent way too much time designing than actually writing. From there, I started to focus on becoming a designer. I watched tutorials, self-taught myself various concepts, and even enrolled in grad school to gain a M.F.A in Media Design from Full Sail University back in 2019. The most essential skills to being a good designer isn’t just the ability to put pretty things together, but it’s about building design functionality and literally applying design thinking to anything you create. Knowing how to use certain colors to appeal to the mind, and choosing those right concepts to please the client is most important.

Falling into the design field at this time in my life seems like perfet timing. As the world moved into a pandemic as I was pivoting careers, my business and services have allowed for me to help cultivate and establish new startup companies with brand presence, and also help existing companies redefine their image as well.

Jasmine, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hello all! I’m Jasmine Gonzalez, I go by “Jasmine The Creative”, “Jiggy”, “The Melanin Millennial”, and I am a total creative. I’ve always thrived in artsy vibes and around people who are just as creative as myself. I am from Buffalo, NY and moved to Atlanta (well, the “Eastside” lol) when I was 11 and stayed in GA through my first two years of college. After attending Clark Atlanta and Georgia State University for the first half of undergrad, I decided to take it home to Buffalo, NY to finish college at SUNY at Buffalo State. I was heavily into public relations at the time and acquired my bachelor’s in PR. After working with a few locals and non-profits in Buffalo, I decided to move back to Atlanta in 2018 to buid a bigger network and move into visual design.

My business, Jasmine the Creative Designs, was founded in 2018 and aims to provide startup businesses and existing ones with brand presence and awareness. While my services can vary based on client need, I develop websites, logos, social media content, stationery, product labels, etc. Most times clients come to me with just an idea, and through creative consultation and consistent communincation I am able to transform an idea into something they’re proud of and ready to show the public. Being able to solve their design problems is empowering for me, as I love to be able to provide a good outcome and give someone a feeling of confidence within their brand. I love using colors to grab the audience’s attention, while also making sure their websites are responsive, and printables are within guidelines for print and delivery. Helping individuals and comapnies establish brand style guides is something I am proud to say I include in most packages so clients leave knowing they have somethig they can refer to when they need to. It’s an integral part of branding to ensure you stay consistent with your brand once you start interacting with the public.

What sets me apart from others is my true passion for art. I don’t just design to get paid, I design because I love to do so. It’s a difference when you love what you do. The outcome is guaranteed to be good when you’re really intentional in what you do!

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Sometimes when you want to get into a field or industry that’s popular and well-known, sometimes you can be overwhelmed by the number of people already pursuing such roles. I literally had to tell myself that “my lane is my lane” and that unlearn the idea that “I’m too late”, or that I couldn’t do it because I was near 30 years old, trying to change careers. Whenever I do begin too feel this type of discouragement, I think back to the bread aisle in the grocery. “There are 55 brands of bread on the shelf, who’s to say you can’t stand out!”

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

What’s most rewarding about being creative is being able to jump into various creative endeavors and get the job done. The thing with creativity is that it’s endless, and there is always a way to express it. While one day may be about designing a website, the next day may be about applying design concepts in my house as I decorate my living room. Creativity goes into everything I do and think that keeps my brain on go, and allows me to stay inspired.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jasminethecreative.com
• Instagram: @JasmineTheCreative
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasmine-gonzalez-81a97863/

Image Credits
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