|
So I've been doing graphic art for like twenty loving years. Yeah, I know I'm only 28. I'm not kidding either. My grandmother used to be a district manager at a screen printing ink company and would get free promotional copy's of every graphic design program out there. She'd throw out the Macintosh stuff (this is pre-Ebay) and hand me all the Windows stuff. After messing around with Paintshop for a while, I settled on Adobe Painter. I preferred it. From there I moved up to Photoshop. Incidentally, Something Awful's Photoshop Phridays and photochopping threads on some goofy car forum kept me wanting to get into it, but as I screwed around with all of this stuff I was learning more and more about things like vectors, dpi, registration marks... eventually I was designing the t-shirts for my father's car club and even bootlegging Disney merchandise. Then I went to college! And immediately got kicked the gently caress out after one semester, failing all my classes except English Literature. The counselor told me I should change my major to journalism. I didn't want to do corporate graphic design anymore, but I wanted to make shirts and posters and poo poo. Obviously a degree in graphic design wasn't going to do it for me. By this time I had already started going to science fiction conventions and seeing dealers like Offworld and ThinkGeek selling awesome nerdy shirts and all I could think was I would love to help design shirts with those guys, but they're major companies that have the swing to hire anyone they want. They'd never hire me. Instead I took a lovely low paying job working for a great non profit honing my skills. Eventually I dropped that job to take up a truck driving position and rarely touched my Creative Suite anymore. That is until I discovered RedBubble. Thanks to a Goon I learned that it wasn't a total scam but actually a decent way to make money if your shirts actually sell. But with a million talented artists on there, most way more talented than I am, it was hard to get discovered. Occasionally someone would buy shirt, but it's not enough at this point to really get anything. Mostly I just end up selling stickers. Long story short I lost my current job and while looking for another career I spent more time designing on RedBubble since I had the extra free time without a nine to five. And you know what? It spurred me again to want to be like those nerds I see at the booths selling the shirts. You know, the market is pretty saturated, but... just maybe I could make it if I knew where to start. TLDR version: I'm a struggling t-shirt artist who keeps getting fired from jobs he hates and wants to live a dream. So tell me about
|
#
?
Dec 16, 2014 09:09
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 16, 2024 22:51 |
|
|
From my experience, pretty much everything works like this. Mum thinks you're 'good with computers' and you've written a script here and there? Ok, enroll yourself in a comp sci and get working toward a graduate position with someone big in the game. That's your in. If you think you're too smart for uni or gently caress up and play WoW instead of do your exams, ok, now you're just another random writing code and trying to sell it online. Perhaps you're actually amazing and can make money out of it without the formal background, but the reality is you (and most people) aren't. Small business people do this all the time, I like diving and have my instructor ticket.. ok.. I know someone who I can buy gear from wholesale.. ok then, I'll open a dive shop and live the dream! Um ok, but you need to understand that you're not doing anything unique and if you ever really do make a dent in the market a bigger player is just going to move into your suburb and suck up your customers by using their buying and financial power to offer prices and services you never can. Skunkrocker posted:if it is all just way too much for one guy with a dream to handle, what would be a good way of getting hired on at a place that already designs shirts or getting into a print shop? The same way to become a coder or fireman or doctor or anything really. Demonstrate you can get the work done to the required standard and you've covered the prerequisite knowledge of your craft. That is what study is. It means a company takes less of a chance on you, you've got a track record of not being a shitlord. That's why a grad with less 'real world experience' may be hired over you - moving forward the grad's demonstrated ability to adapt and perform under stress may be more valuable to a firm than whatever specific thing you can do right now. I'd suggest it's like any hobby idea to make money, like any freelancer. You like to write and are pretty good at it? Ok, cool, send your poo poo to people regularly and keep writing.. but don't give up your day job. Keep up your passion by all means, use modern communications technology to get it out there and give yourself the best chance of it taking off and perhaps being a full-time pursuit for you one day.. but also be adult enough to maintain a standard of living.
|
|
#
?
Dec 16, 2014 10:29
|
|
|
When you go to those geek conventions try to start up some conversations with the people working at the tee-shirt booths. sure most probably are just working there for min wage, but making connections is probably the easiest way to get into the industry without a degree
|
|
#
?
Dec 16, 2014 22:22
|
|
|
I mean designing, printing and selling t-shirts is a very attainable dream, so that's good. Its better than those people that dream they will hit it big in Hollywood because they've taken a few creative writing courses at the local community college.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2014 17:22
|
|
