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Any British Goons studying graphic design, advertising design, or anything like that at uni that I could chat to about a few things (preferably on MSN so as not to poo poo up this thread)? Much appreciated.
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Jan 24, 2008 15:30
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Atheist Sunglasses posted:Does anyone have any advice on how to make a PHYSICAL graphic design portfolio? I have an online one but recently decided that it would make sense to put together a physical version. Unfortunately, I don't know what size is appropriate or normal. Is there any special way it should be printed or presented? What about bindings or covers? Furthermore, is there supposed to be an introduction page or something or just straight up pages of work? Finally, how many pieces or pages should you have? Can you put more than one piece on one page? - Mounted in A2 sleeves. - I prefer black card for graphic design; had one person say they prefer grey or white card, but I like black. - Don't worry about artwork being printed out smaller to fit into sleeves - if you have a portrait A3 poster and you are showing your portfolio landscape \/\/\/, just scale it appropriately. Multiple images on a sleeve are fine as long as the spacing is cool and its not too crowded. By that I mean multiple images from one project, not lots of random images thrown together on one page. Also consider how the layout works as a spread - having both pages of a spread with one project is more consistent than two projects on two pages making one spread. - Keep the orientation constant - decide either landscape - After 2 years of assuming ringbound portfolios are the best, I noticed it said in How To Be A Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul that people might prefer if the sleeves were loose, because interviewers can pick up the sleeves to look closer and stuff. I had an interview a few days later and got the place, I don't know if that says anything, but I like to think that not having my portfolio ringbound worked in my favour - Have some sort of marking on one side of your portfolio so you know which side is the start. Again from How To Be A Graphic Designer..., you don't want to get into an interview, lay your big portfolio on the table, open it, realise its the wrong way, faff around turning it the right way around etc. I guess you could mark 'this way up' with chalk or tippex, but I just wrapped a tiny bit of clear tape around one handle of my portfolio so I can feel the correct orientation of it, yet its next-to invisible. How much is a shitload? Say an A2 portfolio is £30-60, depending on quality, leather vs. pleather vs. plastic, ringbound or not, etc; sleeves cost me about £2.50 for the really nice quality ones, then spraymount/doublesided tape and however much it costs for you to print A2/A3.
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May 1, 2008 23:46
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How do you deal with wanting to be good at everything (or at least being able to bluff your way around most things) vs. spreading yourself too thin? I'm on a graphic design course at the moment, completely print based, I got accepted onto a really good graphic design degree starting October (again as far as I know 99% print), but I find myself wanting to have some degree of skill in most areas. I've known HTML and CSS for years, and I think basic web skill is essential for any discipline, and I dabble with Ajax and such. The past few weeks I've become interested in motion graphics - Conrad Ostwald's showreel blew my mind. I've been getting up to speed on Cinema 4D - had it for ages but never did anything more than dabbling, and I've been playing around with Motion and After Effects at college. I can't see myself having a future in motion graphics; besides, the uni I'm going to has a great motion graphics program so my course would have nothing to do with it, but its fun. This week I decided that enough was enough and I do, in fact, need to know ActionScript (2.0), so that's been occupying me for the past few days. Its not even that I dislike or am bored with print - I love it, but I find more and more of my time is spent in Flash, Cinema 4D or Motion when I should be in InDesign or Illustrator... What are your skillsets like? Very specialised or broad?
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May 23, 2008 16:26
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The Mechanical Hand posted:Anyone have anything they can recommend for learning more about typography? I took a class on it but I want to really get into it and get all that good stuff down perfectly. I've been reading "Thinking with type" by Ellen Lupton but I want to know if there's any other books or sites or whatever I should check out to help me out. For a history and overview of type (and not necessarily how to apply it) I love 'From Gutenberg to Opentype' by Robin Dodd. The only other type book I have to hand at the moment is 'Lettering' by Antonio and Ivana Tubaro - pretty concise but it gets every aspect of type design down to a T, nice quick reference for when you don't want to be looking through a massive book. I have a txt somewhere of all the books I've read at the library and whatnot, I'll try and hunt that down for you. Have you seen Helvetica?
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Jun 3, 2008 00:16
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amirite posted:Hey I'd love to get a copy of that TXT file as well if you don't mind. Funny, the past couple days I have been thinking of where I should start to dive deeper into Typography as well... all I've really done so far is explore some blogs, but I'm looking up where I can find a copy of Helvetica right now, and the books would be a huge help as well. Thanks in advance! district 12 posted:What makes a good graphic design program in a school? Internships? Foundations courses? What should I look for? I have applied to two schools I want to attend, one costs more, the other seems to not offer internships as part of the curriculum. I realise that the portfolio is what matters most when one graduates and is looking for a job, and students in both schools churn out some really good looking stuff, but I don't know how to decide exactly. Other than that, graduating students' work - you can have bad students with great teaching churn out bad work, and great students with hopeless teachers churning out great work, but by and large I'd hope that the better the work you see on a course would reflect an overall better quality of teaching. (and tutors' links with agencies to get internships at and businesses to give you live briefs obviously help, but if you rely on a tutor to put contacts on your desk then stop now.)
