5 Things That Kept Me Going When It Got Tough

Let’s be real — learning design without a formal degree feels like building IKEA furniture without the manual (and sometimes without the right screws 😩).

I didn’t go to design school. I didn’t have fancy software at the start. Heck, I didn’t even know what “kerning” was.

But here I am — years later, still designing, still learning, and still loving it.

If you’re on the same self-taught journey (or thinking about it), here are 5 real things that helped me survive, grow, and not give up.

I Focused on Progress, Not Perfection

There were days when I looked at other designers’ work and thought,
“Ugh. Mine looks like a high school group project.”

But I stopped comparing version 1 of my journey to someone else’s version 50.

Every poster, every failed logo, every overly-shadowed Instagram post — it was part of the process.

Rule I live by: Make it, cringe at it later, grow from it.

I Used What I Had

I started with Adobe Illustrator on 2011 and a laptop that sounded like it could take off.

No Macbook. No drawing tablet.

And that was okay.
Because I realized tools don’t make the designer — decisions do.

Design is about thinking, not just clicking.

I Gave Myself Freedom to Copy (for Practice)

Yup, I said it: I copied designs. But not to steal — to learn.

I’d take a poster or layout I liked, and try to recreate it pixel by pixel.
Through this, I learned structure, hierarchy, color combos, spacing.

Eventually, I moved from copying → modifying → creating my own style.

Pro tip: Steal like a student, not a thief.

I Stayed Curious, Always

Whenever I saw a cool font pairing, I’d screenshot it.
Whenever I didn’t know a term, I Googled it.
Whenever a client gave weird feedback like “make it pop,” I learned to translate it.

Curiosity made me unstoppable.

It wasn’t about talent — it was about asking, “How did they do that?” and sticking around long enough to find the answer.

I Reminded Myself Why I Started

Sometimes I got tired. Burned out. Frustrated.
But I kept a folder called “My Why” on my desktop — filled with screenshots of kind messages, past wins, dream goals.

That folder reminded me that I wasn’t just designing for likes.
I was designing for freedom, creativity, and the kind of life I actually wanted.

If you’re learning design on your own — I see you.

It’s messy, exciting, overwhelming, and beautiful.
But every ugly draft, every YouTube tutorial, every failed post is a brick in your creative foundation.

Keep stacking those bricks.
Someday, someone will look at your work and say,
“Wow, I wish I could do that.”

And you’ll smile — because you once said the same.