Cover Letter Essay, Research Paper

Seth Holster

12 Adams St.

Pompton Plains, NJ

07444

From the time I was about 5 I always was working on a computer doing something, but I never thought I would get anywhere with it. I started out on a commodore 64 playing games and watching my dad do presentations on Turtle Graphics, a program whose pixels seemed the size of marbles. Then we got an Apple 2e which was a little more advanced but still lacked the capabilities of designing. The closest thing that I got to designing on that computer was Print Shop a program on which you can make banners, signs, and greeting cards. Then I learned to use a program called Desktop Publishing, which was a little more advanced then Print shop but not much. It wasn’t until we got out first Mac that I started to actually design and illustrate. I thought that Kid Pix and Paint Shop where the two best programs in the world, even on a black, and white, well actually green and white screen.

Then we got a color computer when I was in about 8th grade. A Mac Performa, I worked on Kid Pix at first just making little drawings and stuff then we got a video card put in it which opened up a whole other door for me. I was able to hook it into a camcorder or VCR and manipulate (on a low level of course) the pictures that I brought in. I would put my face on someone else’s like a movie star or in a weird situation and people would be amazed and it made me feel really good. When I got my first copy of Adobe PhotoShop was when I really started doing my digital are seriously. I learned how to control the mouse, and use the mouse to make the lines that I wanted to cutout my face.

I was introduced to Adobe Illustrator around when I was in my sophomore year in High School. At first I just used to drawing tool to make shapes and pictures of my favorite cartoon characters. I then started to lean how to use the pen tool to make perfect curves that I could never make before with the drawing tool. But I still was just making line art because I didn’t know that each shape that I made was not like a shape in PhotoShop.

My freshman year of college is the first time I took a class that dealt with the basics of Illustrator. It had some things that I already knew, but on the other hand helped me a ton because there was some areas that I needed filled in and I started to be able to make realistic things in Illustrator. Also in that class was the firs time that I integrated Adobe PhotoShop with Adobe Illustrator which opened a whole new door to me.

From then till now I have been diligent working to further my skills in both of these programs. I learn on my own and have some of the classes I take fill in the small gaps of knowledge that I don’t have. I set goals for myself, I see something that looks good be it a logo design, and illustration, or a manipulated picture and I try to do it but with my own style. That’s why in a way I consider myself to be somewhat of a retro designer, I take something and put a new edge on it. I also make new designs that I enjoy doing immensely. Yet there is something to be said for the designs of the past, it will always stick in your mind like a memory from your childhood. Like the first time you saw Mikey on the Box of life cereal, or that first Coke bottle that you saw with the dynamic lettering and wave on it. And for the reason that looking back at the past is the bast way to not make mistakes in the future I believe that I would be a great asset to your company.