Creative Adventures

One great advantage of living in this current generation is our understanding of the world beyond our immediate surroundings. Never before have we had the opportunity or ability to pack up and move somewhere else. That being said, even with the social technology we have today, moving to a strange new place can be intimating and scary, especially if one goes at it alone.  However, trying a new place can be incredibly rewarding, even if its temporary. The hardest part can be choosing where you believe you would fit best.

There are some important things to consider when planning a move:

• If you move far enough away that you will have to fly home to visit, some cities are cheaper than others to fly in and out of.  If the area is farther away from a large airport, it may require a small connecting flight or the price of gas for the longer car ride.

• Obviously depending on the area, the cost of living will change greatly. Just because a creative in the city is paid well doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be living in loft completely decked out in Anthropologie home goods.

• Considering what is accessible outside of the city can be important. Do you want to be close to other metropolitan areas, in which staying on the East coast may be best for you or would you rather be surrounded by rural land, in which the nearby sprawling plains surrounding Chicago or Kansas City may be suitable.

•  What are the job opportunities like where you are going? While design can be a self-driven field, clients who want to pay for those well-honed skills are a must.

Ready to take the plunge and move somewhere else? Here are some suggestions for cities in America that are ideal for graphic designers. 

If you would rather stay a little closer to home, the East coast is a cultural and creative hub. Besides Philadelphia, New York and Washington D.C. are great cities for design. While the cost of living in Washington DC is also a bit higher, graphic designers are paid relatively well. Besides the pay, there is the benefit in living in a vibrant, historical city that is only a train ride away from other design cities in the nation. 

A no-brainer is New York. The city is the heart of East coast design and boasts a large amount of design studios and agencies along with world-class museums and galleries. The city is filled with young creative professionals with under five years of design experience, according to Designroast. The average starting salary is about $30,000, and the cost of living is very high. The cities in the East coast greatly benefit from having the accessibility provided by the extensive train and bus system.

If you are interested in moving to a place where the land is a little warmer and less like tundra, there are wonderful cities in the south.  One of the leading design-friendly cities in the South is Austin, TX. It is one of the fastest growing cities in America and now employs some of the highest paid animators in the country and has an average salary of $54,000, according to Designroast. An added boost is it’s below average cost of living and the Southern hospitality. Besides Austin, Atlanta, GA is another great Southern option.

If the cold and the possibility of tornadoes don’t faze you, the Midwest offers some great cities for design. Break out the map of the US and look for Minneapolis, MN. Minneapolis is a medium-sized city that is a marketing and design hub in the Midwest. Companies such as Target and Best Buy are headquartered in the city as well a multitude of smaller design studios. The city boasts high employment and an average design salary of 54,000. It's also one of the most bike-friendly cities in the nation.

If you’re interested in the Midwest but have big-city dreams, Chicago is the place for you. The city itself is beautifully designed and is home to large companies like Quiksilver and Razorfish, Inc. along with large design firms like Design Kitchen.

For those who are comfortable with taking a cross-country trek, the West offers many cities filled with design opportunities. San Francisco is the West Coast design capital but like its East coast counterpart, it unfortunately comes along with a hefty cost of living. On the plus side, you will become incredibly close with the five roommates you will have to share a mattress with. Some large companies out in San Francisco include Microsoft, Williams-Sonoma, and Gap.

Another Californian city that is great for design is Los Angeles, which is home to Forever 21, Fox and Creative Circle and a large amount of Botoxed celebrities. Because California can be large and overwhelming, some smaller cities include Seattle, which is home to little known companies like Amazon and Starbucks. 

As young creatives, there is no better time to explore the world and learn new things. Whether a move is in your future or not, there is no time like the present to go on a creative adventure.

But I'm a creative! How to Dress Appropriately for Graphic Design Interviews

You're a creative individual, so shouldn't your clothing represent who you are as a designer?

Well, yes and no. Yes, you want your clothing to represent your individuality as a creative person, but that doesn't always mean it is work appropriate.  As a designer, what should really represent you is your work, not your appearance. When making a first impression, you want them to remember you for what you show and saw, not what you look like.

You can get a feel for what most companies will be looking for according to the size of the business. If you are applying to a big corporation, then you will want to dress more formally as opposed to a small business or agency where they may tend to dress more on the casual side.

As a general rule of thumb, dressing business casual is always your best bet. When first appearing to the interviewer, it is a good idea to hide any tattoos and piercings where you can. The safest bet when it comes to body modifications is to get a feel for the environment and personality of your prospective team, especially in a corporate setting, before showing off your ink and piercings. While some places have embraced the newer trend, many businesses still have a conservative mindset that will not be as accepting of your unique appearance.

