What not to do in design school
Peter Hopton
This book is written by a 3rd year design Student as a guide to life starting out as a designer. It is not a set of do’s and don’t, but it is a big help avoiding mistakes. It’s a bit rude, light hearted and can be very blunt!
It’s a creative book with a lot of white space, so feel free to doodle and make notes to your hearts content! Good luck and have fun!
Dedication This book is waving two figures at all my past teachers who said I’d get no further than school because of my dyslexia and expected me to be stacking shelves at the supermarket!
But also a thanks to all the people who have supported me and helped me to get to the point of designing a book and Graduating from University.
I must create a system or be enslaved by another mans; I will not reason and compare: my business is to create. William Blake
1 Section 2 Section 3 Section 4 Section 5 Section 6
Section
Beginning of design pathway
Three years of university
Dealing with Dissertation
Dealing with Final Major Project
Setting yourself up for the real world
Further reading
It all Starts at college Collage is a great time, the best thing that you can do is enjoy what your doing and start to get to grips with what design is. It is very different to other levels of art, design generally has a purpose or desired out come. It is also really useful to start exploring all the different design tools, both digital and traditional
Section 1
Foundation course is a lot of fun and worth while My friend used her work space has he final show piece, whiles another trashed a car!
Most collages will be pushing you to be filling in your UCAS form and going to a good university (which reflects well on the collage), but STOP and think. An art foundation course is a brilliant experience and will teach you more than you can imagine. Most importantly it starts to break down the conventional teaching method of being told what to learn and think. Foundation start’s to teach you how to learn, allowing you to be freer and more independent in your work.
Where you going to go? Before going to university you need to ask your self what do you want to get out of it? The choose comes down to whether you want to spend all your time studying or want to enjoy the full all round ‘university experience’. To get the university experience it would be advisable to go to one of the big university’s where a large variety of subjects are studied. However if you want to purely study your subject go for a more specialised university. Don’t let location stop you.
Top Creative university’s as votes by students in 2014
Arts University Bournemouth Goldsmiths, University of London Falmouth University University of the Arts London (UAL) University for the Creative Arts (UCA) Bath Spa University University of Cambridge University of Oxford De Montfort University University of St Andrews Southampton Solent University Buckinghamshire New University University of Huddersfield University of Dundee
Don’t sleep with your house mate!
You may be in a house with a really nice looking person and want to jump into bed with them, but don’t. It’ll only be really awkward the next morning and when the rest of the house find out (and they will) it’ll be even worse for the rest of the year. Your house mates are your family for the next year and your going to need their support!
It was so worth it though!
Section 2
Golden rule of uni; don’t sleep with your house mates!
Who are you going to live with? In first year the norm is that you’ll be living in university provided accommodation (Halls), but in second and third years you’ll probably be living in a student house. The best thing is to live with a variety of people, both male and female from a mixture of course. This means that your not seeing, living and working with the same people 24/7.
They’ve suddenly multiplied like rabbits!
Notes create issues
Your going to eat some shit food! Your diet at university is very important, the likelihood is that’s it’s your first time living away from home. Learn to cook well for yourself, it’s tempting to keep having take out, but you’ll regret it around the time you finish university as you’ll have put on weight and have no money! Having a TV in the flat is fine, in fact it’s grate if it is in a living room where you and your flat mates can gather around, relax and bond. However having a TV in your room is not the best move, as it becomes far too easy to distract yourself with it whiles working, its very difficult to work, sleep and relax in the same space.
Stop watching Jeremy kyle
Pick a shower time Your probably going to be living in a house of between four and eight, in halls probably more. You all need to shower, however if you all shower in the morning before a lecture, there will be no hot water, so best choose a quiet time to have a good hot shower, even if it’s 1 am. At Uni you’ll do odd thing at odd times, but that’s normal. You need to sleep, the student life style often means that you’ll sleep in for most of the year, but the couple weeks leading up to deadlines, often mean no sleep at all.
