David Airey posted Lee Newham's, 15 Graphic Design Interview Tips on his site. The tips were originally published on August 1st, 2008. Lee Newham is the founder of Good People, and the former design director at London-based Davies Hall. Newham stresses that you should be memorable, unique and show your brand. It is important to present your business card which should be designed from a great idea, have 8-12 pieces in your portfolio with the best pieces in the front and back, have your CV (resume) in the back of your portfolio, and have at least six questions ready to ask. To look organized, it is important to have a pencil and paper ready to write anything down. It is also important to talk a little before showing your work. You should have samples, mock ups, and sketches to show how you got your final solution. Only have career related things on your resume,and give a firm hand shake. Do not talk about holidays and money on this first interview. Get the companie's business card and tell them how much you want this job. Send a "thank you" email after the interview. Work hard to be the top 20% of the designers that get jobs because there are more designers than there are jobs. Listen to what your interviewer has to say to improve your portfolio. As Lee Newham says, "It is not a historical record of your college journey", It is a tool in getting a job. Lee also says showing work on a lab top is helpful, but don't put effects that distract from your work. Update your portfolio as you go. Lastly, Newham says to ask the interviewer if they have any reservation about you so you can answer any doubts they may have, stressing that you really want the job. Lee Newham states that you will learn a lot from your first job so try to work for a good company and then the money will come later.
The article/video, "The Making of the 2016 Olympic Logo", is written by Graham Smith. This short article is about the design of the 2016 Olympic logo which is made by Tátil Design de Ideias. This logo at first looks like 3 people holding hands, but this logo turns into something far more meaningful if you understand the culture of Rio. This logo was designed with 12 topics in mind, had to be made so it effected people on an emotional level and not just a technical level, and it had to be easy to understand and recognize. This logo is based on the main tourist attraction sugarloaf, and is made to replicate the shape of the mountains with three people embracing the city. I feel this article/video portrayed the creation of the 2016 olympic logo as a very hard but exciting thing to create. This logo has many meanings and makes you have to understand the culture, history, and geography of Rio to understand the design.  In this article, David Mottram, is talking about the steps he takes to gets his finished illustration. He states that he doesn't take the same steps every time, but he always starts with a hand drawn sketch and takes it as far as he can go with it. David tries to go past his comfort zone and challenge himself with every new job. He feels it is important to keep a sketchbook or journal and quotes Milton Glaser, who said, "Drawing is visual thinking." David feels it is very important to research other artists that you admire and analyze why you are attracted to their art. He admires Mary Blair and Alice Provensen, because he loves the color palette they use. Researching texture and color helps create a better design. He also feels when you get an idea one of the first things you need to do is take a closer look. He gave the example of an elephant and magnifying the elephants skin to see it close up. This is important to create a design with the correct texture and color. One of Davids tips is to use gritty paper when scanning because it has more tooth marks and will show the texture better. He feels it is important to use everything you can such as pastels, paint, paper towels, and charcoal. Scan everything to use now or on a later project. Defining brushes in Photoshop is also important because each brush should be separate and named to create a brush palette for the project you are working on and future projects. Creating a color palette is the next step before actually working on the illustration. Last, David makes shapes to paint and paints in many layers for each shape.
This article is a perfect view of how a illustrator and designer goes about creating an illustration. My sister is going to York College for Fine Art and wants to become an illustrator, and she is always doing thumbnails and sketches before she actually works on her design. She is always researching different artists and is right now working on a project in which they have to use different textures and colors for an abstract landscape painting. I know it takes many hours and a lot of work and in her case some tears before she has a beautiful finished project. Coroflot is “a simple and direct way to connect with creative opportunities worldwide.’ Basically it is a very informative sight for creative work opportunities around the world. Companies can post jobs that need to be filled. Web designers, graphic designers, illustrators, etc… can look for jobs or post their portfolios, A portfolio can be created online, or salary information can be accessed. They pride themselves with working with the best companies and providing the best information.
I thought this web site was very informative and cool. It was great to look at the creative portfolios that people posted and see all the job opportunities. I was a little surprised about the salaries. I thought they would be in the 60-80 thousand range at least. I saw an opportunity in Baltimore, MD for an art director for Under Armor which I thought would be cool. I also saw an opportunity in Hunt Valley, Md. at Procter and Gamble to design packaging for the cosmetics (COVERGIRL and Max Factor) and was surprised since I have been to the Hunt Valley, Md. area many times. The article Case Study: Wild Fire Tees, written by Troy DeRose, is about how Austin Buck, co-owner of CoPilot Creative in Colorado Springs got the idea of selling t-shirts to help benefit the wild fires in Colorado and called upon many other design companies to help. This idea originally came from a design company in Texas called AIRSHP who designed t-shirts to also help benefit the wildfire relief in Texas. With no prescribed budget and no research, just the model of the Texas business who previously made benefit tees, the team was only expecting to sell 200 to 300 shirts, but ended up selling more than $600,000 dollars worth of shirts. The team had no strategy besides first, simply wanting to make a great design on a shirt and second, to make a great-looking, good-quality shirt that people would love. Some challenges they faced were having to scale up the project because of the amount of sales they had, prove that they were a legitimate cause to Twitter and PayPal, and have to find other companies to supply them with shirts after literally causing Hanes to sell out of some sizes and colors. Overall the project was effective and the team felt that "What we believed, which was confirmed by the orders, is that great design matters, period."
