Identity System & Self-promotional Pieces

Here is a photo that documents my finished identity system. Included as show from left to right are; cover letter, large envelope, resume, CD jacket & CD containing a PDF of portfolio samples, thank you card & envelope, leave-behind booklet and business card.

My intentions for creating this system were to showcase my personality, design skill and fine craftsmanship in a cohesive and professional manner. Please feel free to let me know what you think! Click on the image to zoom.

Guest Speaker Notes: Chad Owens

§ Do NOT make a themed portfolio or include pet projects such as drawing or photos, RATHER build these skills into a design

§ If you call a studio

o Say, “I’d like to show you my portfolio.” Or “My professor said that I should show you my portfolio.”

o Not: “Do you have any job openings?”

§ Learn how to work quickly

§ Learn program shortcuts

§ Summer is a dead time for the graphic design industry

o Work should pick up around September and be consistent until May

§ Companies usually hire you initially for your type-setting skills

o Make sure your portfolio is free of orphans & widows and doesn’t overuse hyphens

o We want them to know that we will fix mistakes and not make them clean up after us

o The more sooner you are good at type-setting, the sooner you will get to do real design work

§ If you see a job you really want, be persistent & network

§ If you quit designing, you WILL lose your skill – KEEP IT UP.

§ Some places you will fit in, others you won’t. Find someplace where you fit in.

§ Don’t stay in the same place for too long – you will find more success with diverse opportunities.

§ If you want to eventually start your own business, you should begin building clientele on the side as you work for someone else.

§ Contracts

o He has never seen contracts work

o Get half of the payment up front

o Agree to only do three rounds of changes

o No redesigns without extra payment

§ Learn about printing

o Mistakes are very expensive

o Learn from others whenever you have the chance

o Working on your own will cost you a lot.

Garner Printing Co. Tour

Today I went on a printing facility tour with my graphic design capstone class of soon-to-graduate seniors. We visited Garner Printing Co., a company with a combination of offset and digital presses with the ability to handle a variety of printing projects. Garner is part of Consolidated Graphics, one of the leading commercial printing companies in the United States.

Check them out: http://www.garnerprint.com/index.php

Proofed project in the final prep stages before going to print.
A machine in the process of producing complex folds on mailable brochures.
The die-cut machine in the process of cutting out paper CD cases.
Our tour guide demonstrating a trimming machine.

AIGA Get a Job Bootcamp

Today I participated in the second annual Get a Job Boot Camp presented by AIGA of Iowa. The purpose of the camp was to give young designers, such as myself, the tools to grow in our field and help prepare us for the future of the design industry. Professional members of the organization shared their experience and advice about their design careers and prepared a series of presentations relevant to design.

The first presentation was called How To... During this time, I received information about how to find a job, how to start the search and how to recognize all potential opportunities to get my name and talent out in the real world. The presentation also gave me tips on how to market myself and present my portfolio.

The second presentation was called Defend Your Design. The presentation gave advice on how to explain design decisions to tough clients and how to answer tricky questions during an interview. Information was relayed through a series of short skits about real life scenarios.

Lunch was a time to work on networking etiquette. Each participant was assigned lunch tables randomly and after we were seated there was a short presentation about the dos and don'ts of networking over a meal. We were then challenged to practice our skills while dining with fellow boot camp attendees.

After lunch, participants were given the opportunity to have portfolios reviewed by professional members of AIGA. This was an excellent time to get constructive criticism and helpful interview advice one-on-one. I feel that through this experience I was able to improve the layout and pacing of my portfolio book. During these reviews, I was asked some really challenging questions that caught me off guard. Since the reviews earlier today, I feel that I have already become more confident about my portfolio and learned how to better talk about my work.

College News Design Contest: Call for Enteries

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ADAI Portfolio Viewing

Today I took part in a portfolio viewing - an event sponsored by Art Directors Association of Iowa (ADAI). The viewing started at 2:00 p.m. at the central library in downtown Des Moines and occurred prior to an awards ceremony for the annual ADAI student exhibition show at 3:00 p.m. I took this opportunity to show and discuss my graphic design work with attending area professionals. I had several discussions with students, design professors and professional graphic designers about my work and received helpful feedback about how to improve my portfolio. I received advice about how to better organize the projects in my portfolio, how to improve the presentation of existing work and ideas for new pieces to include that would make me more marketable as a designer. I feel that this viewing has been extremely helpful as I am currently in the process of reorganizing and updating my portfolio to utilize once I begin job searching. Not only did this opportunity provide me with valuable feedback, but also helped me to become more confident in presenting and talking about my work to others.

