The day of the AiW portfolio show was a microcosm of the way this entire week has gone. I had problems with the maintenance people in my building which caused me to run later than I would have liked to get to the show. I got there about 45 minutes after I intended to, which only allowed me to get through half the displays. I decided, since I wasn't too sure I'd get any good pictu
res with my tempermental camera, that I would interview the graduates. I asked 2 questions of all the people I talked to.1. What would you advise a new Graphic Design to concentrate on?
2. What was your favorite thing to work on in school.
The two most popular answers to the first question was typograp
hy and web skills. Those answers came from the people who's favorite thing to work on was typography and web design. The people who leaned
more towards print work had other things to say. Two female grads took opposing sides of this question. One said, "Work on your weakest point. If you strengthen that you will grow." The other said, "Build up what you are good at. Never lose focus of what you wa
nt to do with it, even if everyone tells you that you are stupid for pursuing it." The best advic
e came from a guy (who'da thunk it. ;-P). He said, "Find out what your
weaknesses are and build them up, but as you are building those do what you love. You will achieve balance and with that excel. I think that was the best advice of the day.
I thought that the booths were very well done. One that caught my eye was not a Graphic
Designer, but an Interior Designer. She walked me through the entire process. I found out that the steps were very similar to the 5 we follow, but they were called different things. Research was the beginning, what we called thumbnails was called bubble designs in ID. The roughs were
schematic layout and reflective ceiling layouts. They then did drawings that mimicked what a person would see as they walked into the finished room, which was very similar to the comps we did. She hoped to find a job doing commercial hospitality designing (reception areas and boardrooms). I enjoyed her designs and her friendly manner.
It struck me as I was walking through and talking to people that many of the people I had admired, talked to and got encouragement from were no longer going to
be there. I have since decided that I will endeavor to be an encourager to my fellow students and in
that way honor those graduates who were kind to me, a lowly freshman.
