In the past several years the Department of Interior Architecture at UNCG have done several things to enhance the amount of networking opportunities available to students. These events range from lectures to trips across the continent. Some have been successful, others not so much. We once tried to force all of our students to attend a lecture every Friday, that we weren’t getting credit for but somehow seemed to be looked down upon if we could not attend. This did not last very long. We then started hosting portfolio review events. Such events force us, as students to actually sit down and work up an impressive resume and portfolio. On Wednesday, March 23, the dept. hosted such an event titled “Avenues.” We were asked as third and fourth years students to choose a type of firm we were interested. Options ranged from residential to commercial to healthcare, all the way down to graphic design. I signed up for graphic design because at the time I was considering going to grad school for either that or journalism. My ideal job is to work for a design or travel magazine and be able to travel and study what I love and write about it. I wasn’t sure if Graphic Design as a masters program was the right avenue for me so I was looking on not only some feedback on my portfolio but on Graphic Design as a career choice in general.
Before attending Avenues, I met briefly with several other professionals and professors to get some feedback on my portfolio. After receiving a good review from all I was sure that I had successfully illustrated my design works from the past four years in a clean, elegant, and creative manner. Low and behold, I was in for quite a surprise.
I met with Keith Richards from out of our minds animation. I had done some heavy research on the company before the interview and appreciated all the animation they did. However, I was more interested in finding out how much actual graphic design they did that had to deal with logos, page layouts, etc. Everything that I felt was important to know to move up the ladder in my career goals. Keith was very nice and immediately started to review my portfolio. This is where the “surprise” came in! He gave me feedback on the type of images I chose to put in my portfolio and told me to take the “artistic” quality out of them. I found this rather strange coming from a graphic Designer. I think that if he were more of a commercial designer that I would have been more acceptable to his comments, but they seemed to contradict everything that everyone else had said. I then presented to ask him about things such as magazine layouts, working with photographers, etc. He didn’t really have a lot to say about the subjects because Out of Our Minds doesn’t work with magazines or newspapers a whole lot anymore. However he did give me some good advice about possibly working with a photographer or even a retail store as a visuals manager to get to know the graphic advertising business.
The avenues event was an opportunity to meet an employer in your area of interest in the professional design world. I believe my area of interest is not the normal route for students coming out of this program but it still would have been nice to meet with a graphic designer that new a little bit more about the entire media world and not just one area. I very much enjoyed meeting several other professionals during the reception, including Paula Carr from tvsdesign. If I learned anything at all from avenues, is that doing your research on a company before the interview has more benefits than just making yourself look good. It allows you to know the type of questions you need to ask for yourself to find out if the firm/company would be a good fit for what you’re looking for. I believe Out of our Minds Animation would not fit well with me, but some other firm might.