Sunglasses, sneakers and casual shoes are an absolute no. Interviewers do not take you seriously when you appear with well worn out shoes and sunglasses propped on your head or tucked in your shirt somewhere.  Put the sunnies away and get some nice polished shoes for an interview.

Creative hairstyles and colors are also something to avoid during first impressions. Many companies will tell you to lose the fun colors, and more conservative hairstyles will make a better impression. Keep facial hair trimmed neat, and keep hair away from your face and pulled back if necessary.

Don't use any bold colognes and perfumes for an interview, either. You have no idea whether or not the person interviewing you may have sensitive smell or allergies. Just come smelling fresh and clean and don't forget deodorant.

For men:  For a corporate position a nice suit with a dress shirt and policed shoes is the best attire. Unless you are applying to a very high up creative director position, a tie is probably not necessary. Make sure that your pants are at an appropriate hemline. They shouldn't be too short to show your socks (which should be dark, white socks are awful under a suit) and too long to drag on the floor. Also, many interviewers will notice if your fingernails are dirty and ragged, so make sure to trim and clean before going in. Nothing is more of a turn off for someone you are presenting your work to than being too distracted because you have dirt under your nails. It seems trivial, but it is important to make a great impression on all levels.

If you are applying to an small agency, a nice dress shirt with a jacket/blazer is probably fine to pair with jeans. No t-shirts. If the business is that casual, you may be able to get away with t-shirts after your hired, but not before. That being said, these jeans should be a very nice pair of jeans, dark, not dirty and no rips, tears or stains. Also, that still does not make it ok to wear your sneakers. Always choose polished ,work appropriate shoes with dark socks. As a safe bet though, you should probably just avoid jeans and buy a nice pair of slacks.


For women: Regardless of whether the position is for a big or small company, never wear an outfit with a low cut top. If you can see cleavage, don't where it. Same goes for hemlines that are too short.  That does not mean you are limited to just dresses or skirts. In a corporate environment, matching pantsuits and jackets are appropriate. You don't always need to wear a jacket over top, but be cautious of the sleeves if you choose not to cover up. The thickness of the strap rule applies now more than it ever did in public schools. The more conservative you dress, the better off you will be.

For corporate jobs, try to avoid bright and bold colored outfits for the most part. There will be plenty of opportunity to wear them after you get hired. You want your work to scream more loudly to the interviewer than your patterned dress might.

For smaller agencies, you can dress a little edgier wearing a bright or bold colors underneath, but keeping the rest of the appearance conservative will still be the most successful.

If you are uncomfortable wearing heels, then don't wear heels! Flats can be just as dressy and work appropriate while still being comfortable. Shoes should be polished and neat looking and not your comfortable running around shoe.  NEVER where flip flops or open toed shoes to and interview. Some people do not like to see your toes on the first impression.

When it comes to make up, tone down on any bold colors or strong dark eye make up. Keep it lighter and more natural.

The first impression is the most important part of the interview process! After getting hired it may be alright to let down your pink hair, grow out your beard, roll up the sleeves to show off the tats or wear a dress covered in kittens, but don't show off your uniqueness until they have established that they love your work!

The Tenets of User Experience

When we pick up our phones and quickly navigate through our favorite apps, such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, our experience is so intuitive that we don't consciously realize how extensive our flow through the app has been preemptively mapped out for us. The process of designing user experiences looks a lot like blueprints, for example:

It maps things out in "flows", for ex, if user goes here, then they can go here (A) or here(b) and from there they can go to (A) or (C) or (D)... so this is more like a map of rooms than point A to point B storyboarding.

The experience can be related to how we walk through a building... Unless you are an architect, you likely take for granted how everything works to make you feel comfortable (temperature control, safety, lighting, etc). We only really notice things when they don't work or when our experience is not intuitive - such as when you get lost, or when you notice the heat is on too high. Your phone apps or experiences on websites can be seen in a similar way - the good ones are intuitive, easy to navigate, and don't take too long to figure out.

This is something I have been thinking a lot about because I am creating a high fidelity social prototype of a phone app for my thesis project. Here at Tyler, we don't have a lot of direction in UX, so I have had to take it upon myself to do a lot of research about it, and I've just begun to scratch the surface of this fascinating subject. In this article, Robert Hoekman - a forefather of UX design - lays out the 13 tenets of user experience. I've found these tips to not only be helpful in my inspiration for my phone app, but also in how I think about design in general. 

Coming back to the initial metaphor about how UX is like architecture - Hoekman mentions in this article that good UX design leads rather than manages. 

