The Art and Design of James M-C

Remembering Week 2

Chapters 2 and 3 in HtbaGDw/oLyS and 2 in DDP

I need experience! This first design job I am at now is not working out as well as I planned for several reasons, the biggest of which are the lack of other designers and work. I can’t get much practice if there’s nothing to practice on and no one to tell me my mistakes and guide me along. Oh wait… it says that If I already think like this I should skip this chapter and move along. Guess he never expected it to be required reading in a course did he?

Anyways, yes finding a first job is a pain in the butt. I highly recommend exploiting personal contacts, friends, relationships, family members. I got this job by talking to my mother and high school headmistress. So use those contacts and be yourself in your interview.

Being freelance does not work for me. I may be a creative loner sometimes, but I don’t currently have the motivation to go ahead and find work, nor the sparkling personality and contacts to good clients. This one project I got back in December I’ve been holding off on because I’m swamped with my own personal life is so far in backlog, that I’ve probably gotten my brother fired over it (it’s a REALLY bad job). I really, really need a professional environment to feel professional, and other people around me to keep from straying way off subject (I can’t tell you how often these days I catch myself just browsing the web because there’s no work and no one else there to help me find something to do) and frankly, get stuff done. So I suppose I work best in the studio environment, and my work is enhanced by the fact that there are other people giving me input. I certainly have asked my classmates enough “what do you think of this” and then sending them a link. I value the input of other professionals, and really think I need it. Secondly, I’m no specialist. If anything I’m a broad ranged generalist with multiple skills to bring to bear on any project. I particularly liked when I was able to combine my 3D and Photoshop skills in one particular project on a scale model, but that’s a story for another time.

DDP – Adaptation – Not just a bad movie with Nicolas Cage anymore.

OK its confession time. I love to introspect, but the amount of work I perceive myself as having is miniscule. The amount that’s good is even smaller, the amount that will be representative of me, even smaller. I’m going to have a fairly tiny portfolio! Yeah I wanted to have time free this semester to do a few bits of reworking, and focus on new projects, but all my time is being sucked up in distractions like blogging, going to conventions, making new friends at Yale (would you believe I’ve fallen in with a group of Christian board gamers?), and finding a date (0 for 3 now). This checklist is pretty nifty, but something at the end leaves me feeling like the right adjectives weren’t there to describe my work beyond playful and funny. I’ll have to rethink that one and get back to it.

I need to produce more work. I wish there were a class called “Building UP your senior portfolio” so I could have a structured assignment with some vague outlines that would point me in a direction and pressure me a little bit.

I can’t draw very well due to a mild disgraphia, so I feel uncomfortable making sketches, but I can do them when needed. I hate to cut this off like this so abruptly, but I have a few more posts to do before noon, and this just reached the second page in Word.