I am ecstatic!! I have been wanting to make a site for so long! I did have one I made through a class once but the flash didn’t work on everyones pcs so I scrapped it. I worked so very hard re-editing photos, coming up with a logo and theme for myself. It is soooo hard designing for yourself, when you are indecisive!! Here is everything from my brand book.
The best part about this, is it was a real life project for me!!!
“If you have too much fame it boils over and scalds your feet.”
Who would want that? There is such thing as being humble and comfortable. That is were I am right now with my photography business. I could do more business which would be nice, but currently that would overwhelm me, seeing I am busy with so much more. Later on I would like to have more clients. I believe most people look at who you are. How you are. Then your work. I am probably way off… maybe I’d like to think my personality will save me.
The lesson is simple: We must not confuse admiration and respect with fame and celebrity.
I really admire the bit about design competitions. It really doesn’t mean anything!!! There is so much design out there! I would rather be respected for my quality of work and design ideas than win a competition that I had to PAY for. Going to lectures and keeping in touch with colleges will always be great additives in your design career. With my past experience in working for jerks, loosers, unfair bosses, and annoying employees, I feel as though I have a tougher skin than before and I am willing to be critiqued by fresh eyes, and seeing points of views I never noticed. One of my favorite things is to critique other work as well. It’s the circle of design life!
I love how Shaughnessy gives us a different perspective from being hired as a graphic designer, to hiring designers for your own studio. I can’t imagine the process must be difficult. Not only are you looking for great design, but you are looking for compatible people who will be a great asset and not a mistake.
Treating your employers like Gods? Who wouldn’t want this job? I get what he is saying though. Behind every design is a designer that put blood, sweat, and tear behind that beautiful piece of work! The design is a product of an individual mind. They are at the center of the design. It is done with hand, eye, and brain. THis is why when your work is mutilated by clients we are unhappy, and when its praised we’re happy. We are, our designs. A small part of us is imbedded.
Chapter 7 reminds me of episodes of Mad Men. Handling clients, keeping a sustaining relationship, and dumping them. Clients that try and manipulate and con you? this sounds like a nightmare! Thank you Shaughnessy for your insights and warnings!
The dream team.
“They don’t tell you this in design school, but they reason you go to school is to learn how to learn”
Even though I am not graduated quite yet, I already have people asking me if I have a job lined up! Are they crazy? Once I am done, I have no idea where to begin?! Thankfully Shaughnessy has some helpful pointers.
They don’t have a class about finding a job, learning the ropes or how to mesh with an already pre-existing design team. Thats because these are things to learn on the job!
From school we have learned how to think like designers. We are molded, and critiqued, and take on a variety of aspects of design. We now have experience in learning how to design. The next step is finding a job where we will gain design life experience. Where instead of grades are rewarded with respect, reputation, and of course money.
Once we all graduate we are starting at the bottom, having to slowly work back up to the top.
For me what will be the hardest is taking those “low-end” jobs. Yu have to start some where though right? That is the only way to build a portfolio and land better jobs. Every job with have something to learn from until you have built a tower of knowledge and projects will become a little easier than they were before.
I think I will end up trying both working in-house and working at an independent studio. I could see myself happier at an indepentent studio, where as Shaughnessy put it “It’s a mixture of a slave camp and enchanted playground” this sounds awesome!
The most rewarding thing about designing is we have a creative job. Something almost anyone would want!
When looking for a job it is important to have a superb portfolio obviously. I gather you must be fierce and approach studios, show your work, be bold and confident. This should be hard! Luckily we live in Portland. Enough said about that.
During an interview it is important and obvious to be on time, and be patient and polite. I found it quite amusing the big about turning your work to face the interviewer. I love how this book takes real life events and weaves them into information and live lessons.
Portfolios should be 8-10 pieces printed at the highest quality. They should be loose. Not too large.
Being freelance seems very stressful to me. It seems lonely and mundane. That is my personal opinion. I happen to flourish with other designers around me. I learn faster, I am more creative, and critiquing other designers work actually helps me. Plus you would have to deal with all of the “business” stuff… like debts… and yeah ew…
Setting up your own design studio sounds very stressful yet rewarding. I really like what was said in the first paragraph in ch. 4 about how working in a design studio can be an enlightening and fertile place to work in. That is exactly how I would have imagined it.
“She’s money, your’re art”
The division of responsibilities is essential for a successful design studio. Creative direction, financial affairs, and design managment.
When creating a business plan its important to think you will have less clients than you will. Get a business account with a bank and knowing your income and expenditure is important.
In the forward I really like how Sagmeister brings up the point about how graphic design now embraces what used to be a dozen different professions. This makes me think about whenever I have to explain to someone what a graphic designer exactly is and what they do. I could talk about it for five minutes straight and name off several things, as a pose to having one answer. This might answer the question about why graphic design is such a popular profession. It appeals to a wide variety of interests.
