These two classes we mainly discussed “What kind the graphic designer am I?” It’s necessary to realize what kind the designer are you and what do you want to be in the future. According to these two classes lectures, I consider myself a generalist graphic designer. In my opinion, you can’t only depend on one strong suit, we need multiple skills in the industry because this will provide you with more opportunity. I can do logo design, poster design, magazine design, web design, illustration; and if I don’t know how to do, I can learn. As society growth so fast, we need to learn and follow up the changes in society.
Today we had discussed how to be visible in the design industry and talked about how the industry works. As a sophomore student, I should pay more attention to design agencies and design jobs. For example, I can go to some website search for a part-time job or freelancing job. In addition, we had talked about the relationship between designer, agency, and client. Mostly, the client looks for an agency to get a designer; if you are popular enough, the client will go directly to you.
You need to be visible in the industry and will have the client look for you to hire. As a designer, noticeable is important and helpful for your future journey. The benefit for being visible in the industry is you have more job opportunities, be popular in the design industry, and you get to pay higher. The most common way to get notified is to win a design contest. Usually, competition has high attention to the public and the media, if you win a competition and maybe you will be in the newspaper or channel based on how big is your competition. No matter how big is your competition, if you won any competition is a good thing to have in your resume. In my experience, I had won a logo design competition in high school, which the 2017 College Now Design Contest, the design will appear on 1700 water bottles across 17 college now programs throughout the city.
Furthermore, we need to use social media to advertise yourself. For example, have an Instagram, twitter, facebook and social media account based on your works and your inspiration. Open a public account to post your design work and pictures you have inspiration from; also, follow some designer or creatives studio you like and have touch with them.
Visibly is important for a designer, but the most important is your portfolio. We need to go out and look at new things to get inspiration, even pay any attention to what happens outside the world because this will enhance your knowledge and open up your design mind.