Graphic design is the visual communication of ideas, which can be used to persuade, stimulate, and attract the attention of others. Design principles such as color theory, typography and hierarchy are used as tools to communicate these messages. Graphic design is a large field that has many levels of operations that can require years of experience before obtaining the position. This industry can be difficult to get into and individuals that are interested must work hard in order to get their artwork out there.

 

      Dawn Nye is the new media professor in the division of sound, performance and visual inquiry here at the University of Maine at Farmington. The art classes she teaches focus on areas such as video, web, and animation as well as digital printing projects. The value that one can obtain by taking one of these classes exceeds any individual expectation of the course. Now long before she came into the world of teaching, Dawn had three job opportunities where she was able to explore several areas of the field. Each job was different in its own way because the ideas she was communicating had messages for a particular audience.

 

      One thing to remember about this field is that the bigger the company, the more specialized the jobs are when they are compared to smaller companies. The size of the company can also impact the type of business structure offered to gain promotional employment. When asked the question does your role as a designer change for each position, Dawn points out “each work has different problems and solutions. You must first understand the goal of the work that you are doing and its purpose. You may then provide a visual solution to the problem. “ Now if you remember from earlier in the text, I pointed out that graphic design as a field is very broad, thus the job list is quite long. I was interested in learning more about this list, so I decided to ask Dawn what the differences are for typical positions. She explained that “being a production artist means that your job is both cleaning up and getting files ready for printing. As a designer your work is focused on concepting, designing and creating a solution to a problem. Now an art director is considered middle management. This means that the position is at a higher level than others. One important job is deciding which ideas a team of workers will use based on the ideas they bring to you. Another important feature of this job is being a marketer for your clients and working directly with them.” Again, the job titles above are traditional positions in the field, but in the long run, the company will determine this choice.

 

      Since there are a variety of career paths in this line of work, my goal was to focus around starting from the bottom up. It was not my intention to come fresh out of college or grad school and expect to be working in a high level position. As I began to think about my own career path, I realized that I did not know how one could make their way up the chain. When I asked Dawn this question her response is as follows, “baseline, a lot of people will start with production and then move to designer. Again, different places are structured differently, so some people may just be copy writers who pitch ideas that are then sent to the design team in order to make commercials.” As a follow up question I asked her to describe the structure Donner and Lexus Nexus used during her time of employment. Dawn followed up by explaining, “at Donner each department had their own work. The creative team did all the concepting, the designers created all the designs and the production team did all of the production work including getting changes from the copywriters, making sure that margins were the correct measurements, as well as making sure all of the Photoshop files were the right resolutions. Whereas at Lexus Nexus her team spent time doing a little bit of everything, the copywriting, concepting, designing and production. Now if you are taking promotional employment into consideration, Dawn suggests that “it depends on the company you are working for, but there are also other factors such as can they afford to give you a promotion, have you proved that you deserve a promotion, as well as the funds they have available.” The job titles above are traditional positions in the field, but in the long run, the company will determine this choice.

 

      Donner Advertising, a commercial business based out of Michigan is the company Dawn worked for at the production level. One job she had was handling a major instillation work account, “their logo is the pink panther.” Her task was to create a database of all the images in the design files for the job. She explains her experiences as “boring, but I have a great eye for remembering things, so I could tell someone which disk something was on based on remembering things about it.” One of the opportunities she claims was “working with other people she normally would not have been able to work with. “ Knowing that other people were depending on her for information she made sure that she was a dependable employee and tried minimizing her stimulation so nothing would distract her concentration. Thanks to a photography editor who chose the photos for each ad, Dawn was able to attend other meetings that were not crucial to her role. Without experiences such as this, we would not be able to grow both professionally and intellectually.

 

      Lexus Nexus a commercial design group just outside of Philadelphia gave Dawn an opportunity at a corporate position. She worked with a team of designers, which included two other people as well as her boss. When she was working at Donner, most of her time was spent working alone, so it took some time for her to adjust to the new environment. She reflects by saying “ I had to learn how to be an effective team member. It is hard to give up control when you have worked by yourself for so long.” Deep inside, we all crave this desire for control, but the true power lies in our will to overcome this and put our energy into making something more meaningful. When asked what it was like to be working on a design team Dawn responded with “it means giving up control over certain aspects. That might mean taking your idea and growing it into something else. Maybe the idea was changed or maybe they took your favorite aspect about the idea away. It can be hard to deal with, but you have to remember it is not about you. It is about finding a solution to whatever it is that you might be doing. “ Later on in the interview she revealed to me that the idea that someone might have gone in a different direction than the way she intended to began to grow on her. Now if there is one thing that you could take away from this interview it would be her statement “remember it is not about you, it is about finding the solution to the problem.” This is one of the most important things you have to learn because not every idea is going to be the one to solve the problem you are working with.

