Hey there! It's me, Khaled.
I am a designer and a programmer, and a graduate of the State University of New York at Binghamton, where I majored in graphic design. I started programming in high school, with a two-part introductory programming class during my junior year, and have continued to teach myself ever since. After graduating from high school, I went to my local community college and majored in computer science. After a year, I transferred to Binghamton, where I decided to study math, which I thought would be a perfect supplement to my growing knowledge of programming. Initially, I didn't have any intention to take a graphic design class, but the math degree I was working toward required that I take an art elective. The first semester of my second year at Binghamton I enrolled in a graphic design class, where I quickly realized how much I loved learning about design. By the end of the semester, I had switched my major to graphic design.
Looking back, I have always been interested in design, before I could even really put a name to the topic. I have always had a fascination with buildings, ever since I was a little kid house hunting with my parents, beginning to understand the ways in which things designed by others could so directly impact my life. One of my favorite classes in my entire college career was an introductory architecture class that I took the first semester of my first year at Binghamton—the first class that made me consider leaving my math and computer science track, and the first class where I began to learn formally about the scope of design. I see now, too, that my interest in programming, even years before I took that graphic design class, has always been its function as a tool of design. Likewise, I had always loved the problem-solving applications of math and programming, and I came to see design as another resource with which to solve problems and meet real-life needs.
My inspiration comes from people. Some people have the whole world at their fingertips, other people have absolutely nothing, but at the end of the day everyone is just trying to make the most of their individual situation. I'm very lucky to have grown up where and when I did; many other people are not so lucky. This inspires me to try to improve myself in every way I can, to take advantage of my good fortune, my freedoms and my opportunities. What I want for myself I want for all people—the freedom to live my life as I please is a freedom I would give to the whole world if I could. That's why I devote my time to learning about design and technology. Everyone benefits from good design, design that is succinct, accessible and unobtrusive. Without design society as we know it wouldn't exist, and I believe that design in the future will continue to better our society. I'm also inspired by the rapid development of technology in our current time, because the growth of tech means advancements that are designed to change our lives. Many people decry this growth, thinking of it as an intrusion on our lives, but I see so much potential for tech to make our lives better, to expand our freedoms, allowing us to communicate, create, learn, move and live more freely. We're able to focus on what we're doing rather than all the things necessary to do it, and advancing and embracing technology and design are key to this.