Hello! My name is Chelsea Dutra
My name is Chelsea Dutra and I am a senior at California State University East Bay, currently enrolled in their Graphic Design BFA program. With plans to graduate in Spring of 2025, I am looking forward to gaining more design experience out in the real world.
For as long as I can remember, design has played a significant role in my life as a form of self-expression. From customizing my early social media profiles, to studying different typefaces for fun, to painting my bedroom a different color every year, I can say I have always had a love for experimenting with visual aesthetics.
After completing high school in 2011, I attended community college for a year with Graphic Design as my declared major. But being the impatient 18-year-old that I was, and having received negative dialogue from others about working in the art industry, I dropped out and looked into trade schools. In 2013, I graduated from the National Holistic Institute in San Francisco as a Massage Therapist & Health Educator.
I continued to think about art and design for the next several years. My old dreams to pursue it professionally kept popping back up in my mind. This prompted me to complete a short online Visual Design program through Skillcrush in 2018. I loved it, but wasn't sure what steps to take next, so I continued practicing massage. After nearly 7 years of a rewarding, yet tiring career as a MT, I ultimately made the decision to go back to school and forge a new career path.
Despite my continued interest in design, I allowed my doubts and fear to take over once again. So in 2019, I changed my major from Graphic Design to Sociology. A couple years later, I received my AA, skipped a semester before transferring to University and reflected on what I had always wanted to do: Graphic Design.
My path has been nothing but unconventional and non-linear, but despite this, I am in my last semester of my Graphic Design program. And as challenging as it is, it has also been an extremely rewarding journey and I couldn't be more thrilled to continue onward in my design career.
Thank you for reading! ☺
– Chelsea