TGDS Graduate Raluca
Introducing Raluca. Talented Artist and multi-disciplinary creative with a BA in Fine Arts.
Raluca decided to join TGDS and delve into the world of graphic design as part of an overall journey to working within UI/UX design.
Hey Raluca! Tell us a bit about you.
I’m 29 years old, from Romania (Eastern Europe). I have a BA in Fine Arts (with a major in painting), however my work experience is in various fields in the corporate sector with a focus mainly on customer support & HR.
I do love everything that is related to arts/the visual domain. My main passion and life-long love is actually drawing & painting. Also, I took up the design course at a time when I had some health issues & back then your course gave me meaningful purpose, which helped with my recovery (especially mentally).ur course gave me meaningful purpose, which helped with my recovery (especially mentally).
Raluca Stefania-Persa - Personal Identity Design
What or who inspired you to be a designer?
It wasn’t more who inspired me, but what.
Since 2016 I have been wanting to try UI/UX design. However, UI design also contains visual design. Back in 2017 I thought to myself if I wanted to try UI design, perhaps it would suit me to also know more about graphic design (history, concepts, etc) as UI design does use the same principles as graphic design. With this in mind, I decided that I’d better start with graphic design to gain some basics & then move on to UI.
So that’s what I did by taking up your course.
What are you up to in the design world at the moment?
At the moment I am not pursuing to land a role as a graphic designer. I started a UX course in January 2022 & I am currently working on that. The knowledge gained from your course is on-hold so to speak, as the main goal for me would be a role in UI/UX. However, once I get to the UI part, I am sure the knowledge gained from this course will help to some extent. In a nutshell, I am in the middle of a career shift, leaning towards UI/UX design.
Koi Fish - Digital Illustration
What is your favourite part of the design process?
The favourite part for me is when I get to do the sketches for the design concepts & bringing them to life in Illustrator, Photoshop Etc.
The creative side is mainly my favourite part.
Evolution and Its Process - Layout Design
You were really into all sorts of design disciplines at TGDS, branding, campaigning and even packaging.
Have you a fav?
I must admit I do have a few favourites and I didn’t expect these to be my favourites simply because they are quite complex but here they are, packaging design for sure (I like how you have to fit everything into place, from concept, logo, colour, layout, typography, execution etc) Illustration design/icon design, layout design & a bit of branding design.
Icons - Visual Design System
Icons - Visual Design System
Tell us anything you would like to about your featured works.
All the works are done with great care & attention to detail. For the layout magazine design, I composed the body text about evolution & Charles Darwin as I couldn’t find anything else online that would suit my subject.
For the packaging design, I spent around 3-4 months in total to complete it & I designed everything from scratch (the logo, I purchased a few type licenses, did extensive online research and documented about packaging labels/boxes).
Virtual Ballet - Campaign & Layout Design
What did you love most about studying design?
I guess what I liked the most was simply discovering so many things. Discovering that graphic design is mainly an umbrella term, because it contains so many disciplines & each of the design disciplines is very different. Although all of these disciplines use the same graphic design concepts/ideas/principles, for each design discipline they apply differently. And what I also liked was that it challenged me.
If I hadn’t taken up your course, I wouldn’t have known that I have talent in the area of graphic design as well.
Whats your dream design job?
Don’t hold back!
My dream job would be one where you get enough time to thoroughly work through each of the design steps when starting a new project (as usually there is a lot of pressure to finish the end product quickly). As well as one where the line between subjectivity & objectivity would not be blurred by the personal feelings of clients. My dream job would also allow me to try & express myself creatively more & experiment.
La Sportiva - Visual Identity Design
What would you say to someone about to embark on their own journey in design?
I would say if you want, or if you had been planning on learning design for a while but you haven’t had the chance up until now, do it!
A word for embarking on the design journey - design is not like coding or other technical disciplines. It is subjective in certain aspects & has many unknowns. This is what gives it its beauty & its curse so to speak. However, if you like discovering new things & your mind is geared towards working in a more creative way, then go for it as you’ll get great satisfaction simply from discovering & creating!
Aglea Cosmetics - Visual Identity & Packaging Design
Aglea Cosmetics - Visual Identity & Packaging Design
Aglea Cosmetics - Visual Identity & Packaging Design
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