I wrote this guide around halfway through my senior year at Parsons. I was feeling more defeated than I usually did in the year of 2020 and wrote this in the midst of my own low morale surrounding the unknown job market that I faced after graduation. All I could think about were regrets I had and things I wished I did more of for my future career. Everything worked out in the end but I don’t think these tips aren’t useful. Please enjoy some design school tips and tricks from a Dani not yet jaded by the corporate world.
Attend design events outside of school.
If there’s one good thing about the hefty price tag of a college education, it’s the benefits that come with a student ID. Make use of your student discount and attend design events, lectures, fairs, book talks, any and all of the sort. You get a glimpse of the type of people you’ll be working with after you graduate. Being around like-minded people is an opportunity for creating connections that might just get you your dream job (if one could dream of labor). Other than networking, design events are also a good opportunity to look into a field you might be interested in working in. You’ll be surprised by how inspired you’ll be after a lecture on the design behind a certain brand or company you fancy.
Don’t do unpaid work.
It is completely outrageous to me that unpaid internships continue to exist. They are just plain old unfair. Only people who have certain financial privileges have the opportunity to do unpaid work. This gives individuals a leg up in the job searching process simply because they were able to get some experience from unpaid work. If you’re that student doing unpaid work, think about what exactly you are doing for the company. Is your work valuable to both you and them? Time spent at an unpaid gig could be going to something that will actually help you like hmmm that degree you’re paying so much for. Every minute spent doing unpaid work is a missed opportunity to be bettering your own design work for school or what you are passionate about. If you’re not getting paid, why not use that time to work on your own personal passion projects. Or at least cherish your sweet free time.
Do design work outside of school.
You don’t want to present a portfolio full of work that you didn’t even enjoy making. Exercise your graphic design skills by creating your own personal projects. Recreate posters of your favorite movies. Design covers for your Spotify playlists. Typeset your favorite recipes. Whatever it is, make sure you have fun doing it! The last thing you want to do is show a potential employer a school project for something you don’t care about.
Create an archive of your favorite design works.
Collect things that inspire you. Take pictures of typography in the wild. Hold on to brochures printed on paper that you like. Bookmark pieces of design history on eBay that spark your interest. As mundane as it might be, having a collection of inspiring pieces gives you a better eye for good design. I like to tape cool ephemera to my wall or hang it on my fridge as a reminder of what greatness I can achieve. I also keep bookmarks of image collections and databases to flip through to get the creative juices running.
Design history is so important.
Brush up on the greats of graphic design history. There is so much to learn from the past. Make use of that student ID and visit design museums and archives. What made good design in the past and how has it been tested through time? Learn about who made your favorite typeface and what techniques past designers used. Your school probably has access to an amazing archive of graphic design pieces you can refer to for inspiration. Some I constantly refer back to are the Cornell Digital Collection and the NYPL Digital Collection.
Read, read, read! (and listen to podcasts)
I think many graphic designers forget that half of our job is reading text. We might as well get some use out of it. Read as much as you can. Read books about typography, history, and hierarchy. Read The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst and Detail in Typography by Jost Hochuli, my holy grail of graphic design literature. Check out books at museums like MoMA or Cooper Hewitt. Read artist books, zines, independently published books, $1 books from The Strand, and design blogs and interviews. Don’t just read about design. Read theory, philosophy, and poetry. Carve out your own philosophies, about design or life. Create work that is informed by your own personal knowledge. Read because it is fun. Read to learn about other worlds. Read to escape. lol
Try stuff outside graphic design.
Having hobbies outside of design keeps things exciting and helps you find your passions. Attend that pottery class you’ve always wanted to try. Start shooting analog film. Bake bread from scratch. Who knows, it might help inform your own graphic design work.
Not everything is on Instagram or Pinterest.
While it’s fun to grab inspiration from social media, it’s not the only source. Just looking at an idea you like on Pinterest might cause you to unconsciously copy it in your own work. While there is nothing wrong with remixing a work, it’s so easy to lose your voice this way. Next thing you know, everything you see starts looking the same and nothing feels original or genuine anymore.
The people you meet now will impact you forever.
Make friends with the people in your classes. It will make school more bearable with cool people by your side. Your peers in school will be the people you will be working with after graduation. This will likely be the last time you’ll be living in a communal environment. Take advantage of all the peers and resources around you and have fun!!
In the end, I, like many of my peers, ended up okay. I’m working in a job that actually makes use of my BFA which is a feat in itself. Keep on truckin’ and have faith in your own abilities. You’ll always find where you have to be.
That’s it for this week. Until next time! Peace and love.