Look Good. Talk Good: A Portfolio & Interview Workshop Series
Look Good. Talk Good: A Portfolio & Interview Workshop Series Presented by Good For Grasshopper & We Are 1976
Most schools teach you about how to kern and rag. Most schools teach you about color and form. But not all of them teach you the part that can be the gateway between being a student designer and a real world designer. This February through April, Good For Grasshopper in partnership with We Are 1976 will be offering a series of workshops to help you make that transition—from polishing your portfolio presentation to getting an interview and acing it. At the end of the series will be a mock interview speed-dating session so you can practice what you’ve learned with some local industry leaders.
The best part is these workshops are FREE to attend! But space is limited so click here to register now.
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Filed under: Advice, Resources, Students
A peak inside Michael Bierut’s student portfolio
One of the nations leading designers, Michael Bierut of Pentagram NY shares what it was like getting his feet wet just after graduating college and jumping in to graphic design. Full article.
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Wisdom from Debbie Millman
If you weren’t around to see Debbie Millman’s keynote at the 3rd Annual Student Show & Conference you may want to make up for it by reading some of her words of wisdom on branding over at thedieline.com
Also keep a lookout for her new book, “Look Both Ways: Illustrated Essays on the Intersection of Life and Design” set to release in October 2009.
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Filed under: Advice, Judges
10 Principles That Might Make Your Work Better or May Make It Worse
1. Be honest.
Be honest to your audience. An open path of communication is built upon trust. This idea is relevant to every other form of communication, and I think it applies to visual communication. Honesty isn’t just about audience. Be honest to yourself as well. Do the things you’re passionate about. Avoid the things that you hate, if you can.
2. Consistent voice is more important than consistent style.
Voice is about what you say. It’s content. Style is about what you’re wearing. It’s aesthetics. The prior informs the latter, not the other way around. Clothes don’t make the man. They don’t make your work either.
3. Does it have heart?
If it does, make it. If it doesn’t, why spend the time on something that doesn’t have spirit?
4. Have modest expectations.
Spend a lot of time choosing that one thing that a piece of design or an illustration should try to do. Then, work your ass off trying to figure out the absolute best way to do that one thing.
5. Don’t be scared of your tools.
Use them, don’t fear them. For instance, while sketching, I recommend using cheap paper. If the paper’s cheap, you won’t feel bad documenting your bad ideas. Getting the first, awful ideas out of the way is crucial: very rarely does any one hit it out of the park on the first try. If I had a sketchbook filled with nice, expensive paper, I’d feel obligated to make the first idea I sketched brilliant. That pressure would paralyze me. Tools should be enablers, not disablers. If something is more intrusive or intimidating than it is useful, get rid of it. It’s not a tool, it’s a toy. Or worse, a creative boogie man that you’re inviting through your front door.
6. Embrace the subconscious.
In the studio, I have a sofa for naps with a couple pillows. The pillow is kind of comfortable, but mostly not. Just soft enough to relax you. But, just stiff enough to keep you from falling fully asleep. Right before you fall fully asleep, your brain is making all sorts of connections between all of the unrelated thoughts in your brain. There’s no filter from your conscious mind saying “This makes sense. This other idea doesn’t.” Without that filter, you can consider more possibilities. So, grab something to write with, fill your head to the brim with research and what you already know. Then, take an almost-nap and get ready to document the ideas that find you.
7. Edit.
Delete unimportant things. Even if you love them. If it isn’t spectacular, it gets cut. Kill your darlings. Be a cold-blooded killer. Ruthless. Delete. Refine. Improve.
8. Being too comfortable is dangerous.
Most creatures die in their sleep. Keep moving, or get eaten. The only things you should be absolutely comfortable with in your creative process are your tools.
9. There is nothing keeping you from doing the sort of work that you wish.
What do you want? It’s a hard, yet crucial question. We all do creative work to get happy. It’s why we let it beat us up, and it’s why we keep crawling back to it. Figure out precisely what you want, and realize that if no one will pay you to make it, you can still make it for yourself. And you still win, because you’re happy.
10. Execute.
An idea on the page is worth 100x more than an idea in the mind. You can only judge and be judged by work that’s executed. Eventually, we all realize that most of the ideas that look great in our mind look dumb once they’re real. But, at least you now know.
Written by: Frank Chimero
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Filed under: Advice
