Transitions, March 2004

Issue 1      March 2004

Contents

Demonstrate your value to potential employers
As you transition into your professional career, an important key to getting your next job is proving that you will be a valuable employee. You can demonstrate your value and show that you are a pro by focusing on three simple things: problems, solutions and results.

Book tips from the top
Cheryl Heller and Sam Shelton recommend new, favorite or influential volumes.

Executive director’s letter
All students face three challenges as they pursue a design career: developing the skills and objective perspective for solving design problems, which you should be able to do at school; understanding the ethos and expectations of the workplace, which you usually discover only when you reach the workplace; and absorbing sufficient experience to develop a sense of judgment about communication solutions that builds on those who have come before you and your own unique contributions.

AIGA, your professional community, is committed to helping you with all three of these challenges. AIGA develops links between the professional community and students through chapter activities, works with educators on curriculum issues and finds ways to connect students with professionals. Transitions offers students advice from professionals on the move from school to studio. This summer we will also complete a handbook for studios and design departments to use in mentoring starting designers, since there are many things you will need to learn that cannot easily be taught by someone simply reviewing your work. We will also be adding short essays on what accomplished designers have learned from their mentors to our website. Continuing your involvement with AIGA and the questions we raise in our conferences and activities will help you to understand the more complex dimensions of the profession you have chosen.

We are delighted to welcome Christopher Vice, chair of Visual Communications Design at Herron School of Art and Design, as editor of Transitions. As with all AIGA activities, this is the result of seeking a committed, qualified and energetic volunteer from within our membership to support the profession’s needs.

Richard Grefé, executive director, AIGA

DEMONSTRATE YOUR VALUE TO POTENTIAL EMPLOYERS
As you transition into your professional career, an important key to getting your next job is proving that you will be a valuable employee. You can demonstrate your value and show that you are a pro by focusing on three simple things: problems, solutions and results.

Practical needs
Problems. The people who run design organizations know that clients do not initiate design commissions just for the fun of it. Clients seek designers when they have a practical need to be filled. For instance, to stay competitive in their market a business might need materials to better communicate the relevance of their product or service. Or, to implement new legislation a government agency might need forms and manuals that are easy to understand by speakers of various languages. Or, to secure better funding a nonprofit organization might need to advance the understanding of their mission among philanthropic institutions.

These are all practical needs that arise from existing problems and future opportunities. The kinds of situations that create these problems are the basis for all design activity. They are the conditions to which designers respond. The objectives that clients seek to achieve as a result of their problems and opportunities become the measures for the success of any design.

When you talk about design as a response to problems and opportunities, you demonstrate that you understand the value and power of design. As a designer who understands the value of design, you raise the perception of your own value to current or potential employers.

From problems to solutions
Solutions. When designing is initiated as a response to a problem, a design always generates a solution. In the world of practical needs, solutions matter.

Too often, however, design is examined and evaluated as an artifact wholly apart from its relevance as a solution. To regard the artifacts of design this way is like looking at the surface of something without considering its interior or its reason for being. Examples of this kind of design criticism include the recent, often passionate, comments on the new Hershey candy wrapper and the new UPS logo. Many people have lamented the alterations of these iconic images without pausing to ask about the business imperatives that required new design solutions. One can make an appraisal based on the surface of things, but with some design (and with some people) beauty might be only skin deep. As a response to a problem, solutions should be evaluated not only by how they appear but also by how they get the job done. While a familiar candy wrapper and a beloved logo might deserve a special place in a history book, as artifacts they are not more important than the long-term success of their respective businesses.

The best of many
We all know from classroom design critiques that there can be many good communication design solutions to any single communication design problem. To a single assignment, every student in the class may have a different, yet appropriate, response.

Where Science is often concerned with seeking absolute answers and the Humanities are often concerned with seeking absolute questions, Design has the special opportunity to be concerned with seeking the best practical solution out of many viable solutions. Almost always, the best design solution is the intersection of the best fitting form and the best fitting function.

Not what it is, but how it functions
Every time you present your work you have an opportunity to show that you are focused on designing solutions instead of designing things. Direct all your comments to how your design will achieve the practical needs of the problem or opportunity at hand.

For example, imagine that you designed a set of communication materials for the upcoming season at the regional opera company. Maybe you were asked to help the opera house achieve its goals of appealing to new audiences and maximizing ticket sales. As a solution, maybe you focused on generating interest among younger audiences by 1) portraying the relevance of operatic themes to everyday life, and 2) organizing information to highlight that it is not necessary to purchase a season's worth of tickets thereby easing one's commitment to participate.

When you show your work, report on your strategy for achieving these objectives. How is this proposed solution better than all of the many solutions that were viable? Probably you will not spend your time talking about what typefaces you used, what color palette you created and what paper textures you coordinated. You might choose not to describe the intricacies of the photomontage you created or that you used XYZ software or that you partially cut off the serifs in the display type. To someone who cares, these details are self-evident. All this information describes the thing that you made, not how your solution responds to the needs of the client's unique situation. Let these formal characteristics speak for themselves. Instead, focus your energy on revealing the solution strategy behind the surface. Your ability to highlight the performance attributes of your design solution will determine how business professionals perceive you.