After the portfolio review, I stuck around for the awards show and was able to see all of the student work that was selected to be apart of the ADAI student exhibition. It was exciting to see the quality and craftsmanship of work produced by other college students. I found several of the identity systems and packaging projects to be most interesting and inspirational. It was very refreshing to step out of my own work in design and see what others are creating around me.

Lisa Fay & Jeff Glassman Workshop

As an extension to the performances that I attended on March 23 by Lisa Fay and Jeff Glassman, I opted to check out a workshop put on by the duo earlier this evening. The workshop started off with an explanation of scores created by the duo. Scores are instructions for movement represent in 2-dimensional drawings, designs, notations and structural patterns. Scores of often created with some sort of graphic medium existing primarily on paper that allow the actors to take their performance ideas from mental images to stage actions that can be documented and performed. Scores are a way to notate the body and the way that it is to move through physical space. The duo also explained a technique called "pivots" that they use in many of their performances. A pivot occurs when a position or movement stops midway and transitions to another, completely unrelated, movement.

In the workshop, students and faculty came up with brief situations to act out. We practiced the scene over and over again to gain a sharp understanding of the specific movement that we made and when and where each movement occurred in space is we made it. After we had a grasp on how to act out our specific scene, we were asked to act out the scene completely solo, but as if our partners were still there. After this exercise, we were asked to combine one persons movements from our group with the movements of one individual from another group. The two disparate scenes then occurred simultaneously to create one new, abstracted scene.

Participating in the workshop allowed me to understand the skits performed by the duo earlier in the week on a whole new level. Although the skits can make sense on a purely theatrical level, they are developed through a very exact and technical process, allowing them to exist as a specific an unique art form of their own.

Above: A variety of different scores created by the duo to map complex movements.

Lisa Fay & Jeff Glassman Performance Duo

Tonight I went to see Lisa Fay and Jeff Glassman perform 4 short experimental movement theatre pieces in the Performing Arts Hall at Drake University. According to an article posted on the Drake website, the duo invents systems to organize theatrical movement and speech in theatre, similar to those utilized by musicians to compose music. They apply these complex composed structures to ordinary human behavior and situations to create a unique form of theatre art.

The first piece the duo performed was about two individuals meeting in a restaurant for a business meeting. Sound became paramount in the piece to create complex, repeated rhythms. Sounds utilized throughout the performance included speech, sounds produced through movement of the human body and through the disruption of inanimate objects, such as the clinging of silverware.

The second performance was a solo piece by Jeff, who created abstract sounds through a microphone that was enclosed inside of his mouth. The sounds were given context and meaning through the movements performed.

The third performance was a conversation that jumped forward and backward in time, similar to an effect caused by a skipping CD.

The fourth and final performance was a scene of a woman coming home after a burglar has ransacked her house. The entire scene was acted out completely in reverse.

Selected Works & Awards: Drake Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition

I am excited to report that my work has been included in Drake University's 39th Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition. The show features a variety of works created by 15 students in Drake's Art & Design Department. The show was juried by Jill Featherstone, museum education director of the Des Moines Art Center, who selected 23 pieces to be show from the 79 pieces that were submitted for consideration.

The Tape-beatles

Packaging Design

Work includes: 4 CDs, 4 CD envelopes, Why I Hate the Tape-beatles essay booklet, 4 band buttons & box.
Soulpepper Theatre

Identity System & Booklet

Work includes: stationery, envelope, business card & production catalogue

In addition to having two of my pieces selected for the show, I won the second place overall award for my work on the Soulpepper Identity System & Booklet.

Check out this article about the show: http://www.drake.edu/news/db/official/archive.php?article=5390.

Drake University Mock Interviews

Today I had the participated in Drake University’s Mock Interviews for the College of Arts & Sciences. This event is hosted by the Arts & Sciences National Alumni Council to help juniors and seniors prepare as they seek jobs and internships. My interview was with area professional, Tim Alexander, a senior art director at Meredith Corporation. The interviews.

The activity started with an interview and closed with a portfolio review of my design work. Immediately following the interview, I received feedback and tips for improvement. Through this experience I have sharpened my interviewing skills and have gotten more used to explaining the concepts that accompany my work. This was my first review so far this semester and I already feel more confident! I am looking forward to having more portfolio reviews to help improve my portfolio even more.

