In Drawing Club Last week, we did some blind contour drawing and some drawing improv games where you pass the paper around adding to the drawing, one of them making sure that whatever randomness you added was symmetrical, another game where we made panels for a comic, each person taking a different panel, forwarding the story.
Kismet Arts Tangent
Art Collective
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(attribute needed) Today as a part of website design/business class, Jen Pearce, UX designer, came to tell us some valuable information. She worked at Microsoft, getting a contract through Aquent. She worked on the Kinect project and X-box. She currently works at PopCap Games.
Blogger’s note: These are my take-aways from the talk and that none of this are direct quotes.
Advice on Finding a Job you love Go to every interview you get. It’s a great practice and if they offer you the job, you can learn how to say no. Cater your resume. Keywords get you the job. For UX jobs, put wireframes in your portfolio.
Get the interview:
Use LinkedIn to find people at the company you want to work at, and then buy them a cup of coffee, and ask them about their job. If they give you feedback, heed! If you don’t, they’ll feel like you don’t know what’s good for you and not hire you.
Have a scannable resume.
Cater your resume. Keywords get you the job.
For UX jobs, put wireframes in your portfolio.
Keep your wireframes up to date with the final product.
If your client has changed their site to where it doesn’t look like your site anymore and it doesn’t match the item in your portfolio, take it out of your portfolio.
Have a responsive portfolio website. If you can’t code a nice one, try a portfolio site like Online Portfolios on Behance or Cargo.
Meet people. One Connection Away
Having a Bachelor’s degree certainly helps
· Talent Agencies like Aquent are a great way to get your foot in the door – they do, however, take a percentage of your earnings.
You are a valuable person. Demand what you think is fair for your talents.
Red Flags— You probably should say no if they offer you a job after you find out:
There are no designers on your interview loop
You are the only designer at the company
People are rubbing you the wrong way from the get-go
You are doing things for free
What to ask in the Interview:
What is the policy on crunch time? (Instead of saying “will I have to work late and on weekends?”)
Ask for a tour.
Ask to meet people in the team
What’s the team structure?
What’s the work/life balance?
Things to do for the interview:
Bring your portfolio
Don’t count on them having internet – have a local version of your work
Show you can draw, even if it’s just simple wireframes.
Emphasize that you can learn well. Some things that they inquire about you knowing are really easy to pick up
Salary
You have to pay taxes on your hourly rate if you’re a freelancer (they will not automatically be taken out)
Calculate your hourly rate, from what you quote as your ideal annual salary
Be aware of pay vs. title. They are not counting on you to find out your worth more than what they are paying
A good company you want to work for is one that sees you as an asset and wants to make sure you’re happy there and will pay you more to stay
Be an asset: be a fast learner, learn the tools, use technology to be effective
Do your research Glassdoor – an inside look at jobs & companies.
Contracts! Even if your co-founder is your friend, be aware that this is business and ask for money up front and get things in writing.
It’s okay to say “Let me get back to you” when they ask about salary
Check your rates, when you get your first paycheck. If it isn’t right, make it better or get out of there.
Work Life- Culture
Behave like the kind of person you would want to work with!
Write good emails. Sometimes, being succinct isn’t enough. Some places might appreciate a fun bit. Include a photo of a cat and an owl and you’ll go far.
Shit sandwich: it’s okay to be critical, but sometimes you are better received when you are nice about it. So, follow the recipe: compliment, potentially painful feedback, and compliment.
Get along with developers
Intellectual Property
Read your contract. If they have a “non-complete,” know that you have the right to ask your employer to cross it out. (Non-compete clause – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)
Know who owns your work
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Yesterday, I was helping on set for our Portfolio Video. This is the video that will be intriguing industry-folk if our strategy pans out. We’ve organized ourselves into different committees working towards a themed Portfolio Show with its social media, branding and promotional material. I’m on the video-editing committee.Here in this photo, I’m taking a photo with my phone of the kind of chains of photographs that can happen when you’re shooting a scene of a photographer photographing.