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Jun 5, 2008 00:43
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Not necessarily, because the teachers could be dickheads  Honestly its a huge huge gamble, you just have to make your own decision on which you think will suit you better. When I applied for uni my choices were- #1 - Creme de la creme, pretty much top tier, can't think of anything in Europe that would be considered a better design course than it (I'd say places like Central St Martins would be on the same level; Miami Ad School doesn't count because its not really for undergraduates and its really expensive). 800+ applicants for 30 places, suburban London (so not fantastic nightlife, but I'm going there to work not drink). Amazing atmosphere, not top tier facilities but nothing to moan about. Great links. #2 - Really good place in Central London. Top notch facilities & free evening enrichment fashion photography, printmaking, really nice letterpress place. Possibly easier odds - ~2000 applicants for 200 places. Central London so great links. Impression at the Open Day was that there were some people who didn't take it so seriously, but I could be wrong. Shady area. #3 - Really really good advertising course, didn't go to the Open Day but my friend said it looked good. About 45 minutes on the train from London so still good links. No matter how fantastic the course is, the rest of the uni is regarded as utter poo poo as far as I know  .#4 - In another big city, but crucially not London. One of my tutors laughed in my face when I suggested moving out of London for the reason that all the design jobs are in London and the standard of teaching at this place would be lower. Emailed a few agencies in that city and they told me to stay in London. Seemed like a bit of a party place, which I might miss, but whatever. Not convinced on the quality of work. Yeah, I went for #1, got in, great. Terribly difficult decision though, lost sleep over it. Just go with your gut feeling.
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Jun 6, 2008 01:30
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district 12 posted:Well! Congratulations on all that. I spoke with advisors from both schools; one advisor cc'd the head of the graphic design department to my email and she ended up contacting me directly. She answered all my questions and more, so it cemented my decision to attend the cheaper school. Apparently cheaper does not mean lesser! She mentioned that their typography program is excellent which is what really interested me; I love typography and all it entails. Out of interest, how much do you mean by 'cheaper'? Our unis are £3145/year (for 3 years, not 4) so I have no idea what ballpark you're talking. district 12 posted:Are you still in school currently? I'm getting ahead of myself here but... How difficult would it be for an international student to get an internship in London? Ultimately that's one of my academic goals while in school. Study abroad while [possibly] making money? Awesome! London's my dream city as well; I visited a while ago and have been "homesick" ever since. So it really is an important objective for me. Is there a lot of exchange for that, or does it seem like agencies tend to go for the more local folk? Getting an internship wouldn't be any harder than anywhere else in the world - as long as you are good enough. Studying here I'm not sure about - if you wanted it to go towards your degree credits or something I assume it would have to be formally done between the universities - there's this ERASMUS thing, that's all I've heard about though. Most unis seem to advertise study abroad opportunities in their prospectuses.
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Jun 7, 2008 14:32
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Villon posted:To be honest, I don't think about the greeting that much. I expect informality from creatives, and being really formal makes you sound either too young or too old. Say "Hey" if it suits you, but it doesn't make much difference. I can't bring myself to address a complete stranger as 'Hey First Name!' on first contact. Its enough to stop myself from ending with 'Yours faithfully' lol.
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Jun 24, 2008 00:08
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marshmallard posted:Was this Bucks (BCUC)?  #1 - Ravensbourne, 2 - LCC, 4 - Salford, if that makes you see my post in any different light.
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Jul 26, 2008 22:25
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OK this might be a longshot, but I'm sure it was posted in CC somewhere and someone must remember what I'm talking about. This guy's blog. Blog had a red background. It was a good blog. He had some reviews of his favourite self help/motivational books and I distinctly remember a link to his Myspace. Anyway, he had a link to an article about following up on job-advert replies. It was a good article, lots of examples and stuff. Anyone remember what I'm talking about? I remember emailing him but I can't find anything in my sent items which leads me to believe there was a contact form rather than an email link. I think his name might have begun with a J but that's just a guess. e: found it, that was quick, sorry for the frivolous post. Good blog though, if you've got some reading time. http://www.thejonjones.com/2005/08/24/smart-people-are-dumb-failure-is-awesome/ ee: thanks anyway stuckeys
Zurich fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Aug 1, 2008 |
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Aug 1, 2008 21:13
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Zurich posted:http://www.thejonjones.com/2005/08/24/smart-people-are-dumb-failure-is-awesome/ If anyone is too lazy to read the article - Follow up emails (for job adverts) I'm 1 for 1 in replies now Just literally "Hey, I emailed you a week ago about the job vacancy you advertised on xyz and just wanted to check that you received my email. Thanks!" and quote your email below.
