The very first time I ever picked up a paint brush was in preschool. We began painting in class immediately after nap time had ended. When the teacher brought out the paint everyone’s faces lit up as she set down the filler ridden paint pans.

One by one everyone began to make their way to the table, picking out their selection of colors. As everyone began to splatter paint, I sat there still contemplating which colors to choose. I finally decided on an array of earth tones and began to add streaks of paint onto the paper. As the paint left the brush and entered the canvas I felt as though I was free. Free to be and create anything I saw fit.

My teacher on the hand was not impressed with my brown and green sunset, because according to her sunsets were not brown. But according to me art could be whatever I wanted it to be.

As I grew older, I continued painting and drawing everywhere and everything. Free time in class was spent drawing my classmates’ favorite cartoon characters and creating pixel art on Microsoft Paint. I knew that I loved computers and I knew that I loved art, but I hadn’t quite figured out how to combine the two.

Microsoft Paint soon became a vessel for my introduction into the world of graphic design. Microsoft Paint, although simplistic, opened my eyes to how art can be defined in a multitude of ways.

From technology, to mathematics, to visual arts, and communications, graphic design is a modge-podge of my academic interests as it requires not only the artist, but the consumer as well to think outside of the box.

Graphic design raises the question “what is considered to be art?”. As a society when we think of art, we think of renaissance paintings, Greek statues, and pretentious galleries filled with hipsters. In a way, graphic design serves as the anti-Christ to that line of thinking, because everything becomes art. From McDonald’s iconic yellow arches to the billboards plastered all over New York City, all of it is considered art.

And it is art that I hope to create, hopefully idealizing the next iconic American brand.