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In late August of 2017, I left behind a job of nearly 4 years as an in-house graphic designer to dedicate time to the projects I’m passionate about.

The following year I opened a small, self-titled, one-man team called “CJ Zilligen Design Studio”, specializing in sports branding, illustration, and typeface design.

The 16 months since then have been extremely rewarding. I learned to develop an eye for certain design decisions that I had overlooked previously. I restructured my process and leveraged it on problem solving and brand strategies, with design aesthetics falling on appropriateness. I learned to never give to hasty design decisions because nothing good can come of it.

However, there’s always room to improve. I never figured how to “use” Instagram, I’ve treated it as curation much like @dribbble for all of my finished work, but I find myself missing out on sharing my day-to-day with the world. Instagram doesn’t have to be limited to the polished and sexy, but perhaps it can be a place to showcase daily musings and WIPs as well.

And to that, here’s to a more transparent Instagram feed!