Owen, International High School of Prospect Heights

I am owen Zhu as Wenhao Zhu. You may tell I am a Chinese by my last name. My career is to be an advertising graphic designer. Because I feel advertising is a very different way to showing the art, and making many of ideas together, also bring people a lot fun. I hope one day, my advertisement will post on Times Square.

Moreover, I like to play magic. Magic gives me confidence to break assumptions. Magic also inspires my dream to be a great graphic designer. Both magic and advertising let me think outside of the box. I will take people’s souls to a fantasy world in few minutes. I also like to play with Rubik’s cube, I can solve it in 90 seconds. Rubik’s cube can helps my quick reaction, and help me be more logical.

Essay: “Yes!”

“Owen, what you want to be?” Alex asked. “I want to be a graphic designer!” I declared. “Very good! I believe you will be a graphic designer.” Alex replied.
This conversation is from when I was in the Boot Camp of The Center for Art Education. Alex Santiago-Jirau is on the staff of the Career Development Program of The Center for Art Education. He was teaching us about how to get the job. He asked that because he wanted us speak up our passion and career goal.

Yes! I want to be an advertising graphic designer. I made this decision to pursue a career in the arts, when I was in age 15. For me “advertising” is not only about persuading potential customers to purchase or to consume more of a particular brand of a product or service. It is a creative art form to be shared with many people and make people think deeply.

Yes! I have a lot passion for advertising and graphic design. In the summer of 2008, I was an intern in an advertising company. How did I find this internship? I was walking by an office building, and I saw this company’s sign. My passion made me knocked on their door and asks them if they had an internship for me. This was my first step to becoming an advertising graphic designer.

Yes! My academic goal is to be an advertising graphic designer. I hope one day, an advertisement I designed will post in Times magazine and National Geographic, because those are the most popular magazines, I hope when people see my advertisement like the public service advertising , they will smile and realize the meaning behind it. Thus, I can feel successful, and help people acquaint others’ emotional appeals.

In addition, I will continue to work on my career. My next step will be going to an art college. The Fashion Institute of Technology and SUNY Purchase are my top two colleges. Graphic Design or Communication Design will be majors. Beside those two major, I also want to study American Sign Language (ASL) because sign language is a special communication skill that not so many people have. I believe ASL is a language has many connotations. It excites my creativity, and would allow me to communicate and help someone who is deaf.

From where I stand, I will go be a volunteer this summer the countryside of the Dominican Republic. My jobs are teaching those poor children about art, and how to create the art by using affordable or free materials they see every day. I feel that even though the children are poor, they have not lost the ability to learn about art and find value in their own life. I hope to study art and be able to help people recognize not only dues art come from one’s senses, it also comes from the heart.