Design School vs. Design World

Now that I'm in the real world, I have found that design school (especially VCU) and the design working world are totally different. When I was in school, I was geared to think conceptually, create process work, use mind maps, learn through play, and think out of the box. Now that I am applying for jobs, I see that entry level designers are usually just needed to create type and layout work, updating websites, retouching photos, and watering the plants. That doesn't seem that hard, but I'm sort of figuring out the reasons why I can't get a simple job.

1. My portfolio consists of a lot of conceptual work and I guess they are not as visually stimulating as what interviewers want(?).

2. I've been only looking through Craigslist. It's time to stop lollygagging and really apply to where I really want to be.

3. My portfolio is pretty heavy with Adobe Illustrator. Maybe it's time to change it up and add some layout stuff. Oh and maybe update my website.

4. I am often tongue tied.

So anyway, here are a few examples of my portfolio and maybe, just maybe, I can get feed back from someone who happens to be into graphic design, or even an actual graphic designer, or maybe just any internet wanderer.


















So here's one stamp out of a set of four that I've designed for a print class. Basically the assignment was to create four stamps that respond to an issue important to you. At the time, I was taking 18 credits and super duper busy with not only school work, but work work as well. For days and days I thought. I thought about why work and play cannot be the same thing. I came to the conclusion that work and play can never be the same thing because, obviously, they are defined as opposites. But still, you really cannot have one if the other did not exist. And also, work and play are just a matter of perspective. An illustrator sees his job as a job, where in many cases, regular joes draw for recreation.













I had realized that work and play are a matter of what you make of it (especially if you are a designer). So I thought to create a stamp where it was the user's choice of what to make of the stamp. Placing the stamp on the envelope in one orientation allowed the user to see a sort of "scene of work" or a "scene of play."

The stamps embody both "work" and "play" because the two cannot exist without the other, they are on opposite ends because they are opposites (inspired by a yin-yang symbol), and the image and words create the scene with the user's decision of what to make of it; a stamps that portrays "work" or one that portrays "play."

So there's one explanation for one of my portfolio pieces. I wasn't expecting to ramble on this much but I just wanted to explain what I could about these stamps because I, as I've said earlier, I tend to become tongue tied.