Today we’d like to introduce you to Alan Toleu.
Hi Alan, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Originally I’m from Almaty, Kazakhstan. This past spring, I graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design majoring in User Experience Design and minoring in Graphic Design. Also, I was a member of the SCAD Men’s Tennis Team. Including my previous four years of playing collegiate tennis, I have been playing tennis professionally for more than 15 years which helped to get an athletic scholarship in a US college. Combined with my passion for design, it made it easier for me to pick a college. Throughout these years, I was a member of Team Kazakhstan (12 & under) and Youth National Team (14 & under), and I was ranked top 3 (14 & under) and top 10 (16 & under) in my country. Moreover, I was top 2 both in singles and doubles for SCAD Men’s Tennis Team. In terms of my job career, I had an opportunity to work with big companies such as Lowe’s, Synchrony Financial, The Home Depot, and Macmillan as a UX/UI Designer. Additionally, this year some of my UX projects won several design awards such as Indigo Design Award, Red Dot Design Award, European Product Design Award, and International Design Excellence Award by IDSA. Currently, I’m working as a Digital Production Artist on the Digital Experience Design team at Epsilon (a part of Publicis Groupe).
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
As an international student, I would say that the road was more bumpy than smooth simply because not a lot of companies liked sponsoring foreigners for visas or hiring them, and cannot forget about the visa application itself. Coming from a post-soviet country, there was still a risk of getting rejected for a student visa but fortunately traveling to the different countries prior helped me tremendously. Also, I didn’t study in a private school or abroad so at the beginning my English was not perfect at all which hindered me from understanding the slang words in the US and keeping conversations. However, you adapt eventually and everything gets easier.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
As a UX/UI Designer, I do mostly UX stuff ahah; however, this field is broad you can do solely UX Research or UI Design or both like in my case. Since my college curriculum was well-prepared, I am not picky when it comes to that. I am not saying that I know everything; however, throughout my four years at SCAD taking internships and working on UX projects with other creatives made me versatile.
During my junior year, I took a senior Graphic Design class and fell in love with it. The professor was very knowledgeable and constantly offered advice and help sessions which allowed me to sharpen my Visual Design skills. From that moment, I got a strong passion for Graphic Design which made me detail-oriented and opened up a world full of possibilities like helping me realize how skilled I am in Visual Communication. So, based on what I mentioned previously, I became very known for Visual Design and UI Design among my peers.
My proudest achievements are three design awards (Red Dot Design Award, International Design Excellence Award by IDSA, and European Product Design Award) that two of my UX projects won this year. All these awards have given me a reputation since all of them are very well-known in the industry.
And lastly, I think one thing that sets me apart from other UX designers is my unique perspective because I am from an underrepresented country.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
Hmm… honestly, I am not the type of person who reads books and I truly wish I did ahah. The reason why is that my vocabulary level tends to reveal itself from time to time when the conversation gets more complex. Since I’m a visual person, I prefer watching videos.
For inspiration and knowledge, there is one podcast channel called “NN/g UX Podcast” where they talk about user experience research, cover common questions, discuss UX trends, and tips for building great user experiences. Additionally, I like taking a look at the projects on Behance if I need more Graphic Design and Dribble if I need to see new upcoming UI trends.
Almost forgot to mention, never underestimate the platform Medium which has a ton of articles regarding any topic and most of its information is up-to-date. Likewise, if you are into writing blogs or articles, this platform is a perfect place for you since you can get discovered by other people with minimal effort.
Pricing:
- UX Design (General) – $35 per hour
- Wireframing – $40 per hour
- User Research – $45 per hour
- Storyboards/Personas – $40 per hour
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.toleu.design/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alan.toleu/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alantoleu01
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/AlanToleu
Image Credits
Savannah College of Art and Design
