When I go to the car dealership I’m often intimidated talking to the mechanics. Not because of anything they do, but because I don’t know anything about cars. I know what it feels and sounds like when my car is running well, and I know when something is off, but I’m always hard pressed to describe it, and I feel pretty foolish trying to duplicate the grinding sound I’m hearing when I turn left.
This often happens to my new clients when they’re talking to me about their design ideas. They don’t speak the lingo, and they feel awkward talking to someone who specializes in it. Of course, I don’t expect my clients to have a firm grasp of design principles or design terminology. Why would they need me if they do? I don’t even expect them to be able to verbalize what they’re looking for in their design. It’s my job to figure out what they like and dislike and to coax the design of their dreams out of their heads and onto the page or screen.
To this end, I will sometimes ask a series of questions seemingly unrelated to the design job at hand. Once you move someone out of “talking design” they often get more comfortable and are able to reveal what they really like. Here are some of my standards:
“What are your favorite magazines?”
This isn’t as straightforward as it seems, as people will often read magazines that they don’t particularly like the look of because they’re interested in the content. It gives you a general trend, though, and it can show what’s more important to the client — design or content.
“What color is the favorite room of your house?”
If distance permits, I always prefer to meet the client at her workplace so that I can get a feel for her style.
“If I looked in your closet, which three colors would I find the most of?”
“What kind of car do you drive? Do you think it suits you?”
“What are your three favorite websites?”
The answers to these questions provide a jumping off point to talk design, and often give me enough information to start on the first pass of a design. What do you think? If you answered these questions, would it give me a good idea of your design aesthic? Can you think of something else I should be asking?
The good news is that I’m too busy to post. The bad news is that I’m too busy to post. Here’s a quickie, and once I wrap up a couple of things I’ve been working on, I’ll hop back in the blogging saddle.
Many designers use Lorem Ipsum as dummy text in their layouts. Why?
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English.
So where can you get your own Lorem Ipsum text? http://www.lipsum.com/ It’s free, easy to customize, and is much less distracting than: “There is no one who loves pain itself, who seeks after it and wants to have it, simply because it is pain” over and over again.
If you don’t know why the headline of this post necessitated an exclamation mark, it’s because Microsoft stopped making Internet Explorer for a Mac at version 5. They’re now up to version 7. Why do I care? Well, if I wasn’t a web designer, I wouldn’t. I love me some Firefox, and am completely happy using it as my everyday browser. As a web designer, though, I need to test the sites I design on a variety of platforms and with different browsers. I do have a PC running Windows, but I have Explorer 7 installed on that computer and in a move that makes web designers everywhere grind their teeth into little nubs, you can’t run multiple versions of Explorer on the same machine (well, not easily). And Explorer 6 and Explorer 7 have completely different sets of bugs and quirks.
All praise YouTube. I did a Google search for “view internet explorer 6 on a Mac” and came to this video, with links to a site that allows you to have “several versions of IE installed side by side… try that on a PC ;).”
I now officially love Mike Kronenberg. A donation is headed your way shortly.
After reading this great article by Lee Newham, via David Airey, I got to thinking about interviews for graphic design jobs. When I used to teach a college graphic design portfolio class, one of the things I had my students do each semester was present their portfolio to the class. Several times. If you’re headed to a job interview soon, here are some tips on how to put your best foot forward:
Never say anything bad about your design work. And I mean never. I used to do a whole fake presentation to my class where I’d get up in front of the room and say something like: “Well, here’s my advertisement. I think it’s OK, but I’m not really happy with the type I used, and I think that the picture could be better. My teacher liked it, but it’s not really my best work.” Then I’d ask them what they thought of the work. Inevitably, they’d say they liked it, but… They were looking for ways to improve on it. Then I’d come in again and present the same piece. “This was an advertisement I did for a graphic design class. I’m really pleased with the way it came out, especially the typography. I used a serif face here to emphasize the traditional values of the company, and I created a color scheme based on the photo that was provided.” When I asked the class what they thought of the work that time, they said that they saw it in a much better light. If you say negative things about your work, your interviewer will only agree with you. If you can’t think of anything positive to say about your work, don’t include it in your portfolio.
Practice your presentation. You should tell your interviewer briefly what the assignment or project was, what was provided, and what your objective was. Don’t feel like you need to make a ten minute presentation for each piece, but thirty seconds or so of explanation is very helpful. “This CD cover was designed for my Computer Illustration class using Illustrator and InDesign. We were asked to create an allegorical illustration for a band of our choice using a supplied CD template. I chose The Decemberists because their existing album covers showed that they like to push the design envelope. They’ve used some really great illustrators in the past.”
Pick only your best pieces. You should have 10-12 pieces total, and they should all be your best work. If you don’t have that many good pieces from class (or your last job), give yourself assignments. Rework an older piece. Design a book cover. Make a brochure. Don’t include anything that you’re not 100% proud of.
Show variety in your work. If everything you show has a photograph with a vector illustration over it or all of your pieces use grunge typography, you look very limited. You don’t have to be all over the map, but make sure your pieces show a breadth of work.
Consider showing some sketches. It’s very interesting to see the process behind the work. Don’t do it for every piece you have, but if you have a nice progression, starting with sketches and moving through some conceptualizations to the final work, it may be a good idea to include it in your portfolio.
Of course the inevitable advice also applies — make sure your portfolio is immaculately clean, bring extra copies of your resume (CV), send a thank you note to your interviewer the next day, thanking them for their time.
What are your tips for giving good interview? Any horror stories?
If you read that as Obama (as in Barack Obama, presumptive Democratic candidate for the US Presidency), you’re probably an American. If you haven’t heard of Obama (although now that he’s the “biggest celebrity in the world” I don’t know who you would be), I don’t think there’s any way you’d be able to read this sticker correctly. 08ama? Huh?
For the record, I think this is a great design. Witty, eye catching, and it says what it’s trying to say stylishly and in a minimum of space. But it shows that you have to know your audience. If you presume that people already know how to read your clever design work, you’d better be right. Otherwise this would be as helpful as a sticker reading 317537 (which is how you can type “LESLIE” on a upside down calculator.)
You can buy your own stickers on Ebay. You know, if you’re supporting 08ama.
