Freespace (the no cost, no office, office)

The graphic design world is becoming increasingly remote. More and more creative professionals are opting to work at home and telecomute to the office. I have heard it speculated that the days of the brick and mortar design firms are numbered.

The advent of the home based design community presents a new set of challenges for the creative professional. Where collaboration was once a desk away, designers are being forced to innovate new solutions. What few expect when they begin to work from home is just how difficult perviously easy tasks become. The distractions of home can very quickly overwhelm a designer when, chores, entertainment and family are no longer compartmentalized from the creative work that must be completed.

After a brief stint in the home office, many artists (myself included) long for the refuge that the workplace provided, In order to recreate that separation people are getting creative.

One of the best places to go to get away from the distractions of the home is McDonalds. Every McDonalds offers free WiFi and many of them have been remodeled to acomodate the mobile user incorporating more privacy into booths as well as installing power outlets at most tables. Starbucks also offers free wifi and an abundance of outlets, but lets face it, no one wants to be “that guy” with his mac open at a Starbucks.

Another spectacular resource (probably my favorite) is the local library. Believe it or not, Librarys still exist, the internet hasn’t killed them (yet) and they are a fantastic source of free wifi, social interaction and an abundance of motivational posters.

When the need to get out and work strikes you, stick to a basic needs list (wifi, privacy and table space) and you’ll be good to go.

 

Landing your First Design Job.

So you’ve been accepted into your first choice school. You’ve decided you want to be a graphic artist, you want to work through art to impact the world. You can barely contain your excitement, when the inevitable happens. You are sharing your dreams with a family member or maybe a well meaning friend of the family when instead of reacting with the same excitement you feel, they say something like “you know you wont get work in that field.”. Suddenly your excitement is crushed, in one moment you go from dreams of glory to coping with an overwhelming fear of failure.
First things first, contrary to what Party Pooper McNay-Sayer would like you to believe, there ARE jobs out there for the designer. Just open up the paper, walk down the street, or log onto the web. You are probably more familiar with the work of graphic artist than just about any other profession their is. The problem is not the availability of jobs, the problem is actually getting the work. Many artist don’t land their first graphics position for more than a year after graduation. Of course you don’t want that for yourself, so what do you do.
The secret to landing a design job quickly after graduation, or ideally BEFORE graduation is to get your name out there. Let’s look at a few ways to get noticed and GET HIRED.

1. Internships
The easiest way to network professionally and get your feet wet in the “real” world is to take a design internship. Depending on who you work for, the internship can resemble the class room or more likely the busiest most stressful day of your life, every day. The internship is stressful because you are expected to work at a professional level doing the grunt work that the other designers don’t want to do for little or no pay. The reason the internship is so important in spite of its immense stresses, is that you immediatly become acclimated to the riggers of meeting tight deadlines and consistently producing quality work. You will make friends and if you do a great job you might even be hired into the very same company you interned with. A four month internship with the right company will afford you more portfolio quality work than four years at college.

2. Portfolio
If you hope to get a job with a respectable design firm you must have a solid body of work to show for it. The mistake many new designers make is that they populate their portfolio exclusively with student work. This is a problem because while their school work may be good, it typically looks like school work. Companies want to see your eye for branding and what you can bring to the table for their clients. The easiest way generate more professional work to freelance for free, but be careful you don’t want to develop the reputation as someone who “gives it away” or people wont want to pay. A more effective way to develop that award winning portfolio is to work an internship as listed above while the work will be stressful, your boss will usually understand you are a student and give you detailed feedback on your work.

3. Networking
Finally, having a strong professional network will help to generate employement leads after graduation. Aside from working an internship, one of the best ways to get to know other professionals in the field is to go where they are, both on and off-line. Join professional organizations like AIGA and the Behance network, both offer outlets for students to get feedback from and meet with other professionals and the AIGA even supports local chapters where you can meet designers in your city and get quality face time. Finally, mine your social networks, become a pro at using facebook and twitter, join linkdin and blog about your world, if you are diligent at participating the the conversation, by the time you graduate, a large circle of people will know of you.

My biggest piece of advice to any student looking to break in to the design world is to start now, while you are in school. Don’t wait until you graduate or you might find yourself back at McDonald with a $70,000 piece of paper hanging on your wall. The artist that seizes the day is going to be the one seizing tomorrow.

Behind the times

I am grew up in a small town in Illinois. My family went to church every sunday, and I grew up immersed in what I like to call “The Jesus Brand”.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Jesus Brand, its basically where Christians take something that’s popular in the secular world and make a cheaper version of it with a bible verse and a catchy bible-esque logo printed on. These can be fairly straight forward like the “Testamints”, little Altoids style mints with a bible verse on each, Or ridiculous, like the “Armor of God” pajama set, a roman soldier style armor complete with feathered head piece and plush shield.

The insanity behind many of these products stems from fairly straight forward desire of well meaning Christians trying to spread the message of Jesus. Problem is, the general christian pop culture is 20 years behind the times in most every aspect of entertainment and art. The design of the aforementioned products for example is abysmal at best, and the music has historically be terrible.

The solution of course to the predicament is to stop making cheap “Christianized” knock offs of existing products, but instead invest time and energy into genuine inovation that forwards actual needs.

 

How to be the most successful graphic artist ever. (seriously)

During a recent foray into the life and mind of the one and only Paul Rand, I had a chance to discuss with him his opinions regarding what it takes to be the most successful artist in the world.  We discussed style and influence, networking and more. Several hours and multiple notebooks later I was shaking Mr. Rand’s hand to bid him good evening. I was trembling with excitement and anticipation as I arrived home, I knew that what I had in those hand written volumes might be the key to a revolution in the design world. I spent the subsequent days and weeks pouring myself into my notes, mining them for every last drop of wisdom they might hold. After a month and a half of tedious work I discovered the nugget I had been looking for, the core truth of Paul’s entire philosophy on success. According to Paul Rand, the secret to being the most successful graphic artist in the world is…Hard work and Passion for what you do…seriously, that’s it…after realizing how monumentally stupid that advice is, I decided to make the advice up on my own. I have come up with a formula that if followed precisely will make you filthy rich and monstrously popular as an artist.

Step 1) Wrestle a Bear

Step 2) Grow a full luscious moustache (Ladies too)

Step 3) Wear Flannel

 

Step 4) Hang out with Johnny Depp

 

Step 5) Move to Deerfield, Iowa

 

Step 6) Get Rich (filthily so)

 

Step 7) Run for President

 

Step 8) Develop a debilitating addiction (and then recover from it)

 

Step 9) Cut off one ear

Bonus points if you do this one during your run for president!

 

Step 10) Become a scientologist

If you follow my steps to success, you will absolutely become the most successful artist of all time, EVER.*

*Disclamer: I have never met Paul Rand and some or all of my advice could get you injured or arrested and will have an adverse effect on your career path (especially running for president, don’t do that, politicians are D-bags). But ladies, if you do manage to grow  a luscious moustache, please attach pictures in the comments, the world must know.