Episode 2
The Art Student Experience Pt. 2
Show Notes:
In the second episode of "The Art Student Experience," the host, Marisela, talks with her long-time friend and talented artist/designer Huitzilli Oronia about her experience being a Digital Design student. Marisela and Huitzilli also discuss some things they would have done differently going into the Digital Design program and some stressful but exciting plans for after they graduate in May.
Subscribe to the pod if you want to hear more about the art student experience and about being a professional creative!
Visit our website for episode notes and transcriptions: https://soyouwanttobeacreative.squarespace.com/episodes/episode2
Find us on social media: @soyouwanttobeacreative on Instagram
Intro/Outro Music: Atmospheric Pad Loop by Yellow Tree on Freesound.org: https://freesound.org/people/YellowTree/sounds/458114/
Mentions:
Huitzilli's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/huitzrosalia/
Huizilli's Website: huitzrosalia.com
Transcription:
Marisela Guillen 0:00
Hello and welcome everyone, I'm Marisela and here on so you want to be a creative, I interview people to give you a look into various areas of the creative field. This week marks the second week in the series, I'm calling the art student experience for this series I'm interviewing various current and past students who are in art school or are studying their craft and what advice they would give to fellow or future students. Today, I'm interviewing my friend Huitzilli, who attended school with me throughout my college experience. She's an amazing brand and motion designer and artist, so why don't we jump in and see what she has to say about her experience. So I think we'll start out with, how do you introduce yourself to new people in a school context or work in general. Who are you? Tell my podcast guests who you are.
Huitzilli Oronia 1:14
I'm Huitzilli Oronia, I remember when I was younger I used to say my name really quietly because I didn't want to actually say my name I didn't have the confidence to say, you know, my name's we'd see the off on you. Now I do it, people usually usually asked me to repeat myself at least twice, so I usually always introduce myself twice, and I tell people I'm a senior college student and I'm studying graphic design I never say digital design and I never say motion design because people sometimes get confused about those and I don't always want to explain, so I usually just say I'm a graphic designer.
Marisela Guillen 1:46
That makes sense. I have never adopted that thinking I always end up explaining, or I'll just say that and I'll say Digital design or motion design and then I'll just let it hang, if they don't ask me questions.
Huitzilli Oronia 2:01
I do that sometimes I'm like I Please don't ask me questions, I don't even know how to explain this to you.
Marisela Guillen 2:08
Me too, I'm like, I don't even really understand myself.
Huitzilli Oronia 2:12
We're still in that awkward stage where people are asking us what are you going to do after school
and I'm like,
you know I've been consumed by school for the past four years I haven't had a chance to think about it so I don't know we'll see where life takes me I guess.
Marisela Guillen 2:27
Me too I'm not enjoying the constant, what are you going to do with the rest of your life question.
Huitzilli Oronia 2:34
Yeah, me neither.
Marisela Guillen 2:35
Okay, before we go into your school experiences, what are three fun, interesting things about you?
Huitzilli Oronia 2:43
Okay, let's see. I always tell people that I have six siblings because I feel like that is a good icebreaker I usually gets people like asking me questions and it makes the situation less awkward. I have four sisters, two brothers, I'm a twin, that's always interesting people like to learn about that, and I always tell people my name means hummingbird, that's pretty interesting, I, those are my top three I think
Marisela Guillen 3:08
They're a good top three.
Huitzilli Oronia 3:09
Thanks.
Marisela Guillen 3:10
I didn't know that 'Huitzilli' meant hummingbird, until I met you.
Huitzilli Oronia 3:13
Oh really?!
Marisela Guillen 3:13
Yeah,
Huitzilli Oronia 3:14
oh wow,
yeah and people always ask me like, What language is that, and like I always say Aztec even though there's no such languages Aztec, I'm guilty of getting into that like colonizers belief that the language is the people, but it's Nahuatl but whenever I say that they're like what, what's that?
Marisela Guillen 3:32
Let me put this in words you might understand.
