Graphic Design Interview

I got an e-mail requesting I answer a few questions for a graphic design student working on a report and I thought it might be interesting to post my responses here.

1. What made you want to pursue a career involving graphic design?

   I’ve always identified as a creative person, but I have never seemed to have natural artist genius. You know those people who could draw amazingly before the age of 10? That was never me, but I wanted it to be. When my family got a computer (I was already 16) and I first began making websites, the process was so fast…I was able to see a design take shape quickly and see improvement in my skills quickly. The web as a medium gave me the positive feedback I needed to keep motivated. There was always something more to learn because so many different things played a critical part in the final product, so it was, and still is, exciting for many reasons.

2. How did you get started in this profession?

   I actually got started in web design because I wanted to be a writer. In High School I wanted to go to Berkeley for its reputation (plenty of amazing artists and writers as graduates), but didn’t really have quite the necessary GPA in the end…nor the drive and courage required to even go for it — I never even applied! But when we got our first computer I discovered a thriving amateur writing community online and promptly joined it. The next logical step was having a website of my own for my writing, which was the reason I created my first website. I had always drawn a lot of bad illustrations to go along with my stories and everything kind of grew from there. It felt like the web was something I’d been waiting for without knowing it.

3. What kind of education did you receive?

   I’m mostly self-taught, but I attended TCC (Tallahassee Community College) for a number of years; got my AA and came within a few classes of an AS in Multimedia. I was never really able to find a Bachelor program that felt “right” to me (that balanced the technical and the artistic). So while I came very near to pursuing several different Bachelor programs, I never committed to one. And since I’ve been working full time the last few years it hasn’t been urgent, though I do intend to complete a BA or BS someday. Classes sometimes didn’t seem relevant to me, but in almost all cases the experience and practice were ultimately worthwhile.

4. Do you enjoy being a Freelance Graphic Designer?

   I do. I limit my freelance work, though, because it can be very time consuming. Not so much the work itself, but all the ramifications of doing freelance work, like dealing with a customer without any buffer and having to deal with legalities and finances myself. Not to mention the discipline required to make enough time to finish projects! If I didn’t have a full time job I might dedicate more of my resources to freelance, perhaps, but freelance income is difficult to guarantee.

5. What does your daily routine consist of?

   I have a full time job in addition to doing freelance work. I get up about an hour before work, get ready, and work as a web developer by day. Some evenings when I get home I work on freelance work, other evenings I chill out. Scattered throughout the average week I do a fair amount of reading: current industry news, blogs, tutorials, and experiment with new techniques.

6. What software do you use to produce your art?

   Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, GIMP, paper, pencil, paint, a scanner, digital camera, and Crimson Editor, Dreamweaver, Firefox (GridFox, Web Developer, Firebug), jQuery, etc.

   As an aside, I used to love and work primarily in Macromedia Fireworks. There are still some reasons that Fireworks can be viewed as better for web design than Photoshop…so I feel my reason for primarily working in Photoshop these days is comfort/habit.

7. Is it easy to find work?

   Yes and no. More people contact me than I accept work from, but it wouldn’t be enough to support myself without a full time job by any stretch of the imagination. I have some acquaintances who have the reserves of time and energy to do a lot more freelance work than I do, but most of them are in a similar position. The steady income of a regular job is quite welcome.

8. Do you recommend this profession?

   It depends on what you mean, I guess. Properly speaking I am web designer, rather than a graphic designer. But in this “industry”, generally speaking, it’s hard to put a consistent label on your skill set, because that label changes with the context. I do some graphic design, but I personally associate graphic design specifically with graphic design for print. My personal definition requires that a “web designer” have both design-for-web and coding (if not programming) skills. Some places you’ll find that’s a “front-end web developer” and “web designer” looks more like “graphic designer.” Other places not.

   That’s something that’s been on my mind lately, so it comes immediately to the front when asked about my profession. It may not seem like an answer, but I think the answer may be in there somewhere. I suppose that I mean that the job title isn’t as important as the duties. And that the web is still a place where things can get pretty fuzzy, so finding the right environment is essential. Design, graphic or web, can be an incredibly rewarding profession, but (as always) things can get complicated; so look out for yourself and don’t settle until you find what’s really right for you…but don’t turn down an experience if you don’t have anything better knocking. Experience is rewarding in itself. I once worked for a year as secretary for a landscaping company…and that alone is the reason I got the experience that originally qualified me as a web developer!

9. What is your favorite thing (logos, websites, etc.) to design?

   Websites, definitely. I could go on for pages and pages about why websites are different and about all the things that make the web a fascinating medium for me, but I’ll spare you…unless you really need more. Suffice it to say that a web site is rarely static and rarely truly finished. There are never any guarantees about the user agent (or how the person visiting your site is seeing it). This can complicate the design process and be ‘limiting’ in many respects, but it’s also a challenge that never gets old.