I was actually on the career path to becoming an engineer. I like science, and I love being creative. The starving artist stereotype was all I had to go on when thinking of a future for myself. I had never actually been interested in graphic design until a few days before my second year of university.
In university, I excelled in engineering courses, but one class and teacher changed my future. This electronics teacher loved electronics—all the AC, DC, and High voltage engineering stuff made him excited. I looked at him and thought, ‘I will never be that excited about engineering.’ From that moment on, I could imagine a dreary gray future with wires and machines around me. Yuck! So I began researching the graphic design industry to ensure it wasn’t a dying industry—ha! I visited designers and quickly fell in love with the fact that a creative individual could make a living being creative.
Resume
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Marketing Graduate Assistant
Office of Technology Solutions | Illinois State University (Normal, Illinois)
August 2023 – Present
- Transform concepts into compelling print materials, including annual reports, posters, flyers, and booklets, ensuring they resonate with the target audience and align with design best practices.
- Maintain six different social media channels, developing post ideas, writing copy, and creating visually appealing content to boost online engagement.
Creative Lead
Filerskeepers (Remote, Netherlands)
September 2022 – July 2023
- Art directed and designed promotional material to ensure smooth and adequate communication coverage in all online and offline channels.
- Responsible for UI/UX across digital platforms and maintained brand consistency.
Creative Specialist
Praava Health (Dhaka, Bangladesh)
March 2022 – August 2022
- Worked on developing a new website and photo bank, among other visual brand and communications projects.
- Won the company's first award for Art Direction at the Commward 2022 for a mental health campaign.
Creative Lead
Bangladesh Youth Leadership Center (BYLC) (Dhaka, Bangladesh)
December 2015 – February 2022
- Managed the team in charge of developing and implementing national marketing campaigns to increase BYLC's brand visibility.
- Led and built the audio-visual infrastructure of BYLCx, the online learning platform of BYLC, which has produced more than 60 online audio-visual learning materials in 2021.
EDUCATION
Master of Science in Creative Technologies (Fully Funded)
llinois State University (Normal, Illinois)
August 2023 – Present
CGPA: 4.00/4.00
B.Sc. in Electrical and Electronics Engineering (Merit scholarship)
International Islamic University Chittagong (Chittagong, Bangladesh)
August 2011 – October 2015
TRAINING AND WORKSHOPS
Digital Marketing Bootcamp, Webable
November 2016
- Learned about tools and techniques to track online media traffic and analyze the data.
- Participated in idea generation for advertising campaigns and presented insights and experiences from organization-specific digital marketing issues.
ADDITIONAL SKILLS
- Designing tools: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Lightroom, Adobe InDesign, Adobe XD
- Video and motion graphic tools: Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, Blender, Final Cut Pro X
- Web development tools: WordPress
- Programming language: JavaScript, HTML, and CSS
- Interests: Photography; participated in two national and one international photography exhibitions.