Guest Speaker Notes: Chrystal Stanley

Interviewing 101

• Do your homework
• Research the organization, annual reports/publications, articles
• Know & understand the position
• Know yourself & what you can offer
• Know what employers want
• Communication skills
• Strong work ethic
• Teamwork skills
• Initiative
• Analytical skills
• Flexibility/adaptability
• Interpersonal skills
• Problem solving skills
• Technical skills
• Make a great first impression
• Dress for success
• Have a good attitude/be courteous
• Watch your words/ Good non-verbal communication
• Be prepared
• Firm handshake
• Take notes
• LISTEN!
• Establish credibility
• Be on time
• Be prepared
• Be observant
• Show an understanding of the position
• How to answer behavioral questions
• Provide overview of relevant information
• Describe the goal of the situation
• Address your actions &contributions
• Describe outcome/were you happy with the outcome?
• Ask questions
• What are the daily responsibilities
• How did you get started at this company?
• What is the typical career path?
• How will the final hiring decisions be made?
• Follow up
• Thank them in person after interview
• Thank them in writing within 24 hours
• Include information you with you had shared
• Prepare for the next interview

Design Principles & Practices Conference

This past weekend, I was fortunate to attend the Fourth International Conference on Design Principles and Practices with two other Drake students. The conference took place at the University of Illinois-Chicago from February 13-15. The conference is associated with Design Principles and Practices: An International Journal. The conference and journal are cross-disciplinary forums which bring together researchers, teachers, and practitioners to discuss the nature and future of design. Topics discussed at the conference weave between the theoretical and the empirical, research and application, market pragmatics and social idealism, which are presented by a variety of professionals from across the globe. The conference addressed design perspectives and practices of anthropology, architecture, art, artificial intelligence, business, cognitive ergonomics, fashion, graphic design, history, informational systems, industrial design, industrial engineering, instructional design, urban planning and visual design to name a few.

Each day would start off with three main conference speakers, who would present for about 30 minutes each. In my opinion, the two most engaging speakers at the conference were Sol Sender of VSA Partners from Chicago and Marcia Lausen of the School of Art and Design at UIC. Sol Sender lead the creative development of the Obama '08 campaign logo. He discussed the process that his team went through to create the logo, shared examples of alternative logo designs and explained the campaign implementation process. Marcia Lausen has served on local and national boards of AIGA and was the co-founder of the election design initiative of Design for Democracy: a strategic program of AIGA that seeks to improve the quality and clarity of government communications. She discussed her initial conceptualization of the project, her experience in working with government officials while redesigning US election ballots and the implementation of her work. I was excited to see her book, Design for Democracy: Ballot + Election Design on display at the Art Institute of Chicago during our visit.

After hearing presentations from the three main speakers each morning, the conference would be broken up into several smaller, more intimate, "parallel sessions". These sessions lasted approximately 30 minutes each and were presentations by various professionals from across the world who discussed their written papers that would eventually be included into the next edition of Design Principles and Practices: An International Journal. Several presentations would occur simultaneously in different conference rooms and audience members would choose a topic of interest to sit in on and then travel from room to room between sessions. Parallel sessions would cycle until the end of the day.

I greatly enjoyed going to the parallel sessions. I feel that I was exposed to several new concepts that I had never before considered, which broadened my personal definition of design and challenged my previous perspectives about design research and development. I also had some really great opportunities to see projects and teaching methods utilized by design professors from several different institutions, which allowed me to see what other design students are doing across the globe, the kind of technology they are using and the processes in which they go through in the development of their work. Such parallel sessions in particular are ones that I found to be the most inspirational and motivational.

In addition to attending the conference, I had the opportunity along with two of my peers to explore the city of Chicago. During our stay, we made sure to check out the Art Institute of Chicago & Millennium Park. We also walked up and down Michigan Avenue and explored various restaurants each night after the conference ended. All in all, I think our group had a terrific trip and I would encourage others to check out next year's International Conference on Design Principles and Practices that will take place in Rome, Italy. Check out the site at: http://designprinciplesandpractices.com/Conference-2011/

Guest Speaker Notes: Chris Conyers

The Cover letter:

