Welcome!
My name is Elizabeth Howes and I am from Suffield, Ohio. I have two guinea pigs named Twix and Dunkin and going home to them makes my day every time. My favorite color is yellow because it brings me joy and reminds me of the positive aspects of life. When I was in middle school, I had a series of situations that caused me a good deal of trauma, and ever since, I have struggled deeply with mental health and have been learning ways to implement positivity into my life. I see design as a tool to solve the issues I see around me, which is what ignites so much excitement in me. The possibility of changing my situation brings me hope for the future, rather than living a life where I am stagnant and accepting of the world I live in. I aim to learn something new every day and my main goal in life is to just grow, to be better than I was before. I wish to advocate for those who can’t for themselves and communicate about topics that are uncomfortable. I believe that we have to have uncomfortable conversations to improve anything in our world, especially in relation to design.
Influential Experiences
In high school, I took college classes alongside my high school courses, both in which I worked on numerous projects that greatly influenced my interest in graphic design.
- In my sophomore English class, we created a Google website where we displayed our evaluations of a book we studied. This expanded my knowledge of what graphic design can me to me personally, and what it can mean to others.
- During my boredom during the covid lockdown in 2020, I made faceless drawings out of images of my friends and family. I have never been someone who draws often but I found that I really enjoyed creating them and the reactions that I received from them.
- In an introductory graphic design class, I took my senior year, I just was so elated to finally learn something that interested me.
In the future, I aim to be a part of a design team, and eventually the head of a design department in a corporation-type environment. I wish to do something in which I am advocating for others in some type of way. My dream design job would be to work with Crocs in some way, whether that be branding, advertising, or actually designing the shoes. I have 13 pairs of Crocs at this time and I don’t think I will stop loving them anytime soon. In general, though, working in advertising or branding is what I am aiming for.