Writing this book and finishing my degree i haven’t had much more than 6 hours sleep in the last week
Get some sleep
Sketch book & camera
Keep them with you
Defiantly for the next three years sketchbooks and cameras will be your best friends. Invest in a decent sketchbook and pens. Having a large number of sketchbooks for a variety of purposes is totally fine as well, but it’s always worth having one on you at all times, you never know where inspiration will strike you.
’s hat t a er cam urces a g in eso hav uni r h ort ith s w ible w ’ t I pat com
Meet the locals Your going to be living in the area near the university and on some level you’ll meet the locals. It is really worth making an effort and get to know the area. At some point you’ll need to interact with the public for your work and you’ll never know what amazing people you’ll meet until you do. There are a large number of ways of meeting people, such as; get a job, go to the local church or Volunteering with a youth club or organisation (like Scouts).
face painted uts talk me into getting my Can’t believe I let my sco
voice a beautiful Becca has
Join the Student Union and go to the events The Student Union does so much, more than most students realise and they’re doing it for you! Some of the best times you can have is in the student bars at student events, it’s also the best way to meet people from around the university. At the same time its worth getting involved, the SU is always looking for volunteers, to take an active role in the future of the Union for the students benefits.
Forget everything that you think you know about design
Forget everything that you think you know about design, hopefully you’ll have picked up a lot of skills from A-Level and Foundation, but university is where you’ll learn how to use the skills. First year is filled with a lot of odd projects, that at first you wont understand the purpose of. But trust your lectures, they know what they’re doing, they’re teaching you how to learn and how to think creatively.
Comic Sans is just the best Comic Sans gets a lot of abuse, it’s not the worse typeface in the world, but it’s not good. There are rare occasions where it’s ok to use, only as a header and not body copy, but treat carefully using it, it may make you look like childish using this type to make art. Just don’t use it, it’s not worth it!
Have a play in the print room In the world of design there are many different jobs that use different print methods. Students are expected to come out of university with knowledge and understanding of all the different methods of print. So even if you don’t think your interested in traditional printing it’s still worth doing and understand them. Anyone can print on a digital printer, but proper printing presses that use traditional methods can create better results, by giving stronger colours.
Your going to screw up, but that’s fine
ure exposed Fun Fact; this picture is a pinhole pict ths inside a beer can for 2 mon
There are two types of failure, passive and active. Passive failure is basically not doing the work, failing through idleness. Whiles active failure comes about through trying something new and it going wrong. Through mistakes we learn, when you’ve made a mistake evaluate it and add it to your portfolio of work. A happy accident can create the best designs.
Stop skipping class Not doing the work that your meant to is a bad move, not turning up to class because you haven’t is a worse one. Always turn up to class, you’ll learn more than sitting at home, as for the work you haven’t done, you’ll just have to suck it up and deal with it!
We’re
all pay ing a l ot to be at uni
Get the feedback Getting feedback on your work is so important! Feedback from tutors is the most useful, they know what they’re talking about and it will vastly improve your work, also remember they are the ones marking it! But also get feed back from fellow students and give them feedback on there’s. Even when your out of education and working, get feedback from others before showing it to the clients, to save embarrassment and it can create better work.
Understand paper, there is a lot of it Paper is key. It’s ok to digitally print onto normal printer paper, but if your doing big screen prints and other traditional print methods you need to use more substantial paper that will give a better finish. One of the top paper companies is GFSmith, who have created a huge variety of paper (talk to them nicely and they’ll send you some free samples, which may be useful).
Yet this is a ebook because it cost too to do a big print run
Go outside and experience design in the world It’s extremely easy to just stay in your room and work because with the accessibility of the internet you can instantly look at a huge range of design with very little effort. But it’s not good for you, you need to go out, experience the world and be influenced by objects in the everyday. If your living near a big city, particularly London, make the effort to go to the galleries and just soak up the work and designs.
Just once, go loose your self in the library
Il ove
ou
Books and printed material are just so important! The phrase print is dead, referring to the arrival of the digital age, is thrown around a lot. This school of thought is that we can now access all the information that we need digitally on our computer, phones and tablets, that we don’t need to print books anymore. The truth is that there is a lot you can do digitally but there is just as much that you can do with print, books and magazines they will always been needed. Take advantage of the library, you’ll never find a collection of creative books like that outside of the academic world.
rl ibr ary
now
The library is brilliant, even if you don’t know what your looking for!
