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ijyt posted:I got banned and forgot to reply, but I've gone part-time at my current job because my bosses are great and understanding, so I'm currently hopping between Schoolism, Scott Robertson and Proko videos, about 4 hours a day + weekends. In terms of what art, Well the reason I ask you about what you want to do is because once you develop your skills, you are going to eventually have to market them. Marketing and building up an audience can take as long as building up your skills did so make sure not to neglect preparing for that step. For example, In comics they like to say it takes 10 years to build up an audience enough that you can make a career out of it (note this is after you have good skills). But if you are shipping your skills to some company then you don't have to worry about that as much. But either way, make sure to read up on whatever particular side of the industry you want in and find out the best ways to build yourself up to that point that you can get in. If you want to do creature design, I'd definitely look at Aaron Blaise's material. Hes not bad for an animator either. I know Schoolism has a course designed by Terryl Whitlatch so you'll definitely have access to that at least. If you have the money for it, Glenn Vilppu teaches life drawing with a focus on gesture and rhythm and he would be a good person to study under if you wanted to build towards animation. Though he's a legend in general, so he's good to learn from even if you don't care for animation. Also consider looking into illustration, since it looks like you are focusing on 2d stuff (with your choice of learning sources) that might be an easier avenue than 2d animation, there are certainly a lot more work there with advertising, children's books, storyboards for 2d and 3d films, etc etc. Like you don't have to decide now for sure, but do try to narrow a direction. Think about what you'd really like to create and what kind of things you enjoy the most. Art jobs are hard across the board, but can be rewarding if you find one that is a good fit for you. Also another thing that is really important. Find a community of people who want to do the same thing that you want to do. I don't care where, but find one somewhere. That's your support network and it's a really helpful thing to have as an artist.
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May 6, 2017 16:46
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. It's too early for me to know what I want, but I think creature design might be fun, animation too.
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That's all really good advice, thank you both. I'll keep in mind where I really want to take this, but it feels hard to decide what I'd enjoy most without having a good grasp of the fundamentals yet.
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May 6, 2017 17:25
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If you are interested in animation you should try making some animation to submit to loopdeloop. There's a bunch of goons over in the animation mega thread who have done them. You can participate no matter your skill level. There are some crazy good ones, but there are plenty that are a lot more basic. You won't know if animation is what you want to do until you do some anyway.
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May 12, 2017 07:56
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I do animation n' things but I don't live in L.A. and most likely never will. I am married and pretty settled in my home town. I know there are some elite east-coast folks who are good enough to call some shots and work remotely, but that's unlikely to be me at this point. I get a bit frustrated when I see and hear about the steps to "breaking into the animation business" when step 0 really seems to be, live in or move to a city that has an animation industry. But I guess that's how it is in every industry, right?
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May 12, 2017 19:39
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Have you considered getting into more motion graphics type work? A lot of it can be done remotely, and I built my career up working almost totally remotely for the first few years out of school. I did end up having to move to a major city for a full time opportunity but now work remotely full time in that same position. It's not at all an easy path but it's a little easier than it used to be!
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May 20, 2017 15:08
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Remote work is significantly easier than it used to be. Not as easy as living in a city with studios and going in-person for interviews, and finding that initial contract job can be tough - but once you've completed one job, you have evidence that you can pull it off, and it makes it easier to find the next, and so on. I'm not sure about all the websites that are aimed at connecting studios with freelancers, but my recommendation is to join groups/forums/discords that have a professional presence on top of searching for freelance work. Whenever we need additional artists, I'll reach out to people I've met online; thanks to the nature of people sharing their work, it makes it a lot easier to find people that have the skills for the job in question. And being able to interact in a non-professional setting first gives me a really good idea of personalities. As mentioned by JuniperCake, many industries need good artists of all stripes. In my 3d animation and VFX work, we need storyboard, previs, concept, social media, etc artwork, so we have a small stable of 2d artists we can reach out to.
