FullBleed

Andrew Cohen abandoned a computer science degree program at George Mason University to pursue a graphic design degree, instead. It was a transition that happened naturally — from his playing “Oregon Trail” on an Apple II GS using disks that needed to be flipped halfway through the game to learning photography from his mom and sister to creating websites in Dreamweaver and Photoshop.

Now, the 24-year-old Old Town resident and suburban-Richmond native spends his time designing for the web; that is, when he’s not playing soccer, mountain biking, running, snowboarding, reading, hoarding music, drawing, photographing, catching up with his sister (who’s studying in Buenos Aires), or complementing his rewarding job at Brightline Interactive with freelance design — an endeavor he’s thought about doing full-time.

“The idea of working whenever you want, being your own boss, and having full creative control of your work (besides the client part) are all appealing things to me. I think having to be multi-faceted in business, marketing, design, and development is an interesting and fun challenge,” he said. “I’ve thought about opening up my own shop — a small operation with a friend — that’d specialize in web and branding. It’s another one of those challenges that seems like it’d be a lot of hard work, but very rewarding on a personal and creative level.

“I know I have a wide array of options, but I do know that I want to consider myself successful, well rounded, and still hungry to learn and progress. I also want to be able to still get my hands dirty designing and coding if I move up the ranks.”

Pushing himself to accomplish new levels of personal achievement is an important way Andrew shows gratitude for the people who’ve supported him; particularly, his parents.

“After my sophomore year of college, my mom was in a severe car accident that left her with a broken neck and back. While at the hospital, my father cried for the first time I ever remember … and it hit me hard. I realized that my parents have given me every opportunity to succeed. This pushed me in my final years at school to become the best I could at my craft. I found myself striving to be the best I could and preparing for the professional world so I could consider myself successful at what I do. I still believe it’s the least I could do to show my appreciation for them.”

He also credits college professors Don Starr and Anne Kerns for helping him be more vigilant in his work. Their giving him real-world career advice helped Andrew find his first job and transition from school to the workplace.

Fortunately, Andrew hasn’t seen too much of an impact on his workplace responsibilities given the economic downturn.

“I’ve found that we are doing more and more standards-based web work. When I first arrived, we were producing a fair amount of Flash-based websites and animations. I think the amount of that has declined with more people concerned about budgets. We’ve since started using more jQuery, and most of our web projects have defaulted to xhtml/css which has been a plus for me. Plus, I’ve been able to find enough freelance work to keep me occupied.”

He’s also continued occupying himself with the DC creative scene, which he said is much more than just “government-based work.”

“Since transitioning to web design, I’ve been very amazed at how talented and vast of a community DC really has. Everyone always thinks about government based work when it comes to DC, but I find there is so much more then that. A large portion of the designers I’ve met aren’t working at government contractors or with government contracts in general. I think that DC has been under estimated as having a very solid design scene, which is unfortunate with so many places putting out great work.”

He’s been working on putting out great work, too, which in part involves his justifying design decisions to clients. Early on, Andrew found he was having a difficult time defending his design choices, which was leading to his becoming a “take-orders sort of designer.”

“I’m sure most people reading this article are familiar with the always friendly and sometimes intelligent Martin Ringlein of nclud fame,” he said. “Since meeting Martin, he has given me a plethora of advice on how to grow as a designer. He helped me realize that I needed to fight for my designs more. I’ve found that my choices are trusted more now because of my ability to defend my design and stand up for my work.”

So, knowing what he knows now, what would Andrew tell his younger self?

“Stay hungry, work hard, and diversify your skill set — whether in design or other traditional art forms.”

Find Andrew online at www.cohenspire.com and www.twitter.com/andrew_cohen