Good research can never be under valued. By taking on in depth varied research, it gives a great foundation on which to work on. Books, movies, articles, pieces of art and photographs are all valuable resources.
I seem to be starting a mini library in my room
Put some effort into your research
Being
on one thing is a
fixated
bad move
Being fixated on one particular idea will stunt growth and creativity of the idea. For instance if at the beginning of a project you decide that your going to make a book on a subject then it will only ever be a book on that particular subject. However if you go into a project with you eyes open and say I want to do something around a particular subject then there’s no knowing what may happen. Also try not to get too fixated on particular brand as it becomes quite hard to break out of it, designers live in a apple world, which is very expensive.
Work
then down size
ur wondering, Just incase yo who time line this is a Doctor
big
Working big gives you room to put all the little details in, but all ways bare in mind what size the out come will be, there’s no point putting in lot of detail only for the end result to be too small to see. If you doing designs that are going to vary in size it’s best to use Illustrator as it’s vector based so won’t pixelate when made big unlike Photoshop.
Take a break from work and enjoy life Regardless of where your studying the years that you spend at university are some of the best you’ll have. Having freedom to do as you please with little restriction on your time from a full time job. There will be low points, so makes shore whiles your studying to have a day off to enjoy yourself, make new friends and if your lucky fall in love.
are, a cardboard No matter how old you ng in the world! box is still the best thi
Get some direction for your work It’s important to have a sense of direction while working, it’s extremely easy to go off on different tangents, whiles this may create some great design it may not fulfil your brief. Best thing to do is to keep referring back to the brief and desired outcomes. me across I can’t believe I ca ng! lki wa this whiles out
Keep it simple! Some of the best design is the simplest. Students can get carried away making highly detailed designs, it’s not always necessary.
Save it, back it up! Just keep saving and backing up your work, you never know what can happen. It seems simple but it’s amazing the number of people, both students and professionals, who forget to save on a regular basis and loose vital work.
Fear the white space
arghhhh!
it quite embraced I still haven’t
There’s nothing wrong with white space, it’s very easy to overfill a space making it cluttered. Learn to embrace and incorporate white space into your design.
Go off the grid Grids are so important in design work, particularly thing like this book, but ever once in a while you need to break your own design and go off your grids. The grid helps to give structure to your work and keep it in line, but every so often there is something that doesn’t fit into the grid.
Your mad to copy Copying is a serious issue, but in the design world it can be very difficult to prove. It’s perfectly fine to take influence from design that you have seen so long as you site where the original design has come from. Particularly at university you have some academic safety because your only using it for academic purposes. However as soon as you step out into the real world on your own, you can be sued for intellectual property rights. At the same time your design work can be ripped off as well. copy cool to t o n t s It’s ju
Get organised
This pizza was really nice, especially as it was from the night before
Visual clutter can distract
A degree is worth it People will tell you that you don’t need a degree to be a designer, in one sense they are right, anyone can design. What a degree gives you is a understanding of critical thinking and teaches you how to think creatively to help with solving problems. If your just going to be a Photoshop monkey don’t worry about the degree, but you want to be a designer, so get the full education.
Sometimes it won t feel like it while s your studying, but you’ve just go t to push throug h it
Work your ass off Unfortunately having the degree isn’t everything. You need to be able to demonstrate that your work does what it needs to do. This means that at the beginning of your design carrier your going to have to work your ass off at university and the first couple years as a professional.
How legible is this? There’s a fine line between making great art and practical design. When doing your work always keep in mind what it’s purpose is. If your making art then let it be what it is, however if your designing something with a purpose to be read, then think of the wideness of your audience.
fb q p o n jklm xytu w a e d ic h zvrsg I’m not that good at typography
Go for gold There are a load of design awards programs that go on in the design industry, particularly for students, such as D&AD and RSA. It is strongly recommended to have a go at them, some university’s will pay for you submission, you’ll learn a lot from doing the briefs and taking part is what counts. Having longer to work on something should mean that there will be more of it and it’ll be better. In theory that is correct, but students will still leave it to the last minuet, as the perceive pressure of a deadline creates a far more focused effort.