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May 20, 2017 16:23
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So I graduated from my Digital Media and IT program in late April and have been looking for a design job ever since. I've got an interview on Thursday and it's only the second one I've had since I started looking. I was told to bring my printed portfolio, so I'm going over my work to put one together. I have heard that one shouldn't put school projects in their portfolio. What should I do if the majority of my work from the past 2 years, and most certainly my best work is from school? What if the school project was done for a real, local business? One of my instructors had us do a rebranding of a real, local business with the idea that the company would pay one of the students for their work. Unfortunately, my instructor was never able to get someone from the company to come see our work, but it ended up being one of the projects I was most proud of. Other projects involved redesigning a local high school's logo and designing certificates and thank you cards for the local food bank. Would those be acceptable to put in a portfolio? My Capstone class involved building 2 websites for real, local clients, though one of those clients had us take her website down because she changed her mind about what she wanted. Should I only have the 1 website in my portfolio, or would it be okay to still show my final designs for the website that was taken down? I also did some logo design work for another group's Capstone project. I worked directly with the client, but he never got back to me about which colour scheme he wanted to go with. Their current website is still using an older version of the logo. I'd like to use the logo in my portfolio. Should I just choose the version with my preferred colour scheme? A designer friend of mine suggested I do some unpaid internships and free work for non-profits to get more experience, though all the internships I have been seeing lately have been student only positions. Is this a good idea? Should I just try to find a company I like and ask to work there for free for a few months or ask to design things for a non-profit?
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Jun 13, 2017 20:39
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Nessa posted:A designer friend of mine suggested I do some unpaid internships and free work for non-profits to get more experience, though all the internships I have been seeing lately have been student only positions. Is this a good idea? Should I just try to find a company I like and ask to work there for free for a few months or ask to design things for a non-profit? Any company that takes your work for free will never respect you enough to pay you. 
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Jun 13, 2017 21:53
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So, it looks like unpaid internships in my province are only legal if they are part of a school program, otherwise interns must be paid minimum wage. If I were to gain more experience freelancing, to build my portfolio with real projects, what would be a good way to do that? I have a profile on some freelancing websites and just recently signed up for Upwork. Are there any other avenues i could try to get freelance work?
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Jun 13, 2017 22:38
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Nessa posted:So, it looks like unpaid internships in my province are only legal if they are part of a school program, otherwise interns must be paid minimum wage. So uh, not to burst your bubble a second time around but: sites like Upwork, Freelancer, etc. are generally pretty lovely for getting work if you live in an industrialized nation and don't have some kind of advantage. They are populated with the type of clients who turn to anonymous websites to get their work done (read: clients who do not know enough about what they want to talk with a real designer, clients who want something done as cheaply as possible with no other consideration etc.). You are also competing to undercut your fellow graphic designers, which ultimately only devalues your own profession. Finally, unless you have some hidden advantage you will be routinely outbid by designers in India or China who will gladly work for 1/10th of what you can afford. These sites can be OK to get $50 to $100 bucks to cover a shortfall every month, but overall they are just populated by a ton of people racing to the bottom of the barrel. My advice for finding work on Upwork, etc.: Search for "identity design," "branding," "brand design," an similar terms instead of "logo design." This will at least put you in touch with clients who understand a bit more about business and marketing than your average client.. Find some advantage that would make people hire you over a cheaper 2nd- or 3rd-world designer. My wife has several regular customers from Upwork, simply because she speaks German and searches out German-language ads. The ease of dealing with a German speaking designer instead of both speaking a second language trumps the other savings for them. My advice for finding work outside of the freelance website hellhole: Network, network, network - over 90% of my freelance work has come from friends, former/current co-workers, or other professionals in my industry. Go to meetups, hang out on forums, join slack channels, whatever you can do to get yourself out there. If you find yourself with downtime and no paid work, do a small project pro bono. Find a non-profit you support and offer a certain amount of your time and skills for a project, you can write a bill for this detailing the monetary value of your donated time, and get a proportional tax benefit. This is not calling up a company and offering to work for free, you are legally recording time you donate with the expectation that you'll get a tax break from the government later on. (Note: I have never personally gone this route, I have only had a couple acquaintances do this in the US. YMMV) For entry or near entry level positions, go ahead and have a couple of your best school projects in there. gmc9987 fucked around with this message at 23:31 on Jun 13, 2017 |
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Jun 13, 2017 23:28
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Yeah, after looking at some postings on Upwork and seeings things like "Expert Logo Design" with a budget of $30... I'm not too thrilled about my prospects. :/ I can't really think of any advantages I might have over other entry level designers except for having more years experience with Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator. I've done a couple things for a family member and a friend of mine since graduating. An arcade cabinet decal and a logo and business card. I'll try to get more work like that. I'll check out local meetups too! 
