7,6,5...launching thoughts to my future

"What are you getting your degree in?"

"Ohh...graphic design. What do you want to do with that?"

I only had embryonic ideas of ways to answer that a couple of years ago, when I made a commitment to this track.

And my ideas are still lil guys, just trying to grow.

I had a feeling I would need to dive into the good the bad and the ugly to find out how I felt about it all. To figure out where my talents lie and what fuels my fire. 

The book is helping the growing process. Outlining various routes to go, HTBAGDWOLYS later gives a pretty thorough report of the duties included with different roles within the large studio, the small studio, and the individually run. 

There seem to be an equal amount of pros and cons that come with each option...I see myself beginning in a large environment to attain knowledge and that was confirmed by the following quote: 

"A period in a good design studio producing work for corporate clients can provide invaluable experience for a young designer, furnishing him or her with valuable skills and disciplines."

It makes sense to me now, why just about every senior designer I have spoken with has spent their early years working on projects for Nike. 

So, fledgling ideas are now reaching through the top-soil. I want to start big, wherever that may be, I will take it as a learning experience. Through the years I have been encouraged toward writing and photography, and design stands in my educational background, but I do enjoy graphic design and see myself incorporating it. Working for a magazine with a large, buzzing team of people seems to be something that may be a good first fit for me.  Eventually I would like to work in a smaller environment, working intimately with clients and my studio team members. Running a solo-show does not sound like a fun time to me...the book keeping, the taxes, the client recruiting, the idea generating and the design execution...it all seems like too much. I have never been good at multi-tasking and role shifting, and doing all this alone makes me want to poop my pantalones. 

That's how I'm feeling now anyhow. We will see where the professional winds blow me.  

h2b a GD w/o LYS. ch 234

My book is filthy. 

It was such a crisp, clean, cyan and white book. 

I tried to keep it that way.

Now its sort of floppier, gray-tinted with unintended textures gracing the cover. 

Oh well. The deep sighs of relief that each turning page provides me when I'm on the bus...waiting for the bus...walking off the bus...walking to the bus...laying in bed, eating breakfast, during coffee break at work...the ease of breathing is worth destroying its fresh aesthetics.   

Coming close to graduation, the questions of my designer-future have been transforming from hypothetical 'if' questions to actual 'when' consternation. I have been gathering experienced designer friends and connections for coffee and insight. I've been gathering piece of mind, and not taking 'you'll just have to wait until you get there to find out', for an answer.

Thank you friends, thank you teachers, thank you connections, thank you how to be a graphic designer without losing your soul...thank you for helping me feel like I've got at least a wheel on track, and helping me feel prepared. 

Here are some jewels I have picked up thus far: 

• Everything I see and touch makes me a better designer

• Acquiring fluency in the design languages, most notably type, is an ongoing process. 

• Being a young graphic designer is not easy, physically or emotionally. We enter the field with talent, potential and personality as our primary assets, at an average age of 23, where we are not exactly kids anymore but surely not responsible adults yet

• Human relationships are important in the process of finding a job

• Look for ways of making yourself indispensable

• There is a price to be paid to live the privileged life as a designer, and that price is unflinching commitment. You have to be prepared to make sacrifices

• You're not much of a graphic designer unless you've designed a successful letterhead

• Persistence, doggedness and barefaced cheek will pay off

• Any studio that doesn't pay its interns is not worth working for

• Trust your personality and trust your work

• Learn to enjoy interviews

How/to/be/a graphic/designer,/without/losing/your/soul

I have never before wanted to sit down and devour an entire school text book until this cyan printed wonder book was given as a required-read. 

In the introduction, Adrian Shaughnessy says that this book will not tell us what sort of designers we should be, but that we will be making our own individual decisions about what matters, what looks good, what is success. But he does make notable traits that a designer should have in order to be successful. 

Here are a few of my favorites from chapter 1 : 

• Designers take interest in everything that goes on around them, having curiosity about areas other than design: politics, entertainment, technology, art, ten-pin bowling and wrestling. 

• Designers are observers, and the best humor comes from microscopic observation.

• Designers constantly scan, scrutinize and absorb what goes on around them.

• Designers demonstrate understanding, openness and receptivity.

• Designers posses the ability to talk about their work, especially with clients and non-designers, in a coherent, convincing and objective way. The way designers present ideas is as important as the ideas themselves.

• Designers can find patterns of words that communicate meaning and value to clients.

• Designers can remove the personal from the equation...less you means more you. 

• Designers can communicate to clients/other designers/partners/viewers in a way that they don't feel cowed, threatened or discouraged by your views. 

I loved the section on integrity. Ever since my early realization of wanting to be a graphic designer, but that advertising in particular has been and can be destructive

 to individuals and societies as a whole, I have found myself setting up future scenarios where I have been faced with opportunities to change the world for the better or for the worse.  Besides being able to support a reasonably comfortable lifestyle for myself/myself and a dog/myself and a family, I don't care to make masses of money. I would be content with my life  knowing that I stuck to my personal philosophy rather than abandoning it at the first sign of trouble.

 At the end of my career, I would know that I have succeeded if I would be known for having principles that I stuck to in order to better the world we live in.