A Designer's Passion (5/2/11)

On Monday’s class, May 2^nd, Jimmy started off the class by talking about the AIGA Student Portfolio Day, an event that happened on Saturday, April 30^th. He talked about how students brought in their portfolios but all they had included in their portfolios were their work from class projects/assignments. The students didn’t bring in any personal work of their own. Designers should possess passion to create. In order to do that, a designer needs to constantly practice design everyday. Incorporate design into your everyday life. Don’t just let it be used on class projects only. Open up to practicing everyday and generating new ideas. Get your creative mind pumping. A designer needs to take the initiative, have self-motivation and personal passion to make a career of design in the outside world. Because these portfolios didn’t include any personal work, there was no sense of the artist or individual. It just only proved that the student could do the assignment correctly. This is not the first time I have heard about adding personal projects to your portfolio. When I went to see Seth Johnson’s presentation, one of his topics was “Make your own work.” He said, “Don’t be afraid to put your own work in your portfolio. It’s a conversation starter at an interview.” Also, my professor Robert Martin also said this in his classroom as well. Having your own personal work grabs more attention when you are at an interview for a job. It is a conversation starter. The interviewer may ask you questions about your work and they get a feel for what kind of style you have. They may really like your work and can see that your style will really fit in with their company. Of course it can go the other way around, where they don’t particularly like your style and may not offer you the job but that shouldn’t discourage you either. Professor Robert Martin just says something like that’s a good thing because it gives you the opportunity to find work at a better company. Somewhere that will really appreciate your work and hopefully help you grow in their company.

Jimmy also mentioned “Breath of Application”. It is the way a designer expresses their ideas through motion design, print, or interaction with computer programs. It is the designer’s technical skills as well. When a designer is at an interview, the interviewer is going to automatically assume that the designer is a master at using Adobe Creative Suite. And it is up to the designer to practice, refine, and master their skills with Adobe Creative Suite in order to land the position. Practice and learn new technical skills everyday. Don’t just settle with what you already know. Designers need to have a wide range of skills. They need to be articulate, critical thinkers, problem solvers, and be able to communicate clearly, effectively, and appropriately in order to be successful. It all comes down to what does the designer brings to the table because without sufficient skills, a designer cannot be successful.  So keep practicing, keep learning, and keep designing everyday. Even if it is just sketching for 10 minutes a day as Karl Aspelund advised designers to do in his book, The Design Process.

Also in class, we went over our homework assignment, which was to come up with nine new games. Some were good ideas and some were bad ideas. A lot of people kept to the classical board game theme of using a dice to move around a board, which is a game of chance. It’s what I grew up with and what I thought of too when making my games. But Jimmy brought up a good point where kids these days don’t play the normal board games anymore. They’re growing up in a digital world where they’re playing with iPod Touches and video games. Even my seven-year-old niece has an iPod Touch of her own. So when I initially thought of creating games, I didn’t have that state of mind to think of video games or application phone games. I still had the idea of games that I played during my childhood. But as a designer, I should be thinking a little differently. Think about the here and now and what game can really be successful in today’s digital world.