If you try not to talk about formal issues and you find that you really don't have anything else to say, you may discover that you have not yet developed a real solution. Keep working.

The bottom line
Results. Ultimately, all solutions are evaluated by how well they perform. Once implemented, the true test of the potential of any solution is whether or not it achieves the intended objectives. It will function as intended or it won't. After spending money and valuable time seeking the expertise of a designer, all clients are focused on the results. For our hypothetical opera company, the communication materials will either help generate interest among younger audiences or they won't. Sales of single tickets will increase or they will not.

Obviously, if all of your work to date is based on other hypothetical assignments, your solutions cannot have generated results beyond the classroom. But even as you describe solutions for school projects in your portfolio, you can communicate that you understand the need to achieve results for future clients. And it is never too soon to start planning how you will document the results of your future design solutions.

Very often, a designer working on real world projects never learns whether his or her designs are truly effective. Many times, clients never report such information. Many times, designers never ask. Sometimes, even when designers ask about the success of their solutions, clients do not track information in a way that is reportable. Telling your client that you want to track results demonstrates that you are focused on their need. To be a truly valuable designer, you should consider all of these issues at the beginning of any project. Understanding the potential nature of results at the beginning of a project informs your approach to developing solutions.

The power of your design
What if your design solutions for that opera company were real and that you continued a professional relationship with the organization? Imagine the significance of being able to report to your current employer or future clients that within two years, attendance by patrons under 45 years old increased by 30 percent, subscription sales saw a 20 percent increase and single ticket sales more than doubled. You would be able to show that your solution had real value to the life of a cultural institution and that you can harness the power of design to create change.

Strive to be able to demonstrate this kind of value. A resume that documents your experience using real results provides truly impressive credentials.

Problems, Solutions, Results. When you focus on designing solutions to produce specific results within specific opportunities, employers and clients will value your skills and expertise. When that happens you will have earned trust and respect and gained a greater degree of responsibility.

Christopher Vice is chair of the Department of Visual Communication Design at Herron School of Art and Design and principal of sine qua non, a design consulting practice. Christopher was Vice President of Brand Marketing at Sapient. Previously, he focused on brand strategy and communication design for Global 500 companies including Mercedes-Benz, Citibank, SBC/Sterling Commerce and Viacom. Other work includes editorial design for The Getty Foundation, Beach Culture magazine, Surfer magazine and Southern California Institute of Architecture. Christopher’s work has been featured in publications including IDEA: International Graphic Art Tokyo, Brandweek, ID magazine, Architectural Record, Communication Arts and Émigré.

Read more about designing solutions:
http://designing.aiga.org
http://www.aiga.org/designing_for_business

BOOK TIPS FROM THE TOP: CHERYL HELLER AND SAM SHELTON

More inspiration from designers.

Cheryl Heller: Heller Communications, Inc.

My tolerance for reading things that are boring but good for me diminishes almost daily. I believe it’s possible, and even likely, that great writers can inspire visual artists.

I have read two things over the past couple of weeks that illustrate the point. Each of these writers offers a profound insight into how they overcame an isolated and benighted youth, and found their voice.

Reading & Writing: A personal Account
By V.S. Naipaul
Reading & Writing is an extraordinary essay on his path to writing and the difference between fiction and non-fiction.

Interview with Andrea Barrett
In the latest issue of The Paris Review (168) is an interview with Andrea Barrett, who has won the National Book Award for her fiction.

Sam Shelton: Kinetik Communication Graphics

Surprise Me! Editorial Design
By Horst Moser
To design this inspirational look at the world of editorial design, Moser selected magazines from his personal collection of over one million publications from around the world.

inspiration=ideas: A Creativity Sourcebook for Graphic Designers
By Petrula Vrontikis
Vrontikis not only outlines the inspiration and influences of 19 of the best designers working today, she provides us with the resources to help fuel our own imagination.

Revival of the Fittest: Digital Versions of Classic Typefaces
Edited by Phillip Meggs and Roy McKelvey
If you love typography, this collection of essays and visuals edited by Meggs and McKelvey will help you trace the history of many of the contemporary versions of the classic typefaces we're all familiar with.

Freitag: The Freitag Story. A Phenomenon.
Edited by Lars Muller
More of a visual journey than a heavy read, Freitag examines the process of the making of the Freitag bag.

Publisher
AIGA Transitions is published once a month, September through May, nine times a year by AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts), 164 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, www.aiga.org. The executive editor is Christopher Vice, chair of the Department of Visual Communication Design at Herron School of Art and Design. AIGA Transitions is a benefit of student membership and is not available to nonmembers. AIGA seeks articles for this publication from knowledgeable, respected and experienced authors whose opinions are deemed relevant to the student and educator community. The opinions expressed by the authors are theirs alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or judgment of AIGA; further, they represent only one point of view and are not intended to be an exhaustive treatment. For further discussion of the issues with your colleagues and peers, please visit the AIGA Design Forum at www.aiga.org.