• Say everything in 3 paragraphs
• Mention the company name & explain what made you interested in them
• I see that you have done work for _____
• I saw your website and was really impressed by _______
• Make it personal
• Use company buzz words
• Know the name of the person who you are sending it to
• Dear _____, or Mr./Mrs.________
• Paragraph 1:
• Mention company & what you know about them
• Explain the position you are applying for & how you heard about it
• Paragraph 2:
• Explain what you want or are looking for
• Discuss what you can do to help them and how you can make a difference
• Paragraph 3:
• Wrap it up
• Drop names
• I learned of this position through ________.
• Mention company again
• Appearance:
• Send in oversize envelope, do not fold application documents
• Utilize typography skills, mix up fonts
• Pay attention to alignment & white space
• Use nice paper

The Resume:

• 9 pt should be the smallest font size
• list studio courses as described by course catalogue under experience
• Add “other” or “additional” experience for any freelance work
• List exhibitions & awards
• Only include a job objective when applying to large corporations

The Portfolio:

• Analogue: 10-12 projects, PDF samples: 6-10, web: 8-10, cold call: 3-4
• When sending work samples, send enough to peek interest, but make sure to have a few surprises left for the interview
• Portfolios should be clean and simple and should not distract from the work represented within it

The Interview:

• Call if you are going to be late, be honest
• Follow up with a personalized thank you note or email
• NEVER ask them to call you, let them know in thank you when you plan to call back
• May call a second time if they are giving you further consideration
• After sending portfolio samples cold-turkey, follow up with a call to make sure they received it
• “I would like to meet with you to discuss my work….”
• Be prepared to talk about your strengths & weaknesses, know about the company, memorize the job description, know your goals &why you want to work there

ADAI Student Design Exhibition: Call for Entries

The ADAI Student Design Exhibition is now accepting entries from area colleges and universities for work in 13 different categories, including identity development, packaging and collateral, in which I submitted my work as displayed above. I feel that submitting my work to this show is an excellent way for me to become accustomed to the submission process before I begin my professional career. Not only is this good practice, but also an opportunity to showcase my skills and creativity to others, perhaps even to potential employers or design contacts.

The exhibition will take place on Saturday, March 27^th at the Des Moines Public Library at 2:00 p.m.

Sussner Design Co. Lecture

Today I had the opportunity to gather with other members from Art Directors Association of Iowa for their 2^nd Annual Chili Cook-off and presentation from Sussner Design Co. Not only was the chili cook-off a great way to start the night (as there were several different samples that we got to taste and judge), but it was also an excellent opportunity to network and meet other designers from across Iowa. I was able to get to know a few students from University of Northern Iowa. We were able to discuss our collegiate experiences, our current projects and helpful tips about how to prepare for life after graduation. I also met a few designers from Meredith Corporation, who share my love for publication design. I asked them about their jobs and they shared with me how they got to where they are today. All in all, I feel that this was an excellent way to learn more about the field of design and the direction in which things are headed within my immediate community.

After the Chili Cook off, I listened to a presentation by Derek Sussner of Minneapolis who spoke about his work and company, Sussner design Co. Derek shared his experiences in starting the studio, which now houses 4 designers and has become one of the most respected firms in the ultra-competitive design community of Minneapolis.

Derek also spoke about his experiences working on projects for a range of clients, including ballpark signage for the Arizona Diamondbacks, environmental graphics for Target Commercial Interiors, a series of posters for Evel Knievel and much more. Here are his 5 tips for working with clients:

1. Make it meaningful – Always be honest and authentic in your work and relations.

2. Understand your audience – Who they are, what they believe in and what they do for fun.

3. Never pretend to know something that you actually know nothing about.

4. Make it appropriate.

5. Give it the “cool factor” – use your design sensibility to make it interesting and unique.

Overall, I left this presentation feeling refreshed and inspired. Learn more about Derek’s firm and check out their portfolio by visiting www.sussner.com.

39th Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition: Call for Entries

This is the fourth and final year that I will have had the opportunity to submit my work to Drake University’s Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition. I have been fortunate enough to have my work selected for the show each year that I have been a student and was honored with a second place award in drawing my sophomore year. I believe that submission to exhibitions is important in my development as a designer, as it is a way that I can be actively involved in and share my ideas with my design community.

Today, I submitted three projects that I developed during the past academic year through my courses at Drake. In the past, I have only ever submitted work from my fine arts courses, such as prints and drawings. This year, however, all of the works that I submitted are graphic design pieces. The show will open with a reception and awards ceremony on Sunday, March 7^th at 11:00 a.m.