2021 was a fucking crazy year

There’s no denying that, but to be completely honest, I loved every bit of the craziness that came with 2021.

Looking back at the year, I can’t help but feel like I’ve been on a wild adventure. It all started when I stumbled upon Tolu Abiodun’s article who wrote:

“it is crazy how so many things happened and you aren’t really conscious of them until you look back in retrospect and you are like — oh shit! Did that really happen??

When I took a moment to reflect on the past year, everything just hit me like a ton of bricks and I couldn’t help but think, “Oh shit! Did that really happen??” 2021 was filled with disappointments, pains, joys, and mind-blowing growth. It was a year of surprises and challenges that I never could have anticipated.

I remember creating a list of things I wanted to achieve in October 2020, as I do every year (October is the month I officially conclude the year and begin planning for the following year.) However, by August 2021, I looked back at that list and realized I wasn’t progressing as quickly as I had hoped. There were so many plans I had for the year that I was unable to achieve (due to factors beyond my control. Perhaps it was my location, level of experience, or maybe even my village people LOL)

Despite these setbacks, I was able to work on some incredible projects with highly bright people and startups. Valbox, Zilla, and my portfolio are just a handful of my achievements. Throughout my journey, I got the opportunity to meet some wonderful people, as well as have my successes and learnings.

Here are some of the things I can remember.

1. From October 2020 to February 2021, I focused on improving my portfolio and landing a job outside my home country. Unfortunately, I received a large number of rejection emails (over 100 companies told me to fu*k off). One just came in as I was writing this article.
2. In February, I picked up Webflow in other to design my portfolio, which I later launched in Nov 2021 (That was freaking long, IKR) This newfound skill also led to an opportunity to work with a well-known design mentor in the design community Kate Pincott
3. In March, I began learning 3D design in Blender and Unity for XR and spatial computing. (Yeah …a lot of people around me don’t see how this would contribute to my career as a UX designer, I promise it would be fully clear in the nearest future) By the way, I still cannot design sh*t in Blender or script a game in Unity, but it is all good, while I’m still not an expert in Blender or Unity, I’m making progress and enjoying the process. (Did you catch the rhyme?… progress and process 😀😉 )
4. Between March and April, I was referred to Microsoft in Vancouver, Canada, by one of my mentors from the ADP list. Unfortunately, Microsoft rejected me, In my head, Microsoft was like fu*k off 🤪😜 what were you thinking..lol. (It is likely due to my old portfolio, years of experience, and location, among other factors, or maybe it is my village people at work)
5. In May, I left my job at Findworka and began interviewing for other positions. Eventually, I joined PalmPay, a fintech company. The intention was to leave after a month, because I wasn’t interested in fintech at the time (Spoiler alert, I am still working at PalmPay at the time I wrote this article which was 6 months after) I had the pleasure of working with some amazing individuals, including Tosin Dada Phillips, John Olatunji, Ogechukwu Amarachi, Olanrewaju Oloniyo, and Blessing Odeyemi. Although the company didn’t meet my expectations, I suppose that is pretty normal, I decided to stay because of these amazing people.
6. Also in May, I began designing Zilla, I felt I was part of something great. This is a project that I’m excited to see grow in the future
7. In June, I decided to focus more on 3D design and completed several models by following tutorials. (and still cannot design shit without the tutorials)
8. In July I had to look for another apartment, shit was crazy cos I had no money. Miraculously a crypto project came in which paid half of my rent and by the end of the month when my salary was paid, I completed the rest of the payment. The crazy thing was that during this period, I finish a project that is supposed to last for 2 months in 12 days because I needed the money. (It is crazy right, but that showed me how fast I can get things done)
9. We completed the design phase for Valbox 2.0 by September, which was also a valuable experience for me because it took me closer to one of the majors I’d like to explore: sustainability. (Valbox is currently preparing for launch) The most significant thing is that Valbox exposed me to the administrative side of the business and the role that product design plays; more broadly and how start-ups operate
10. October was a turning moment because that was when I worked on one of the highest-paying projects since I began my career in design (Trust me, the money isn’t even close to half of some people’s Salary).
11. In November, I began learning C# and focusing more on Unity and the experience has been cool so far
12. Throughout the year, I spoke with over 70 design mentors and 20 design leaders across FAANG, although I was unable to get into any of these companies, I managed to get into the brain of some of the amazing minds there
13. Increased my income by 5x, read over a lot of books on tech and design, and got rejected by over 100 companies.
14. I also had the pleasure of meeting Jyoti Mann and one of the most amazing individuals on the planet, she is a Senior Product Designer at Facebook now Meta, and Adrian Pittman, who helped me with the storytelling aspect of my case studies in my portfolio.