Huitzilli Oronia 3:35
Haha. Maybe if you know. If you even know what Aztec is.
Marisela Guillen 3:39
I feel like we covered this, but what do you do for a living right now?
Huitzilli Oronia 3:42
So, I am a student, I'm employed by UCD so the University of Colorado Denver I'm a student Digital Designer so I make promotional posters and different graphics for them. I haven't done that in a while. So mostly I just say I'm a student.
Marisela Guillen 3:58
Do you miss designing posters?
Huitzilli Oronia 4:01
I miss a Yeah, I do actually sometimes miss it. It was fun. I felt like a real graphic designer when I was working for the school, I felt like I was getting a lot of experience in the field while I was still learning the field so that was kind of interesting I was learning graphic design but working in graphic design at the same time and it was fun. I sometimes do miss it, it was a lot of work though, especially with schoolwork. At the same time, so I enjoyed the time off to focus on school.
Marisela Guillen 4:26
I'm glad that you've been able to find joy in that. and then you missed it, but I understand what you mean. It's very stressful to have a work study or a job with the school and also be going to school.
Huitzilli Oronia 4:37
Yeah.
Marisela Guillen 4:38
So, I don't know if we've ever talked in depth about why you chose to study a creative field. What is your answer that you give people when they ask you why did you go into digital design or to study a creative career?
Huitzilli Oronia 4:52
I think, for me, it was a no brainer. Honestly, since I was little, I've always been into creating things, drawing sculpting building stuff, and it never really occurred to me that I would do anything else but be creative, And I used to say I was gonna be an artist when I grew up and then I started getting worried about it because, you know, people say that artists don't make money and artists don't have careers and I think that sort of pushed me away from the traditional arts, I really enjoyed painting and drawing but when it came to choosing a major for college, I felt like people were gonna judge if I decided to go into something like illustration or even like painting or drawing, so I started looking into ways that I could be creative but still make money, and then I found, I went to a technical school, in high school actually and the only creative program they had at that school was graphic design and so I thought why not, it was a graphic design and photography. So I just went for it. I didn't know anything about graphic design but I thought it's creative enough, I'll be fine. And it actually turned out to be something that I really
enjoyed
I feel like graphic design has a bit more structure than the traditional arts and I value them for very different reasons like I really like how free it is to be a traditional artist and how everything you make is an expression of your deepest emotions and your deepest thoughts and things. And then, on the other hand, graphic design, it's like, you still get to do the creative things and you still get to work in a creative field but it's a little more structured, which appealed to me as somebody who really likes organization and like sometimes it's nice to be told what to do, because sometimes you know you have those creative blocks in your imagination that's running dry and you need someone to tell you, "Hey, make this for me," I kind of like that so I guess that's how I ended up where I am today, there are things that I don't like about it and mostly I really like what I do and I think it kind of appeals to both sides of who I am the organized side and the creative free side.
Marisela Guillen 6:48
I think that's a really good way to put it. I think that's why I was drawn to digital or graphic design as well. I also was always an artist, and always wanted to be one I kind of walked away from that for a while during high school and then came back to it, my senior year when I had a really encouraging teacher, and she was like, Hey, if you want to make money and do art he should do graphic design, and I was like, "oh okay". Yeah, and I think I was really unhappy the first year or two in the program at UCD
because I wanted to do the show,
but I grew to love it and I really liked the organizational aspect of it and having clients that tell you what they want, even though sometimes they don't know what they want.
Huitzilli Oronia 7:30
Yeah, yeah that's that's definitely a negative side of the career like not everyone knows what they know they don't want
Marisela Guillen 7:40
you get to be a problem solver as well.
Huitzilli Oronia 7:42
Yeah. Agreed
Marisela Guillen 7:45
So, going back to
studying a creative field. Do you have any advice you would give to a young, aspiring designer?
