Jocelyn Johnson

Growing up, my mom was a single mom, and she worked 3 jobs and put herself through college. Witnessing that, and her drive and determination, really strengthened my work ethic from a very young age. One of the reasons I love design is that I get to make things that didn't exist in the world, and I think that's amazing. The harder you work, and the more you work, the more that you're able to change your little piece of the world. And that really is my driving force.

The best career advice that I ever received was the phrase 'the squeaky wheel gets the grease,' which is basically to advocate for yourself. No one is going to come along and advocate for you - you need to be your own cheerleader. If you can't talk about what you do and what you bring to the table, don't expect anyone else to do it for you.

Don't throw anything away. Even though every design may not be used for your portfolio, it's really amazing to keep a file for yourself so that you can witness how far you've come. You can look back 10 years ago and say, this is what I did back then, this is what I'm doing now, and you can see your own progression. Sometimes we kind of get lost in the day-to-day of being a creative - most people have that negative voice in their head, like I'm not good enough, I'm not progressing, it's always that comparative trap. Being able to look back at your own progression really is empowering. Be confident about who you are and where you're at in your design journey, and know that no one's as bad as they think they are. That's really what I tell students and adults in the same breath - most creatives are a lot better than they think they are.

I'm really not worried about AI taking out designers, for the simple fact that AI is only as creative as the person who's giving them the information. Creativity and design in and of itself will always need to have a human element to it, and AI can't replicate that. The biggest opportunity at this point is to figure out how AI can be useful to our field, especially when you have to have the human element, but there's so much room for opportunity. A few years ago, when Canva came on the scene, everyone was like 'I'm a designer, I can do all the things,' and now we're witnessing that transition a little bit from people realizing that design is more than a template. That's what I've seen in my freelance work - people are kind of circling back to needing a professional opinion. Really, just putting yourself out there and networking is the best way to help people in your community with all their design needs.

I would have to say radical honesty and collaboration. Without honesty and collaboration, design just really doesn't work. People need to be honest about what they like and what they don't like. You can't design in a bubble, and so you really need feedback from trusted peers and from your clients to really elevate and make every design the best it can possibly be. That goes the same for my personal life, too - honesty above all else.