I think that this statement is the most important sentence in the article because if you have a great design, everyone will want it, and this was proven by not being able to keep a few designs on hand due to a complete sell-out. The designs really matched what the people were feeling. People wanted designs that commemorated this tragic event, but also represented the way their community rallied together. this was a perfect way to help a good cause. This article, written by Michael Bierut, describes how there are two kinds of graphic designers in the world. One creates each project for an opportunity for self expression, producing work that has an unmistakeable mark and is more about the maker than the message. This graphic designer's output, at its best, is personal and passionate; at its worst, it's repetitive and self indulgent and the mark of an attention seeking person. The second kind of designer attends first to the client; to the message; and to the audience. The second designers goal is to be neutral and invisible. The best of the second designer's work is extremely effective; the worst is anonymous and unforgivable, giving design a bad name. Designer James Victore is great because he amazingly combines the best of both ways. Everyone of his pieces bears his signature in his unmistakeable work. He has a way of conveying the sense that "The words don't want to wait around to be put into type, justified, and kerned. Instead, the ideas are rushing to get out."
If I was a professional graphic designer, I would want to be like James Victore and want to show self-expression as well as being extremely effective through my designs. I hope my designs would be as shockingly good as we should all aim for. I am definitively going to look up some of James Victore's work. Michael Bierut, the author of this article, tells a story about when he first started out as designer at Vignelli's. He was designing a brochure with his boss and taking notes on what was going to be in the brochure. His boss told him they needed a great photographer like Arnold Newman, so he got out the phone book and called Arnold Newman on the phone. Michael did not realize that Arnold Newman was a famous photographer and treated him briskly and unprofessional. Michael even ask Mr. Newman to send his portfolio to them because they might be interested in hiring him. When his portfolio arrived, Michael realized Arnold Newman was famous for his work, especially his photo of John F. Kennedy in front of the White House. From that day forward Michael Bierut learned the lesson that he should treat everyone with respect and professionalism and to do more research before he talks to someone on the phone.
This was a great article, but I feel that I usually treat others with respect. I can learn from doing more research before contacting someone though, because it is important to know who you are talking to and not to sound dumb on the phone. No one should be thought of, or treated as below you or above you because everyone is equal. Humility is a trait that everyone should try to have and I will try to have more. I am probably one of those people that worries too much about people in authority, and I have to realize that they are just people like me. Michael Bierut, an author for Design Observer, recently read an article in The Architect's Newspaper by Michael McDonough, an accomplished New York based architect, called "The Top 10 Things They Never Taught Me in Design School" and asked permission to reprint it in the Design Observer. The article is ten common sense things to help a person be successful in design and some of the things could help anyone be successful in any job in life.
The first rule listed by Michael McDonough is basically stating that talent is important, but so is hard work, luck, who you know, money or timing. The second rule is stating that it is not all fun, learn to love the boring parts, and perform them with diligence and care. The third rule is to decide what is important and set your priorities. The fourth rule is to not over think a problem. The fifth rule is to start with what you know and then figure out what you don't know. The sixth rule states not to become frantic. Write your ideal on a piece of paper and keep it in front of you at all times. The seventh rule is not to be over confident. Be humble, it is the great karma rule, the wheel turns slowly, but always comes back around. The eighth rule is basically to expect to work hard, expect to fail a few times, and expect to be rejected. The ninth rule is, "Show me the output!" The tenth rule is to respect all the people that have to be there to help you be successful, the constructor, the manufacturer, the insurer, the buyer, you need them all. These rules are good rules for design as well as for life. I felt it was a great article to read. Thank you Michael McDonough and Michael Bierut. Michael Bierut is the author of a humorous, but informative article titled Warning May Contain Non-Design Content. He tells us about his "starved for design days" in the 1970s when he was in design school in Cincinnati. In his senior year, he was offered a job to design a catalog for the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center on the work of theater designer Robert Wilson. CAC did not hire him because he knew anything about Robert Wilson, they hired him because he was cheap. Bierut thought he was a pretty good designer, and he did not feel it was important to know anything about Robert Wilson. A year later he saw his first Robert Wilson production of Einstein on the Beach and thought it was epic, miraculous, hypnotic, and transcendent. He realized he had messed up the catalog and that his design relayed none of those things.
Bierut states in his article to other designers that they should be passionate about the subject of their design and that more things you are interested in, the better your work will be. He also says "Not everything is design. But design is about everything. So do yourself a favor; be ready for everything." I thought this article was very informative and helpful if you are looking to be hired for a job in design. It is important to be passionate and informed about your subject on a lot of different subjects not only helps you in your job, but also makes you a more interesting person. | AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesJanuary 2013 Categories |
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