My name is Brennan Gilbert and I am a Designer from Denver, Colorado. Before welcoming 2014, I want to take a quick look back on my career so far in order to reflect, appreciate and set new goals.

Something from Nothing

Let me start by saying I define myself as a “Designer” through and through. “Designer” is not merely a career choice for me; it IS my life. I emphasize this because it is this fact that has helped me become who I am, and will undoubtedly help me become that which I am yet to be.

By no means is this a new epiphany but rather an idea I have had since as far back as I can remember. As a child, I loved to draw because through drawing, I was able to create anything I imagined. And this idea, the idea that through art, ANY one person, can create something from nothing; how amazing is that? And this powerful, little idea has been affecting my life for 25+ years.

Passion to “Career Path”

In elementary school, when asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would always exclaim “Artist”. My friends, family and teachers all agreed, I had made a wonderful career decision at the age of 5 and so, I continued to draw.

In middle school, drawing evolved to doodling. In high school, I took every art-related course I could find. And my senior year, my school offered a brand new class: Graphic Design. To think, I could make money creating things and have a cool title like “Graphic Designer”? Whoa.

I got copies of Photoshop & Illustrator CS and began learning everything I could. I found free online tutorials and asked my Graphic Design instructor for extra materials. By mid-semester, my instructor asked me to teach the class for a day, as I had already surpassed her understanding of the programs. I had turned my lifetime passion of being an artist into a potential “career” path as a Graphic Designer.

“Oh… you’re majoring in Art?”

I applied to universities with Graphic Design majors, but just in case, picked schools that offered a wide array of majors… just in case. Why? Because the positive reinforcement I had received as a child had slowly receded to bland, pessimistic realism. Constantly, when I mentioned I was interested in pursuing a Fine Art degree, Graphic Design concentration, I’d inevitably hear something like:

“What are you going to do with that? How will you make a living?”

It was because of this pessimism that I attended Colorado State University, to play it safe at a school that offered a multitude of seemingly profitable majors. But, on day one, I declared my Fine Art major and I loved it. I was doing what I had done my entire life: drawing, painting, working with color. And now I was on my way to earning a living this way.

I took out a hefty amount of school loans to pay for my education, which felt particularly worrisome knowing I was indeed an Art major (starving artist didn’t just become a thing without reason). But the loans were an incentive to keep my passion alive. I knew that if I failed, I would have no one to blame but myself. And after 3.5 years, 1 semester short of the program timeline, I graduated top of my class, first in my family to attain a Bachelor’s degree from a University. I was officially a Graphic Designer …on paper at least.

The professional world: lions, tigers and bears, oh my

Now that I had my degree, it was time to apply to a shiny graphic design position and start making the big bucks. I applied to one or two at first, confident I’d be working full-time in no time. But to my surprise, job offers didn’t come flying at me. So I applied to a few more jobs. And a few more… and a few more. It wasn’t long before I was applying to dozens of less-than-ideal jobs only partially related to anything remotely related to Graphic Design, dozens a day for weeks at a time, consistently, for nearly 6 months.

It was at this point that I worried the naysayers had been right all along. I had a mountain of student loan debt, was living with my mom, and not even an unpaid internship in sight. And this is where being a designer, 100%, totally and completely, kept me going. Had “Designer” been merely a career choice, I would have quit long before 6 months; gone back to school, taken a job in an unrelated field, etc. But that wasn’t me. I’d worked my entire (short) life to get this career, and I would continue trying until I couldn’t try no more.

Shortly thereafter, I received an unpaid web design internship and I jumped at it. Did I know anything about web design? No. Did I need money? Yes. But that didn’t stop me. I admittedly lied through my teeth about my web design skills, including bragging about just how many lines of CSS my crappy website had. They saw through me, but also saw my passion and willingness to learn and so… I got the gig.

A few weeks later, I received a job offer from a small ad shop, 3 Roads Media, based on my very brief web design experience from the internship. One year later, I took a position as a Graphic Designer at a global ad agency. And one year after that, I began my career as Design Director at GoSpotCheck, where I’m still passionately and happily working to this day.