You can design newspapers? You’ll go far with that, really.

I love newspapers. I really, truly do.

I’m not kidding. I’m probably one of the few people in the United States that actually subscribes to home delivery. What’s even weirder is that I subscribe to multiple print publications. The New York Times, The Raleigh News & Observer, USA Today – I’ve got a subscription to them all and I actually read them!

Sadly, I’m the last of a dying breed. I’m in love with a communication medium that everybody knows is dying off quickly. That fact is a big part of why I’m at Elon in the first place. I loved newspapers so much that in 2006 I decided to attend Appalachian State University to try and pick up the skills I needed to work for one. I worked pretty much every job I could at The Appalachian, the university’s student newspaper, and learned how to distinguish between what designs looked great and what designs looked awful. And I really did enjoy it.

But in 2012, several years removed from working at the newspaper, my design skills are exactly as I left them. I know what looks good, and I know how to make it. But I don’t know why something looks good. And that’s just applied to print. Beyond that, I don’t have much design ability at all. Now that Elon’s iMedia program is taking me deeper into web design than I’ve ever been, I’m expecting to be challenged more than I ever have.

By the time this class is complete, I want to be able to take information gathered from a meeting with a client and produce a design that truly meets their needs. I want what I produce to do more than just “look good.” I want it to be better, and I want to have a reason for each design decision I make.

With so much on my plate right now, including an almost full-time job and occasional work as a freelance writer, I know I’ll be pushed. But honestly, I’d be a little upset if it were any other way.