Recently, I’ve been approached to speak with students.
For me, it’s a dream come true.
I get this sort of email daily in my inbox:
“Hi,
Please see the attached folio.
I look forward to hearing from you,
Jake”
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I always wonder, if I knew any better then, would I be in a different place now?
I also say “Hallelujah for the internet!” At least this sort of information is easily accessible these days.
Here are some of the tips I gave students at NID (India’s best for design) and at the Grenadi Graduation Awards night.
Yep, this is what I heard a lot of when I decided to pursue Graphic Design.
The reality is that, you probably LIKE what you do most days.
If you don’t like it now, seriously reconsider, because it does get harder.
I hope things change, but for now, the market is freaking tough.
We’re booked out for the year for internships & work experience.
I get an email in my inbox once a day.
My first break was actually sales & marketing for a web company. They wanted me to call design studios and promote their web services. So suddenly, I was making a list of all the design studios in Victoria. That worked a treat.
And even then, I didn’t get a break.
This lovely lady saw my folio. She said to me:
“We don’t have a job vacancy, but I can have a look at your folio and give you some feedback.”
So there I was, 8am, trekking out to somewhere which I vaguely recall wasn’t easily accessible by train or tram. Without any hope of a job.
She liked me, forwarded my folio on. And I got my first real graphic design job as an inhouse designer at Melbourne Business School.
You never know what will happen if you just keep trying.
I recently saw this gorgeous video
> voice by Ira Glass
> creation by David Shiyang Liu
I look back at my uni work and I think UGH.
You HAVE TO watch that video. Do it.
Then come right back here I’m not done yet!
By learning, I don’t mean doing a million courses. Or attending everything under the sun.
I mean, checking in on Swiss Miss every now and then. Seeing something on TedX.
When I started freelancing, I would check in daily on David Airey’s website. He’s always been on that pedestal as a designer for me.
Last year, by sheer luck, Bernadette introduced me to him and now I’m in his book.
This is a major thing that grates me with designers.
I used to be this person.
Constantly complaining about the client.
It’s just not cool.
If you take your wedding invites to a letter press printer, or you want an IT person to code up your site, you want them to make it how you want it right? Of course, you have to have a conversation to explain the brief and open up lines of communication for things that can be problematic. But, at the end of the day, it’s about what you want right?
If you want to apply your visuals + your style to a brief, then you’re putting your ego in and stopping yourself from getting a super fine design.
Make something for yourself in your own time.
This is about meeting requirements. Solving a brief.
(Sorry if I sound harsh, but honey, they’re paying the bills right?! >> if they’re not, then it’s a different situation altogether!)
I think early on, you might feel super poor. But you could easily do a freelance job alongside your part time and earn a bit of cash. Heck, I did. Giving up on somethings, means you’re gaining in a few other places.
I once went to a talk by Kristina of Kikki.K fame. She said something really poignant roughly along the lines of:
“When you’ve got your own business, you’ll start to dedicate more and more of your time to it. You’ll find that your true friends are the ones that stick it through and the rest will eventually cut off at some point or another.”
For some reason, this has really stuck with me. I wish I spent more of my money on design events, networking with creatives, reading books and bettering my craft. I try and do it now. I just think, I’d rather learn something new, than have a massive night out.
Maybe I’m just a nana? I don’t really mind it.
Don’t even think about this one.
Just do it.
Agnes and I were talking about this. When I left uni, heaps of my friends had jobs. So many of them had contacts. Then I came to Melbourne and unknowingly, disconnected from a lot of that. I started doing my own thing and I didn’t really look around myself to see who was doing what.
I just keep doing what I was doing and thinking of ways to make it better.
If you compare where you’re at with other people, then you’re only goals are going to be what they are now.
Why not be unlimited?
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I surely (truly, madly, deeply) hope this was beneficial to you.
Take from it what resounds with you and leave the stuff that doesn’t.
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We are Kish+Co and we do: brand, strategy and execution.
Sometimes Kish uses this website as a sound board to voice her opinions on design, business and growth.