Kia Valdez Bettcher

Designer/Drawing Addict
barrel with torch on top

Embracing the Bottom of the Learning Curve

I’ve always had a complicated relationship with learning as a designer. It’s satisfying to gain new skills, but staying in my comfort zone feels so much easier. I want to push myself and get awesome results, but there’s an intimidating hurdle of not knowing how to start. The bottom of the learning curve is a scary hurdle to confront. 3D design had that hurdle stalling me from progressing. Dipping my toes into 3D modelling and quitting after a week was a common occurrence for years. There’s dozens of abandoned attempts sitting on my old hard drives. Something always prevented me from wanting to continue. Normals, modifiers, rendering — 3D felt too overwhelming and vast. I felt stumped. How do you get started learning something when you don’t even know what you don’t know?
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Cultivating Candid Feedback in Creative Culture

A big cake with icing on topI’ve been exposed to a variety of corporate cultures. Some fill me with inspiration, fellowship, and support, where my co-workers are my best friends and I trust them to give honest feedback — knowing they want to solve problems, and help me produce my best work. Others, leave me exhausted: struggling with job satisfaction and feeling alone. At the root of this, is a feeling that surfacing issues or concerns to managers will fall on deaf ears. When managers listen and do not take action or follow up with action, I’m left feeling powerless to affect change.

If this sounds familiar — have hope. With a few insights about shaping feedback and some tips to cultivate an open, supportive, and candid culture, you’ll be on your way to creating an environment where you can thrive together. It all starts with good feedback.
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Great Pumpkin Showdown 2017


Hallowe’en at gskinner means two traditions:

The first tradition is our annual pumpkin carving afternoon. Earlier in the week, we announced some teams, and on Friday we brought in food, drinks, snacks, and some classic Tim Burton Hallowe’en movies. The day was punctuated with visits from Dodo, our office dog for the day, on loan from Chris K.

The second tradition is the design and development of our Pumpkin Voting App. This privilege falls on our newest team member(s). They manage all the project stages, from initial sketches and ideation, right through deployment! It’s a great opportunity to provide some training and practice with real deadlines.
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Things I Didn’t Learn In Design School

The best decision I’ve ever made was going to design school. Surrounded by talent, designer friends, and inspiring instructors, I was able to improve more than I could have ever imagined. After four years of amazing time in school, I received several job offers after our graduate portfolio show, and ended up working at a digital experience agency: gskinner.

Until the moment I started work, I thought I knew pretty much everything to succeed professionally, and there was no doubt in my naïve mind I would soon become “the SUPERSTAR” designer of the company. But I found the reality to be quite different from what I imagined. Transitioning from school to a professional work environment, I felt ill-equipped as there were many things I hadn’t been exposed to at school. It was like being thrown in the middle of the ocean and having to learn how to swim all over again.

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Why I Practice Design After 25 Years

It’s been 25 years since I first double-clicked a desktop icon that changed my life. The year was 1992 and I had just opened up Photoshop 2.5. I had no idea what I was doing. Fascinated by computers and making digital art, I didn’t care if I could make something look great. I just clicked on a tool and tried making anything. With each attempt, I increased my abilities and the outcomes became more complex, meaningful, and intentional. Practicing became the foundation for my education, career, and part of my ethos as a Creative Director—here’s the impact it’s had, and how you might be feeling if you’re not practicing.

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