This portfolio will showcase some of my personal graphic design, clothing design, and various other projects :). If you are interested I have a separate portfolio for photography as well that I will link below.
Thank you for visiting!
Short answer
I am a 21 year old who loves learning new skills, most kinds of design and working with my hands. As an adult I have gathered lots of great self learning and organizational habits that lend themselves to many different fields. Generally, I can do graphic design, clothing design, web design, photography, sewing, leatherwork, auto mechanic work, and probably some other little things here and there :) I currently spend my time running an upholstery department at a camper van conversion shop full time in portland and spend my free time doing small photoshoots, making bags and little textile projects, obsessively planning my life through flowcharts, camping and working on my cars.
My dream would be to land in some form of a design role that I can work in for several years gather experience and then do consulting or contracting for large companies to gain some independence.
Long answer
My name is Ethan Cusick, I am 21 and love all kinds of design. I started making stuff around the age of 12, it started with leather goods, wallets and such but moved on to clothing when i was gifted a strait stitch sewing machine when i was 14. curiosity got the hold of me and I started taking old clothing apart and tracing patterns to re create them with different materials. After a year and a half of learning how to construct I wanted to improve my skills to get a job in the clothing industry out of high school so I enrolled and took classes at Portland fashion institue for technical design construction. I learned how to take an idea from concept to reality and learned a lot more about the industry at my time there. After taking an adobe illustrator class for designing clothing using forms, I started spending a lot of my free time learning about graphic design and more specifically typography. I decided in the end to pursue graphic design as a career out of school rather than going to a fashion school, the cost of schooling was much more expensive and I was very indicisive at time. I began to take the graphic design major at my high school and really enjoyed it, at the same time I got into digital and film photography and split my free time between graphic design and photography. Out of high school I went to portland community college to get my pre recs completed and work on the graphic design transfer degree, but this was during covid and all of the classes were online. I decided after completing pre recs and taking a semester of the GD program that I would wait until it was back in person because I did not find any value in the classes without interaction with my peers. During my time off from school I was working a lot and in my free time doing side projects like the Shutter Speed Supply website and the occasional sewing project including a round of 300 masks for a local company. I eventually landed at a sprinter van conversion company running the upholstery department and have been there for two years. At the end of summer 2023 I was planning on returning to PCC to finish my transfer degree but after a lot of thinking was dissuaded, the average salary for a graphic designer, the oversaturated market and rise of generative AI made my decision for me. I am currently still in my position working full time and enjoying my 20s. I have many hobbies and passions I can attempt to make a full time carer but simply have not landed on one to try and peruse heavily at the time. My dream would be to land in some form of a design role that I can work in for several years gather experience and then do consulting or contracting for large companies to gain some independence.