Design School vs Working
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- d_rek0
Faster and harder. Not necessarily smarter though. Just fast. And Hard.
- PascalT0
Charging less at first is good, it's important to build a decent portfolio base that brings you to the better projects and clients later on.
Your day should be 50% promoting yourself, 50% creating work and the other 100% servicing your clients and communicating with them.
Have a business card. A nice one.
Keep up with the new trends only on the side, try to create your own personal style that you feel is your own.
Money up front, as someone else said.
- zenmasterfoo0
Waste as much of your time here as you possibly can.
- cannonball0
sucking penis is a good skill to have. send them home to practice on a banana
- showpony0
fuck being a rockstar. seriously.
- tymeframe0
Your work is the client's not yours. If the client is adamant about an element, color, typeface, etc., use it.
- flashbender0
managing expectations. If you pay me $3000, you get $3000 worth of "cool" nothing more, nothing less. If you want $6000 worth of cool, give me $6000.
- How do you value $3000 worth of cool?rocknonstop
- cool is a relative term. I had a client who wanted "something like nike's site" on a budget of $5000. Not really possible. But that of course has to be >>flashbender
- of course, that has to be explained tactfully, which is a skill every designer needsflashbender
- you guys got it all wrong. You ask the client for 6k and when you spent it all on cool stuff, you ask for a bailout. it's how it's done now.PascalT
- meFUZZY0
Try to find people to work with who are vastly superior to you. Your early learning curve will be that much faster.
This is also a good time to push hard when you don't have as many obligation and ties as when you get older.
Sorry that's not business stuff per se, but still good for the recently graduated.
- doesnotexist0
business side of things and business law.
- temporary_name0
If you sit near the back you can do both.
- I'm sorry, I thought it said Design School vs Wankingtemporary_name
- magnificent_ruin0
shinebox. get.
- fate_0
"Your work is the client's not yours. If the client is adamant about an element, color, typeface, etc., use it. "
Worst advice I've seen in this thread.
- temporary_name0
- I'm the dandy highwayman who you're too scared to mentionfate_
- how'd you know?magnificent_ruin
- ^temporary_name
- airey0
money management would be paramount i'd say. managing income / outgoings and budgets with a simple spreadsheet (use a freebie for mac that the students can grab for nix). give peeps the knowledge on seeing their financial situation in a broad sense and see where / what areas their business / freelanceing gains and loses from.
i sure could have done with this instead of learning the hard way.
- +100roundabout
- You know a good freebie for mac?rocknonstop
- Llantera0
do freelance, learn that if you mess up, your paying for it... all in the details
- nocomply0
here's what i learned during my "transition"
1.) no matter how much you think you're hot shit and got mad skillz of whatever, everyone starts out at the bottom. there's no escaping the grunt work. embrace it and learn as much as you can from others while on the job.
2.) school doesn't prepare you for the real world. after a few months i learned why the senior designers were seniors and I was a junior. It's a little thing called experience! They were flat out better than me and it was because they had been around the block a few times.
3.) Make sure you enjoy what you're doing and you're building a portfolio of good work you can showcase. In business you trust no one. Always look out for yourself first and be ready to jump ship if need be.
4.) some jobs are a lot better than others. if you hate your job don't stick around hoping to gain "experience" or "recognition." Get up and find a new job you like.
- roundabout0
"To not be afraid of a non payed internship. The best hands on experience is an internship and to learn the ropes before becoming a star."
Rubbish, do not work for no money, it's a fucking job and not a Hobby and everyone doing a job deserves to get paid something, even if that is minimum wage.
- cannonball0
A lesson about office politics and how other people make your profession not worthwhile for you.
- rocknonstop0
"Try to find people to work with who are vastly superior to you. Your early learning curve will be that much faster."
I used to hear this kind of thing a lot when I was in school, but when I got out I never found anyone interested in taking the time to teach me anything. Do you hire students (or anyone else) with the understanding that you will have to teach them?
- ukit0
What about the old school method of taking an apprentice ship?
Seems like you would learn a lot that way.