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Aug 4, 2008 19:03
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Isn't it 1:1.2? 10:12, 12:14.4 etc? Maybe we could do with a 'Small/Quick Questions' thread?
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Sep 4, 2008 21:52
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Steve's Guest posted:I'm going to school for design right now and am just getting into the real meat of the program. All of the lab computers are Macs, and I'll design something at school and be disappointed when I look at it at home because my colors don't look the same and the contrast is off. It's starting to bug me really bad. I figure that, since the professional world is gonna be the land of a million Macs anyways, I may as well trade piles of dollar bills for a Mac. It is a lot of money though, so can any professionals tell me whether or not they think it'd be worth having one at home? As the IT department at college if/how/when/etc the monitors are calibrated; you'd like to think that if you were on a program worth poo poo they'd be set up properly. Then just buy a Spyder for your PC or whatever. e: what do people think about using your school email address on your portfolio website? I have a domain (which I'm not too fond of any more), but I go to a pretty drat prestigious design college and it might send out a quick 'hey, this guy is good!' message before they view my CV. Zurich fucked around with this message at 12:15 on Oct 5, 2008 |
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Oct 5, 2008 11:27
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Here's a couple of things I dug up quickly, I'm sure I found something better in the past so I'll keep looking. Might have been on FreelanceSwitch, I'll look there. http://www.businessofdesignonline.com/downloads-forms/ http://www.businessofdesignonline.com/sample-pro-bono-contract/ http://blog.nerdburn.com/entries/general/sample-web-design-contract-budget-timeline-proposal e: this? http://freelanceswitch.com/the-business-of-freelancing/legal-resources-for-freelancers/ Zurich fucked around with this message at 01:26 on Oct 20, 2008 |
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Oct 20, 2008 01:19
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The main thing I'm studying for is my uni's industry links tbh - I'd assume at SCAD you'd get a truck load of networking opportunities, placements etc? I'm not American, but that's the vibe the SCAD name gives off. What else aren't you happy with? Is it ghetto with good teaching or ghetto with bad teaching?
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Oct 22, 2008 10:53
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I Are Internet posted:I would stick with your website email. I feel that using your school address is the same as using hotmail or yahoo. If you don't like your website domain anymore, get a new one that's more professional and reflects you better. Zurich fucked around with this message at 20:44 on Sep 2, 2011 |
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Oct 22, 2008 20:58
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[redacted]
Zurich fucked around with this message at 20:44 on Sep 2, 2011 |
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Oct 22, 2008 21:21
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Steve's Guest posted:Would anybody care to recommend me some essential books for design? I'm pretty disenchanted with my university program and am looking to expand independently. Anything would probably be helpful Josef Muller-Brockmann - Grid Systems in Graphic Design
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Oct 29, 2008 19:52
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KittenofDoom posted:The majority of my design work has been package design and single-page spreads like posters, where there's more room to stretch my legs as an illustrator. The main reason I'm trying to be a designer instead of a straight illustrator is the desire for a steady paycheck. In your first post you said quote:I'm pretty well-rounded for a designer. I can do print, illustration, some web design, even a little animation. Unfortunately, without experience I need to be overwhelmingly good, and I don't know how to get there on my own. But from what I see you can't really do anything that well. My school pushes the idea of being 'T-Shaped' - be really, really good at one thing and have a wide range of skills across the board. You're going to get hired for that one thing, but the other skills are going to change how you think about things. On a basic level, even if you don't code the final website, understanding HTML and CSS will improve how you design websites on paper. Understanding photography will improve your art direction of shoots, even if you're not the one behind the camera. From what you've shown you're sort of an illustrator with some basic web design and ???. I don't see the print design, at all. I prescribe a heavy diet of designing CD covers and flyers for local bands and taking on everything you can in SA-Mart and the Spec/Freelance thread. I don't know if I'm being harsh because you're the one with the degree on your CV (which is too long, by the way, keep it to a page or two), but you're trying to sell yourself as a print designer and I just don't see it. Zygar posted:Could I get some feedback on my Portfolio that I'm putting together for admission to art school? Excuse the low resolution images – InDesign's PDF export utterly confounds me. - Margins aren't even dude! - You're cutting across gutters and stuff, don't do that, sort of nullifies the nice grid you have going on
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Dec 18, 2008 14:00
