The design industry

[Clockwork_killa]

I know theres a fair few people on here who work in the desing industry in one form or another, and I know theres plenty of people in design school waiting to break into the industry. I figured we could use a thread for questions/advice, tips/help and general design related discussion.

Anyway, just out of curiosity, who does work in the design industry, what do you do and how long you been doing it?

Myself Im an interactive designer/developer (mostly flash), been working in the industry just over a year now.

[artificialsky]

"Designer" is a depreciated term. Any 12-year-old with a pirated copy of Photoshop is a designer, just like anyone with a DSLR is a photographer.

Furthermore, every time a thread like this has been made it is invariably ruined by some know-it-all 20-year-old art school fucks who think their t-shirt and poster designs are bleeding edge.

The kind that wear KERN hoodies and are completely insufferable on every level.

You want some advice? Add a BFA in graphic design to the pile of degrees that will soon not be able to earn you a decent income (a la Journalism degrees). Unless you think you'll be able to livable wage from winning design contests at crowdsource design sites like crowdspring and 99designs, ha ha.

[Magsåvningsreserven]

I think i'm going to do a masters (try and earn money to fund it first, might sell my body )

our ever-idiotic government announced plans to cut funding across all universities, so loads of students enroll into struggling unis emerging with degrees everyone have.

[DüM]

We will post our design work.

We will nerd out on typefaces.

We will talk about that shitty ass logo that company introduced.

We will post that video we made for that one song.

We will post that christian bale/solid snake 3d model we made, bro.

We will post that tumblr we designed.

—

Graphic / Motion / Web / 3D / CAD

I don't want to discourage anyone posting the quick sketches that sometimes ended up in the Make Something Cool Everyday thread. I think everyone liked seeing that work.

—

I also think it'd be cool to keep an index of posters' portfolios in this page if I can keep up with it.

DÃœM - http://andnoneshallsurvive.com

[mr fluffernutter]

[EG562]

old ass graphic i did for obeys.

some graphic for lamar odoms old line rich soil.

fuuuu i need to update my portfolio.

[Desaturated]

It's too bad this thread died quickly

I'm currently in school for graphic design @ SVA going into second year. I've been hearing a lot of discouraging things too but I think I'll stick with it anyways. I realize though I can't just limit myself to graphic design, I wanna try to be multi-faceted. I will probably be getting a masters too. I feel so behind though and I know I have a lot of catching up to do with those that had known what they were going to do with themselves for a long time...

[Magsåvningsreserven]

I totally forgot about this thread, turns out we have a perfect thread to talk about trends, etc. already..

Are you enjoying studying at SVA? what's the program like?

[DüM]

whaaaat bout my thread bruv

[Magsåvningsreserven]

for me personally, when i read digital design, I think of deviantart.

now, i know most of the stuff i end up sharing is the same stuff, but I think it's a bit limiting all the same. Magazines, books, brochures, etc don't really come under its remit.

+

since I last posted, the new government decided to sent undergraduate tuition fees through the roof. So the £6000~ postgraduate degree isn't so bad compared to the now £9000 a year bachelor's. It can only be a matter of time before the postgraduate degrees get more expensive too it looks like.

[party pooped]

Pro-tips you don't learn in school and stuff that interns do that annoy me:

- Learn your software's shortcut keys, and work fast. Using shortcuts isn't some snobby shit designers use just to look cool. If you're right clicking and using menu drops the entire day, then you're absolutely doing it wrong.

- Learn to use a tablet. Mouse and keyboard is a joke.

- There's not that many typefaces out there. At least, familiarize yourself with the commercial ones.

- Be creative and conceptual. Technical perfection (all the above) is just the first step (entry level) in your professional career. You don't want to be a designer speccing and executing your art director's work your whole life.

- And I think the most important tip: always work on your own side projects. If you're still in school, enter every contest and go after the best internships.

[Desaturated]

I totally forgot about this thread, turns out we have a perfect thread to talk about trends, etc. already..

Are you enjoying studying at SVA? what's the program like?

Yeah I'm enjoying SVA so far, I just finished the "foundation year" though so next year I'll probably have a better gauge of what it's really about. So far though, I've had the opportunity to learn under some really great professors I think, at least by my standards. I feel like all the students are on the same level too;I don' get that snobby vibe like maybe I would get at let's say, Parson's.

Thanks for droppin' knowledge party pooped, and i wish DUM would update his site, I've been viewing that shit on the way back when I was tryna figure out if I wanted to do graphic design...I think I even emailed him too...

