How I Landed My Dream Design Job Right Out Of College

Posted on by AIGA Baltimore

An Ink & Pixels Testimonial

Hi all! My name is Sammy Smith. A recent graduate of Stevenson University (Spring 2018), I majored in Visual Communication Design. I am currently a Junior Designer at Design B&B, a design and branding agency with locations in Baltimore & Chicago. I was fortunate enough to be offered an internship the summer before my senior year, and was ecstatic when it turned into a full-time job offer after graduation.

But how did I land this amazing internship and job? Well, I have Ink & Pixels to thank for that.

Ink & Pixels is an amazing event to get your portfolio reviewed by working design professionals, work on interview skills, and network. Being very active and even President of Stevenson’s AIGA student group, I made it a point to attend this event every year. (Even though I’m a slight introvert, and would rather stay home and watch Netflix.) I knew the value of this event, that there was no debate about whether to attend or not. It was a definite “okkk, fiiinne.” pauses Netflix & gets off couch

*pauses Netflix & gets off couch*

Ink & Pixels 2017

During Ink & Pixels my junior year, I had the pleasure of sitting and meeting with Shelly Boggs, a Principal of Design B&B. We had a fantastic conversation and review, which ultimately led to an internship offer. She told me that they don’t usually hire junior year college students as interns, but made an exception for me because she was so impressed with my portfolio. Woww, flattered! I interned at Design B&B that summer and they even kept me on throughout my senior year.

Two months before graduation, when all seniors are frantically looking for jobs, Shelly offered me a full-time position. I was so humbled and grateful for this opportunity to continue with such an amazing company and TO HAVE A JOB OUT OF COLLEGE! Whoooo!

Ink & Pixels 2018

So, take my advice.

Pause Netflix.

Get yourself and your work out there. NOW! You won’t regret it. Now, obviously, it is not a guarantee that if you attend Ink & Pixels, you will be offered an internship or a job. I was just lucky, I guess. But who knows; you won’t find out unless you try.

Sign Up For Ink & Pixels Today!

Designers for Good: A Conversation with Shannon Ryan, Vice President and Co-Director for Creative at Burness

Posted on by AIGA Baltimore

Welcome to AIGA Baltimore’s Designers for Good interview series, featuring conversations with designers who work in the field of social innovation.

Shannon Ryan is Vice President and Co-Director of Creative at Burness, a global communications firm supporting nonprofits and the people they serve. Shannon joined Burness in 2011 as an Art Director and works on a variety of projects—print publications, information graphics, and websites—each with the goal of using visual communication to enhance a message.

Before joining Burness, Shannon was the Senior Designer at the Center for American Progress, where she designed Center’s publications and created graphics on a range of policy issues. She has also worked as an environmental advocate with the U.S. Public Interest Research Group and has spent time in Nairobi, Kenya interning at the United Nations Environment Programme.

Shannon graduated from Cornell University with a degree in government and international relations and has also studied at the Corcoran College of Art + Design.

 

What is your background?

I studied government and international relations in college and then moved to Washington, DC to lobby Congress to protect endangered species, an issue that’s close to my heart. I was writing a lot of reports, and I soon realized that I enjoyed designing the reports more than I enjoyed writing them. So I decided to transition to a design career. I’m happy I did!

 

How and why did you becoming involved in designing for social innovation?

I didn’t want to leave behind work in the nonprofit and social change field after I became a designer, and I knew I would be happiest if I were able to work on issues I care about while doing the job I love. I got my feet wet in design at a health consulting firm, and I really appreciate the design fundamentals I was able to learn there. But I was eager to return to an advocacy environment so I moved on to be a designer at the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank. After that, I started working at Burness, a communications firm that partners with nonprofits on a broad range of social change issues. I started up the in-house design department, and I’m still here almost five years later.

 

How do you define design for social innovation and how does your role at Burness accomplish this?

I think of design for social innovation as design that’s focused on improving people’s lives. “Traditional” design principles apply, and we still aim to make things engaging, enticing, and alive. But we’re using design as a tool to promote ideas and tell stories that will make a positive difference in the world (we hope!).