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Jun 14, 2017 00:09
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If you need more examples of work you can always do your own mock ups too. Just do it for a fake brand/company that you made up. I know some people will also pick well known brands to do mock ups of but that seems like it could be a bit iffy legally.
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Jun 14, 2017 00:44
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IMO you can totally put student work in your portfolio. Especially if it's your best work. Employers want to see an accurate representation of your work, they won't care whether it was done in school or not.
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Jun 14, 2017 06:30
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I don't want to sound discouraging, but I sincerely believe that your best option is to find a job that is not first-and-foremost a graphic design job. Instead, try to find a decent full-time job in an industry you can tolerate, which might require some graphic design skills as part of the overall job. For example, you might find a job in the marketing department of a company. Most of the time you won't be doing design, but a ton of job descriptions now say stuff like "Adobe CC knowledge a plus," as if it's like a step up from MS Office. If you have real design skills, this can make you more competitive to get the job, even though it isn't strictly a design position. I've been doing graphic design in a professional capacity for over ten years. This work has been a combination of design work that grew out of non-design jobs, and freelance side projects to supplement. When I survey the market, I could not be happier with this state of affairs. The stability of this arrangement means that I can choose freelance projects that look good to me, and not have to take every gig or eat poo poo just to live. In my case, a steady full-time job is absolutely essential because health insurance in the US costs $$$$$dollars. You might be able to find a good balance with a part-time job or a combination of part-time jobs. But the hustle of full-time freelancing will take years off your life, and full-time design positions are effectively extinct for all but the most elite. I know whereof I speak from another angle as well, since both my parents are graphic designers and I grew up in a "freelance family." That really put the fear of God into me at a young age, because I watched my parents have to chase clients for money, never get time off, live in a feast-or-famine scenario, and have to pay for tons of extra insurance and taxes and poo poo. (again, may not apply to you as much in  but still)
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Jun 14, 2017 12:26
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I was looking at other jobs as well, but those admin jobs with minor graphic design roles all seem to want degrees in administration and at least 5 years experience in an administrative position (but they still want you to be a MASTER of all Adobe products). Looking at a variety of other entry level positions, they all seem to require highly specialized training and experience that I simply don't have. I went back to school because working retail was depressing and I needed to escape. My resume is just retail, freelance comic colouring, freelance graphic design (what little I've done over the years) and freelance illustration. I specialized in web design while in school, so I know HTML5, CSS3, some JavaScript and how to build responsive websites. I figured that would give me a leg up on getting hired somewhere since I have experience with both print and web. Is there anything worthwhile that I can do with these skills?
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Jun 14, 2017 19:00
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Yes. Maybe look into marketing. Lots of companies need people (particularly younger people) to get their marketing stuff into the 21st century. MANY businesses and non-profits have been left behind and have, say, only a Facebook page as their online presence. If you can make a web site and design a thing, and you understand how the Internet works, it can matter more than having a business-related degree. Also, you write well enough (judging by your posts) that you could be writing copy for things like that. Don't be discouraged by job "requirements" (unless they're highly technical like driving a forklift or having a CS degree). Most job ads are bullshit. Apply anyway. It doesn't hurt you to do so. Are there any local businesses or industries that you'd like to learn about? Anything you're genuinely curious about working on?
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Jun 14, 2017 19:23
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Nessa posted:I was looking at other jobs as well, but those admin jobs with minor graphic design roles all seem to want degrees in administration and at least 5 years experience in an administrative position (but they still want you to be a MASTER of all Adobe products). Looking at a variety of other entry level positions, they all seem to require highly specialized training and experience that I simply don't have. Many of the more intimidating-sounding job requirements (X years of experience, master in Photoshop, etc.) are more to help keep completely unqualified people from wasting HR's time than actual requirements for the job. For example, many jobs being offered at startups in the SF Bay area say they require 5 years of experience in technology that is less than 2 years old. Granted, there's a lot of bay area tech-startup hubris involved as well, but the point still stands. If you feel you could reasonably do the job advertised but you only have 3 years experience instead of 5, apply anyway. The only hard and fast thing that should keep you are if they require certifications. Also, network network network. Knowing someone who works at a company will do wonders for helping to get an interview. EDIT: Also, welcome to being a graphic designer/creative in the midst of the booming gig/sharing economy. It's a blast.