More time, more work
Remember to have fun whiles studying
We ha d a lo ck in paper at air pla ins fr uni, so lau om th nched e top floor
As stated earlier it will be the best few years of your life, so just really enjoy it other wise you’ll hit a point in third year where you start panicking about life after university and realise that you’ve missed great opportunities whiles at university.
Think about what interests you You’ve at the dreaded dissertation point, best thing to do is not to panic and take it step by step. The first thing you’ve got to do is pick a topic for it, so go for something that you find interesting but has lots of information and academic righting surrounding it.
Section 3
What are the sources? Researching for a dissertation is one of the hardest things that you’ll do as a design student. If your on the ball, you’ll get a load of books out at the end of second year and read them at home over the summer, but most students don’t. Reading academic pieces can be really hard work and time consuming so remember there are other sources that you can use that aren’t books, like film clips, TED talks, internet journals and so much more. t! us bi
erio the s s i s Thi
learn to love Harvard referencing Harvard referencing is a necessary evil. It’s a pain to do but has to be done, you’ll be taught how to do it. However it is good practice to start doing it from first year and always make note of everything you read, even if you don’t use it in your essay, it’s worth the effort to do so. st suck! Dissertations ju
Break the essay down into easy sections
Break the righting down into easy sections Introduction and literature review are the first 10% of righting Each chapter should have four subsections to it, chapters make up 80% of righting, for example; Each Chapter, will answers a small question connected to title intro of chapter key ideas, three to five will do conclusion of chapter, link back to the title Conclusion, it brings all your ideas together through out the righting and makes up the last 10% When checking your work at the end, make the effort to print it off to check it all fits on the pages properly. Also spending all your time staring at your screen your eyes are use to the righting, so by having a printed version you can often find more mistakes because your eyes aren’t use to it. Also get lots of different people, including your parents, to read through and check it for you.
help. king really does or w of e yl st This
Get a good working space.
Before you even start your Final Major Project, clear your work space make shore that you’ve got plenty of clear space to use and make shore that you can spread out. Generating ideas for you FMP is hard, so make some notes or a mind map of all the thing could do and talk your ideas through with friends, other students and your lectures
Cheeky Cider
Section 4
Keep talking about your ideas
Love your project, and then challenge it
Double exposure pinhole cam era of the Thames in Kingst on
The best results for a FMP come from something personal or something that you really believe in. So after thinking through all the different possible ideas, pick the one that most interests you. From there challenge what your doing, think about the crazy thing that you can do with it and all the possible outcomes. The only thing that is stopping your FMP from greatness is you.
Make a brief The next stage is to make a brief, in your head you may know what you want to do, but by righting it down you have something to anchor the project to. With in the brief you can note down where the ideas have come from, research around it and any limitations that you want to set on yourself for the project.
Make a schedule Being a student, life and time is all over the place, you don’t work the normal 9 to 5, but the rest of the world does. So making a personal timetable for FMP is a great move. It’ll give you structure and mini deadlines. Give a student 4 weeks to do a project and they’ll do it in the last week, so by structuring time you can (hopefully) continually work, you need all the time you can get for a FMP. st lise, ju a e r u ft! ke yo have le ule ma Sched le time you t how lit
An empty set of pages So why not use it to do a little doodle? Even if you can’t draw, it’s so important to keep drawing in the design world!
find aders e r o d ok, s frien e ebo looking h t r o crazy les f dood doodle a e m so nd per a done I’ve bit of pa p scra
a
Keep showering It seems like a random thing, but seriously keep showering, you’ll end up spending long days at a time in your room working and sleeping and you’ll forget that it’s been a couple days between showers. Also a shower is refreshing and helps to get your brain going, specially if you get stuck on something.
smell bad starting to ly al re ’m I book, Writing this
Set some rewards to keep you going Your working hard so it’s ok once in a while to have a little treat for your design work. Best to have the treats in a cupboard in the kitchen as they’re not easily accessible and it gets you out your room for a bit.
board, There’s a lot of rubbish in my cup but I do love my cookies
Are you stressed out yet, you should be It’s totally normal to get stressed whiles working, in fact worry if your not getting stressed out. But make shore that you can deal with the stress and don’t take it out on your house mates. Along with the stress it’s very easy to get distracted by even the smallest thing on your desk, so as stated earlier, it’s best to have a completely clear work space. I lost two da ys of work be cause I let the stre ss get to me!
