Why I Joined Digit: Jason Palumbo, Marketing Designer
Tell us about your design journey and how you got to where you are today. Have you always wanted to be a graphic designer?
My design journey started in Edgewater, Maryland when I was taking a high school “photo and digital processing” class. I knew I loved photography already, but there was one project where I had to design a poster with text on top of a photograph that I took advertising our school’s canned food drive. I very quickly became entranced with how typefaces could have an effect on a viewer and how they are used in advertising. I believe it was my teacher, Mrs. Sears, who first told me “You know, you can major in this in college! Look for a graphic design program” …and the rest is history ; )
You’ve been a long-time Digit user, tell us how Digit has played a role in your life today.
I first discovered Digit in 2014 when I was living in Baltimore, MD where I had about 1/4 of the income that I have now. The person who first told me about the product said that it essentially saved money for him “without him even noticing,” which was the perfect thing for a guy liked me who LOVED spending money. I had always struggled with saving because if I knew the money was in my account I would come up with a reason in my head why it was okay for me to spend it. Digit helped me so much just because I could basically set it up then forget about it and it would automatically do the rest based on how and when I was spending. It came in handy especially when I needed new tires for my car (which somehow managed to get nails in them every 5–10 mins). I couldn’t be more excited to not only be a part of telling the world about our new bank account product (Direct powered by MetaBank®) but also be a happy user! I have come a long way since the days where I was scrounging every penny to pay rent, but I am still someone who could probably be more organized with my money and Digit seems like it is the perfect solution for me.
Why did you join Digit?
I believe in the product so deeply!!! As someone who has never felt completely financially healthy being in a creative role and having an income that was on the lower end of the spectrum, I’ve seen how much more confident Digit has made me surrounding my savings. Just knowing that I have a solid rainy day fund (and now, all my bills being paid on time too with Direct) lets me sleep easy at night.
What are you currently working on at Digit? What are you looking forward to designing next?
We are working hard on the design team to get Direct ready to show the world and my role is to explain how it works to people in various types of advertising. It gets me so excited to figure out how to explain it to people because I already love Digit so much. My favorite part so far has been reading some of our member stories and seeing how much of an impact that Digit can have on someone’s life. I am very excited to get some of those stories/images into our ads in the future.
I’ve heard you recently became a flourishing plant parent, what is your favorite plant so far? What advice do you have for aspiring plant parents who may lack a green thumb?
Oh wow, “flourishing,” I am so flattered. I think the best advice that someone gave me was to let the plants do their thing, you aren’t going to kill them overnight unless something crazy happens. I feel that I used to be obsessed with watering them all the time, which lead to problems. Getting a water meter really helped with my plant care because it could tell me how dry the soil was deeper into the pot. This made me less anxious about watering! I highly recommend getting one. Oh and to give you an answer to the part about my favorite, how could I ever choose one of my babies as a “favorite” when they are all so dang gorgeous!?….. (The huge monstera is by far my favorite. I love her so much and I’ve been growing her into a gorgeous adult for 2 years. Don’t tell the other kids.)
If you had to describe yourself as a gif, which one would you use?
What’s one piece of design advice you would give to your younger self or even new designers out there?
Learn to take negative AND positive feedback, because you’re going to get a lot of both during your career. Being able to take compliments is just as important as being able to receive criticism about your work. In terms of the latter, an important thing I had to learn is to make sure I was only making intentional design decisions. If you disagree with someone’s critique of your work you won’t be able to make a case for the choice you made unless there was some intentionality behind your design. Everyone is going to have different opinions and reactions to a piece of work, but having a strong set of reasons that you can explain clearly to anyone makes more people respect your choices.
Note: Direct℠ is a deposit account powered by MetaBank®, N.A., Member FDIC.
