readings 15 + 16: ch. 8 + 9

readings 12, 13 + 14: ch. 5, 6 + 7

readings 9, 10 + 11: ch 2, 3 + 4

How to find job.

“They don’t tell you this in design school.” So so true! I graduate in a year or so, how do I find a job? I haven’t had a single class that has truly taught me this. But I get it, look for a job and interview like your life depends on it. Bring in the best work you’ve every done and sell it so hard your mouth falls off . On top of all that, you have to be better than everyone else, your work and your personality. All that we’re told in design school is to be the best and be better, but everyone is being told that. So if we are all working really hard at being better than the next, what do we do the time finally comes to get a job? Will I be good enough?

On the other hand, what school has done well is teach me to be a designer and think like one. College is the place we all go to to learn and mature with great stride and perfection. Our professors have worked hard to help mold us into strong designers, both in our skills and our minds.

We all need a job, and within that job we want to learn and experience as much as we can be better than before. As we all graduate into the world of professional studios and advertising firms, it’s important that we earn that money not just to live off of, but to also gain a wealth of knowledge in being a graphic designer.

Getting into that place where you belong, whether that be a small studio or a big advertising firm like Sterling Cooper in Mad Men. We all need a job. When graduating your sort of starting all over again, the beginning. It can take six to eighteen months to be an important part of a studio. There are some fresh graduates that are ready for this professional world. I feel that I am one of those. I am very ready to hit the ground running.

More importantly, what is the right job for you? I personally could go big or small, I just want to create with others. I love being with other creatives.

As you emerge from school to real time work, there is no wrong job. Even in those places that may seem “low-end” and you feel under-appreciated , there are lessons to be learned. I walked away from a lame job at Walgreens, a job I despised with all my heart. However, once I left I realized that I was stronger and smarter–in some ways.

Lucky for me, I do think like Shaughnessy. “I need to build a robust personal philosophy of professional life, I need experience and I need to be working; and everything I see and touch makes me a better designer. If you already think like this, you can stop reading this chapter and skip ahead.”

DON’T BE AFRAID OF BEING YOURSELF AND TAKING YOUR ROUT! Because being ‘different’ is what may land you that job, even if your interviewing skills aren’t perfect and you’re not conforming.

Working at an in-house studio:

This sort of job is sometimes looked down on because designers are seen as designers who are forced to work on narrow ranged projects.

But as you’re starting out, don’t forget that that there is no wring job. Though you won’t be taking just any old job that comes your way, you will gain something a lot from being an in-house designer. Because your beginning steps are aloud to be a little mundane and persistently the same.

The charming aspect of design can come slowly, but as your career unfolds you’ll see the value in these sorts of jobs and duties that come with them. They teach you valuable skills in working procedures and many other lessons that will inevitably  make you a better designer.

Meeting people in both big and small design environments is so important to your growth as a designer, but also as a person. To expose yourself as much as you can, is to create a designer that is well rounded.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A BAD INTERVIEW:

You can learn so much from being interviewed. Incase you haven’t caught on, everything is learning process, therefore everything is good because you learn.

Interviews teach you how important human relationships are when you’re finding a job. Sometimes it’s the interviewer that is the “idiot”.

Go to every interview you can, gain that experience of being interviewed. Even the job isn’t for you, the interview has its own set up lessons to learn. I personally have become very comfortable in interviews because I’ve been to enough to know the basics. Now, I just need to learn about the company before the interview and dress well.

INDEPENDENT DESIGN STUDIO:

Look how pretty it all is, the independent studios. “Design studios are a mixture of slave camp and enchanted playground.” The slave part is the long hours you’ll probably put in, but the enchanted part are those glimpses of yourself contributing to the studio.

You won’t mind the long hours, because putting in those long hours for recognition will offer you a good life with the studio. Studio life can be the absolute best.

MAKING CONTRIBUTIONS : SOMETHING CREATIVE

Most people want to be where we are, doing something creative and rewarding because it’s creative. We get to make stuff and be paid for it. Yes, we’ll make less than stockbrokers, but we have smart ideas that effect people all over the world that view our work. So yay for us! Whether it’s an in-house design studio or independent, we’re doing big creative things.

Reading #7 – Personas: Practice and Theory, by John Pruitt and Jonathan Grudin

Do you understand human behavior? Designers should be able interpret the manners of people, because in design you’re designing for someone else, the viewers are looking.

It takes time, but there are professionals that are working to take a firm grasp onto how people are responding to the design. Translating the data from the multiple sources is vital to understanding the anticipation needed to foresee the audiences response.

Personas, a person’s identity and personality. As softwares are being developed, the personalities of people is an interaction design approach that accomplish the goals of understanding human behavior.

 

Reading # 6 – “Reading Conveying Emotion Through Design,” Made You Look by Stefan Sagmeister

How can design touch someone’s heart?

Stefan Sagmeister  touches base on this subject of the emotions graphic design can have the viewers.

What about us as designers? Scratch that, what about us as being religious or political? Put aside the fluffy designs and paper we “love” so much, because we do have beliefs and feelings right? Of course we do!