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Does anyone at top-level ad agencies (more Saatchi/TBWA/WK than small-town) come from a graphic design background? Namely, art directors. On my previous course at college (I'm from England, BTEC ND Graphic Design) we did a unit of advertising which was great, but I'm now doing a graphic design degree which specifically doesn't deal with advertising. I'm looking at all this loving awesome advertising work on Behance and in D&AD books and I'm gutted I didn't decide to do an ad design degree. By all accounts I'm on an awesome graphic design course, I love where I am and am glad I didn't go to Salford or Manchester Met because really, gently caress Manchester; I have no inclination to change where I am, at all. At the same time, the further I get into this course the more I realise how different graphic design and advertising are, and I'm worried about getting stuck into the graphic design mode of operation rather than approaching problems like an ad man would. I'm not really sure where to go from here - should I try and go to Fabrica or Miami Ad School postgrad, or do you get junior art directors with next-to-no ad experience (other than D&AD competitions and such)
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Dec 22, 2008 21:48
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marshmallard posted:I don't know about Art Directors, but couldn't you be a Designer in an ad agency with your graphics background? My agency (it's definitely no W+K, mind) has heaps of designers doing web stuff, emails and print. Or do you definitely want to do concepting?
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Dec 23, 2008 16:41
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Thanks for the advice I guess it's time to stop talking and start working on some D&AD and YCN briefs. For what it's worth, my friend is at Bucks (on BA Creative Advertising - my second choice course) and hates it, so I'm pretty glad I'm not there all things considered. e: forgot to say, did you do a D&AD workshop? I completely forgot to apply this year, might go for the summer one, but might wait till next year (2nd year) when I'd get more out of it. Zurich fucked around with this message at 00:19 on Dec 24, 2008 |
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Dec 24, 2008 00:16
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marshmallard posted:Yeah, I did the integrated one 'cause I work in an integrated agency. And also because that one goes to some agencies I've actually heard of (Iris, Kitcatt Nohr etc) whereas the above-the-line one seemed to go to random places I've never ever heard of (England (apparently an agency), jwtcheethambell (not just JWT) etc). It's a bit of a myth that you go round BBH and Saatchis on the ATL one. I'm sure I saw a summer workshop on the Saatchi & Saatchi website a year or two ago, can't find it now. That would be the dream though...
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Dec 24, 2008 21:04
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Liselle posted:First off, Slashie, you are awesome. And I feel much better / less crazy.
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Jan 5, 2009 05:54
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KittenofDoom posted:Would working for a place like a sign shop or Kinko's, which does some large-format printing and binding, be of any use while I go after the kind of job I'm really looking for? I see plenty of places in my city that do printing, but they're only tangentially related to design, at best.
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Feb 21, 2009 19:16
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Can someone take a look at my CV? I just redesigned it (again), still not entirely happy with the copywriting at least (but I'd prefer it to be human than formal) Click here for the full 595x842 image.
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Mar 13, 2009 16:29
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qirex posted:Kind of gimmicky to me, some blurbs about what you did for all of these clients are probably a lot more interesting to employers than your education or a lot of whitespace. Layout-wise your horizontal and vertical spacing are pretty disjointed. Kill the yellow text. It's unreadable on screen and will probably print out green. You think that about employers? I've cut down my education to the bare minimum - I go to a pretty prestigious uni, so that has to go there, and I'd like to show that I've been doing this for a few years before. If I include what I did with every employer I'd be here all day sort of trying to say 'yeah I did a poster for them and a flyer for them and it sort of looked like uh...' when they can just go onto my website and actually see what I did for them. Bearing in mind I think CVs are retarded and only send them out when asked for one (with a covering letter clearly saying where to find my portfolio [which I think hasn't improved since I've been on this course, fwiw, I need to work on it]).. Last thing - UK degrees are 3 years
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Mar 14, 2009 01:25
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marshmallard posted:I like the CMYK look of it, but I do feel like it's missing some stuff. Like what kind of job you're looking for, and what experience you've got. I know you've put a client list on there and you've got a portfolio, but it feels like your CV should at least mention that stuff. OK I'll try and piece together a better bit of experience - it just might be a bit odd because the majority of my work has been freelance, I've only worked in one studio. I was thinking of adding in a 'mission statement' to the effect of 'I live and breath design and am eager to learn anything. I also make an awesome cup of tea.' (but not like that because it sounds desperate, but you know what I mean) e: sorry if my last post sounded really defensive, didn't mean for it to be like that
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Mar 15, 2009 11:09
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marshmallard posted:I think that's a good idea, and I'd also add in a line about what you're looking for. Heh there's a lot of places to apply to, just working my through . That would be  if you could do that (where are you based?)