 

      Since Lexus Nexus is a corporation, the main concept I was curious about was freedom. I wanted to know if there was ever an opportunity that someone might have the ability to create their own ideas and designs. When I asked Dawn if someone has the ability to create their own designs when they are working for a commercial firm, her response was “somewhat, as long as you are solving the problems they supply you with.” For a moment there I thought she might have actually crushed all of my hopes. As our conversation about corporate moved ahead she emphasized to me that “when you are working within the constraints of the corporate business, it can be really challenging. Business to business is not the most exciting kind of design to do, but it is challenging because it is so dull.” If there was any statement that could change your mind, it would be that one right there. Unfortunately though it may not be as glamorous as working for other companies, there are still experiences to obtain. Even though Dawn is not a corporate minded person, sometimes they would use her crazy ideas, but they had to be toned down. She never let this aspect of her job bring her down because she loved the people she worked with and together they helped her grow as a designer.

 

      During her time at Lexus Nexus, Dawn was producing mostly print work using adobe software such as Photoshop, illustrator, and InDesign. Some of the projects included post cards, posters, in addition to wall graphics that are able to stick to walls, vans, and trucks like stickers. Other jobs included producing tons of mailings and creating web animations using Dreamweaver, a program used for the web.

 

      She also gained knowledge about box design because the company did their own designs. It was these box designs that gave her department that highest success rate for how many people responded. They got there by making sure that no jobs were sent to print with a graphic or text mistake since the production was really fast. Dawn in particular was “worried that there would be a text problem and that I would look bad as well as my boss and team if they made one thousand copies of something with a mistake in it. With multiple publications going out in a week, it is important that we kept double checking ourselves since it is easy to miss something.” Proofreading your own work can be difficult, especially when you have several deadlines going on at once.

 

      When Dawn transitioned into freelancing her career became more interesting. She was an interchangeable part that met with clients, held presentations, formed concepts, executed designs as well as serving as a business manager. According to Dawn the hardest part about this job is actually working with the clients because your goal is to make your customer happy. She supports her argument by saying that “sometimes what you think they want is usually different than what they want. It is also important to explain different design properties and to let your client know what you are doing as well as why you are doing it.” This is a great way to get the client up to your speed. Keep in mind that you are your own boss to which Dawn describes as “exciting because you can seek out interesting people to work with when you become established,” but it is also important to remember that your job is to find a visual solution to the client’s problem.

 

      Another important aspect as a freelancer is being your own business manager. In order to save time and money while you are concepting putting a limit on the number of drafts can help tremendously. Like any other business, this job demands contracts, proper billing procedures, and scheduling. This happened to be the most beneficial part of being a freelancer for Dawn. However, if you ask her to describe her experiences she will say that she “hated asking people to pay her, it was hard to save and manage money. There were times when it was stressful to be both working hard on so many projects when you were making money, and other times you might be searching for work when you did not have a lot of money in your pocket. During these occasions you might be living paycheck to paycheck in order to support yourself. “ The phrase feast or famine can be used to describe this difficult part of the industry. Now when I asked Dawn to compare working as a freelancer and working for a commercial firm she responded by saying, “corporate is less exciting as far as the work you do, but it is usually more stable. On the other hand, corporate does not pay as much as freelancing, which is why most people do it. The first step in the direction of freelancing is establishing a client list. This will take time, but it is important to build enough of a client base. “Even with all the drawbacks listed above, Dawn insists that she would do it again if need be. When I asked Dawn to reflect upon her job experiences, it was her freelancing position that she enjoyed the most. She supports this argument by saying how she “really enjoys doing pro-bono work” and how it was her favorite type of work as a freelancer. “I would do stuff for an organization or for someone that really need it. Design is a little invisible to people who do not know anything about it, and it is nice to see something you designed to have a real impact. It is this type of work that reminds of the good I can do.” This reflection supports her earlier argument that when you become an established freelancer you can pick and choose what type of jobs you want to be doing.

