At last week’s Mentor match up kick off event, mentor speaker for the evening, Dréa Leonetti, read this piece she created just for fun. Check it out in case you didn’t make it.

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On the 11th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, “This is good – I mean really good, but I’m gonna need some back up.” So God made a graphic designer.

God said, “I need someone who can take, colors & pictures, letters & numbers, thoughts & information, a concept that isn’t theirs with a deadline that was sometime last week and create an elegant piece of art.I need someone who can see the beauty in Mrs. Eaves, the strength in Helvetica,the utility of Arial and can still find the humor in Comic Sans.” So God made a designer.

“I need someone who puts their soul on each page of a portfolio and willingly subjects themselves to the judgment of others. Someone who can run in copy, proof read and edit, handle ‘Unexpected Errors’, know when NOT to bevel and emboss, can rasterize, convert to paths and scale a vector in a single bound and meet the clients deadline with the coolness of Jay Z and Betty White.”

God said, “I need someone to stay up all night rendering video and have their have their hard drive crash. Then dry their eyes, remember they saved the most recent version to the external drive and say ‘I’ll try again tomorrow’. I need somebody who is excited about plug-ins and upgrades, automatic software updates and short cuts. I need someone who appreciates style sheets and key commands in an unnatural way.” So God made a designer.

“I need someone who can explain their career choice to Grandma. Who with a smile can politely say ‘No, Grandma – I won’t have to die to make money at this.’ Someone whose creativity and resourcefulness are in constant competition. Who can take the smallest budgets and create the biggest successes.”

God said, “I need someone who recognizes their own worth, because few others will. That they are blessed with a gift that makes it easier for folks to find their way around the mall or buy that special gift for Dad on Amazon or just quickly grab a Coke at the gas station. I need someone, who out of frustration or creative block will say, ‘Why can’t I just walk dogs for a living?!?’ But there is no way they could just do that, so they sit back down at their desk, select File…New… and will start again.” So God created a designer.

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About our guest blogger: Dréa Leonetti has been a graphic designer for over 13 years and currently serves in the role of Creative Director for 19 branches and two resident camps that fall under the umbrella of the YMCA of Greater Charlotte. Online portfolio can be found at www.drealeonetti.com.