Are you one of these or other? Either way Sagmeister wants to know why his goody bags aren’t filled with more moving and thought stuff? What’s funny is that I am sort of that designer that doesn’t believe in anything, I have no religion or strong political stand, but what I do have is Zilka flare and that quirky personality we’ve all heard so much about. Ya know, aren’t artist/designers quirky in some way or another?

Kyle Cooper “is the most successful modern designer of motion picture title sequence,” so says Wiki. He did a series of title sequences for the movie Seven.

Sagmeister refers to this because while at a AIGA Conference, Cooper really stuck out for him. This was the case because Cooper talked about this new found belief in God again. Something like this can be exciting to hear from a designer because it’s personal and can be controversial.

We’re always hearing about designers talk about their love of paper, typography, this color and that crafter and so on, but what about a few personal facts here and there?

Not even that, what about listing what moves you rather than what font you love? Sagmeister has been moved by a variety of movies, music and literature, but not the same with graphic design.

However, moves do offer 90min plus to wow and dazzle you, so maybe it’s not a fare comparison.

This isn’t just about how other designer measure up, this is also about how Sagmeister measures up to this idea “moving” people with graphic design. He has only a few pieces he has done that has for sure moved someone.

Most of what has touched his heart are pieces that are illustrated and or uses photography is some way.

Creating something yourself that could potentially touch someone’s heart should come from your heart first. “Writing a letter to your mom,” this was an idea of Sagmeister’s, but also a joke. This brought up a good side of all this, the medium you use. This is just as important as the design itself.

Sagmeister hasn’t figured out how to create a piece of design that has tons of impact.

Reading #8: Intro + Fwd and Chapter 1 – from To Be a Graphic Designer Without Loosing Your Soul

Stefan Sagmeister’s Forward to this book wasn’t inspiring, but at the same time humoring. He is totally right about there being so many great designers working and in school today. Graphic Design is definitely saturated, but with each designer comes other talents and a variety of emotions to the work they produce.

Sagmeister gets into the discussion of the money and business side of design, the part many designers choose not to get aquatinted with well enough. I for one am going to learn the business/advertising part of graphic design, because without that part of it, we couldn’t see most of the work we’re so inspired and disgusted by. It’s important to know the proper ways to set up your own studio, or at least enough to work in one. Making a project happen isn’t just about your concept or the next big fad. A lot of clients may know the business side of design, or just business in general. Keep yourself in the loop.

So …

Get up at 6am, before work and before school. Make something this morning, something that’s of your own time and will. Sagmeister does this, so should you … Just kidding, but seriously, do sit down for a moment and experiment with type or drawing.

How does Sagmeister not loose his soul?

Pause.

INTRODUCTION:

Just another book about graphic design … blah, blah, blah … but wait:

This book is unique in that Adrian Shaughnessy pulls from the high world of design to show us the nitty gritty part of each amazing piece of design we see in all those design books. Shaughnessy is genius with his words of wisdom and “grubby bits”. A book written by a designer, for designers.

532,000 designers employed in the USA; 212,000 are graphic designers!

But …

… Lucky for us, we all stand out and are way awesome!

What do we need? …

Emotional character! According to Shaughnessy, this is what many designers are missing in their work. Is this true or false? How do you measure up in all this speculation? Is your visual life filled to the rim with emotionless work that has not aesthetic value?

Clearly, this isn’t you, or me I hope. ‘Bad design’ is as Paula Scher  puts it, in the supermarkets and generic drug and video stores. These lonely places hold tons of bad designs to ignore.

scher

From here on out, how does design measure up to itself? Should designers cater to the clients and put their own feelings and personal expression aside? Or should we stand up tall for our problem-solving abilities, the abilities that do come from our cultural and aesthetic dimensions?

I guess in the case of designer vs. client, there can be and sometimes are happy mediums. Scher’s work above is amazing, why? Well there’s that cultural expression, but it’s also solving a problem with the information smashing all over it.

This book strives to help and secure graphic designers in their seats of success and growth. There is no book or designer that can tell you the rules of how to be an awesome designer, so by all means, ignore the entire book and forget everything you read and see. Being an awesome designer in my opinion comes from within … blah!

But seriously, it does. If you do stick through the book and take it all in strides, you’ll find bits and pieces that were meant just for you. This book was created to help designers enjoy their work and to help by talking about subjects that are not always brought up.

CHAPTER ONE:

\

Chapter one was awesome because of the end, Neville Brody was inspiring!

OMG Peta!

I saw this video on a web site and it’s totally awesome and totally weird. I think it’s great because it’s bold, not many American ads are bold like this one.

Frank Chimero at PSU

Find this on Design Work Life website.

The cover is getting there…need more peeps

Book inside/cover concept

Cover (Thanks Lis for the idea!), add one more or a title? I need one more ... well a bunch more ... and I think having two from the same location (Orion and Kristina) doesn't really work because the lack of variety

An inside quote from The Sartoliast -I love it because I relate to the words, the book is just that and The Sartolialst is a huge part of projects like this and Urban Weeds.

An inside title page - not really done in that there are more places or sections to the book. Also this hasn't been updated since talk with Lis Nov.3rd

this and below is an inside spread. No type treament yet, but I am fancying the white space around the photo - Book is 7x7 by the way.e