Get rid of bad things
event! a rare is is h T
Procras you jus to get o
Lego
is o ddly addi ctiv
e
stination t need over it
Procrastination is a totally normal thing, everyone gets it from students to professionals, but what you need to do is realise that your procrastinating, deal with it and move on quickly.
Experiment Experimentation, it can’t be stressed enough how important it is to experiment with your work. Even at FMP when you’ve spent the last two and half years experimenting with different methods and styles, it’s still important to experiment with variations around your project to find the best results.
Evaluate Now that you’ve experimented, evaluate. This is the best way to understand the work you have done and work out the best way to improve it. Also righting it done and putting it in your submission folder is a really easy way to get marks for your project, as your showing understanding and critical analyses.
Black is judgment - why something may not work. Spot the difficulties and dangers; where things might go wrong.
Wear Blue is used to manage the thinking process.
The Red Hat signifies feelings, hunches and intuition. When using this hat you can express emotions and feelings and share.
Brightness and optimism. Under this hat you explore the positives and probe for value and benefit.
many hats
Green is for creativity; the possibilities, alternatives, and new ideas. It’s an opportunity to express new concepts and new perceptions. White is for the facts, just the facts.
Little bit of theory time, in the work place everyone has different job roles, some are designers, some are printers and others are art workers. However at university you have to all the jobs by your self, effectively wearing many ‘hats’. This idea of creative hats comes from theorist Edward de Bono. Whiles working think about which colour hat your ‘wearing’.
What are your resources? Much like your Dissertation, you need to think about where your getting your information from and its format.
Do you need to ask people questions, how you going to do that? Has someone done something like your project before, what was their outcome? How is your project different?
These are just a hand full of thing to consider when researching your FMP.
Love layers Layers in both forms are key to your project. The most obvious layers are those in the design programs that your using, by working on separate layers it becomes a lot easier to edit than working on a single flat layer. Also having layers with in your project can make it more engaging. By making it look like one thing, but as it is viewed, the viewer can start to read more into it, much like a Pixar film, that has subtle jokes that only adults get and the children don’t realize.
Another empty set of pages So why not use it to do some more doodles and de-stress from your FMP?
I’ve done some doodles for the ebook, so readers find a scrap bit of paper and doodle a fish
Check it, test it Keep checking your work, make shore that it’s going to work for your desired out come, remember print in CMYK but for screen work make it RGB. So the best way to check it is to test it. So before your hand in do a dummy run, go use the printers that you intend to use for instance and see what quality it comes out and how long it takes. Don’t’ forget to evaluate the test run and the adjust for the final run.
The small details are key, so keep an eye on them Always keep an eye on the small things in your FMP as they have a tendency to get out of hand an course an issue later down the road. Further to that, remember the brief you wrote at the beginning of your FMP? Go find it now and read it through, does your project look like the intentions of your brief? If not, what are you going to do?
This is what the original version of this book looked like when printed
Degree Show
Degree shows are such an important thing. A lot of university’s make an effort to have some sort of show in London because this is where the heart of design is. However these days designers don’t necessarily have time to come out of the office and visit a load of different shows, but they have the occasional five minuets to look at a website. So the best thing for you to do as a class it to make a great website that will interest potential employers to come to the show or get in contact with you. Most importantly enjoy it, it’s the last time that you’ll be working with all your class mates.
Now have a beer and party! Now that that’s all over, have a beer, enjoy graduation and have one last party with your fellow graduates, you deserve it!
WE had a beach party
Being a Designer is a real job
Section 5 It’s now time to get a job! A couple things to remember regardless of what path you take. Firstly being a Designer is a real job, regardless of what any one says, but your going to start at the bottom and your going to be working your ass off for not much money! The average graduates starting salary is between £18,000 £24,000, however there is a tendency for artist and designers to get screwed over and be paid less. This is a industry problem! So best to stay positive and work through it.