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Jun 14, 2017 20:21
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Neon Noodle posted:Yes. Maybe look into marketing. Lots of companies need people (particularly younger people) to get their marketing stuff into the 21st century. MANY businesses and non-profits have been left behind and have, say, only a Facebook page as their online presence. If you can make a web site and design a thing, and you understand how the Internet works, it can matter more than having a business-related degree. Also, you write well enough (judging by your posts) that you could be writing copy for things like that. Don't be discouraged by job "requirements" (unless they're highly technical like driving a forklift or having a CS degree). Most job ads are bullshit. Apply anyway. It doesn't hurt you to do so. I wrote nearly all the copy for one of my Capstone websites! But a few weeks ago, the client emailed me and demanded we take the website down because of errors in the text. Errors that she had plenty of time to inform us of and were a result of her being misleading about her work. She was a bit of a nightmare client, but my instructors were really supportive of us and how we were handling her. When given a lot of freedom, my designs tend to be very fun and colourful. I would be very interested in doing design work related to kids or teens. I really enjoy the opportunities I get to do drawings for children at local events and I've had a couple people interested in hiring me as a children's illustrator, but nothing really panned out. I think game design is really cool, but I already sent out prospecting letters to all the companies here, with a couple small companies letting me know that "they're not hiring, but my work is impressive so they'll keep me on file," which I know means that I'll never hear back. I took a very disappointing Character Design class in school because I've always been interested in the theory behind good character design. The class was just Figure Drawing 101. I know that actually getting a decent job in games is a ridiculous idea. It's just that some of my design role models are from games and the Persona games really make me want to be an art director. I know it's silly. gmc9987 posted:Many of the more intimidating-sounding job requirements (X years of experience, master in Photoshop, etc.) are more to help keep completely unqualified people from wasting HR's time than actual requirements for the job. For example, many jobs being offered at startups in the SF Bay area say they require 5 years of experience in technology that is less than 2 years old. Granted, there's a lot of bay area tech-startup hubris involved as well, but the point still stands. If you feel you could reasonably do the job advertised but you only have 3 years experience instead of 5, apply anyway. The only hard and fast thing that should keep you are if they require certifications. Also, network network network. Knowing someone who works at a company will do wonders for helping to get an interview. I've mostly been using Indeed to apply for jobs, and they have a radio button for certain requirements. So many design jobs have given me the question "Do you have the required Associates/Bachelors degree?" And I have to say no because I just have a 2 year diploma in web design and a Graphic Communications certificate. It's also tricky when they ask for a hard number of how many years experience you have. When freelancing work is few and far between, how do you compress it down? Would my experience flatting and colouring comics for a few years count? I just don't know! I've had to explain what colouring is at most of my job interviews. I got my Graphic Communications certificate nearly 10 years ago, but print shops wouldn't hire me due to lack of experience, so I worked retail while trying to get regular colouring work. I'm very nearly 30 and just starting my career, but I look much younger, so people often treat me like a kid. Even one of my instructors that was my age kept forgetting that I wasn't fresh out of high school.
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Jun 14, 2017 21:07
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In my career (I work in animation at places like Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon) it always comes down to who you know, your portfolio, and how you test. They post jobs but they are usually filled by someone suggested by the recruiter, or someone people on the team have worked with before. I don't know if it works that way elsewhere, but if companies have recruiters make sure they see your portfolio. They will shop you around if they think you are good.
