Stef Gafke

Location: Maryland USA

I was born and raised just outside of Berlin, Germany. My mom loves to paint and draw and she taught me to appreciate art. As long as I can think back, creative and crafty things were my favorite free time activity, but I never thought of launching a career in the creative field. I first came over to the States as an exchange student in high school; I enjoyed it here so much that I wanted to come back for college. This was a tough decision to make, because college is free in Germany; however, school is just that, academic, without many opportunities to do stuff outside of class, and I liked about American schools that there were so many clubs and activities in addition to classes. Also, in Germany I would have had to pick a major right away without the option of ever switching it; had I decided I don't like my major I would have needed to start over again. I applied to different schools in the U.S. with the intention of studying International Business. I selected Marymount University because of its proximity to D.C., good scholarship support, and the opportunity to be part of the Honors Program. My first semester there, I was so excited about getting to take the classes that I liked that I signed up for pretty much all art and design classes. After a few weeks, something clicked and I decided to major in something I love -- design. I am still so happy with that choice, because design is a part of every aspect of my life and while I enjoy being a Graphic Designer in a professional sense, I also like all other types of design (crafts, interior decorating, making food look pretty....). While I was still at Marymount, I found Dan's ad on craigslist; he was looking for artists to put his t-shirt ideas into tangible form -- I was looking for design work to build my portfolio. It worked out nicely. I did a bunch of designs for Dan and enjoyed the work, especially during my junior and senior year, however, I got very busy with school work, Honors Projects, being an RA and a Student Ambassador, being on Dance Team...(you get the idea), that I could not design for Sharpshirter on a regular basis anymore. I always check back to see what's new though, and Dan is way on top of things as far as letting me know when there are news =) I just graduated this past May Summa Cum Laude and as an Honors Scholar from Marymount. Along the way I also collected two minors, Psychology (just for fun) and Communications (it's helpful for designers to know how to write). I'm excited to be done with school and finally working full time as a Graphic Designer. Maybe now I'll have time again to design a few more shirts...