Clients can be difficult, so work with them
“I made th is in word if it helps � classic client
The classic “the customer is always right” is thrown out the window in the design world. Working for a client is a partnership, ideally what will happen is a client approaches you with a design issue that need solving. They will brief you on what they want, so take note in a meeting, but don’t do any sketches as the client will instantly like it and want that. From there mock up some ideas and take it back to the client, talk through the ideas and together work out what is best, the client may be best at what they do, but you’re the designer so it’s your job to lead the client to the best design for them. This way you should end continually working with the client.
Treat carefully with free jobs Simple put don’t do free jobs. Everyone has money to pay you even charities have some money. The oldest scam in the book is a client putting out a pitch to win, so they’ll put out a brief and wait for submission, so potentially a hundred different designer will work for nothing to put something together to win the job but they’ll only select one and pay them, so the other nighty nine have wasted weeks for nothing and the client has a hundred different ideas to play with. I did a few free jobs for scouts whiles I w as a stude nt
You making yourself into a Brand Unless you’ve got sh*t hot designs and your making your carrier in clothing design very few people will be interested in your own branded clothing line. By all means give it a go, but don’t over estimate how much your going to sell.
You can work where ever you like The design world of the UK seems to resolve around London, there are a lot of design agents that are based in London, but it’s getting so expensive to live in and around London. So it’s not so necessary to come to the big city, now everyone is easily connected through the internet that you can easily work anywhere in the country or world and still meet the clients need. So don’t get bogged down with worrying about where you are in the world, just design.
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tudying happy s y it s r e univ
picture?
Pay for type, you only need a few There are a lot of different type faces out there, some legible and others illegible. There is a lot to learn about working with type, which you’ll pick up as you go through life. However there is a hand full of types that are extremely good as body copy, others are terrible and some should only be used as a header or title. When working professionally never just download a type for nothing, there is always someone to pay and this cost should be taken to your client for the job!
Arial Futura Gill Sans Helvetica Neue Myriad Pro Rockwell Seriff Plain Times
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Urgent; is just a cock up What ever job you do in life everyone’s worse nightmare is getting an email on Friday afternoon, about an hour before you finish, saying urgent deign needed by 9 am on Monday. This sucks, but its not the end of the world and it’s not normally your fault. What it is, is someone above you has really cocked something up and is trying to fix it to save their ass. In the design world it wont be a matter of life or death if it isn’t done so there should be some wiggle room. It’s not your fault!
Unless you forg ot to do somet hing
Nothing is original Nothing is original, is yet another phrase that get’s thrown around, there can be a lot of argument around this. If you have an original idea, that’s cool. However if you come up with something based on something else that’s fine as well, just make shore others know where your inspiration has come from.
A CV is only a foot in the door
e This photo really hurt to tak
A CV gives the potential employer a 30 second view of you, its what’s going to get your foot in the door. There are all sorts of way that you can make it eye catching and interesting but don’t go over the top. The first thing that you need to do is your research on the company that you applying for, what have they done, what’s their style. Then tailor your CV to that.
What’s in There is a large number of thing that you need to consider when righting your CV for the design industry, you need to ask yourself what’s most important to you? Location, distance to travel, size of team, type of work, pay, living costs etc. From this work out which are the most important and then look for jobs that fit your criteria. SWOT analysis of your self is key; Strengths, Weaknesses, Threats & Opportunities. Researching, look at their websites, their clients, Blogs, magazines etc. Find out as much as possible about them before approaching them, even build up a folder about the companies that your looking at.
This is how I’ve be en looking to get a jo b after uni, it seems to be worki ng quite well for me .
your CV? Once you’ve researched the company and chosen to apply to them, you need to tailor your cover letter, CV and Portfolio to their style. The cover letter is short and simple, it needs the person who you are applying to name at the beginning instead of sir/madam. Then why you want to work for them, here you reference their past work, and what you think you can bring to their team. The CV needs to do three things; be eye catching, get the information that you want to get across and needs to show some of your personality. Don’t make it too long, only need to be a page, and have a link to your website with your portfolio of work on it (portfolios will be covered in the next few pages).