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Jun 17, 2017 16:11
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Nessa posted:I think game design is really cool, but I already sent out prospecting letters to all the companies here, with a couple small companies letting me know that "they're not hiring, but my work is impressive so they'll keep me on file," which I know means that I'll never hear back. I took a very disappointing Character Design class in school because I've always been interested in the theory behind good character design. The class was just Figure Drawing 101. I know that actually getting a decent job in games is a ridiculous idea. It's just that some of my design role models are from games and the Persona games really make me want to be an art director. I know it's silly. This: Duck Party posted:In my career (I work in animation at places like Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon) it always comes down to who you know, your portfolio, and how you test. Your degrees and certificates will matter very little (read: not at all) for most employers. If you can prove your have the skills required to perform a job in almost any creative field, you stand a great chance of getting that job. Anecdotally, I've never had a job where the degree requested was the degree I held. The only thing that really matters outside of skill is experience, but time is a lovely metric for experience. Employers want you to know how to deal with difficult clients, to know how to meet deadlines and manage your own schedule. "I've been employed as a designer for five years" is shorthand for saying, "I can do those three things because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to hold down a job for five years." If employers claim to be holding onto your resume and are complimenting your portfolio regularly it means you're on the right track but not quite there. When I was in charge of responding to applicants in my last job, that was shorthand for, "this person is okay but not a perfect fit, but I want them to reply to my job postings again in the future because they might improve." Keep working, keep building your portfolio with whatever you can, keep consuming as much design as possible and learning from it what you can and you'll get there eventually.
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Jun 19, 2017 21:33
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I will, thanks! I'm trying to reach out to as many people as I can. It's just difficult when the self doubt clouds everything over and all I can think is that maybe I really do suck. Maybe I wasted 2 years of my life by going back to school. Maybe I'm destined to be a retail slave forever and should give up on seeking a career I love. But I'm gonna try not to think like that! I have to be positive and confident in my cover letters!
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Jun 20, 2017 03:49
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Warm greetings to all those reading this. I'm approaching my senior year in art school at the University of Florida and within this year (2017) I've been finding myself becoming more and more involved with paid graphic design/illustration freelance work and I've been loving it. Gainesville, Florida is a tiny town with a big-city feel if you spend enough time downtown, and alongside this, there's a growing and thriving start-up tech industry that's been forming here for the past five or so years. New buildings and office complexes are being built every year to house more and more tech-based start-ups and companies. I took some initiative at the beginning of the year to get better at illustration and graphic design at the same time by coming up with my own project where I convert my hand sketched doodles into very simple and colorful icons. It's been really fun and rewarding in it's own way and I enjoy being able to pick up the project and put it down again whenever i feel the desire to do so. Anyways, by sharing my work constantly with friends, I was able to land a sweet freelance gig with a local audio engineering start-up through the grapevine of my friends networks. Referencing this forum constantly, I was able to design a t-shirt for them that they loved and we signed a royalties agreement about it once they start printing units. Now I'm working with the same company to come up with fun illustrations for their website, and I was also able to get a referral to another local tech start-up who builds mobile apps who has now taken me on unofficially as their in-house graphics guy. I helped make logos, a sexy business card template, and a couple of branding decisions for them and now they too want me to help come up with fun illustrations for their website! Being able to broach the small-but-growing tech sector in Gainesville has been a treat so far and I've been feeling great from the creative fulfillment I've been experiencing working with these guys. However, I've got some itches that need scratching. Gainesville is small, and one thing I've talked with a lot of people who live here about is the fact that there are certain industries in this town (like graphic design) which have very low ceilings, which for a freelancer, in my perception, means trying to be a big fish in a small pool. I love this kind of work and I'd love to make this occupation my full-time job as I'm currently working a day job which is just tolerable at best. I'm very new to this whole scene (I still have yet to make a website but I do have a portfolio put together) and I've been experiencing some success but I want to know how can I keep this snowball rolling and getting bigger and better? Are there any places in the US that I can move to that would help me to pursue this field of work more heavily? Somewhere more metropolitan? Maybe somewhere with cheap rent too? I like working but the appeal of low overhead living expenses is a luxury I'd love to have. I'd love to share my portfolio with anyone curious but I don't have PMs. I can be reached via email at sreyes1111@gmail.com Cheers!