I was one of the designers on set. It was really fun. There was plenty of room for suggestions on set. I had some ideas for shots that were good and some that required a bit exploration and others… well we just didn’t bring a lazy susan! I had a great time. I was in charge double-checking the production shoot list, making sure we got all of the shots that we talked about at the video meeting. Everyone was very professional and kept good spirits during the six-hour long, three-location shoot. I’m excited to see the rough cuts next week!
I also think that the designers took it upon themselves to instagram, tweet and vine some of the fun moments on set. Find them with #unfoldscca!
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Today, Emily Eagle, one of my classmates, gave a quick tutorial in the Audacity program. I have been going through and cutting up the audio from my interviews with my teachers to get a feel and some good soundbites to inspire the structure of the portfolio video. I want to express what they are saying about me into something concise and meaningful. Will I use the sound clips from the interviews? I am not sure. I think there are some interesting bits where I feel like they are saying with authority who and what I am aiming for with this video. The soundcloud bit above is reflective of my first run through two interviews that are about twenty minutes each. I’m starting to organize parts I like into categories: teacher’s advice I just want to keep in a soundbite or video, nice things that they’ve said about me that I think are true and references to my blog. I want to find a way to highlight how useful and thoughtful blogging is and how I’ve been using this tool to improve myself as a graphic designer.
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Use the puppet tool. 
Use anchor points and some 3D action 
Here you can see how I divided the animation. 
Not the final, but a decent display of what I’m after. -
After a critique with one of my classmates. I talked to one of my classmates about the business card design and he said that it’s important to give the eye a break. I like to think of that approach as the reverse “mullet.” Party in the front, business in back.
Update 4-15-13:
I presented this at critique today. I had great feedback in critique today. Tom said that he “got” the idea of what I was going for with the type, a kind of 1920’s book title page look (centered, stacked, hierarchical type and playing with tracking). He said that perhaps a traditional typeface can bring that look out a little more. He liked the hat and lollipop head. He thought it was very “NewYorker” but the character needs work. I try to get Tom to like characters I make (he dug the pirate) but this one lacked charm from the shoulders down. He said if possible, try to just integrate the “swizzle stick.” I don’t think a lollipop sticking out of the wordmark would do, but I decided to take his advice and simplify. Here’s my new idea. I love it because it’s a nod to Magritte (The Treachery of Images – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.) and a mnemonic (Hat=Kat). I am beginning to embrace the idea that my name is made up of existing words (Kat Countiss= Cat Countess).
Update 4-22-13: Business cards with kerning:
Update 5-13-13: I am in love with how they turned out!
Earlier Blog Post Related to this Project
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I’m in the portfolio video editing committee for my school. We’ve come up with a video that highlights our photography and motion graphics skills. I’m in the group that is figuring out how to animate what an “idea” might look like.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh2TZuHmN-U&feature=youtu.be
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=j4M28FEJFF8
Update 5-3-12: I’m assigned 1 and 3 of the Portfolio Show Animation. Here’s the birth of an idea.
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Project: Liveshow Chaser App
Collaborators: Val and Gemma
Duration: 90 minutes
Instructor’s File 
Branded Concept Prototype of the App index. We made this using an unstyled information-less document set-up from the instructor in 90 minutes, from idea of what kind of topic to search to navigating Fireworks, a program we’ve never used before, then uploading a working prototype of the site using images linked together with html.
This is the first iteration. There are elements, icons that are generic place holders (from the google search for icons) and typography fairly basic. This Fireworks document has interactivity through the creation of “hot spots” (Adobe Fireworks * Hotspots, image maps, and rollovers.). Fireworks is a bit-map editing tool, but also a web building tool and a prototyping tool. Its common library has icons for arrows, dialog boxes, etc. that make prototyping a breeze.
naomikirabradly Naomi, Kira and Bradly acheived their “A” for the day by doing solid prep work, defining what they wanted their app to do and created this efficient prototype that’s worth looking at.
This app assignment is based on the principles for good apps: location, social, big data, special offers and meaningful interactivity and inspired by Sosh App. Sosh App Launches In New York City – Business Insider.
Below, I have some screenshots from the instructor’s presentation on the usefulness of Fireworks and exporting settings to have on.
Kismet Arts Tangent 
