Meet Anna Disser

When I first took the Immersion course, I had been studying graphic design for a few semesters and was still struggling with the Adobe programs. My university offered almost no basic education for the design software, and I felt lost. Surface design sounded like a lovely career, and in the midst of the Covid madness, I was craving something that gave me purpose and creative motivation. So I took the leap and signed up for Immersion.

As a student in my early twenties, it was a big financial commitment. I was unsure if it would be worth it, especially since many of my classmates had pieced together their design knowledge through free tutorials on YouTube. But learning Adobe Illustrator with Bonnie was an absolute dream. Working through the course not only strengthened my design skills but also inspired me to explore illustrating on the iPad, share my work on Instagram, complete a one hundred days of illustration project and briefly open an Etsy store with my designs.

I have been developing my style ever since, and the skills I learned gave me the confidence to write and illustrate a children's book for a university project and create a product featuring my illustrations through a collaboration with a small local agency. While I am still in the beginner stages of surface design, I have used the design and marketing skills from the course many times, both in my work as a freelance graphic designer and later as a social media manager.

I am currently finishing my Masters in graphic design and am looking forward to creating my surface pattern design portfolio in the coming months and finally beginning to pitch my work to companies.