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Jul 9, 2017 16:02
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Hi School Advice Thread- I graduated from SCAD ages ago. I've been working in games for almost a decade and want to move on to something else. I thinking I might go back to school to get an MA in Graphic Design or Web Design or some such (that way I'd be able to teach too). It also just might feel nice to get back into an academic mindset now that I've been out in the real world for a while and will be very different from going to school in my 20s. I worked mostly in Flash graphics and animation before, so I'm well versed in how vectors work, but other programs such as all the intricacies of Photoshop and whatnot, I know less about. I think I might enjoy Graphic Design, and there are definitely more jobs and opportunities available along those lines, after working in a much smaller and more insular job market for so long (I also have lived in California for LONG ENOUGH and it's just not the place for me). I don't know enough to say whether I would swing towards web or advertising or anything, but that's what schools help you with anyway, right? So I guess now I'm in the beginning stages of planning here, and am looking for a good but affordable school with a good graphic arts program for a MA. EDIT: I am kind of leaning towards web design because I like working with computers, am not into high-concept bullshit at all, and like the idea of making money. Hometown Slime Queen fucked around with this message at 21:29 on Aug 2, 2017 |
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Aug 2, 2017 18:24
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Looking at the job market right now, in the moment, I see bajillions of UI/UX jobs, so you're not far off. I have no idea how future-proof UX is and if there's an AI around the corner that will be able to generate logical UIs that everyone will love forever (seems likely) but that's what I'm seeing day to day.
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Aug 2, 2017 19:13
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So this is a weird piece of advice to ask, but here it goes: I just had 3 rounds of an interview for a Content Producer position. The first round was an interview with 3 different people (Director, Manager, and VP of digital media) and it went really well. It felt really personable and I managed to secure a second interview with someone who would be on my team and the CEO of the company (it's a small PR firm.) Second interview went well since they were just getting to know me and my skills (which I fit to a T in the description.) Third round was a little different: they asked me to take their logo and animate it, and for what it was, I think I did a really good job (good enough to put in the beginning of my demo reel.) So now here comes the dilemma: I was told a few days after I submitted it (last Thursday) that early this week they'd be deciding on who they hire. Am I getting over anxious thinking about it right now? Should I send an e-mail at the end of the day asking about the process? I understand they have jobs to do on top of selecting someone, but the silence is killing me (especially after 3 rounds...) I typically overthink the hell out of these things, especially for jobs that I'm really interested in.
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Aug 15, 2017 15:14
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Rusty Bodega posted:So this is a weird piece of advice to ask, but here it goes: I'd say email them, let them know you're really interested in the job, and thank them for keeping you up to date. There's no real need at this point to dig any deeper into their "process." It sounds like you are indeed getting a little overly anxious. If anything you could ask them when they expect to reach a decision, but I wouldn't pry any more than that.
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Aug 15, 2017 15:55
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kedo posted:I'd say email them, let them know you're really interested in the job, and thank them for keeping you up to date. There's no real need at this point to dig any deeper into their "process." It sounds like you are indeed getting a little overly anxious. If anything you could ask them when they expect to reach a decision, but I wouldn't pry any more than that. Cool beans. I'll wait towards the end of day and send them a quick e-mail. I don't want to pull the trigger too fast, but I want to see where they stand since the timeline was early this week.
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Aug 15, 2017 16:19
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We have a full time junior motion graphics designer position that just opened up at my workplace at in South Florida. We'll need someone who's decent at After Effects, some illustrator, maybe some C4D. My boss is looking for locals only, so if you need a job and are in the area send me a pm.
