Category: College

I have a new job

Published on August 16th, 2009

Anyone who visits LucianTucker.com immediately learns three things about me—I’m a designer, a writer, and an avid gamer. I’m very passionate about all three, and I believe everyone should follow their passions, no matter what. Following your passion is one of the secrets to happiness people often deprive themselves of.

I once knew someone who washed windows for a living, and was passionate about it. He told me that if you can find something you’d do for free, you should do it for a living. For him, it was washing windows. Makes you think, doesn’t it? Continue reading “I have a new job”

Why I write

Published on July 16th, 2009

I was never much of a fan of English when I was growing up.

Well, I take that back. As a child, my mother read me books, and I was a reading-level ahead of most of my classmates. In elementary school, they gave test in every English class to see what kind of textbook to give to each student, and I was always one of the few using the textbook a grade-level ahead. Also at this point in my life, I was obsessed with R.L. Stine and read Goosebump novels whenever I had free time, including my lunch periods.

But somehow when I got to middle school I lost a passion for reading. I don’t remember liking books at that stage of my life at all actually, and I have no idea why. After my English grades began to slip, I came to the conclusion that I hated English, and acted as such. Continue reading “Why I write”

David Carson Inspired Me

Published on February 8th, 2009

One of the reasons I am a designer is because of David Carson. I wouldn’t venture so far as to say he IS the reason I am a designer, but amongst the many experiences that have contributed to making me the person I am, David Carson is one.

Now, I could go on and on explaining how David Carson has influenced me as a designer, but I really wrote this post to share a quote he gave from one interview, and also share a video of a talk he gave at TED. Continue reading “David Carson Inspired Me”

Design for fun

Published on March 22nd, 2008

I have to admit, I didn’t design for fun as much as I would have like during my college career. Sure, designing is always fun, but it’s important to design for oneself rather than always for clients and classes. When you can’t find time to, the second best thing is to make sure you are exercising your creative muscle whenever you design.

When it comes to homework, often the assignments are pretty basic and require little thought depending on your school. For example, an assignment for a web class might be to use CSS to develop a drop-down menu. It may be easy for you to do, but it’s vital that you have fun. Consider trying to do the drop down menu in a different way than you normally do. Heard of some new technique where you use CSS to style unordered list? Try it out. Maybe make up a color scheme and imagine its for an actual business. You may get an A on the assignment regardless of whether you try out something new or not. Maybe you’ll screw it up and get a B instead. But, you would have learned the beginning of something new.

Leaving your mark at school pt. 1

Published on March 7th, 2008

“Don’t you want to leave your mark at school?” the president of La Salle’s Student Government Association (SGA) once asked me in an attempt to get me to join. I did want leave my mark at school, but not with the SGA, so I responded “In a bathroom.” I thought that was pretty clever.

That idea of leaving my mark at my school has stuck with me since then. Everywhere I work, everywhere I go, I want to leave my mark. I want to create new ideas and ways of thinking in places so that when I am gone, a piece of me remains. I feel everyone, student or not, should strive for this as well.

And no, I don’t have some complex where I feel I need to leave my mark on the world before I die in order to feel like my life was worth something, not that there is anything wrong with that. I just like giving whatever I do 110% of my effort, because I believe the more I put into my work, the more I get out of it.

School Newspaper

I was hired to be the Graphic Designer for my schools newspaper in 2005. As Graphic Designer, I create and edit ads for advertisers. In addition, I create graphics for sections editors as needed.

At the time, my school’s paper did not have a web site. The web was beginning to grow dramatically and I knew that my school paper not having a web site was a handicap to La Salle, La Salle’s community, and the newspaper and all of the people who are involved with it. I asked the Editor-in-Chief if I could make a web site and she said “Go ahead.”

I spent a few months researching other school web sites, prototyping, designing, and presenting to, among other people, the Dean of Students and the Editor-in-Chief. I found the entire process exciting and it paved the way for my future jobs since before that point I did not really have any portfolio pieces.

I helped everyone realize how important having a web site was. The entire editing process of the paper has changed party because of what I created. My school’s paper now has a web presence–a site people can go to if they miss an issue of the paper. Prospective students who are into journalism look at the web site and may attend La Salle because of what I created.

Currently, I am trying to migrate the site to an online application called College Publisher, which would allow the paper to more efficiently update the web site, and will help the future web editor better manage the site and ensure that the site does not die when I graduate. College Publisher will only further leave my mark at my school.