“It’s really cool to just work on a project. No matter if it’s super stressful, you need to turn out something super quick, and at the moment you’re like, oh gosh, this crazy, but then you see it come to life. And it just feels awesome. It felt worth it.”
Ashley Gahagan is a graphic designer and Coastal Carolina University alumni. She holds a degree in Graphic Design and is the Design Director for Push Digital Group in Charleston, South Carolina.
About
Ashely Gahagan was born and raised in Maryland and later moved to Conway, South Carolina, in 2012 to pursue her degree in Graphic Design at Coastal Carolina University. During college, Gahagan focused on honing her art skills and gaining experience. She created campus designs for the university’s counseling services and worked with Coastal’s student publishing lab, the Athenaeum Press. Because of her experiences, Gahagan was fully prepared to enter the working world. However, finding work became a challenge. When searching for a job, Gahagan found that not many jobs were offered in her field, let alone many graphic design jobs within South Carolina. Not giving up, Gahagan began sending her resumes to several companies, and she eventually landed a job at Push Digital Group, a digital advertising and fundraising firm for political and advocacy work.
Gahagan’s typical workday and responsibilities over the past five and half years include managing workloads, assigning tasks to team members, and developing projects. These projects often range from webpages to billboards to bus wraps for specific clients and their campaigns. Though Gahagan mentions she would never have seen herself creating designs for political campaigns, she has learned to focus on the job and the satisfaction of seeing her work in public. From Gahagan’s experience leading to her career path as a Graphic Designer and time with the Digital Push Group, she offers advice to up-and-coming creatives interested in entering the graphic designer career path and the next generation of creatives. “If you’re struggling to find a job or jobs in your area, just send out your resume anyway. It doesn’t hurt to do that and get your name out there,” said Gahagan.