 

What’s the importance of design and communication in social innovation?

Designers have so much to bring to the table. One of the ways we’re most useful is in making content accessible to people who don’t live and breathe an issue. When I begin a design process, I’m often very unfamiliar with a topic. It’s not a detriment; it actually requires a researcher or advocate to explain their work in the simplest terms. That allows me to approach a design from a place of simplicity, adding detail as needed. As designers, we can help scale back content to its core messages, which will often resonate with a broad audience.

One of the most rewarding parts of design is the before and after. How does a presentation look when a client comes to us, and how does it look after? How much better does it communicate? It’s really a privilege to be able to help people who are doing important work present it to the world more clearly, beautifully, and compellingly.

 

This is still a new field, where do you see the area of social design moving in the future?

I actually think designing for social change has been around for a while, but it might be finding more of a defined niche with design firms like Hyperakt or Purpose, or even our own in-house design operation, being solely devoted to social change design.

Where it’s going, I’m not entirely sure. I’m writing this on one of the darker days in recent American history, following the deaths of two African American men at the hands of police and the killing of five police officers at a protest against police brutality. Designers have a role to play in making our communities and our country better, as we all do. The Washington Post is doing it by tracking the number of deaths from police through this interactive piece. As we grapple with these enormous and entrenched issues, designers can continue working with journalists and advocates to bring information to light, which is an important part of making change.

 

What advice would you give a designer interested in entering the social innovation space?

Do it! When I’m hiring designers I look primarily look for three things: 1. Good design fundamentals (obviously). Learn typography, learn color theory, learn hierarchy and spacing. 2. Passion. If you want to do this kind of work, let it show through your work and in your cover letter. 3. Curiosity. You don’t have to have a background in the history of social change movements or be a health care wonk, but you should be excited to learn. Designing for social changes goes far beyond “making things pretty” (as all design should), so it requires digging into content to understanding what you’re trying to communicate.

Overall, it’s very rewarding to pair a love for design with a desire for change. You get to take your conscience to work, as they say.

 

What are your favorite projects and why? 

At Burness, our partners range from large, global foundations to small, local nonprofits in the DC area. I’m very proud of the work we’ve done for Serving Together, an organization providing resources for veterans in Montgomery County. We designed their logo and their website, and we continue to support their work in making resources accessible for the men and women who serve our country.

I’m also excited about the work we’ve done with several nonprofits and foundations in promoting indigenous peoples as stewards of the forests where they live. Forests are key to curbing climate change, and the greatest preservation of these lands happens when their management is in the hands of those most invested in it—the people who live there. For last year’s climate change meetings in Paris, we collaborated on the #standwithforests campaign, encouraging world leaders to make a commitment to indigenous peoples and forests. Our graphics were shared on social media and used as backdrops for high-profile events. It’s always very rewarding to see our designs in action.

 

What are challenges you have encountered while working for social innovation?

A recurring challenge is in trying to prioritize content. Our clients’ passion and depth of knowledge means they often want to communicate a great deal of nuance and detail. For some of the most common means of communication these days (read: social media), simplicity is king, so we have to work with clients to really focus on the one or two messages that will capture attention as people scroll quickly through their social media feeds.

 

Closing thoughts?

Thanks for interviewing me! It has been fun to share these thoughts and some of our work. I love that AIGA Baltimore is committed to social change design, and I’m looking forward to hearing from others doing this kind of work in the area.

 

 

 

About Design for Good

Design for Good is a platform to build and sustain the implementation of design thinking for social change. This platform creates opportunities for designers to build their practice, their network, and their visibility. Design for Good recognizes the wide range of designers’ work and leadership in social change which benefits the world, our country and our communities.

Design for Good supports and sustains designers who play a catalytic role in communities through projects that create positive social impact. By connecting and empowering designers through online networking tools, inspirational stories, chapter events, training, national advocacy and promotion, Design for Good serves as a powerful resource for designers who wish to work in this area and a beacon for designers leading the charge.

