Grace started doing graphic design her freshman year of college when she was running low on cash and needed to have Christmas presents for 8 people in her family. She decided to try designing some posters for each person in her family according to an activity they did or a quote that they liked. It turned out that Grace really enjoyed the process of designing and her posters came out really well! Grace did not have any formal training in graphic design and she never read any books about it. She began to design more things for the Grove City Theatre department as well as design things for other offices on campus. Last fall, Grace took her first class with Nate Mucha. She credits Nate Mucha with motivating her to pursue design, but she also states that he helped her understand what a difficult craft it is. Grace has improved her design skills by practicing the craft itself, reading lots of books, following blogs, and looking at design around her. She is learning to develop her own style and her own preferences. Over the summer, Grace took an unpaid internship with a local business doing their graphic design. Through that internship, Grace really learned how to design better and became familiar with design software. She definitely saw that she improved. Grace began to gain traction in the Grove City community as a person who was experienced in design. With that, she was contacted by her friend to design her wedding invitations. She was also asked to design items for Grove City’s branch of the CCO. Grace now has a design portfolio website and a wedding invitations website. Check them both out!
http://graceleuenberger.wix.com/portfolio
http://www.weddingwire.com/biz/grace-leuenberger-designs-grove-city/bcac9cd057c73900.html
In the bio on her website Grace mentions having discovered design by accident. I found this to be an interesting statement. While not something that she originally set out to accomplish, design has found its way into her life as something she enjoys doing and seems to have a talent for. This is a great example of how we should be open to trying new things, because they can lead to great opportunities.