Huitzilli Oronia 7:54
Something that really changed the game for me was finding out that at first in the program I thought that graphic design was really constricting is that the right word, like I felt very like I was in this box and I wasn't allowed to step out and use my own creative abilities to problem solve like you said. Until I figured out that there was many fields of digital design, you know, it wasn't just about creating logos and pamphlets and books for people when I found out about motion design and how much creative freedom you have with motion design and it's a lot more than just making animations, it's deeper it's about telling stories, it's about sharing other people's stories, sharing your own. I think that's what made design really gratifying for me personally was finding out that there was deeper meaning behind design. Outwardly, it appears very like you're working for. Like you're feeding into a capitalistic society, you know what I mean like you're creating logos for people to sell things to other people, you're branding businesses so they can sell products or sell ideas or whatever to other people and it felt very bland. It was really missing something, until I figured out that behind branding is story once again, this idea of narrative this idea of using visual language and using brand language to appeal to people's emotions and to the ethos of society and that's what I really liked about branding and that's what really like, wow, that that pushed me to appreciate it for more than just how it looks on the outside, for more than just the logos and color scheme and typography. So I would say, My advice for young designers is to find something that makes them feel like they're contributing to society in a positive way whatever way that looks for them. For me it was using narrative and storytelling to make society a better place and to help other people.
Marisela Guillen 9:44
Yeah, same here. That was also what made me enjoy graphic design and digital design was the storytelling and narrative aspect.
In terms of being a student. Would you have advice for prospective students?
Huitzilli Oronia 9:59
Yeah, I'm not sure because I would say like, I didn't, I didn't give digital design a trial run, I guess is what a lot of students do like they come in undeclared and they like try out different programs until they figure out what they like, And I feel like that can be very helpful for some people to just give it a try and see how they like it. For me I think I was, I was really strict with myself, and I went in and I said I'm gonna do this and I, and I did it, and you know I do wish that I explored some other avenues, even if it was to do a dual major do a minor, I think I really shut myself into a box and kind of forced myself to just stick with the program and do it and I'm not saying that I didn't enjoy it because like in the end I did a lot of stuff that I'm really proud of. I just wish that I would have explored other avenues like I wish I would have done an illustration minor, I wish I would have looked into painting or drawing, even if it was just on the side, and it wasn't as my major, so I would suggest like I think a lot of creatives are very creative and a lot of different ways, whether you see things in a 3d way you know you like sculpture, or is it 2d Or is it digital
or traditional,
I would say, take all those interests seriously and explore them, and don't let one compete with the other.
Marisela Guillen 11:11
That's a really good advice.
Huitzilli Oronia 11:12
Yeah,
Marisela Guillen 11:13
I wish I had done that,
Huitzilli Oronia 11:14
I know I know you and me are like in really similar boats like we kind of did the exact same thing in college, and I remember when we were sophomores and we were like, damn, I really wish that I, you know, did an illustration minor and then another year went by I really wish I did an illustration minor until it was like a senior year and we're like well we don't want to be in school for another few years so whatever. But yeah I do wish I explored the other aspects of my creativity.
Marisela Guillen 11:42
Yeah, I think it takes a lot of courage to like yourself figure things out and like take that leap. I
admire Rowan
for going for a film major as well I could not do that,
Huitzilli Oronia 11:52
and Michaela she did that too
Marisela Guillen 11:55
mhmm
Huitzilli Oronia 11:55
is, wow, that's cool, they both did something in addition to, you know, feed that feed that traditional creative in them which is cool.
Marisela Guillen 12:04
Yeah, yeah, and for the people listening, our friend Rowan was in the digital design program with us, and they are going into the film program at our school to study scriptwriting for another year or so, and our friend Michaela, who was also in the digital design program double majored in digital design and music throughout the full time we were in college I have no idea how either of them did that.
Huitzilli Oronia 12:30
Power to them
Marisela Guillen 12:31
Yeah.
What is something you wish you knew before going to school for a creative field.?