Since summer started though I've had a chance to browse a bunch of design blogs and I'm getting a sense of the aesthetic I like, the only thing is figuring out how to do certain things. I also got this book Graphic Stew, dunno if you guys have read it but it's pretty helpful to me.

[dr1ftaX]

anyone fucks with industrial design? currently in my second year at UNSW (in sydney). My thoughts.. this shit is fuarkn hard

[DüM]

I'm terrible at answering e-mails. thanks though. I've been meaning to ger back on the maleblogger horse.

I've been busy with a lot of small-scale freelance work lately. Almost entirely web. I love it, but I'd like to do some non-code-based stuff too to keep me sane. Finishing up a site I quite like this weekend though. I'll post it up when it's 100% done.

Looks I got my hands on a permanent position though. I'll update on that once I'm in there. I'd still like to see more portfolios of sufu fuckers.

[Desaturated]

Aha no worries you emailed me back (this was like a year or two ago)

I would like to learn how to code websites though, I wanna get my portfolio game up and make a site for me with a nice gallery, as of now my design work is dat novice level.

[DüM]

here's a site I just finished

http://butchersblocktv.com/

[Desaturated]

yeah dude, you definitely have your aesthetic, and I happen to like it a lot. keep it up.

Lately I've been trying to make some silly graphic design stuff trying to re-familiarize myself with the programs :/ i know what i like the problem is figuring out how to make it.

[Midnight Marauders]

here's a site I just finished

http://butchersblocktv.com/

good shit. your sites are always nice and clean

[Magsåvningsreserven]

i don't think people still understand how damn flexible photoshop is.

yeah it's flawed software nowadays, but it's always worth fucking around with it. no competitor.

[DüM]

the bottom of Frank's site, where I did the dark line with the light line under it. that's the most web 2.0 shit I've ever done.

diamonds can get pretty dope with that style though. his photoshop skills are much better than mine.

[watsoncrick]

What party pooped said (sans no.3, there are a ton of fantastic typefaces out there, get to know as many as possible).

Also, as it is in all other industries, networking and who you know is key to securing those solid internships (assuming that your portfolio is of standard). I may still be a student, but I know enough to tell you that networking got me a summer internship with Bruce Mau and an upcoming internship at Pentagram.

[bencap]

Just graduated from San Francisco State with a BA in Industrial Arts (and Liberal Studies) this semester.

Starting an internship at arttravel magazine tomorrow, since it's a small-ish magazine, I'm hoping to get into how the whole print production work flow goes, as opposed to resizing pictures all day, or being some coffee bitch. Pretty excited about it, kinda nervous too! I desperately need to get some work for my portfolio, so ideally I'll be able to put some spreads together to have something to show for my time there.

I've always wanted to work in print/at a magazine, it's a shame it is all on the way out. I hate coding, and it seems like there are less and less front-end webdesign jobs available, you need to be pretty solid with coding to land something like that.

[Desaturated]

Interesting, good luck man. I'm actually in the middle of making a zine with my friends so we'll see how that goes. I'll probably post a pdf or something to get some feedback, but thats a while from now...

[youkinorn2]

I'm an art director at a big ass ad agency.

Sort of design industry but not really.

Mostly just self-loathing.

[Desaturated]

lol what does being an art director entail for you though? are you like the foreman of each ad project?

[youkinorn2]

It varies a lot from agency to agency.

At some places it is pretty much a design position.

Others it's more concept-focused (so predominantly coming up with the ideas for ads/campaigns/etc...).

But it's always some mixture of the two.

[Desaturated]

indubitably

[yea!]

hi

didn't even know this existed.. haven't clicked out of supercontrol in over a year.

DÃœM: v. nice butchersblock site. i like the top carousel a lot. how's that controlled on the backend? featured posts w/featured images?

[DüM]

he ticks a box to put it in the Featured category and it automatically grabs the thumb of the first image, but has a field for a custom thumb as well.

Actually, if we could all talk backend/cms shit, that'd be dope. I'll make a post later when I'm at my computer on what I've been using.

[yea!]

^ that would be cool. I've recently learned enough wordpress to take advantage of some useful stuff that I'd gladly share/bore with.

Anyone have an intuos4? Wondering if it's worth over the 3. 10 hour days on a magic mouse is destroying my hand. Gonna rotate between the left pen and right mouse I think, spread the carpal tunnel out evenly.