I also was enlightened by his last paragraph on page seven, about how most designers starting out just want to focus on design and don’t want to be bothered about the business and money part when in fact it is as much apart of it as choosing color and typeface. This is exactly how I felt when the graphic design courses were getting a little more challenging. All I wanted to do was design, but now I have to worry about all of these other things? I’m the sure the most experience you will have as a designer will come from the first few years you are on your own. At least I can imagine that.
This first chapter was a taste of reality. In design real life, you won’t be working on “personal” projects, you won’t be making up companies and branding them, as we have in classes. This is real. Real clients, real needs, real money! It is essential to become more aware of your surroundings as a designer. Keeping a folder of your favorite designs, having a handful of favorite designers, and having a good library of beneficial design books is a good way to start being more design sensitive.
I also enjoyed the tip about having openness, receptivity and understanding. That it will in fact almost help you better than if you sit there and run off your own ideas. This is powerful information!
WHAT IS A CULTURE PROBE!!??
Also known as diary studies, cultural probes are a way of gathering information about people and they’re activities. Unlike traditional field studies or usability testing, this technique allows users to self-report.
This article is about the process 3 European Designers went through to understand and get to know a community of Elderly Citizens, to increase their presence in their own community.
They explained their techniques and goals in achieving success with this project. The probes were part of a strategy of pursuing experimental design in a responsive way. The packages of maps, postcards and other material were designed to provoke inspirational responses from the Elderly. They left them behind and waited for the probes to gather information over time. 
What the designers learned about the elderly was only half the story, the other half is what the elderly learned from the probes. Although the probes didn’t directly lead to their designs, they were influenced by their preexisting conceptual interests to the sites.
Designing for a sensitive and powerful subject like A.I.D.S can be quite tough when you are trying to make a campain in Africa. In fact it is true to say that it can be tough for any American Designer to convey any message to any Country, about an issue related to that Country outside of the U.S.
I believe coming up with ideas to convey the same message about protection during sex to prevent the spreading of A.I.D.S. can be quite hard and repetitive with most designers. I think currently designers are trying to come up with more metaphors to offer a different perspective on the message.
This article was very interesting. I have always been interested in cross-culture designing. It offers a wide variety of designing problems to solve, it requires extensive research, and my favorite part… possibly traveling!
A participatory graphic design workshop was held with a small group of Kenyans within a community computing center. Using their own indigenous iconography, they designed HIV/AIDS prevention posters for they’re fellow Kenyans.
It was very interesting to see the sketches of what the Kenyans came up with, then to see them finished. I appreciate the effort and nobility of these group of people to set forth into Africa and set up this workshop.
A movement that involved graphic design, poetry, literature, visual arts, art theory, theatre, and art manifestoes is known as Dadaism. This began in Zurich, Switzerland. Dada concentrated it’s anit-war politics through anti-art culture works. Dada influenced many later styles such as avant-garde, surrealism, popart, fluxus, and punk rock. Public gatherings deonstrations, and publication of journals were activities included in this movement.
Raoul Hausman
Dada Seigt, 1920
Watercolor and collage on wove paper, mounted on board
Overall 23 5/8 x 17 3/4 in.
Raoul Hausman is the co-founder of the Dada movement in Berlin. He is also responsible for creating the photomontage. He gave up painting in 1923 and became more interested in photo related projects.
What striked me about Sagmeister’s article was the way it was set up. How each paragraph was introduced with a comment or question in a box. I also love his list of qualities he found in common to touch his heart.
The quote he admired by Brian Eno “Not to think of art work as objects, but as triggers for experiences. Basically saying anything that is an experience is art it isn’t a quality. It’s safe to say every experience is a different one for everyone else… which would mean art means different for everyone else… depending on your experiences.
I made a list of qualities i find in common that touch my heart.
1. Uniqueness - Something that is unlike anything I’ve seen or maybe a twist on something I’ve seen before but unexpected.
2. Attractiveness - Eye catching, juicy, something I would want to keep staring at for hours.
3. Power - Something that grabs my gut and holds me there. Where I literally say wow out loud in surprise.
4. New perspective ( I agree with Sagmeister)
5. Wholeness - It has to flow, have roundness, complexity, simpleness, whatever it needs to feel whole… even if it is missing something, it has to be obvious to me why to completely wrap my brain around it.
6. Nostalgia- In some way trigger flashes of an experience or a memory or maybe remind me of a feeling or image from my past. This is one of the strongest qualities.
7. Soul- It has to have an aura. It literally has to feel like it is alive with character.
We all have stories to tell. Some we burry deep in our pasts, they aren’t things we are proud of or happy about but because of those experiences good or bad, they design who we are today. This method of studying design is very unique and makes total sense. We design based on our own experiences. When we design for other people or brands/companies, we design based on an experience they want you to have. I posted a video below I found that I felt was similar in this idea.
