During the course of this class I learned many useful things. Of course, the thing that stuck on the most with me was the famous line of ‘You have to network.’ I also learned about researching, something I never really thought I would have to learn. The thing that I can say I take away most from this class is the idea of freelancing and networking. While other things such as inspiration and different ways of working have also stuck,freelancing and networking stick with me the most.
The reason these two stick with me is because it’s not much I knew about these two topics. I had freelanced in the past but the idea of a contract and a plan on how to work out my time never occurred to me and after learning about these in the class, I can say that I can’t wait to try it out and put them in place. I really feel like this is one of the most important things I needed to learn, I not only feel like it will help causing less confusion but I also feel like it will keep me as a designer more organized knowing that both I and whoever i’m working with know what time schedule I’m supposed to working on and what we agreed on.
As far as networking, while this is not my strong suit and I do tend to laugh off awkward situations and rather not meet anyone new I do feel as though I have learned the importance of networking and free events to go to networking. I did get out of my comfort zone for the midterm project and talked to a person I normally would never talk to. It felt like a hurdle that I had uncovered and it made me a bit more comfortable for the next time I need to open up and network with someone. I also learned the importance of a business card and how you should always keep one on you. Your business car represents you as a graphic designer and a person, so it must look like such. It also needs to be presentable. In a moments notice you might meet someone who can possibly change your life and if you don’t have your business card, you miss out on the opportunity.
One of my favorite things about this class was learning about the different cultures and societies. I never really knew there was a name for the type of advertising society we live in and although I wasn’t shocked that America was a low context society it helped to know what it meant and that it had a name, because I believe, it makes me a better designer. I have noticed that it doesn’t take much to get the double meaning of things in an ad on the subway or to get the joke in the newest super bowl ad, but I now know why advertisers make it so easy and don’t allow it to be so recognizable unlike other societies.
Another thing that really stuck with me and is something that I can say that I will remember is the different types of jobs at an ad agency and what job does what and who goes to who. I knew that there were different type of agencies and things of that nature, but I honestly never understood the roles that took place. I never knew who was who I only ever really knew about the art director, the copywriter thinking they were the head. I also knew there were other roles that worked in an ad agency, but I didn’t know what they were called or how they placed in the agency. Learning this helped me figure out what type of agency I wanted to work in as well as how I wanted to move up and what I planned on working on.
All together, I can say that I took away a lot from this class, while in some classes I can say all I did was study and read notes over and over of things I probably will never have to know, this is a class that taught me things that I can use for a lifetime. Honestly, walking into this class many of the things I learned ( the levels of an ad agency, who works with who, what type of graphic designers there are etc) I didn’t think I needed to know neither did I think it mattered, but once I learned about them it made the design field a lot clearer. This class in total helped and made a lot of things clearer and made me understand the field a lot better.