Hope Vandiver

I attribute my success to the fact that my high school had career-driven courses. They had welding, farm animal veterinarian courses, video game design, and they had a graphic design course, which I ended up taking when I was 15. I realized I fell in love with it, and so I continued on through that course. I was able to get certified at 17 in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Animate, which set me up for success in college, as I already knew how to do most things that they teach you the first year of college. This gave me a huge head start in my professional career.

The best career advice I've ever received is that because I come from a very creative background, not everybody is going to like my designs. So I just have to be confident in what I'm putting out there and kind of block out the noise a little bit, because I'm not going to be able to please everybody. All I can do is stick to my fundamentals and be happy with what I'm putting out. That should be the thing that makes me happy, not everybody else, not the comments, not all the other clutter.

My advice to young women entering graphic design is to be confident in what you present. Thankfully, graphic design is pretty female-oriented, though it is starting to tip over to the other side. But you just need to make sure that you don't let the higher-ups or anyone else try to dampen the way that you design. Stay true to your creative vision and don't let others diminish your work.

The biggest challenge in my field right now is that design trends move really quickly, and by the time government gets on those design trends, most of the time it's already over. So I have to find the happy medium between what trends I think are going to continue on past six months and what trends I think are just a one-month stint. On the opportunity side, working in government allows me to come in and modernize things that are typically about 10 years behind. I'm able to be the voice of the users and the public, telling them what's not making sense about website design and user experience. As a 26-year-old Gen Z professional, I bring a new perspective to politicians who are older than me. I can tell them that the people who are starting to follow them are around my age and we're starting to vote, so here are things that could speak to them in a way that keeps the professionality they need but also makes sure to include Gen Z in their thoughts as well, because we're going to be the people who are voting.

In my work, the most important value is to get out a comprehensive explanation to the masses. In government, there's a lot of big words that are thrown around, so my job is to take those big words and present them to the public visually in a way that they're able to understand. Outside of work, I'm able to watch and see what people are talking about, what they're wanting from their elected officials, and I'm able to take that when I'm off work and put it into my design strategy when I clock back in. It's about bridging the gap between complex government information and public understanding.