Book Review: Illustration that Works by Greg Houston

Posted on by AIGA Baltimore

Hours disappear in minutes whenever I’m drawing, so it’s great having a sketchbook with me for dull pauses in my day. If I sketch for 20 minutes while sitting in the dentist’s office, it feels like I’d just sat down when my name is called. Seriously, it’s like time travel.

Whenever I sketch in public, there’s a chance someone might notice what I’m doing and we’ll start chatting about drawing and the sort of work I do. Often, that person will tell me they’ve always admired people who could draw but that they aren’t “naturally talented”, themselves. Maybe they have a relative who is good but, “I didn’t get those genes, I guess”. Or “some people are just born with it”.

Ah, the legendary “natural talent”. It’s what allows a select few to paint like Rembrandt from the time they open their gifted little eyes. It’s the extra bonus granted to only the chosen. It’s the elusive strand of midi-chlorians that keeps the rest of us from ever being a Jedi. It’s the Secret Ingredient.

While it’s probably a lot more interesting to think my hand is guided by genetics or The Force, I really just learned how to draw. Everyone who knows how to draw learned to do so. There’s no Secret Ingredient.

Greg Houston would agree. He’s a professional illustrator with an enviable portfolio spanning twenty-five-plus years of working with clients like The Village Voice and Marvel Comics. He’s taught illustration courses at MICA and the art of cartooning to kids. Currently, he can be found at the newly-opened Baltimore Academy of Illustration, where he is a co-founder and instructor. When it comes to commercial art, this is someone you’d want to listen to. So it’s fitting that he’s just published a book on the subject, Illustration That Works. As the title suggests, Houston’s blue-collared approach to a successful career in commercial art preaches a strong work ethic.

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In the preface, he writes,

“It’s a working art. It serves a purpose. Unlike ‘fine art’, illustration isn’t about navel-gazing or finding greater truths in a tube of paint. It’s not for dilettantes or bored socialites. Illustration is an art and a profession.”

And Houston definitely respects his profession. In the chapter “Your Taste Doesn’t Matter”, he writes,

“Once you agree to take on that job, your assignment is to make the best work you can for the client. Trying to railroad the client into seeing things your way isn’t very professional, and giving the client a finished piece that’s different from what you both agreed to is entirely unacceptable.”

As proof of loyalty to these words, he includes multiple examples of work where the client had ideas he didn’t agree with but still realized those ideas with the same level of attention he’d give to any other project.

Other chapters focus on the technical parts of the job: developing concepts, creating effective compositions, research, and style. He writes, “A successful illustration is the perfect combination of style and substance. If that balance is off, the illustration suffers.” Accompanying each lesson are works by classic and contemporary illustrators, as beautiful and inspirational, as they are fantastic examples.

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Written at a quick pace not usually found in vocational guides, Illustration That Works is certainly informative and it’s also entertaining as hell. For example, while stressing the importance of correctly rendering the human form, Houston writes about (and draws!) a guy he saw in college who looked like a living checklist of amateur mistakes. He mentions Dracula enough times to notice and he’s very excited to tell you about gouache.

Illustration That Works is available now to purchase. Check out Greg Houston’s portfolio at www.greghoustonillustration.com and see which courses are being offered at the Baltimore Academy of Illustration at www.baltimoreillustration.com

Greg Jericho spends an awful lot of time designing for clients that do not exist. Check out his work at jerichovinegarworks.com

Bmore Inspired: 5 Spots to Get Inspired in Baltimore

Posted on by AIGA Baltimore

Inspiration can be found everywhere in Baltimore, whether out in the open or lurking around the corner, but it can be easy to miss if you’re not looking. Here are a few of our favorite places and events in Baltimore that are sure to get the creative juices flowing, for visiting and local designers alike.

American Visionary Art Museum

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The American Visionary Art Museum’s (AVAM) main building glimmers in the afternoon sun

The AVAM is dedicated to displaying and preserving outsider art. Both its temporary and permanent exhibits make it a must-visit place for art that you might not see anywhere else.