“A user’s experience belongs to the user. An experience cannot be designed. It can, however, be influenced. A designer’s job is to be the influencer.”

Hoekman doesn't go in to any detail about what he means by this, but I'm imagining the antithesis of good user experience to be similar to reading a book: By this, I think he means that good design presents users with options rather than giving them a linear narrative like a book, which only really gives you one option for absorbing information: from point A to point B, or beginning to end. 

And to end on a slightly different note about a different tenet - I've been thinking about this tenet for weeks now, and I think that it beautifully sums up something I haven't quite been able to put in to words for the past few years in my experience with design:

"[Good design] is driven by a vision that guides and justifies every design decision.”

(I wish I heard that as a sophomore.)

PS:
Some more resources that my friend from Google sent me to begin thinking about UX:

http://www.mobile-patterns.com/

http://uxarchive.com/

http://ux.stackexchange.com/tags

How to De-Stress The Sane Way

Its that time of our college experiences where we want to pull our hair out even more than usual. With thoughts ranging from “How do I get this all done?” to “What does sleep mean?” running through our heads, we are forced to overcome the elephant tons of stress placed onto our backs. As I type this blog, my hands are shaking just thinking about how much work I’ve gotta get done – and I’m positive that you guys have been feeling a little bit of the same recently. (And if you aren’t, you are a wizard and wizards don’t go to college.)

So, how do we relax? How do we even justify relaxing to ourselves when there is so much to be done? There are very small, non-time consuming ways to make life a little easier when there’s a line for the printer and your fonts didn’t package correctly.

1. Set Up Your ~Ideal~ Workspace.

Before getting to work, setting up your dream space will help you stay comfortable and stress-free as you accomplish your design goals for the day. For me, it’s all about being surrounded by multiple varieties of snacks, having a groovy soundtrack cued up, a water bottle or hot coffee, and a blanket nearby if I’m at home. The more you get comfortable, the less stressed you’ll be / the less excuses you have to leave your desk for chocolate-covered almonds. If you have a puppy or a kitten they should probably be included within the dream workspace.

2. Go For A 15 Minute Walk (and walking to the palette doesn’t count).

Going on a walk not only wakes up your whole body, but allows you to look at thousands of other things besides pixels for a little bit. Giving your mind a break also allows all the thinking you did previously to simmer in your subconscious. An idea may just pop up when you aren’t even trying, just because you gave your mind a minute to process all those awesome things you were thinking before.

3. Slack Off On A Schedule.

If it’s too cold for a walk, bring your favorite vehicle for slacking-off to the studio for 15 minute slacking sessions. When you take that iPad Pinterest break, or a read a chapter of that book, or doodle 50 cats, it’s like eating the little ginger pieces that come with your sushi to cleanse your palette in between tuna and tamago. You’ll find that when you come back from your break, your mind will be windex-clean, and your soul will be a little less stressed.

4. Call Your Favorite Person.

Have you ever been in the lab with your headphones in for so long that you realized you haven’t talked to someone in like 4 hours? Call up a buddy and shoot the sh*t. Talking about your life outside of design gives you a little nudge of perspective, and having someone to talk to when you’re buggin’ out besides yourself is always comforting. If you do choose to talk about your projects, you may find that you’re buddy is also working their butt off on something and is in the same boat as you.

5. Make A Big Ol’ List.

Make a giant list of everything you have to do, and make each task specific. For example, instead of just writing “work on thesis,” write “figure out dimensions, sketch layouts, mockup in computer, print.” You will end up with a large list, but when you see yourself crossing off an item at a swift pace, you’ll feel like a rockstar and also be sure that you’ve covered all of your tracks in terms of what you needed to get done.

These are some really simple things I do to relax; hopefully they work for you too!

Embracing Failure

There are only a few worse things (ie: losing your puppy in a busy city, or being one number away from the multimillion dollar wining lottery ticket) I can think of than staying up for forty-eight hours straight working on a project, only to find yourself holding back tears mid critique while your professor asks if you went blind before creating said work.

Don’t panic. It may take a few attempts in nailing your design process down to fully understand what went wrong the first few times, but in order to grow as a designer, step one is to fail.

Failure, seemingly scary, is extremely important in the field of design; In fact, failure, after concepting, is the first step in the design process, whether we want to embrace this or not. It is important to step away from the computer initially and sketch out every idea to see which ideas stick and which ones you can tell are already flops. Usually, when your trashcan is filled up with paper basketball free throws and there is no more room in your newly purchased sketchbook, typically indicates a good time to choose your top ideas and test them out in different ways and styles that will enhance your concept.