Huitzilli Oronia 12:39
I wish, and I still wish this, that there was more opportunities for students to learn about the business of creativity, but I don't know, because at the same time I am kind of on that side of the argument that says artists don't have to sell work to be successful and artists don't have to make money to be successful because art is more than that, to me, at least, art is about expression. So, yeah, I'm not sure if I'm, I don't know if I have an answer for that one actually, I can't think of anything that I wish I knew. It's hard work. I think a lot of people hear that you're an art student and think you sit around drawing all day, but they have no idea how hard it is to kind of be forced into creative thinking and the creative process. When that's forced, it feels really awful, it can feel really like your worth is measured by how unique your ideas are and how fast you can like roll out these unique ideas and roll out these creative solutions so I guess I wish I was more aware of how hard that can be on your mental health, to be forced into create the creative process, I think that there needs to be more preparation for creative students going into school for how they can take care of themselves, and take care of their own mental health and remember that your creative successes shouldn't be measured by how quickly you can roll out these ideas.
Marisela Guillen 13:59
What is something that you do to take care of your mental health during those times?
Huitzilli Oronia 14:04
I think lately what's been really helping me is that if I can't come up with a creative idea I just go to sleep. If I'm staying up really late and I can't, you know, figure out how this certain thing should look how this poster should look, if I can't come up with concepts for thumbnail sketches, I'll just go to sleep, and I'll put it out of my mind and I won't think about it for a while and then I'll come back to it and that's been really helpful also learning just learning your creative limits, sometimes will ask a lot from you, in terms of creative thought, and you just don't always have it in you so this might not be the best advice, depending on who's receiving it, but I'll, I'll skip assignments, I really will. If I don't have the creative energy to come up with these ideas, then I'll just turn it in late, or I'll think that it can be really debilitating to have your creativity forced like that, and I'm not a fan, so I'll just give it a rest and like come back to it later.
Marisela Guillen 15:00
Yeah. I think that that's a good policy, I know that people are prospective students out there might think it's the end of the world if you skip an assignment, but usually it's not usually it'll be fine, you can always ask for an extension, there's usually late policies you probably won't get docked that much, and if you do, then maybe you need to talk to your professor and get that extension.
Huitzilli Oronia 15:19
Yeah and I would always say, talk to your professor if you're going to do that because open communication is everything, and if they're understanding, then they'll understand because chances are they're a creative themselves and they know what it's like and so I always say the least you can do is reach out and ask for help, and if they're not understanding. Well then, you know, that kind of tells you something about the type of person that they are.
Marisela Guillen 15:42
Yeah, let me know out there if you guys want me to make a podcast about dealing with difficult professors.
Huitzilli Oronia 15:48
Yeah, that could, that could span on for a while, like, let's, let's just put that out there.
Marisela Guillen 15:54
Yeah. And you're welcome to come on for that again,
Huitzilli Oronia 15:57
Yeah definitely.
Marisela Guillen 15:58
Kay. Well,
I ran through all my scripted questions. Is there anything else you would like to say on the student experience?
Huitzilli Oronia 16:07
I've learned a lot about myself being a student in college and I've learned a lot of really good coping mechanisms and ways to take care of myself and I think that's the biggest thing I got out of college I mean, obviously I learned all these things about being a designer and how to be a good designer, and this and that but mostly, I will always cherish the things I learned about myself and the ways that I learned to cope with stress and to cope with anxieties and being in a demanding environment so I think that's a coolest thing about being a student, I'm like "the coolest thing" is that you learn a lot about yourself, and you learn a lot about who you are, you'll learn your limits, you'll learn how to heal. You know, it's a cool experience. I feel really grateful that I got to go through college and that I didn't have to deal with a lot of stress, that other people do like specifically financial stress wasn't a huge problem for me especially in my last three years. Yeah, I just feel really grateful, very privileged to have been able to be a student and make it out on the other end with a degree.
Marisela Guillen 17:06
I agree. I am very glad that I got to do this experience and explore who I was in the quote unquote safe space.
