4 years chasing dream
In 2016, I started studying my college in the United States. I entered the Product Design department of ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, Los Angeles. Compare to traditional art schools where students need to learn painting and sculpting, ArtCenter is a business & marketing-centered design school. What we learned at ArtCenter was about creating ideas and selling them. Such education made me who I am today, a designer who serves others, and believes design is always a service industry.
What designers do might not be important. However, the design needs to take full responsibility to fulfil the user’s needs and help the business succeed. Especially when designing for business, designers need to make choices between perfection but time-consuming and restricted budget and time. ArtCenter prepared me for such conditions and built me into a professional designer.
ArtCenter was like a company to us, and the professors were our clients, classmates are competitors. And each class we had 10 mins presenting our work to the client. Hundreds of presentations trained us to keep improving ourselves to meet higher requirements, including professional design skills as well as excellent public speaking. ArtCenter is also well-known for its heavy workload. For 4 years, I had experience sleeping in the computer lab & all-nighters in the model shop. I always pushed myself to reach a higher level of perfection, such experience was a solid foundation for me as a robust & professional designer.
During ArtCenter, I interned at Xiaomi, Kohler, and Ant Group. I participated in SIG Combibloc’s sponsorship class in 2019, exchanged to INSEAD in 2021, and graduated with honor as a bachelor in science in 2021. I majored in Product Design, and minored in Business.
Other experiences & awards:
Me first time applying for a scholarship.