I will try as much as possible to remember all the decisions that led me to this career, the details will be vague, the emotions I had at the decision points will not be remembered. I will assume that all the decisions I made were rational and backed by valid reasons.
Back to school
Back in 2010 when I thought being an architect would be a good idea, I am not sure if it was the money or the idea of designing houses that appealed to me, probably a mix of both.
Anyways, I did my selection of courses as any Kenyan hoping to enter a public university would, and unfortunately I did not get any confirmation for the first round of selection (I can’t even remember what I selected on the first round) so I did the second selection which you can say were the remaining slots from round one.
The second selection went something like this, Architecture (which I now remember was in the first selection, and I added it as an option on the second selection even though I did not get a letter for it, I’ve always been a hopeful guy), Economics (was it even economics), something else as the third option and finally Fine Art which I happened to spot it from the corner of my eyes when reading through the list of courses on the billboard at Nairobi University, and I thought, why not, I mean I can draw or maybe no other option made sense.
Fast forward weeks later, I get a letter from Kenyatta university and let’s just say I was going to become a Fine artist (with a fine face…, no takers). Was I excited, sad, whatever? Not really, I was surprisingly calm or should I saw I was meh!
So I spent the next four years refining my skills to beat deadlines working on graphic design, painting and ceramics projects. I chose graphic design because it would clearly be the most favourable to get a job in the job market, painting because I could go at it on my own and make a living, and ceramics because I love building things with my hands. I eventually chose ceramics as a major because it was the most ‘scientific’ of the three, I mean why would I major in something in which the output or the final product would be highly opinionated, yes graphic design has rules and principles you can learn but not worth majoring, painting on the other hand was making millions for painters who did not even have any formal training (not that it is necessary) but ceramics felt like I was in a lab with all the underlying chemistry which I really enjoyed, I mean really enjoyed.
Fast forward years 4+ years (the + is for the extra semesters chasing music subjects I apparently did not do, I know right, where is music coming from, very strange) I can now say I am a graphic designer, painter and ceramist.
From school to the streets to a job
The usual happened, graphic design was the only skill I could apply a job for, painting is just panting and ceramics turned out to need some serious capital to even consider I mean who I going to buy all the equipment and where in God’s green earth do I find clay out here! Fending for yourself took a whole new meaning.
I managed to get a job (graphic design) I forgot the details on whether I applied but I think they called school for a list of designers and I got the job, I was the only candidate. The pay was good for a graduate, and the only thing I can show for the pay from my first job is this PC I am typing this post one.
Back to the streets
Turns out running a business is not easy, speaking on behalf of my boss then, I was close enough to see all the responsibilities he had on-top of running a digital marketing agency as the HR, accountant, marketer and more, things really slowed down so we made a deal where I could work three days a week an I could run wild outside for the other two days.
This job is where I got introduced to HTML, I had never thought about it but websites had to be coded to work and as the designer (I did not know what UI design was), it was fascinating that you could make static design interactive, this was my next ceramics moment, the idea of making something interactive was really exciting for me. So I started learning HTML, then CSS came naturally (I still wonder why CSS is difficult for some developers, I believe it’s the design aspect of CSS because if it cannot be the syntax) and finally JavaScript.
UI design
At this point all I knew was that UI design was design for interfaces, my CV’s began to mention UI design, I wasn’t yet comfortable with coding to mention it on my CV.
Remember the free two days
I did apply for a job advertised on Fuzu at the time for a UI designer, I got called for an interview, got asked the money question, was told ‘we will call you’ I knew it was a lie so I countered the ‘we will call you’ with a ‘I will work for free for two weeks, if you no like, I go’. I started the following day.
it was a three month contract, and of course they liked 🙂 so I did the app UI design but I can’t say the coded version was an exact look alike of the UI design I did.
I knew I had to figure out front-end development because ya’ll ain’t messing with my designs like that.
Finally
Fast forward years later, I am probably not yet a pro-max pro, but I can do front-end really well I mean reeeally well. So what am I now, a front-end developer and UI designer who will eventually do ceramics again one day.