INSIGHT SEPTEMBER 2019
COMPUTERARTS.CREATIVEBLOQ.COMDISCUSSIONTWEET @COMPUTERARTS OR FIND US ON FACEBOOKDEVORA HOMNICK
Art director, Kars4Kids
http://www.kars4kids.orgMICHAEL WRIGHT
Creative designer
http://www.mwrightcreative.com“As a new graphic design graduate out
looking for my first job, I got some great
advice from a family friend who heads a
design team. She mentioned that she
could tell if any work in a designer’s
portfolio was created as a student. She
suggested reworking any student
projects or finding new project work for
real clients, even for family and friends,
to replace them with.
So my advice is this. When finalising
what you’re showing in your portfolio,
always make sure every project included
reflects the best work you can do right
now. This approach can help you plan
and rework pieces in your portfolio at
any point in your career.
It’s also the outlook I rely on if I’m
caught between a deadline and my
(classic) designer perfectionism. I ask
myself, ‘Does this work reflect my full
capabilities, for this project?’ And I’ll
know if it’s time to hit Send.”“It was, ‘You’re only just starting to
learn.’ This gem of knowledge was given
to me on the night of my degree show by
Dave Eccles, one of my tutors at Hull
School of Art and Design and it’s stuck
with me ever since.
I asked him what he meant, and he
explained how most graduating
students think that the hard work is
done, and that they’re now ‘officially’ a
designer. In reality, it’s only just the
beginning of the journey, and the
university experience is merely teaching
us how to learn skills.
I took this mindset with me into my
agency career, and quickly discovered
that having the ability to learn new
things as needed to answer individual
briefs is, above all, the way to grow as a
creative. This mindset has resulted in
the learning of an abundance of skills
I’d never even considered, and made me
into a more rounded creative designer.”What was the best piece of advice
you received on graduating?
SALLY HENDERSON
Head of creative,
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust
http://www.etsy.com/shop/MicklegateDesign“The best piece of advice I was given as a
22-year-old graduate leaving Cumbria
Institute of the Arts back in 2007 was
that ‘you make your own luck’.
It made me realise that to land that
first job in the design industry, I had to
put myself in the position to be the
lucky one. To put the graft in, make the
contacts, turn up every day standing
next to my work at my degree show with
business cards at the ready. Everyone’s
got to start somewhere, but the work
doesn’t end when you get your first job:
keep knocking on doors, making phone
calls and sending emails, and you’ll
find that you’ll be ‘lucky’ when breaks
come around.
Lucky breaks are a by-product from
passion, drive, skill and judgement.
You’ll find that the more you put
yourself out there, the more risks you
take, the more you leave your comfort
zone, the more lucky you’ll be.”@DAMMEDIA_
DSGNR
Look for the person
with the highest salary
and do their job better.ERIC LOPEZ
If you want to keep your job,
make sure you’re making
your boss money. Seven
years after starting in a
minimum-wage designer job,
I’m now the art director.CALLY GIBSON
Don’t work for exposure.
People die from exposure.@LAURAISANDERSON
People are busy, don’t wait for
a response. Get in front of
them, face to face. It’s easy for
someone to ignore an email.@ALEXLUCASTYPE
Being the best designer isn’t
everything. You also need
to be a great person to
work with.