Blair Wesley: Design Student
Blair Wesley NKU ‘21
Blair Wesley is a Visual Communication Design student at Northern Kentucky University, graduating in the Fall. He is receiving a BA degree with a minor in marketing. He has the hopes of working in digital design specifically in UI/UX design area.
Jake: What is the biggest effect COVID-19 has had on you, as a designer?
Blair: COVID-19 has given me nothing but time in every facet of my life. In regards to design it has given me time to really understand where my talents lie and what areas of design I want to pursue.
J: What is the biggest effect COVID-19 has had on you, that doesn’t relate to you as a designer?
B: Aside from design; the biggest effect that covid has had on me is my new-found awareness in the world around me. Ranging from tangible things like how often I sanitize to things like new music I listen to and why I listen to. For better or worse the pandemic has slowed life down for me and given me time to breathe and really flesh out my reasoning in things.
J: Has it affected you, being a design student? Do you believe you’re still learning as much as you should?
B: I certainly believe that my education has been negatively impacted in the fact that even though our design is digital nothing like the face to face collaboration I encountered with students and professors simply cannot be replicated through means of video chat.
J: If and when, we go back to normal, do think things will change within the design world?
B: I think that if and when we go back to normal designer’s will be much more aware and thought conscious in their design process and what they make.
J: How has COVID-19 changed you as a designer?
B: As previously mentioned COVID-19 has made me more aware and given me a lot more time to understand my own design process. I knew my style before this pandemic, but all this time I have let me understand why I gravitate toward the styles that I do
UNHEARD OF Logos
These logos are for a retail store by the name of UNHEARD OF located in downtown Cincinnati that Blair has worked on for t-shirts and other merchandise for the store.
J: Does it differ your perspective at all, as a practicing creative?
B: The pandemic has certainly helped me in my creative perspective in the regard that as previously mentioned that I now have the time and capacity to figure out my style.
J: Has COVID-19 opened you up to other artistic practices or hobbies, other than design, like it has for others?
B: Yes. Covid was the time that I had figured out where my intentions in design finally lie. I recently turned my endeavors from things like illustration and typography, to front end developing and UX/UI design.
J: Has COVID-19 helped you or hurt you as a designer? Explain.
B: Covid has helped me as a designer. As previously mentioned, i finally figured out why make design decisions. I also was given plenty of time to keep up on new designers, learn new facets of design, and hone new and old skills.
J: What is something positive that you can say about this journey of COVID-19? Related to design, or not.
B: Something positive that came from covid was that I came to realize what was important to me and the value in things that’s I lost touch in. Seeing my friends as often as I did, seeing movies, going to dinner etc etc. I now hold these seemingly minuscule things extremely close to my heart.
J: If you have one piece of advice for any struggling designers or artists during this time, what would it be?
B: One thing I can say to designers is even if you don’t have creative juices flowing, keep your eyes open. Write it down in your notes app, you’ll never know when you will get that sudden urge to create and jotting down everything you see will jumpstart your process.