Style Scoop Interview: Graphic Design Student Jocelyn Goode

FIDM Graphic Design Student Jocelyn Goode, in her second year on the San Francisco campus, recently won JCPenney's national Reusable Bag Contest. The bag, featuring her signature, will be sold in JCPenney stores next spring. In our latest Style Scoop Interview, find out how this busy student stays inspired! --Kim

Name: Jocelyn Goode
URL: www.coroflot.com/jocelyngoode
Major/Grad Year: Graphic Design/ March 2009
Campus: San Francisco

Tell us about your job or internship:
I am a contracted teaching artist with the Imagine Bus Project. I also teach art to incarcerated teenagers in San Francisco's Juvenile Hall and middle school students at Martin Luther King Jr. School. I freelance as an fine artist too.

Job Title: Artist, Solutionist, Visionary

How did you find out about FIDM and what made you feel FIDM was right for you?
I was working at a non-profit, writing curriculum, and running youth programs but I saw the limitations on my creativity and ability to grow in that organization. I had already completed several years of training in visual and performing arts and wanted to create a career around my passion.

 

While dabbling in graphic design, I discovered that many creative jobs today required graphic skills. My traditional training in the arts did not give me what I needed so I began researching ways to supplement my education. FIDM's program offered everything I was looking for in one comprehensive program, direct and to the point-and it was only 18 months!! I was thrilled and immediately applied.

How did you choose your major?
I knew that once I learned graphic design, I could use it as a steady income while I took business risks as an artist. I recognized that every industry has a need for graphics so even if my fine art career was progressing slowly, I wouldn't have to do the not-so-glamourous staving artist thing. I also saw how graphic design would make me more independent and self-sufficient as an entrepreneur and artist.

What are some of your top sources of inspiration?
My son because I want to use art and design to create solutions to the problems I see in my community so he can have better options and opportunities. I am also inspired by people who dared to follow their ambitions, who embraced leadership and social responsibility, and who were courageous and resilient despite the odds against them. I read autobiographies and books on leadership to continue to cultivate those qualities in myself.

What are some of your greatest accomplishments?
I recently won national competition with JCPenney's. I created a design that will be featured on their resusable bags. Included in my prize is my signature that will appear on the bags to be sold at 850 JCPenney's stores beginning April 22, 2009-Earth Day. I also will receive a $1000 gift card in JCPenney's merchandise and a trip to Texas to tour their headquarters and meet the CEO who personally selected my design. That was pretty major!

Honestly, I have had some great accomplishments throughout my life but many challenges as well. I am most proud of getting to the point where I am now. Exactly one year ago, I was facing some real obstacles: I got laid off from my job when I was eight months pregnant, my relationship fell apart leaving me single and alone since all my family lives in my hometown of Queens, NY and I was a new mother with a three-month old, trying to figure out how I was going to go forward with my plans to earn a graphic design degree. Now, my art and design career are fusing together beautifully, I have less than six months until I complete my program, and I have a new partner who is helping me build the family life I have always wanted.

What is your favorite thing about attending FIDM?
The access, expertise and sincerity of my instructors. They have experience and knowledge that they willingly pass on. They truly want to see their students excel and make themselves available to offer help beyond class time. Teachers like Lisa Hoffman and JeanAnnette Saulsbury are so engaging and inspiring, they make me want to constantly step my game up.

Anything else you'd like to tell aspiring FIDM Students?
Be prepared to commit to the curriculum and to yourself. There are so many opportunities and resources available if you seek them out and make being the best a real goal. The time you have at FIDM is short compared to a traditional 4-year program, so it is important to maximize your experience by fully embracing your assignments and seeking ways to connect what you are learning to the world around you.

Comments

[Alexis Aquino]

I have had the distinct pleasure of knowing this young lady from high school and watching the evolution of her art. In her teenage years I was overwhelmed by the maturity, depth and extraordinary passion represented in her work, and I recall being excited by the notion of what possibilities lie ahead for her in her career. I am even more excited to witness the realization of her potential and this is surely only the beginning of many accomplishments worthy of recognition to come!

[Busby SEO Test]

thanks for some advice the this matter good job

[r4]

Hi,

Graphic design is one of the most under-estimated, under paid, yet most important career paths in the world. Design influences and effects everything in and around us. It aggravates our intelligence, beautifies our emotions and gratifies our senses. Yet the average person thinks if you slap together some primary colors and a photo of their favorite singer in Photoshop, save it as a .jpeg AND a .psd file, that they are now graphic designers. It’s not as easy as “common knowledge” may lead you to believe.

[Link Building]

I think Graphic design is one of the most under-estimated, under paid, yet most important career paths in the world. Design influences and effects everything in and around us