How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul

Chapters 5 + 6 + 7

Down the road, you are going to need them.

Setting up a studio and working with clients is like a marriage or having a child. You have to be sure the people you are dealing with are in it for the long haul. You need to be sure that you can work with them well to produce something beautiful. Coming up with the right name for your studio can be hard, just like naming a child. You will need to base your decisions on some sort of philosophy that you share with those around you.

Have a philosophy. This one is from Peter Fischli and David Weiss.

Getting new work and keeping those clients isn’t any different. Like a marriage, you have to stay on top of it and stick with it when the going gets tough.

There are lots of fish in the sea. Having the right bait can help. Network and put yourself out there. Shameless self promotion is a must. Awards and publications are a great way to expose yourself, but a strong portfolio is your best ally. Good designers are never satisfied with their portfolios, until they get them a new client.

How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul

Chapters 2 + 3 + 4

In all of these chapters, Shaugnessy asks us to vary our expectations. Wether it is making the full profits we foresee, working normal hours, or expecting that the famous design studio down the street is willing to hire us straight outta school. One thing is sure, its not just going to fall into place without some adjustments to ourselves.

Not every interview is worth your time. You don't just go for a job, it is a chance to make some connections and learn to make improvements along the way.

The most helpful chapter so far was Chapter 2, which gives specific advice on how find and prepare for an interview. (Not a job. An interview.) Selling yourself is probably the hardest job we face, and this chapter tells us exactly how to conduct ourselves so that we increase our chances of getting that job. Even if it isn’t the job (or interview) of our dreams, it is good experience.

However, there is more than one route to take when becoming a paid designer. Chapter 3 and 4 cover the basics of going freelance and setting up your own studio. For many, this is going to be far easier with the help of others and their special skills.

Better find someone who can count the beans for you, unless you have some experience in accounting. You will also need a lawyer, some IT help, and someone to find new business, etc. It will be way easier than doing everything yourself.

Final changes

After getting feedback in class, I have decided to make some final adjustments and reprint. I took out the elevator shafts and resized the directory. Here are the results:

Oh, and I made an image of what the interactive version would look like:

Just imagine that you could rollover any level you wanted to see and it would appear just as Level 2 is here.

Map + Directory

Colors

This uses seven out of 10 of the PSU colors

From the PSU Identity Standards manual

Six floors + basement

Scribble!

Schedule

Thursday, Oct. 22
small group meeting

• inspiration research
• narrow focus/select audience
• mood board
• post to flickr

Tuesday, Oct. 27
small group meeting, 5% of grade

• research subject
• map comp #1 w/ variation
• post to flickr
• post to blog

Thursday, Oct. 29
work at home

• research identity standards
• develop questionaire

Tuesday, Nov. 3
small group meeting

• gather questionaire responses
• interpret data
• post results to blog

Thursday, Nov. 5
one-on-one meeting

• further development of 3D map
• post to flickr
• post to blog

Tuesday, Nov. 10
small group meeting, 10% of grade

• overall format, composition
• 6 floors and surroundings placed on map
• type and color palette variations
• post to flickr
• post to blog

Thursday, Nov. 12
small group meeting

• all relevant data gathered and entered
• variation of composition, colors, heirarchy, etc.
• post to flickr

Tuesday, Nov. 17
small group meeting

• placement of all floors, walls, and objects on map
• directory variations
• post to flickr

Thursday, Nov. 19
small group meeting

• adjustments to arrangement of map
• finalize directory
• post to flickr

Tuesday, Nov. 24
full class digital critique, 15% of grade

• low res pdf of work (portfolio quality)
• post to blog

Thursday, Nov. 26
turkey.

• give thanks
• sleep
• final adjustments to map and directory
• print practice run

Tuesday, Dec. 1
small group meeting

• have work printed
• formal portfolio level presentation
• photograph work
• color corrections
• audience feedback
• post to blog

Thursday, Dec. 3
full class

• presentation of work
• audience inclusion and participation

Tuesday, Dec. 8
FINAL PROJECT DUE @ 2pm

• review methodology

How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul

Intro + Fwd and Chapter One
by Adrian Shaughnessy, forward by Stefan Sagmeister

“This book doesn’t tell you what sort of designer you should be.”
“Nor does this book tell you how to file your tax returns.”

It does offer us suggestions and gives us examples of design issues, but it is up to us to make our own decisions and designs.

Can you do meaningful design without losing your shirt?

Most importantly, it teaches us to listen. Listen to hearts, our clients, and the world around us. If we can do that, we will have a much better chance of holding onto our soles in a field where money and mainstream monotony are as common as Helvetica. According to Shaunghnessy, this will also help keep us standing on the soles of our shoes as well. Just don’t expect that you will be making enough money to afford really fancy imported shoes.

Personas: Practice and Theory

“A subset of perticipants in the usability study had problems with that search tool.”

Let’s try that again.

“Abby cannot use the search tool on your web page.”

That’s better.

Personas are similar to fictional characters because they don't really exist, but they are based on real-life qualitative and quantitative data.

Designers have trouble designing for people outside of their own realm. We can use personas to help guide our decisions when trying to design for a specific audience. This allows us to connect to this personna much like we would an actual person, while serving the characteristics of a large chunk of the audience.