Huitzilli Oronia 17:12
Yeah,
Marisela Guillen 17:13
to learn and grow, and I also didn't have it superhard in the financial area either, so that was really nice. So just to give everyone some background, verbal, literally a week or two away from graduating college, so we're coming at this with a seasoned perspective, I don't know, I just felt like that needed to be said we're out here celebrating on the other end, but you guys may be in there, in deep, and just know that you'll survive, it's stressful but if you take care of yourself, you'll survive.
Do you want to talk about the future, I don't really want the future,
Huitzilli Oronia 17:47
I don't want to talk about the future. I'm scared. Are you scared?
Marisela Guillen 17:51
I'm very scared. I've been stressing, I made a career advising appointment that was helpful, it was with Amy, she's amazing guys, it's really good and helpful.
Huitzilli Oronia 18:02
That's really cool. I might just make one just to see Amy,
Marisela Guillen 18:06
You should.
Huitzilli Oronia 18:08
Yeah, I need to do that I feel like I've been telling myself once the semester is over, then you can start to put your energy into finding a career and finding out what you want to do with your life and I've been trying not to put too much stress on myself right now. And luckily I'm in the position where I can do that because a lot of students, right out of college, you don't they don't have that privilege to take a break and sit with themselves and think about what they want to do, I am in that position, I'm really lucky, but yeah, I've been not, I've been trying not to force it, I found a few jobs that I'm like wow, that would be really cool, but I need to get my portfolio polished and tie some loose ends and I don't have time to do that right now and then try not to make myself feel bad about it. So that's my thought process.
Marisela Guillen 18:52
Yeah, I think that's a good way to think if you can. I'm also there with you, I don't really have to find a job right away, which is nice, something that Amy said wisdom from Amy guys. Isn't that looking for a job is a full time job, so you can't successfully do that and be in school at the same time because school is a full time job.
Huitzilli Oronia 19:12
Yeah,
Marisela Guillen 19:13
so that made me feel a little better because I was really stressed that I was behind with getting a job, and in reality I'm not, I have a portfolio I have a resume I have a LinkedIn, I just need to use it and do the in depth searching, but I'm not going to, I'm not going to for at least a month,
Huitzilli Oronia 19:29
Yeah me neither girl, whatever. It's okay. Yeah, something that's really scary about it is, I get a lot of questions about what I'm going to do in the future and when I tell people that I'm taking a break and I'm going to start applying to jobs when I have the time, there's still that voice in the back of my head that is telling me that people are judging me because they know I went into a creative field, and they have these preconceived ideas about creatives and how they make money, or I guess lack thereof, how they don't make money, and I fear that people aren't thinking well, she's not even going to use her degree but I think that's just those fears from freshman year coming back, those fears from my senior year of high school even fears that I can't be a successful member of this capitalistic society, as an artist, so I push them away, and I try not to worry about it because I know what I have to offer. At the end of the day I know that I have worked on these skills for four years and I do have skills, and I know that I can be successful in the field so it's just a matter of time, I think, yeah,
watch out world.
Marisela Guillen 20:31
Yeah, Huitzilli's coming for you. Yeah, you said something else that I've latched on to Oh, I was just gonna say yeah I think I feel a lot of pressure to make money, I think
Huitzilli Oronia 20:41
Oh I feel a lot of pressure, especially because you know they say like, "Oh, if you have a degree you're automatically qualified to make more money than people who don't have degrees," so that's scary. I worry that people are thinking, you have a degree but you're not using it, I felt that pressure from society to do something with my degree and preferably something in the field.
Marisela Guillen 21:00
Yeah, same, especially because yeah I do come from a family, who thought that I would be a struggling artist,
Huitzilli Oronia 21:06
yeah
Marisela Guillen 21:07
So I'm afraid that people are gonna think I'm lazy or not doing what I wanted to do, which is not the case. I think it is a very radical motion in our society to take a break and relax, and I think we're doing that right now and I think that's really good.