Here are some of the people that had a direct impact on my career growth and my journey through the year

1. Michelle Pujals (Product Design Manager at Meta Quest VR) — Helped with my VR and AR design journey
2. Diamond Ho (product design lead at Facebook) — Learned a lot from her on portfolio and case study structures
3. Ai-chi Lu 🇺🇸 — Design Manager at Apple
4. Korie Cull 🇬🇧 -Art Director at Apple
5. Vincent Ong 🇺🇸 — Experience Designer at Apple
6. Christos Kastriti 🇬🇧 — Lead Product Designer, Design Systems at WhatsApp
7. Sue Kim 🇺🇸 — Senior Interaction Designer at Google
8. Wayne Spiegel 🇺🇸 — Product Designer at Oculus, Meta Reality Labs
9. Arka Raina 🇬🇧 — Design Consultant at IBM
10. Piyush Arora 🇺🇸 — Senior Interaction Designer at Google
11. Felix Lee 🇸🇬 — Co-Founder at ADPList
12. Tony Nguyen 🇺🇸 — Experience Designer at Apple
13. Michael Hwang 🇺🇸 — Product Designer at Facebook
14. Natalie Kim 🇺🇸 — Senior Interaction Designer at Google
15. Brian Moon 🇨🇦 — Senior UX Designer at Unity Technologies
16. Annette Hong 🇺🇸 — Product Designer at Facebook Reality Labs (Oculus)
17. Pranava Tandra 🇮🇳 — Designer 2 at Microsoft
18. Mark Manalaysay 🇺🇸 — Interactive Design Lead at Apple
19. Yichen He 🇨🇦 — Product Designer at VMware
20. Alejandra Delgado 🇺🇸 — Creative Talent Development at Apple
21. Nithya Asokan 🇮🇳 — UX Designer at Amazon
22. Parag Nandi 🇮🇳 — Lead Designer at Samsung Research
23. Christos Kastriti 🇬🇧 — Lead Product Designer, Design Systems at WhatsApp
24. Laura Brown 🇮🇪 — Senior UX Designer at Workday
25. Priya Sharma 🇮🇳 — Senior Product Designer at McKinsey and Company
26. Orezi 🇬🇧 — Product Designer at Twitter
27. Ben Hersh 🇺🇸 — Staff Interaction Designer at Google
28. Aarianna Barnes 🇺🇸 — UX Designer at Jones
29. Elaine Ann🇨🇦 — Founder / Director at Kaizor Innovation
30. Ari Krzyzek 🇺🇸 — Co-founder & Chief Creative Officer at Chykalophia
31. Finlay Craig 🇺🇸 — Product Designer at Facebook
32. Wen Yu 🇺🇸 — Product Designer at Facebook, Airbnb
33. Matthew Yoon 🇺🇸 — Sr. Interaction designer at Google
34. Kate Pincott — Design Mentor at Reality Prototyping

So I think it was a pretty crazy year, I mean crazy and chaotic in a good way, or maybe that is because 2020 was my first experience with the real world.

While some of my plans didn’t come to fruition, looking back I’m grateful for all the ups and downs, the people I’ve met, the lessons I’ve learned, the progress I’ve made and my failures. I hope that 2022 will be amazing. In 2022, I want to work on more XR, BCI, and AI-related projects.

Cheers to more craziness and awesomeness