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Mar 16, 2009 11:42
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marshmallard posted:I've had a closer look at your website now, not sure if it's just me but the years go 2009, 2007, 2008 - why aren't they chronological? Also I'd take the Bubblegum Screw stuff out if I were you, or at least the CD cover. It's not nearly as strong as your other work. Central London is perfect, really appreciate this (even if nothing comes of it)
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Mar 16, 2009 15:41
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marshmallard posted:I can't seem to PM you so I'll say it here - I sent your portfolio around the designers at work and they all agree you're really talented. One of the design heads has put you in a folder he keeps of people for work experience/junior jobs. (I don't have PMs) Like I said, thanks anyway e: I have a laptop if that makes any difference Zurich fucked around with this message at 19:08 on Mar 27, 2009 |
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Mar 26, 2009 23:48
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marshmallard posted:It's an issue with licenses I think, the software needing to be licensed to the company and whatnot. And there'd be no desk for you either. etcstoneb posted:I'm two or three semesters away from finishing up my BA in graphic design and considering pursuing a masters. Can anybody point me towards a good resource for researching graduate schools? Thanks Fabrica WK12 SVA (MFA Designer As Author looks amazing) Miami Ad School Schule für Gestlatung Basel F+F Schule für Kunst und Mediendesign Zürich Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz West Herts College (Professional Diploma in Advertising - Watford is supposed to be one of the best advertising courses going) I can't speak from personal experience but from 'friends'' experience (internet people) they seem pretty cool. Not going to one for the piece of paper at the end (unless you want to go into teaching), but I'm sure you'd get lots out of going to somewhere like Fabrica.
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Apr 6, 2009 16:07
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KittenofDoom posted:I asked once before, but I'm starting to need to know. What should rightfully be expected of a web design intern? The startup is entirely staffed by unpaid interns. No one I know has been compensated for their travel costs, they just have the promise that they will be eventually.
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Apr 17, 2009 03:18
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Everyone hates their course, everyone hates their college, everyone hates their slacker classmates; the grass probably isn't greener on the other side.
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Jun 8, 2009 22:07
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come to Ravensbourne it's rather rad, and we're moving to a state of the art new building next to the O2 (like literally, 10m from the O2) next summer with brand new kit and stuff. of course being a graphic designer this means nothing to me and we actually had to buy a letterpress ourselves, but for digital poo poo it's second to none. e: oh, post-grad? our MA in motion design is starting in September so I can't tell you how it is but yeah, it will own anything St Martins have going. Watford is supposed to be a great ad school, and Bucks is good for BA but no idea if they do an MA. One reason I didn't go to Bucks is because High Wycombe is a shithole and other than the art department the uni is crap, but my friend is there and within weeks of the first year starting they were doing live briefs and working with top ad agencies. How about the Royal College? Lots of my favourite designers went there, I remember Troika saying it was good, but I haven't really looked into it. Zurich fucked around with this message at 15:18 on Jun 16, 2009 |
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Jun 16, 2009 15:08
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Probably not, you're still building on the same foundation, just learn how to animate and how to use After Effects
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Jun 16, 2009 18:32
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qirex posted:a 13" Macbook is 1370 wide which is pretty big to begin with. If you're really concerned make the layout stretch but I wouldn't bother since text can be really awkward to read when it gets really wide. I'd imagine a really good design company would probably look at your layout at several sizes to see what happens. Hell, they might even look at it on a phone. I think you're completely correct. You can pretty much say for certain that anyone in a design company is going to be viewing your work at 1280x800 at a minimum, or any bigger 16:10 resolutions (which is why landscape CVs for emailing work), or an iPhone. I'd really, really doubt there's anyone potentially hiring you using an 800x600 monitor or whatever.
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Jun 30, 2009 10:23
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Hey Marsh, can you drop me with an email with your email address so I have your email address to email you about some stuff - my email is on my website and alas I don't have PMs! Thankyoo
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Jul 15, 2009 15:09
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designedbygold.com
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Jul 15, 2009 16:33
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 05:58 |
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KittenofDoom posted:I got frustrated with applying for design work after my "internship" turned out to be a flop. I don't blame the guy in charge, as it would probably have been a great opportunity for people less-familiar with the software or design process. He was a marketing guy and was genuinely impressed with my work. He and I are still on good terms; he'll even send a small project my way every once in a while. Sorry
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Jul 16, 2009 09:20
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