When a new friend asks me what I do for a living, it takes me more than a few sentences to explain.
I juggle two lives: one as a freelance illustrator who specializes in hand lettering, and another as a program manager at little company called Facebook.
For my day job as a Design Program Manager, I operationalize our design processes to allow my team of product designers, content strategists, and UX researchers to do what they do best - create meaningful products. Though technical design skills are not a requirement for this role, I’m proactively finding ways to inspire creativity in my team to foster a tight-knit design culture and enable them to thrive. (P.S. I wrote a whole Medium article about this here.)
But when the sun goes down, that’s when the real creative juices start flowing.
As a hand lettering illustrator, I draw inspirational messages in my sketchbook, paint colorful murals in local cities, and collaborate with fellow creatives and brands who share the same values as me. I enjoy lettering because it allows me to inspire creativity and active living to the people who surround me.
Looking back, I can tell you my journey wasn’t straightforward. I studied at UCLA pursuing an engineering degree and it wasn’t until later that I realized I wasn’t so passionate about building circuits and coding. Instead, I was much more interested in immersing myself in the arts, appreciating well-crafted design, and building relationships with those in the creative community.
I picked up lettering at the beginning of 2015 (almost 5 years ago at the time of writing this post) and I’ve never looked back.
I wake up every day excited to create something new for the world. Whether it be for prospective clients, my social media audience, my friends and family, or myself, I hope to continue working on meaningful projects and bring positive changes to people’s lives.
