This past August I was asked by the 2022 senior class volleyball players at my old high school to make their senior sports posters. This was meant to just be for the girls. They knew the teacher who had been doing them in recent years was not very good at them and they also knew I have the skills to make a great poster. They just wanted great posters and I just needed the money. Little did I know I’d end up doing posters for all of fall sports and the seasons to come.
The girls had their pictures taken and sent my way. I spent three hours one Sunday afternoon getting the basic design of the poster down. It was unique, but still gave the intense feel that a sports poster needs to give. Once I got the design down, I sent just one for the girls to look at. They loved it.
The next step was sending it to the administration to get approved so all ten posters could be hung on the gym wall. I emailed the athletic director the poster and he loved it to. He asked me if I would be willing to do posters for football, cross country, band, and cheer for the fall season and I said yes. I had just agreed to designing over 50 posters and he said if they were done well, I can do them for the rest of the school year for every other sport.
Just through knowing the right people, I managed to land a designing job receiving nearly 500 dollars every three months. This may not seem like a ton of money, but it’s not my main job. It’s a job to get a little extra money on the side as a broke college student.
So from now on I will continue to know the right people, share my work, and take any small opportunities that come my way. Who knows what the possibilities can be?
Taven Allen 