Ready, Aim, Design!

Week 3:

It seems that a lot more goes into this whole "design thing" than I had imagined in the past. Even three months ago if asked what it took to get a job as a graphic designer I would have given a naive answer such as, "hard work and dedication to the craft!" and then smiled in hopes of changing the subject. Now I am beginning to understand something that I had possibly been in denial about prior to taking this course...entering the real world of graphic design is just something that happens to me. I have to make it happen!

I am happy to say that I am not alone in this journey that I will soon embark on. I am blessed with a class, my Interactive Digital Design portfolio class, that will most likely teach me more about real world graphic design than any of my other IDD courses have at Quinnipiac. I also have access to the advice and insight of countless graphic designers via the internet. This weeks reading in Designign a Digital Portfolio gave me the idea to check out graphic design forums on the internet. I thought that I might find a handful of outdated or incredibly professionally-termed blurbs about life as a graphic designer. You can then imagine how pleasantly surprised I was to find that more modern and understandable graphic design forums exist than I could possibly post on in a year. One that especially caught my eye because of it's recognizable title was the HOW Design forum. They even offer a forum especially for graphic design students! How amazing is that?!

I am also learning a lot about the ethics of graphic design through my readings. I personally enjoy being ethical as much as I can remember to be, so knowing that I will get to flex my ethical muscle as a graphic designer makes me pretty happy. I like the idea of always committing to a certain quality of work when working as a graphic designer as mentioned in chapter five of How To Be a Graphic Designer. In my opinion I believe that this not only shows clients that as a designer, I am committed to the quality of the work I do, but I also know myself well enough to know that I will get much more satisfaction when I look back at work I have done if I know that I did the best work that I possibly could at the time. I would like to develop a personal motto as a graphic designer. What it will be is soon TBD...