DESIGNER #2 Layne Halvorsen

Education:

Layne Halvorsen went to college at University of WisconsinStout. She studied Graphic design for communication with a minor in art history. She figured out that she wanted to go into a graphic design or art related major because she believed she’d been a more artistic person in high school. However, she knew she did not want to just make art on her own as she feared being a starving artist. So, as she looked at the other types of jobs in the art field, she came across the field of graphic design. She saw that there were many, many, many opportunities for those that would go into the career, and she knew she would enjoy the different elements within the job.

During her years at Stout, she was able to have a lot of fun in classrooms and through their social aspects. She would be able to hang out with friends a bit while also learning and developing her skills further. If she were to go back to college, Layne would like to learn more about how to code and gain advanced skills in web design. While in college and where Layne currently works, she never really found specific designers to help gain inspiration from. However, when she does need inspiration or ideas, she would look over to Pinterest and see what a variety about designers are creating.

Jobs and internships

When Layne was in her senior year of college, she was able to achieve a paid internship and move to where she currently works through events and connections she’s made. During her senior year, the biggest way she was able to share her abilities was through the connections of her professor and through the senior show. This combination had let her get in touch with a company called space 150 and get a paid internship with them. At space 150 they are a independent, ever changing company, changing their identity every 150 days. They are a purely digital business and offer high tech opportunities to individuals and other companies. They have dappled in engineering, creative design, brand campaign and identity, analytics, and creating partnerships. She stayed in this company for a few years before leaving to go to another company. With Space 150, she left due to the work culture. The work culture there to her was more clicky and reminded her of high school stereotype groupings. She is now located at Gaslight Creative, working as their graphic designer on the marketing team. The company she works for is an agency that helps brands create successful communication about their products to possible and loyal customers. They offer their customers help with branding, web design, hosting, printing, video production, animation, photography and much more. Gaslight Creative are more focused on being authentic with their work, having an approach that is more downto-earth, and being very easy and fun to work with. With this type of atmosphere, it fits her personality, work style, and project layouts better than pervious jobs. Where she works she has been able to work with multiple brands, including coca cola, Nike, and the YMCA.

Interveiw

When given the chance to interview Layne, she was very open about her job, and understanding when a few technical difficulties were raised. She provided answers that were in depth and that connects to each other. With her interview being through zoom rather than through email like the other two, I was able to feel like I was getting a better sese of what she was talking about. She was also much more relaxed and laidback during the interview, cracking a few jokes and being very open about her line of work. Here are a few of the key answers Layne gave that stood out as being very helpful advise as one advances in the program.