 

      Since this industry is demanding of its employees, I was concerned that there would not be enough time to work on projects for myself. When I asked how Dawn was able to stay motivated to develop projects outside of her job, she explained to me that “it was really hard, production rate in my studio was very slow when I was a designer. Spending forty hours a week at work, I had no desire to work in my studio when I came home at night.” This part of reality makes me nervous to enter the industry because I am afraid that I will stop making work for myself. Now after I asked how she continues to stay motivated to work on her own projects I was reminded of my own passion. Her response was “I am an artist, and I have to make things. I think that some people think that their goals are fame and fortune, but I want to make thinks. I want to communicate in addition to telling stories and it is something that I have to do. I feel like I do not have a choice in the matter because it makes me feel bad when I do not make art. Making art makes me happier and smarter, so why would I not want to do that?” I can relate to her response in the instance that it makes me happy to make art and I also want to create work that communicates different ideas. I fall into a trance during the production stages of my work and this improvisation it what keeps me on track with my goals. Since I have struggled to find motivation and inspiration in the past, I was curious as to how Dawn tackled these concerns. As most other artists’ she responded by saying “I find inspiration in people’s stories, in film, in literature, and poetry. When I am at a loss for inspiration I force myself to draw everyday. There are times when I find several images in a magazine and start drawing. I try to force myself out of conscious thinking in order to make the most absurd drawing I can think of. I see where these drawings take me as I let go of my imagination.” Exercises such as the one above push you to experiment a little, get outside of yourself as well as offering the freedom you may have been searching for.

 

      Many artists such as Dawn and myself have been producing art since childhood. My interest in the world of art began when my mom started working on projects with me outside out school when I was a child. I loved the mechanical action of producing a piece back then just as much as I do now. With my mom as the primary source of my involvement in the arts, I wondered how Dawn became attracted to this field. She replied, “ I started drawing when I was a little and I have always loved to make visual things. In the nineties I realized that I needed to learn about digital media as it became increasingly relevant. It is not really about being in design; it is about being an artist as well. See, I am an artist, so I was attracted to design because of that. Design is a tool you use to create art, they are very much the same, but they have different goals.” As a follow up question I asked her if her feelings had changed at all, to which her response was no. I think it is true that some people fall out of love with their line of work while others dedicate their life to one profession.

 

      Dawn’s design portfolio consists mostly of print and animation work, but as an artist, her work lies within the mediums of video, animation, sound, print as well as web design. She blames curiosity and desire as the sources of her interest in both animation and video. Since Dawn has been in this line of work for over two decades I wanted to know how she felt about her work so I asked her to reflect on this career path and how it has evolved. She responded with, “I started out as a printmaker, but in the nineties I saw the internet for the first time. Not long afterwards I saw a digital movie online for the first time, it was South Park. Once I discovered that this was a way to make and distribute work in multiples I was hooked. Being an artist or a designer is hard work, it requires you to keep improving and finding new ways of working for the rest of your life. You should not do it if it is not something you love.“ I find it very interesting to see how one area may lead you towards another direction. It is important that to enjoy the work you do and every challenge should be viewed as another opportunity to improve yourself.

 

      Dawn transitioned into teaching when she was still in graduate school and continued for a few years afterward. Her reflection starts, “I was not planning on going back to it, but teaching for a public liberal arts school was something that interested me. I came to the University of Maine at Farmington because I thought I could do something good.” As one of Dawn’s advisees’ I believe that she is dedicated to helping her students succeed in any way possible. She will work one on one with you until you develop the skills you need for your career path. The project requirements are designed to push students outside of their comfort zones. This push helps students realize that their potential is limitless as long as they work hard. She reflects on her position by saying that “teaching forces me to use everything I have ever learned. It also requires me to stay up to date with the current trends in my field. Honestly, it is the hardest job I have ever had, but it is also the most satisfying.” Since Dawn has a design background and field experiences, she is an asset to anyone who is interested in pursuing a career in this area. Since she has been working with this field for several decades, her advice is important because she already knows what employers are looking for. The best part about Dawn teaching in her own field is that she is an expert as well as a resource in this area.

 

      Currently, Dawn is working on several projects where she is collaborating with her colleagues. She is mediums she chose to work with include video, animation and linoleum block prints. However, they will not be expected to be complete until next summer. Dawn spends her time storyboarding and tries to keep herself working on at least three projects at a time, but during the school year she does not have enough time to spend in her studio. Even though she may still be producing her own work on the side, her main job has now shifted towards preparing others in art related careers. Without her experiences at Donner, Lexus Nexus as well as freelancing, Dawn would not be able direct her students down the right path. Each job had their ups and downs, but they all had their opportunities for Dawn to grown into the designer she is today. Feel free to check out her design website at http://www.dawnnye.com/ to stay up to date on her latest projects.