Who am I?

So I guess I should introduce myself a little. My name is Ross Norman, Ross isn't short for anything, its actually Scottish, but I'm not Scottish so that was a rather pointless comment. Never the less, I come from a small town called Rugby which is located in the middle of the country, its near Coventry and if you still have no clue what I'm talking about, It's about an hour away from Birmingham.
I have 2 sisters, both graduated from University;

Avril Norman who is 26 and graduated from Lancaster University getting a degree in Accounting & Finance back in 2010. She is now a manager for RAC in the finance department.

 Lois Norman who is 22 and graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University getting a degree in Textiles in Practice this year. (2014) She has recently gained herself a job working as an air-hostess for British Airways. 

        

                                                                                                    LOCATION OF RUGBY

I'm currently 18 years old, meaning I haven't completed a foundation art - instead I've just finished a BTEC Extended Diploma in Visual Communication that is a 2 year course which also means I didn't do A-levels. It was back in October 2011, when I first discovered my love for graphic design. Sat in an IT lesson, just browsing through youtube, when I saw these rather cool looking youtube backgrounds people had made. Almost instantly, I wanted to do something similar - so that night when I got home from school; I managed to get onto photoshop, and start chipping away at the iceberg. Ever since that day, I have grown to like graphic design more and more in different ways than just one. If you a totally lost and are unsure what youtube backgrounds are, this is what one looked like back then. They may not look much, and pretty Amateur like but it was this exact background which inspired me to start designing. 

                                 2011 YOUTUBE BACKGROUND 

From that day onwards, I began teaching myself the ways of Photoshop and Cinema4D, and over time looking at photo manipulation, youtube banners, logo design, modelling and cartoon design. After about a month of practising night in, night out, I had discovered that there was an actual community of graphic designers all around my age '14 - 18' that would produce concepts for all areas of design, screen record them and then upload them to Youtube. These were also known as 'Speed Arts.'
 I began getting involved with this online community and I have been some what involved with it for the past 3 years pretty much. It was a great way for me to get my work out there, gain feedback from other designers, and also a good way to meet others interested in graphic design. To this date there are so many people involved in the Youtube community that it has blown up so much since I first began.
                 

At GCSE I decided to take Catering, BTEC Art and Dance. Quite an odd combination I'm sure your thinking, but in all honesty I quite like my dance - whether that is contemporary or street, anything goes. I was involved in a boys dance programme from year 7 - year 11 for the majority of my Secondary School experience, I was emerged around dance. I like to cook as well, hence why I decided to take up catering as another one of my options, I just find it challenging yet fun to create a dish from scratch, and also very rewarding! I guess it will soon pay off when I have to cook my own meals in September!
        

I'm quite a big fan of my sports, in the past I participated in Boxing for just under a year and also Gymnastics for just over 2 years. I also quite like athletics, competing and watching as back in school I was one of the best Triple Jumpers. Football is another main sport that I follow, I like to play it from time to time too but for now, I support Coventry City FC - which is the most local team to me and it isn't too far away. 

This blog will help you get to know myself a bit better and also you will start to understand what sort of things interest me and what I do in my spare time. Make sure you check out my other blog as well, as it gives you an insight on who inspires me, visits and events I have been to, photographers I admire and so on.