I'm a big advocate of self-learning and an avid user of online resources like Skillshare and Lynda.com. Whether you want to learn how to use software like Photoshop or Illustrator, learn specific skills like surface pattern design, creating textures for screen print, or even how to write a business proposal or manage your first clients, Skillshare and Lynda.com have you covered!

So I wanted to share with you today my favorite Skillshare classes. I've taken these over the last month or so and since I've been particularly interested in illustration and hand-lettering, that's where a lot of these focus. While this list is far from being exhaustive, it does sum up my favorites so far - classes that I both really enjoyed and learned a lot from.

1. For hand-lettering - pretty much any class from Mary Kate McDevitt is great, she's a little quirky in her teaching style but her talent and work is truly inspiring. And I think it's a really special thing that she shares all her secrets!



2. For poster design - Ellen Lupton is the queen of typography and I've been a big fan ever since I stumbled upon her book Thinking with Type years ago. Her course here is interesting and insightful.

It super on trend right now to have a "side hustle" and solicit the cliché follow your dreams advice. Maybe it's because all the millennials are now working and refusing to settle for mundane, unfulfilling careers, or maybe its due to the rise of supportive social networks and groups of people telling each other to go for it.

I'm an average person and went through school with what I imagine is an average experience. My parents were supportive and never told me exactly what to do, only that I needed to go to college and get a good job so that I could make good money and have a nice life. I always felt profoundly lucky to have parents that didn't force me into a profession I hated (that old played out scene in angsty teen movies). I felt free to make my own choices and lucky to have options. It's only now in hindsight, when I'm wrapping up my 20's, that I realize how misguided I actually became.

Because I was so focused on just going to school and caught up with my friends, boys and the parties (oh the parties!), I never truly focused on the what and how of it all. What did I want to do with my life? What would make me happy? And how could I get there? Had I done a small assessment back then, I'm certain I would have discovered that I actually really enjoyed art and design.

But the pressure (mostly from myself) to get a good job and be successful - whatever those things mean - was so profound that I scoffed at art students, considered them unambitious and laughable. Who wants to be a starving artist?

Little did I know, the joke was on me.

For lack of any specific interest, I studied communications. It was easy enough a major that I didn't have to test into a specific college and I felt like it was broad enough that I could do anything. Upon graduation, again without any specific interest, I applied for sales and marketing jobs. I landed what I thought was my dream job in a management development program with a large company, but quickly learned that it wasn't my thing.

Fast forward several years, more studying, a move from the U.S. to Europe, another communications job, marriage - and here I am today. It's taken all this time to discover my real passion and to realize that I should have gone to art school.

After leaving my day job in March this year, I decided to dedicate myself to my "side hustle" and follow my dreams of becoming a designer. And because I know other people live similar experiences, I'm sharing it here. I've Googled "how to become a designer" more times that I can count, and while there are some helpful pieces of advice, they're pretty few and far between. How nice it would have been to have someone in the same shoes share their experiences and pass on advice.

What will follow is a series of posts about becoming a designer. Yes, some will say you can't learn to be a designer, that you either have it in you (some innate form of design sense) or you don't. But I say if you like design, even if you're not very good at first, go for it! Follow your dreams. I'm not able to teach you the fundamentals of design theory or help you understand letterforms, designing with a grid or the psychology of color - but, what I can offer is the path I took, the road that I'm still on to learn the things that allow me to do the work that I love.

Thanks for reading along. I hope you'll enjoy this part of the blog and maybe be inspired to follow your side hustle.