What’s going to make you a great candidate? A lecture from Ross Oliver from the Big Consulting on what makes a good Candidate
Your first job is to market yourself, you’re a designer you should be able to do it easily. You need to be; Confident, Keen, Have a bold approach & be approachable, Professional, Transparent, Resourceful and Have a can do attitude. A good candidate needs to have a rounded skill set, they need to know the design programs as well as knowledge of traditional methods. This includes an understanding of coding, not knowing will put you on the back foot. Most important is that the candidate knows who they are meeting and know about the company that they’re applying to inside and out.
What ar opportu When’s the best time? If you start when you’ve just graduated, June to September, they’ll already of gone to the other graduates. So wait for it to get quiet, September – December, you may have some luck, employers will take you on get you trained and then you have a holiday for Christmas. After Christmas January and February, no, your now coming to the end of the financial year and budgets are thin. So companies do there budgets in February and March ready for the new Finance year in April, so this is your prime time as they know whether they can afford to take on a graduate. So start looking whiles your at university in March and April.
My ex house mate didn’t bother going into the city and just googled jobs. She’s now just a shop assistant.
e the nities? Every year university’s are churning out around 400,000 graduates, 30,000 of which are related to media and entertainment, this includes deign. So where are you going to find that first job!? Through networking Job sites Consultancy Firms Design magazines Business events Doing your own thing and getting noticed Don’t just sit on Google, get up and go be productive, your in the real world now!
How are you preparing for an interview?
So you’ve got an interview, what do you need to do for a great interview to get that job? • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Don’t be late Dress to impress, if in doubt dress up Don’t take what you don’t need Show what your proud of and believe in Do you understand what the job role is? Be an individual that stands out Find a relaxed point of contact, which allows you to chill out Know the content of your portfolio so you can talk about it with out having to look Bring a second copy of your CV for reference Go prepared with Questions for the interviewer Show that you’ve spent time on your work Ask for a glass of water, it gives you a breathing space It’s ok to ask about the pay package and benefits. Check your social media, make shore there’s nothing embarrassing that a potential employer can see.
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Portfolio, you need two How to get your portfolio right; • It needs 8 to 10 projects in it • Have the three best projects spread out, one at the beginning, one in the middle and the best at the end for them to remember. • Show a rang of job/projects • It should tell a story in your absence • Should show your thinking process • Keep all the pages orientated the same way, portrait or landscape. A3 is best, but A4 is ok. • Keep it tidy and consistent through out • Make shore it’s all captioned • Photograph large pieces • Spell check • Put your name on it! Before interview you should of already sent a digital version, so for the interview have a printed version which is slightly different to digital version and bring with you a sketch book as an example of your thinking methods.
Tailor your work for the job you want
It may seem odd, but it shows that you’ve paid attention to their style of working
There are many different jobs that fit into different category’s • • • •
Design Agency (5+ people) Design Studios (5 or less people) Advertisement groups Book designers
Depending on who your applying to, you need to structure your portfolio accordingly. For a design studio you need to show that you’ve got a hands on approach, whiles a deign Agency will need prof of a wide set of skills. An Advertisement want to see lot’s of idea generation whiles Book Design need to see passion for Typography. These are just some thing to think about when tailoring your portfolios. But most of all for your digital version and print version embrace the benefits of the two styles.
