Introducing Myself

[smith.lachandri]

I'm new here so I'm not sure how everything here works. I'm 6 months out of college and still unemployed. I don't want to give up on my design career but a girl's gotta eat. Give me some feedback. Is it as difficult for everyone else as it is for me?

[SteveOrM3L]

Welcome to the website, And its diffrent in diffrent states for freelancing people, b.c some places have higher amount of citys with a demand for computer graphic arts. Yes its possible to get work over the internet, but thats harder as well..

I am have experience what you are, thats why its good to have a 2nd job, and do freelancing when you have the time.

That good $100 - $400 from time to time, always helps.


Enjoy, Catch you around here more often!

[Chung Dha]

Welcome to Design Contest Smith.lachandri. I think it depends on where you live if there are allot of design companies or not and if they are searching for new designer or not. But trying to get work over the internet could be good. Allot of student get work at the place they did their internship. Just try to stand firm and make a good portfolio and cv and go to companies to seek a job.

[_Redrum]

Welcome! Here are some links that should prove helpful in getting to know our site:
http://www.designcontest.com/forum/f...splay.php?f=11
http://www.designcontest.com/forum/faq.php

I've taken a look at your website. I know you didn't necessarily ask for this, but I feel that there are a couple of things you should consider doing to get on your feet as a designer-- I've outlined them below. The timeline for all of this will not be less than 5-10 months and the amount of hard work will be quite extensive through the first few steps.

I can't guarantee any results for obvious reasons, but I'm quite sure that if you put a lot of effort into your work and your design career it will pay off in the end. While doing all of this, consider taking up drawing from real life (as a night class or a hobby). I have yet to run into a designer who hasn't benefited from also being an artist. Also consider buying and reading a marketing book that has emphasis on self-marketing.

Anyways, here you go

Step 1.
Get a source of income; doesn't matter what it is, it's only to supplement your design career and increase your work ethic. Use the money to purchase a domain and hosting for your future portfolio (not right away though).

Step 2.
Concentrate on one, or at most two related design categories until you have 10-15 excellent, professional, cutting edge pieces from each of those categories to show prospective clients and employers. It's important, by the way, to judge these according to what you see the pros doing in the industry, not your own standards. In other words, try to close the gap between what you create and what companies pay lots of money for. As you do so, you will find that your standards will increase.

Step 3.
Change your title from graphics designer to "_______ designer". Where the blank is the thing that you have concentrated on in step 1. Why do this? It will give prospective clients and employers a feeling of security in knowing that _______ is the thing that you're good at and experienced with.

Step 4.
Create a killer portfolio website. If you've concentrated on web-design, then you could probably do this yourself; otherwise don't attempt it, just get someone else (a contest here maybe ). The amount of emphasis put on websites by employers and clients is huge. It's the "first impression" of the Internet. Same goes for logo and business stationary. When they see your business card, website, etc they see a reflection of their business card, website, etc if they were to hire you.

Step 5.
Scrap the generic cover letters and certainly don't display them on your website. Write a fresh (or at least customized) cover letter for every job you apply to and focus less on yourself and more on what you can do for the company. Quickly outline your skill set to support what you claim you can do for them.

Step 6.
DC would be a great place to introduce yourself to client-designer work, get some much appreciated feedback on your designs, and get more work to add to your portfolio, which should at this stage already be quite impressive if you've followed through with the previous steps.

Where you go from there is up to you. You can continue your job search or become a freelancer. To get anywhere, however, you should give yourself goals and use small steps to achieve larger things. If you need to get a job with company X as a coffee girl to get more involved with the design industry, do it. Obviously coffee girl is just a rhetorical example, but the point is that no step is too small! The only sure way to fail is by doing nothing.

[smith.lachandri]

Thnx for the advice and I will take it all to heart. You gave me a lot to think about, stuff that I've been thinking a lot about lately.

Welcome! Here are some links that should prove helpful in getting to know our site:
http://www.designcontest.com/forum/f...splay.php?f=11
http://www.designcontest.com/forum/faq.php

I've taken a look at your website. I know you didn't necessarily ask for this, but I feel that there are a couple of things you should consider doing to get on your feet as a designer-- I've outlined them below. The timeline for all of this will not be less than 5-10 months and the amount of hard work will be quite extensive through the first few steps.

I can't guarantee any results for obvious reasons, but I'm quite sure that if you put a lot of effort into your work and your design career it will pay off in the end. While doing all of this, consider taking up drawing from real life (as a night class or a hobby). I have yet to run into a designer who hasn't benefited from also being an artist. Also consider buying and reading a marketing book that has emphasis on self-marketing.

Anyways, here you go

Step 1.
Get a source of income; doesn't matter what it is, it's only to supplement your design career and increase your work ethic. Use the money to purchase a domain and hosting for your future portfolio (not right away though).

Step 2.
Concentrate on one, or at most two related design categories until you have 10-15 excellent, professional, cutting edge pieces from each of those categories to show prospective clients and employers. It's important, by the way, to judge these according to what you see the pros doing in the industry, not your own standards. In other words, try to close the gap between what you create and what companies pay lots of money for. As you do so, you will find that your standards will increase.

Step 3.
Change your title from graphics designer to "_______ designer". Where the blank is the thing that you have concentrated on in step 1. Why do this? It will give prospective clients and employers a feeling of security in knowing that _______ is the thing that you're good at and experienced with.

Step 4.
Create a killer portfolio website. If you've concentrated on web-design, then you could probably do this yourself; otherwise don't attempt it, just get someone else (a contest here maybe ). The amount of emphasis put on websites by employers and clients is huge. It's the "first impression" of the Internet. Same goes for logo and business stationary. When they see your business card, website, etc they see a reflection of their business card, website, etc if they were to hire you.

Step 5.
Scrap the generic cover letters and certainly don't display them on your website. Write a fresh (or at least customized) cover letter for every job you apply to and focus less on yourself and more on what you can do for the company. Quickly outline your skill set to support what you claim you can do for them.

Step 6.
DC would be a great place to introduce yourself to client-designer work, get some much appreciated feedback on your designs, and get more work to add to your portfolio, which should at this stage already be quite impressive if you've followed through with the previous steps.

Where you go from there is up to you. You can continue your job search or become a freelancer. To get anywhere, however, you should give yourself goals and use small steps to achieve larger things. If you need to get a job with company X as a coffee girl to get more involved with the design industry, do it. Obviously coffee girl is just a rhetorical example, but the point is that no step is too small! The only sure way to fail is by doing nothing.

[~V~]

Hey, I was in the same boat when I got out of college - a little over a year ago - as well. I think its really rough getting started, especially because there are so many people graduating each year with design degrees and wanting to get into the industry. At my college my graduating class had 1500 in graphic design alone, and the following year it was almost doubled.

I think Redrum gave some good advice above, especially regards to the timeframe and making your work stand out. Personally I'm taking those baby steps for my career now, but I have another job to support me. I think it boils down to taking whatever you can get by on, consider yourself lucky if you get in to a design agency at all when you've just stepped out of college. And even then you'll most likely be doing the dirty work, not designing for clients yeah? But you gotta put in that time to move ahead.