Deborah
Goschy
I am a Graphic/ UI/Visual Designer living in the Mankato, Minnesota area. I love expressing myself through images, typography, and text, creating print projects, and producing digital deliverables.
I have many talents, but I absolutely cannot blow a raspberry, something my family will not let me forget. They taunt me with their ability to spit noisily until they tire of their fun and go off in search of something to wet their dry mouths. Meanwhile, I don't waste my time trying to accomplish such a minor feat. I comfort myself with the knowledge that there are other things that I can do well, such as creating an illustration for a child's worksheet, writing a poem, or imitating Professor McGonagall from Harry Potter. I was brought up with two unwritten rules that I have since learned to break: 1. that I should focus on strengthening my weakest skills rather than living in my strengths, and 2. that it is immodest--and therefore rude--to say I'm really good at something. A miserable 6 months of working at New York Life Insurance was enough to convince me that doing a job that I hated and at which I was terrible was no way to live.
Me at age four doing one of my favorite things: coloring.
So what am I good at?
From the time I was able to hold a crayon, no surface was safe. I left my mark on everything that didn't move: leftover boards from a neighbor's construction project, business reply envelopes, sidewalks, and the underside of an end table that still holds one of my masterpieces in purple crayon. I was that kid in class who drew pictures that the other kids passed around. As I got older, I learned to confine my artistic projects to art class and to limit my drawings to doodles in the margins of my notebook. I’d also been told by a couple of relatives that I lacked talent in visual arts, and being a child, I believed them.
Color crayons were my art tool of choice when I was a small child, but I drew the smiley face and the purple crayon shown above with Adobe Illustrator.
Like any natural tendency, my creativity kept resurfacing. I wanted to learn how to design logos, layouts, and ads while I was a student in the Mass Communications program at the University of Minnesota, but I lacked necessary tools like time, money, resources, and confidence. Instead, I focused on completing my degree. I gave up drawing, and my dreams of designing, entirely. Instead, I tapped into my empathy and got a master's degree in counseling. I later found out through Strengths Finder that *empathy is my greatest strength. I've always been a compassionate person and that compassion informs everything I do.
A sketch in black ink by Yours Truly.
Time marched on...I worked at jobs in social services and education. Many of those jobs were short-term and some were extremely challenging, but they all had their moments. I raised my children, one of whom has an autism spectrum disorder, and I used my creative talents to write and illustrate social stories that helped him manage daily tasks. I also did scrapbooking, helped my kids make boxes to hold their valentines, read stories to them, and did all the things a mom does.
A mockup of three of the screens from my app, ColorCat.
A Crayola Miracle.
In 2015, while doing a term of service for AmeriCorps/Minnesota Reading Corps, I was helping out at a grade school's STEAM night. (STEAM is an acronym that stands for science, technology, engineering, art, and math.) I picked up a crayon to try one of the offered art activities and opened a door that had been closed for far too long; I started drawing and I haven't stopped yet. I eventually enrolled in the graphic communications program at a local community college and I got to do all the things I'd always dreamt about, designing logos, layouts, taking photos, and using text and images together. I got my associate's in graphic communications and with Thinkful, I learned to do creative problem-solving through app design. Best of all, I'm great at it. There, I've broken the 2nd unwritten rule. It's a Crayola Miracle!
I took a class in digital photography in my graphic communications program. I took this photo of myself reflected in a car door while at a family event and then later edited it with Adobe Photoshop.
*My top 5 CliftonStrengths
(results from the Strengths Finder questionnaire) are:
"1. Empathy: People exceptionally talented in the Empathy theme can sense other people’s feelings by imagining themselves in others’ lives or situations.
2. Context: People exceptionally talented in the Context theme enjoy thinking about the past. They understand the present by researching its history.
3. Ideation: People exceptionally talented in the Ideation theme are fascinated by ideas. They are able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena.
4. Learner: People exceptionally talented in the Learner theme have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. The process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites them.
5. Intellection: People exceptionally talented in the Intellection theme are characterized by their intellectual activity. They are introspective and appreciate intellectual discussions."
Retrieved from mygallup.com October 21, 2021