Paul Kwong is currently a freelance creative director in Colorado. Seeing Paul as a speaker was really encouraging for myself as I don’t really get the chance to see a lot of Asian American designers in Colorado or in the united states as a whole besides Hawaii. Seeing a person similar to me making it in the field also reassures me that there are people that do it up here in the mainland and makes it easier to picture myself in that environment. Paul Kwong himself was a very interesting speaker that seemed to step away from that usual stereotype that I have about Asians in the work place being very to the books and just living a very modest life. From what he described he was very active in the night life in new York and balanced out his time between working and partying which was also very encouraging, not saying that I myself will do the same. In the past I had always heard that its best to move out from the place you grew up and try to pursue or learn in a new place to allow for more self growth without being attached to home, which is part of the reason I moved to Colorado. Paul talked extensively about New York and how the best of the best work there and how the environment is for a large ad agency and how crazy the lifestyle can be. Personally I don’t think I could deal with that kind of environment, even just being in New York is something that I hate for the amount of people and how even the air feels busy. Paul seemed to revel in the atmosphere that is new York and even seemed to miss it in the way that he talked. Later in the session he explained that he moved out to Colorado to raise his child rather than doing it in new York. This talk was great to get me thinking about my own possibilities of maybe moving back to the mainland and exploring different agencies around the country to further my growth as a designer to later use it back in my home of Hawaii. This also makes me glad that I moved back to Hawaii as it seems that people are moving from New York to Colorado to escape that lifestyle and with this comes a lot of very talented people in our field of design and ultimately makes the competition more fierce for the design field and landing a job or opportunity.