With failure comes exploration and exploration brings success. Instead of chaining yourself to the first few ideas that come to mind, the best thing to do is explore various options without limiting yourself and your mind because usually that is where the best solution is found.

Don’t worry, even though your professor still might end up hating some of your new options, the time you spent has never been wasted. Your mom will be more than happy to hang it on her fridge and probably show off your talents on her Facebook page as well.

No Fear Interview Preparedness

If you are anything like me, or anyone else actually, then the idea of a job interview gets you nervous. Thankfully, I've had a lot of practice with interviews. I've had several interviews, design related and part time job related, and the more interviews I've done the easier they get— but that's not to say I don't have a few tricks to do well on the interview prepared as well. So here are a few of the tips that my dad taught me, from the perspective of an employer, that helps me go into the interview a little more confident even if my nerves are shot. By the end of this blog post, you'll be able to interview for supreme ruler of the world and take over the universe.

Step One: Research Ok, so the first step would be actually be getting an interview in the first place. But let's just assume for this blog post that you already sent in your resume and landed an interview.

Ok so you have the interview, but the first thing you gotta do is a ton of research. Obviously, if you applied to the company you must have done a ton of that already, but now it's time to come up with your interview questions. You never want to walk into an interview without a set of questions ready to ask the interviewer. When the guy interviewing you asks "Do you have any questions?" the kiss of death would be to say "nah, I'm good." So fire up your internet and get on their website to come up with a list of questions. First, look for what their mission statement is. The mission statement is what that company is all about, and is usually hidden somewhere on the about page. Note: This might not jump out at you.

Next, look at their work, and see how their mission statement applies to their work. If they are a place that prides itself on tailoring their style to meet the clients needs, then see how their body of work reflects that. These are the kind of things you are going to sneakily use for conversation, like "I see you guys don't have a set style, that's cool how you make each project for each specific client." Or something along those lines. You're basically regurgitating what is on their website and using it to show you are interested and did your research on them. Flatter them.

Not like this Besides their work, one of the big things to remember is asking about their office culture. The biggest concern I found from most places I interned or interviewed at was making sure I got along with their vibe. Employers could potentially be spending 8 or more hours a day with you, and if you're a jerk or annoying or too stiff they are gonna look elsewhere. To combat the performance anxiety, just think of it like you're having a conversation with someone you just met at a party or on a first date, whatever. You wanna give a great, professional first impression of yourself as well as show that you can hang. Coming in too professional makes you a robot, and creative jobs thankfully have dislodged the corporate stick from their asses. So relax, let them start the convo, and try to make it a balance of interview and your personal interests. I usually can tell an interview is going well when the conversation steers to internet references or my favorite Game of Thrones characters.

Those are just some things to prepare you for hopefully many successful interviews. Here are some more useful things that might help you out and another great place to turn to is Reddit's subreddit InterviewFauxYou. They help you practice for your interview, go over your resume, and even help you stay calm and collected!

How To Identify, Deal With, & Solve Creative Block

As creative people ideas come naturally to us, at least most of the time. However, when it is demanded of us so often sometimes the well runs dry. How do you deal with designers block?

Obviously not everyone is the same. Some people need pressure to get the big idea, personally I need to be as relaxed as possible and most of the time my ideas come right before I go to sleep. There are also different kinds of creative blocks caused by different issues. 99u.com describes a few creative blocks and some helpful solutions. I chose my top five.  

1.     Mental Block 

Being stuck in the same way of thinking or losing perspective.

Try finding a way to challenge your brain’s thought habits by either changing your surroundings or talking to someone who can give you a new outlook.

2.     Emotional Barrier

Maybe your working on something that is personal and is bringing up unwanted feelings. The only solution is to face your fears and use it as fuel for your creativity.

3.     Poor Work Habits

As I mentioned earlier, everyone has a different way of being productive creatively. You have to look at yourself and discover what makes you most efficient. Maybe you’re working at night when you should be working in the morning.

4.     Overwhelm

I suffer heavily from blocks when I have too much on my plate, or when there’s too many ideas it’s hard to organize my thoughts. When you’re dealing with too much the only thing to do is start making cuts. Either cutting down your to do list or start exploring a few ideas and leaving the rest behind.

5.     Poverty

99u describes more than one type of poverty. Not having enough time, not having enough knowledge on the topic, not having all the tools you need to complete a project. For this you have two paths. You can either make it possible to get wealthier or you can be inspired by the challenge of not having what you need but still trying your best to complete the task.

Hopefully some of these can get you out of a creative jam. For more detail on creative block visit 99u site:

http://99u.com/articles/7088/7-types-of-creative-block-and-what-to-do-about-them