By Lakhram Bhagirat
Graphic designing is as old as time but has evolved over the years. It is now at a place where visual masterpieces can be created with just a computer.
Based on information, graphic design dates back past the Egyptian hieroglyphs to at least 17,000-year-old cave paintings. The term graphic design originated in the 1920s print industry. It continues to cover a range of activities including logo creation.
Graphic design in this sense concerns aesthetic appeal and marketing. Graphic design is a craft where professionals create visual content to communicate messages. By applying visual hierarchy and page layout techniques, designers use typography and pictures to meet users’ specific needs and focus on the logic of displaying elements in interactive designs, to optimize the user experience.
Creating visual masterpieces is just one part of the job as a graphic designer according to 22-year-old Jason Taylor.
The young man is mostly self-taught and is currently a graphic designer with Modern Grafix. However, to say that Jason is just a graphic artist would be unappreciated his talent. The young man is a visual creator at best.
Through his creations, he is able to bring raw emotion and real thoughts to life and that is one of the things that makes Jason stand out from the crowd.
Like almost every creative, the journey for Jason to get to where he is today is one that just strengthens his resolve to make an impact through his work. While his end game is to position himself in a league that is different from the others, Jason is more focused on ensuring that his clients are blown away when they see their vision coming to life.
The young man was born in Bomfin in neighbouring Brazil but moved to Guyana and settled in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) with his mother. He would later move to the Region 9 (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) village of Karasabai where he lived with his grandparents.
After primary school he moved back to Georgetown with his mother where he completed his secondary education at Cummings Lodge Secondary in 2015.
“Some challenges I faced while growing up were language barrier while I lived in Karasabai Village. It was hard to keep up with the children and adults that spoke the language but I later tried my best to learn and understand which made my life much easier. Another challenge I faced was the up and down movement while growing up, from my mother to grandmother. It was too much for a young child. I had to adjust every time I moved to a new place and I had to make new friends and that was a challenge for me,” he related.
In ways, more than one, the childhood experiences of being able to climb mountains, swimming in the vast Rupununi and merely experiencing the vastness of the Rupununi fuelled the creative passion in Jason.
After he would have completed secondary school, he enrolled at the ER Burrowes School of Art but due to the lack of teachers, he was forced to basically teach himself. He was later introduced to Andre Jacobus who began introducing him to the world of graphic designing.
“I saw some of his work and I was fascinated, but like any artist, I could not duplicate his style so I found my own and worked from there. Graphics design was not the field I always wanted to get into, I wanted to get into cinematography and I still do,” he said.
“Being a graphic designer mainly focuses on creating and designing ideas and concepts using a computer software and bringing same ideas to reality. A challenge faced in my profession is the late hours of work to complete designs but the best moment I had in my profession is being able to see customers happy and satisfied with the work I had completed. That is the most satisfying feeling,” Jason added.
The young man is hoping to delve deeper into the world of cinematography and create more content.
While he is working to achieve that, he has some advice for anyone now starting out in the field of graphic designing: “My advice for young people thinking of getting into my field would be to welcome constructive criticism, always listen to and do not get caught up in striving because in designing an artwork, it is never done there is always more to be done. Also, enjoy the adventure.”
