"Did you study anything to be where you are now? If so, what?"

So I often get quite a bit of emails, MySpace messages, and IMs asking about certain parts of my professional life and sometimes they get a little repetitive. Nothing wrong with that, but I figured with my latest blog here, I’ll just start answering questions here and putting them into their own category. That way, perhaps some of you can find your answers already without having to wait on me to respond.

Anyway, a few of you have asked if I ever studied anything to get to where I am today.

Yes, yes I have.

With graphic and web design, for the most part, it was self-taught. I admit that I didn’t have much of a social life in high school, and aside from taking care of homework, I spent a lot of time reading websites that taught basic and advanced HTML. I would start practicing and playing around with code myself to learn what everything did and what all of it meant. I did the same thing with Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro…. but when I hit college, I not only took quite a handful of Art classes (after all, I was studying for a Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts) that included 2D and 3D Design, but before I left, I took Graphic Design 1. I was able to take the things I had studied myself over the years and incorporate it with the new material I was learning in college.

As for photography, I had my mother teach me a few of the raw basics while I was in high school, and like I had done with graphics and code, I just started to play around and experiment with things myself. When I hit college, I signed up for actual Photography courses– Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced.

With marketing, I honestly didn’t take any courses about this. It was just another thing that I dove into (starting with street teaming for labels and music promotion companies) and watched others who were above me; took a few notes; and started applying them to my own tasks and work. Do I recommend the “just winging it” idea for everyone? Nope. I know it wouldn’t have hurt me to take some marketing courses while I had them offered to me; There’s always always more to learn about anything. Hell, I’m still learning, watching my fellow coworkers and colleagues in action and learning from them.

With selling merch on the road… again, I didn’t really take any courses in schools for it. It’s a lot like getting a job at a local retail store, only you’re on the road all the time. I guess if there’s anything that really needs to be taught about this is the concept and rules of road life to begin with.

As for modeling, yet again, I didn’t take any classes unless you count the few workshops about runway that my former agency sent me to. I don’t do this professionally, so I’m probably the wrong person to even ask about this one regarding any of it, haha.