image by Frank Chimero

Reading Response - “How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul.” : Ch. 8-9

The scope of graphic designers is much larger now that we are digital designers. This also means that we need to design for digital viewing. The chapter outlines a scenario of a monthly magazine that simply posted their magazine in pdf format online and were disappointment in readership they were achieving. A digital document needs to be reformatted specifically for digital viewing. Designers must be diverse in their knowledge and understanding. But isnt that what designers do anyway? They educate themselves in many different fields so they have the ability to adapt to the demands of different projects.

The second chapter spoke directly to creativity. This taught me that being creative is all about risk taking. Its about accepting the risk of rejection and failure, because the positive side is achieving creativity. Its about getting over fear and insecurities that we all have as designers. Successful creatives seek out good briefs or dig up information to create a good brief themselves. They pull inspiration from sources and openly declare the source. Creativity comes from a lot of different places and can only be stomped out by our own fear.

Reading Response “How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul”: Ch. 5-7

This first chapter stresses the importance of selling your work - no matter how strong your portfolio or client list might be - you still need to sell your work. I agree, if you can’t stand behind your work, you wont find success. Shaughnessy goes on to explain that designers need to “jump high and jump fast” for their clients. Do we really need to bend over backwards for our clients? I feel that it should be a mutual relationship. Designers provide a service with respect, and clients should solicit the service with that same respect. Shaughnessy later goes on to contradict his earlier statement by describing the importance of doing ethical work and not giving into unreasonable demands.

It was interesting to read the section that covered portfolios and their transformation in the digital age. I have been thinking more and more about using a digital portfolio so I can have my most recent work at hand and be able to be selective in what I show for each job. Reading this gave me further secruity that this is a viable option. This also gave me a reminder that updating my website regularly should also be at the top of my to-do list.

Another section that really stuck with was, “There are no bad clients, only clients turned into bad clients by bad designers”. It’s easy to complain about clients and their unreasonable requests or inability to see how strong your work is - but reading this helped me to realize that its not just about their inadequacies. As designers we need to learn to work with our clients. We need to really understand their needs opposed to making them understand us. This doesn’t mean that we always say yes to a client, we still guide them in the correct direction, but always with their best interest at mind.

Reading Response: How To Be A Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul (Ch.2,3,4)

The first few chapters discuss the practical sides of being a designer - many things that I have struggled with myself during my short time in the profession. It was interesting reading about how we all often feel stuck on a project, and then continue to procrastinate and not return to it. Yet, if we leave a project on a high note, we are excited to get back to work and get things done promptly. Its really not about a project timelines being too short or condensed, its about how we manage our time, particularly if you’re working as a freelancer.

Presentation skills is another area that seems to challenge me. The reading emphasizes how important it is for designers to have strong verbal/written skills to assist in selling their work to clients. It was inspiring to hear that it is difficult for others, and that you can become better with practice.

The description given of working for an independent design studio is humorous, yet way too accurate in my experience. “Design studios are a mixture of slave camp and enchanted playground”.  It goes on to explain the fine balance between these two qualties, but also made me realized that designers are privledged. Our career is creating ideas and affecting the lives of many.

Other aspects of the chapters on freelancing or setting up a studio was less relevant for me and the path that I want to pursue. On the other side, it was encouraging to learn how the field has evolved to increase the number of opportunities for designers no matter which career route you choose.

Reading Response: How to be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul ( Intro, Fwd, Ch.1)

The changes that have taken place in the world of graphic design are forcing us to become much more rounded designers. We are well versed in both digital and print design, often web and specialized crafts like screen printing as well. It is interesting how many different areas designers are expected to be knowledgeable in, and yet be highly skilled in every facet. As the field has become more competitive the demands become overwhelming and can at times compromise our integrity.

If we learn to communicate better with our clients and those we work with, as well as hold our integrity to the highest level - we can spend more time doing what we love and less time scrambling to make a dollar. Communication is one of the major skills in being a  designer. If you cant sell your work verbally than its very difficult to be successful as a designer. On the other side, you also need to be able to listen and understand your clients needs.

It is interesting to me how being a designer in this era is equally as much about being a knowledgeable business person. If we can be successful in explaining the irrational ideas of design while upholding our vales - we can be successful as a graphic designer.

Reading Response to “Directed Storytelling: Interpreting Experience for Designers”

As a designer you need to understand the people you’re designing for before you can begin to appeal to them. This reading outlines the process of Directed Storytelling which can be used to better understand or research an even that you can’t personally experience yourself. This is a technique that is adapted from anthropologists and helps designers to better understand their audience relatively easily.

Directed storytelling can reveal conistent patterns in peoples lives, essentially narrowing down the top most important aspects of the subject in question. It was interesting to read how they used directed storytelling to understand the problems with the Blackboard system. As a student who has experienced the systems failures its encouraging to find that teachers were struggling with the same issues. These similarities or patterns wouldn’t have been exposed if it wasnt approached in this manner. How useful.