Electric Crayon fucked around with this message at 19:58 on Aug 15, 2017 |
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Aug 15, 2017 19:53
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I posted this in business and finance but the jobs thread there seems tech focused so I thought I'd try here. I'm a writer who has been out of the game for awhile, and I'm not sure what to do about gaps in my resume. From 2007-2012 I have a pretty solid record of increased responsibility and promotions. In 2012 I was laid off and nobody was hiring writers, not even in PR or marketing. My wife was laid off from her job as an archeologist at the same time so we decided to travel a bit and took jobs teaching science/English that would allow us to do so. Now that we're settled, I'm looking to write again, and my resume looks something like this. https://pastebin.com/DaZ27G3j I feel like I have to include my teaching in there to explain such a large gap. In my cover letters, I explain that I wanted to travel while I was young and had the opportunity, so I took a break from writing. But I'm wondering if it might just be better to axe it from the resume entirely in the resume and let the cover letters explain the gap. I'm also unsure about the last two jobs, as I was still in university when I worked those. If I want to get it down to one page I'd have to cut about half a page. I've tried to include numbers where I can, but never had access to traffic or sales data for most of my career, making it hard to include more. I've applied to four jobs in the past week, and included links to my best work in each cover letter. I used a URL shortener for those links and they've received zero views. So either HR hasn't gotten around to reading them, or something is wrong with my resume, cover letter, or both. The other problem I have is that my best work is five years old at this point. All my work since I came back to writing has been marketing or news, and there's only so many ways to dress up a press release re-write. I have a large feature on deck for one website, but I still have two months of tracking down interviews and sources before I can hope to complete it. Let us English fucked around with this message at 16:59 on Sep 7, 2017 |
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Sep 7, 2017 16:56
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Hey writing goons, I've gotten back into writing in a big way this year, and as of late I've started thinking seriously about it as a vocation, but I'm having trouble figuring out how to proceed. The threads in this subforum have been extremely helpful for writing inspiration and general craft-related stuff, but I'm trying to decide what to do regarding education: if it's worth it; is it necessary; etc. I am a voracious reader, luckily, and when I was younger I wrote a decent amount as well, but aside from AP English classes in high school, I have effectively no formal education in writing or the like -- it has all been, I suppose, osmosis from books and so on. I also dropped out of university after one year, so I have no degree to speak of and I'm wondering how much that is going to hurt me going forward. From speaking with a few people about it, it doesn't seem like education is a barrier to entry for getting things published from a technical standpoint, but I am concerned that it could be for other related jobs such as editing -- something I might want or need to look into given that writing, especially in the beginning, is not easy to make a living off of by itself. As for genre, my interests have been an even split between Fiction, both short and longer format, and more recently Creative Nonfiction -- especially long-form essays in the vein of Annie Dillard or Ta-Nehisi Coates, and articles/columns in periodicals and magazines (N+1 and the Atlantic being good examples) which I have been reading quite a lot of. As such, my writing generally falls into one of those two categories, and I could absolutely see myself writing essays or columns for periodicals in the future, along with trying to publish some fiction in whatever way works for that. But, as I've seen from discussions here, it might not be very likely that I could make a living off of that; thus the potential need for other jobs in publishing, magazines, whatever. So, that leads me to considering if it is a good idea to try to go back to school or not. I am 27 now, and have no safety net or real savings to speak of (but thankfully almost no debt). Since I dropped out the first time, I've always considered getting a degree to be, frankly, out of my reach financially, and so haven't really looked into it. But, writing actually appears to be something I am truly passionate about and I have no desire to remain working in the field I am in (lighting for live production), so I wanted to ask: do you guys think it's worth the expense and time to get a degree? I am still trying to figure out what related jobs might require one, but even that aside, I can't shake the feeling that I am missing some very large amount of information that would be useful to me as a writer by not undergoing a university education; the sort of information that I don't know I don't know. Regardless of what route I go, I intend to continue to read and write as often as I can, and hope to start posting in the relevant threads here to improve my writing chops, but I'm still in the dark and I could use a bit of guidance. Sorry for the rambling expatiation, and thanks!
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Sep 18, 2017 05:12
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So, I seem to have been invited back for a second interview for a graphic design job. The first interview was only about 15-20 minutes long, so there wasn't a lot of time to discuss details of the position. They mainly wanted to see my portfolio and be walked through my creative process. They did ask if I had a GST number and if I would be up for getting one. (If you make 30k or more in a year, you have to have one.) They also asked me my hourly rate. This is a contract position, so I would like to prepare some questions for my second interview. The company is a business planning company, so I would be doing work for them, as well as their clients with branding, ads, newsletters etc.. I'm wondering if it's expected to work on site in this kind of role, or if working remotely is more common, with meetings with clients as necessary. I'm pretty new to this sort of work, so what are some questions I should be asking about the job?
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Sep 26, 2017 16:48
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Any thoughts on Klein Artist Works? Just wondering what the consensus was on them, I wouldn't mind having more tools to maybe be doing art fulltime.
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Sep 27, 2017 05:47
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Nessa posted:I'm wondering if it's expected to work on site in this kind of role, or if working remotely is more common, with meetings with clients as necessary. These seem like good starting questions, if they weren't addressed in the original job posting. If you are expected to work on-site, I'd also ask about what sort of workstation they provide, or if you'd have to schlep your computer back and forth. Other good question subjects include chain of command (who will you be reporting to and working with), payment rate and frequency, what sort of materials or perks they offer for their workers (even if you're working from home, they may have a corporate Adobe account that gives you access to the most up to date versions of software), and if you will be interacting directly with clients or not. Good luck on the second interview!