Book Graduation guide for design students Author Moniek Paus About the book This handy little book is a series of well illustrated pages filled with pieces of light hearted information useful in the last part of design school. Use Good for the last part of your degree course
3rd year e through This got m
Section 6 Book Know your onions Author Drew de Solo About the book A all round useful book on being a graphic designer focusing on all the little things that you need to know. A think but comprehensive book. Use Guide book
Book Graphic Design Rules Author Sean Adams, Peter Dawson, John Foster, Tony Seddon About the book A collection of 365 Do’s and Don’t rules that will guide you through Design when stuck Use A good set of rules to refer back to when stuck on
Book Popular Lies* About Graphic Design Author Craig Ward About the book Another book of rules, but it gives more context to a smaller number, helps to break preconceived ideas about design A recent purchase, but good for the future i think
Use Theory on design
Book How to Design Websites Author Alan Pipes About the book A useful step by step guide to get you started on the process of making a website Use Making websites
Book How to Create a Portfolio & Get Hired Author Fig Taylor About the book Just like the other book, a good step through guide to building a good portfolio of your work, to be used after University to get a job Use Building up your portfolio
Book Grid Systems Author Kimberly Elam About the book a must have little hand book on how to use grids in your work, to give your page a very good structure Use Guide to grid layouts
Book Production for Graphic Design Author Alan Pipes
Big he lp dur ing my interns h
About the book Might sound like a little bit of a dry subject, but this is an extremely useful book, giving instructions on everything connected to design, like setting your wok for print. ip
Use General instructions
Book Information is Beautiful Author David McCandless About the book It is a large collection of information graphic that have been made by McCandless, extremely interesting to look at, helps to understand Use Reference
Book The Advertising Concept Book Author Pete Barry About the book This book takings a close look at the though process that goes into creating advertisement and idea generation of design Use Reference
Book I used to be a design Student Author Frank Philippin & Billy Kiosoglou About the book An interesting look at a collection of designers, looking at there difference in work between University and Professional work. Worth a read if your unsure of your future Use Reference
at Billy has been a guest lecture this h oug thr my uni and has read book, he found it interesting.
Book How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul Author Adrian Shaughnessy About the book a very dull book, where you will loose your soul in the first couple pages. A lot of theory. Use Paper wight! or hold up a wobbly table
Book It’s not how good you are, it’s how good you want to be Author Paul Arden About the book A good little pocket book to read on the train the gets you thinking about how to succeed in life and achieve your goals Use Self Help
Book Ways of Seeing Author John Berger About the book It’s a small book all about art theory, reading it will give you a good grounding in understanding art theory I’ve h ad keep fi this a whil e nding n ew ide and as in it .
Use Theory on images
Book 99 ways to tell a story Author Matt Madden About the book Extremely simple book, the same story is told 100 times, but using different drawn methods, it help you to approach something from a different angle. Use Creative thinking and illustration
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Book Everything that can happen in a day Author Mark Batty About the book a huge collections of random idea and artistic installation Use Creative thinking
Magazine Computer Arts Author Future publishers About the book A monthly magazine looking at the current state of computer generated art and current design. Also look at Creative Review Use Keeping up to date with the design world
Magazine Computer Arts Collection Author Future publishers About the book Very similar to Computer Arts, but these are six magazines published through out the year, each looking at a specific area of design from the last twelve months. Use Keeping up to date with the design world
Bibliography Hughes, Rebecca (2013) Top creative universities... As voted by students [2013-14] http://university.which.co.uk/advice/top-creativeuniversities-as-voted-by-students (accessed on 22.02.13) De Bono, Edward. Six thinking Hats [online] at; http://www.debonogroup.com/six_thinking_hats.php (accessed 11.02.14) Oliver, Russ. Job hunting Lecture, attended on 27.11.13, Contactable at http://www.thebigconsulting.com Hopton, Peter information gained through life experience over the past six years of Solihull Sixth Form Collage, Art Foundation at Solihull Collage and BA (Hons) Graphic Design Degree course at University for the Creative Arts (UCA). September 2008 - March 2014 Moffat, Steven (2013) The Time of the Doctor, BBC Whales. Blake, William.
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/williambla165311.html
(accessed 3.03.14)
Illustrations Pencil illustration, D&AD http://www.dandad.org (accessed 28.02.14)
Images photographed or illustrated by Hopton, Peter (2010-2014) No copy right infringement intended of illustrations of Adobe suite or photography of books and Apple products.
We all change, when you think about it we’re all different, all through our lives. That’s ok, that’s good, you’ve got to keep moving so long as you remember all the people that you use to be. I will not forget one line of this, not one day, I swear, I will always remember . . .
The Doctor
Your going to be brilliant!