Huitzilli Oronia 21:22
Yeah. Luckily I have my close system my family system and they've been really supportive and I, I've talked to my sisters about it and they you know, encouraged me to take that break and to relax and, you know have a moment to really think about what I want to do because I haven't had the opportunity, I went, like you did, straight from high school to college no breaks in between which, good for people who take breaks, sometimes you really need that.
Marisela Guillen 21:46
Yeah, and I should say my family is supporting of what I do I just think they're cautious that I'm not going to go into a very great job market which it might not be right now, but they've seen other artists in my family, fail before, and it's not a bad thing to fail. Like, that's how you learn and get success.
Huitzilli Oronia 22:04
Yeah exactly.
Marisela Guillen 22:06
Those are all my questions. Is there anything more you'd like to say?
Huitzilli Oronia 22:10
Okay! I don't think so. thanks so thanks for talking with me. I appreciate it. It's really nice to have you reflect on everything this feels like a good way to end the semester.
Marisela Guillen 22:20
I agree. It's funny to think back and actually realize I know things. I feel like such an imposter all the time but I'm not.
Huitzilli Oronia 22:30
Yeah, exactly like I was like "Do I even have advice to give you?" and then like Wait Yes I do, because I literally experienced so much stuff these past four years only lessons I've learned and yeah I do have advice, I don't know if you got the call the other day I got a call from somebody, with CU. Did you get that?
Marisela Guillen 22:48
Yeah
Huitzilli Oronia 22:49
, it was like, if you have any advice for incoming freshmen I was like wait me, are you asking me for advice and I'm like, Oh yeah, I'm a senior I guess I do know some things. Yeah, I agree that imposter syndrome is, I don't know if you can cuss on here but I was gonna say that imposter syndrome is a bitch. So,
Marisela Guillen 23:04
Yeah, we will just cuss it's fine this is my second episode,
Huitzilli Oronia 23:08
I feel like thesis and talking to so many people outside of school, and adults really helped me. I haven't overcome imposter syndrome, I don't think I ever will. I think it's always going to be like the lingering feeling but they helped me to my potential and realize that I have things to offer myself and to the world, that's really helped me to talk with other people. I don't think that external validation is everything for a person like a lot of it comes from inside and reconciling with your own feelings about yourself but that external validation I'm not gonna lie, it does feel good for somebody to tell me you're doing great work you're a researcher, you're a pioneer, ew, that's a gross word but you're like you know, you're embarking on this journey and you are doing good so that feels good.
Marisela Guillen 23:52
I agree, that's been really helpful for me too. So if you want to plug anything while you're on the podcast, like tell people where they can find you? yeah.
Huitzilli Oronia 24:01
Okay, so, yeah, I actually don't even know my things honestly, let me say, so my Instagram is a work in progress, because I want to make sure that I'm following my brand guidelines when I post on there so my Instagram is huitzrosalia so h u i t z r o s a l i a. My website is the same, so I think it's also huitzrosalia, but I have to buy the domain, but that's going to be my website once I buy the domain.
Marisela Guillen 24:30
Okay
Huitzilli Oronia 24:30
yeah, huitzrosalia.com
Marisela Guillen 24:33
Okay,
Huitzilli Oronia 24:33
yeah, that's that's my stuff.
Marisela Guillen 24:35
Sounds good, I will link that in the show notes so they can go look at it. I know that you don't have any posts on your Instagram, but everybody should go follow it because it's gonna be good.
Huitzilli Oronia 24:46
Get ready. I'm coming, I'm telling you.
Marisela Guillen 24:49
Alright guys that's all we have for you today. Thank you for listening. You can find us on Instagram at so you want to be a creative where you can make suggestions about what you want to hear on the podcast and who you want me to interview. Stay tuned for the next episode, I have a feeling, it'll be another episode on the student experience. The plan is to get you a new episode every two weeks, but as I talked about a lot in this episode, I may take longer hiatus, than I thought after I graduate from college, just so I can get some rest and you guys will get better content after I'm rested. You can also visit our website linked in the show notes if you want to know more about me and this podcast. As always, Thank you for listening.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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