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Sep 27, 2017 09:46
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Agreed with gmc9987 on all counts. If it's a contract position it's important to define exactly what your relationship is going to be. Will they see you as basically an employee, or will you be more independent? Will you have someone managing your schedule and workload, or will you be expected to do that? Are there any other creatives working with the company, or will you be the only one? What kind of projects will you be working on and what will your role be in them?
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Sep 27, 2017 13:28
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Those are all excellent questions! Thanks! I'll write them down to make sure I don't forget to ask them at the next interview.
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Sep 27, 2017 18:48
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Dreadwroth posted:Any thoughts on Klein Artist Works? Just wondering what the consensus was on them, I wouldn't mind having more tools to maybe be doing art fulltime. I'm not familiar with him but I'm not sure how up to date this person is with the gallery scene when he's been out of it for 13 years. (his gallery has been closed since 2004) Some of the artists in his expert panel are well established artists but It's also not clear how much access/interaction you'd get with them beyond maybe something pre-recorded. He also wants 1000 dollars for 10 webinars which is pretty steep. I don't even know why they have so many museum curators in their expert list because museums typically don't buy work from unestablished artists and an established artist isn't going to need his webinar. Networking there wouldn't be nearly as valuable as it would be with local galleries, art agents and the like. Imo, you'd learn a lot more by buying a few books (to cover basic art marketing knowledge which is probably what you'll mostly get out of those seminars anyways) and then go and participate in art events in your own area. Go to gallery openings, art walks, meet n greets. Talk to artists, gallery owners, agents and just make connections and gain info over time. It helps just to be present and active in your local scene and that people know you. Make business cards and a professional looking website to show your work (relatively a pretty small investment and the bare minimum to get started). Also if you don't have an art facebook, instagram and twitter, make them, but don't use any social media website as your primary portfolio site that you show to professionals. If you want to spend money on a class, try your local CC, most art departments will have some form of art marketing class and some of them can be quite good. Also there's a wealth of information on the internet including plenty of free videos and there's even stuff like an art director blog on tumblr where they will directly answer your questions for you for free. Also while checking out his social media presence (it's pretty abysmal which isn't a good sign), I found an article about him ragging on a fellow gallery owner in order to promote his own school, which makes sense because burning bridges in your local community is an excellent tactic in business: https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/art-maven-paul-klein-fingers-ann-nathan/Content?oid=6726028 Don't give this guy your money. JuniperCake fucked around with this message at 10:40 on Sep 28, 2017 |
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Sep 28, 2017 09:42
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Hahaha drat ok, I'll keep working on my portfolio and avoid this dude. I did think it was odd he was charging for information you can get for free from Khan Academy. Plus you're right about taking art classes, it's cheaper too and you can network with other artists easily that way. Also, student shows are a thing. Ps: Khan Academy is rad as gently caress and free and has a good art history track. Dreadwroth fucked around with this message at 11:37 on Sep 28, 2017 |
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Sep 28, 2017 11:26
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Nessa posted:They also asked me my hourly rate. This is a contract position, so I would like to prepare some questions for my second interview. Another question - if it's contracted and at an hourly rate, ask if they take out taxes or not. Some places will handle that for you, some pay you the gross amount and you have to do the tax stuff on your own. Assuming, of course, Canada works similarly to the US.
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Sep 28, 2017 14:40
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Ferrule posted:Another question - if it's contracted and at an hourly rate, ask if they take out taxes or not. Some places will handle that for you, some pay you the gross amount and you have to do the tax stuff on your own. That's a good point. I THINK if you have a GST number, you have to charge the GST to your customers yourself, but I'll have to look into it.
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Sep 28, 2017 22:04
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Keret posted:Hey writing goons, I'm on the same boat as you. I'm going to get a degree in technical and professional writing and see what that does for me. I'd like to eventually do some freelance work, as not having to drive thorough traffic is very compelling.
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Sep 28, 2017 23:53
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