Station North Arts District

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In the heart of city, Station North is the first state-designated Arts and Entertainment district in Baltimore.

With its myriad projects, installations, galleries, and cafes, everyone should be able to find some inspiration in Station North.

Bromo Tower Arts District

Artist at work in studio space
Artist at work in studio space

Home to the historic Emerson Bromo Seltzer Tower, this district is one of Baltimore’s newest art-centric neighborhoods. The numerous galleries and performance spaces make it easy to spend an entire day just in this small but thriving area.

Painted Ladies of Charles Village

Credit: Wikipedia
Some of the vividly painted row houses of Charles Village

Even the houses in Baltimore show the city’s dedication to the arts. This collection of colorful row homes is a perfect example of how the city’s residents exemplify the name Charm City.

Baltimore Events

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In 2016, the 18th Annual Kinetic Sculpture Race took place with The Bees’ Knees of Washington, DC taking home the trophy

Baltimore’s locations aren’t the only places to find inspiration. The city is host to tons of art-centric events that have become important traditions. We’ve highlighted a few that are sure to interest both visiting and local designers.

Image Credits: Ashley Phillips, American Style, Station North, Baltimore Arts, Wikipedia, and Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race

Mitch is a volunteer copywriter for AIGA Baltimore. In the real world, he’s usually indulging in gaming of some kind, controller or dice in hand. Find him on Twitter at @mc_mittens.

Shannon Crabill is an HTML Email Developer at T. Rowe Price. Outside of the Internet you can find her riding her motorcycle and binge-watching home improvement shows on HGTV. Tweet her at @shannon_crabill.

A recent transplant from Texas by way of NYC, Andrea Chen is happy to call Baltimore her home. She’s a graphic designer at T. Rowe Price, owns her own company the codex club, and loves to knit, cook, and garden. Tweet her @andreachen3d.

Designers for Good: A Conversation with Liz Danzico, Creative Director for NPR

Posted on by AIGA Baltimore

Welcome to AIGA Baltimore’s first installment of our Designers for Good interview series, featuring conversations with designers who work in the field of social innovation.

Our first interview is with Liz Danzico – part designer, part educator, and full-time dog owner. She is also creative director for NPR, overseeing and guiding both the visual and user experience across NPR-branded digital platforms and content. Liz is chair and co-founder of the MFA in Interaction Design program at the School of Visual Arts. She has written for design-minded publications, including Eye Magazine, Fortune Magazine, Interactions Magazine, and writes part time at bobulate.com.

 

 

What is your background?

I started out thinking I’d be a writer, but absolutely fell for work in the digital space when those positions first started emerging. Today, I’m creative director for NPR, whose mission is to work in partnership with member stations to create a more informed public. I’m the founding chairperson of the MFA Interaction Design program at the School of Visual Arts, one of the world’s top design schools. On the side, I advise startups, nonprofits, and global companies. Because my background is in writing, I continue that work by writing talks and writing for design-minded publications, and on my own site, bobulate.com. My very first job after college was as an English teacher in Japan, an experience I still think helped me be human-centered in my design practice.

 

You are founding chairperson of the MFA in Interaction Design Program at SVA in addition to advising various startups, nonprofits and global companies. How have your varied interests and experiences informed your role as the first creative director at NPR.

I used to joke that when people asked what I did, I responded in one long run-on sentence with too many commas. I joked because, quite honestly, I was a bit self-conscious about my many side projects across teams and fields. Someone eventually pointed out that perhaps this wasn’t a deficit, but a feature. Perhaps keeping multiple projects in one’s head and lateral thinking was my talent. So I started taking roles that took advantage of that, which required me to do that. This is all to say that being responsible for design across platforms, products, and divisions draws upon that very skill.

 

You may not define yourself as a social designer, but your roles as creative director at NPR, a non-profit whose mission is to create a more informed public, an educator, and consultant to mission-based organizations are contributing to the improvement of society, students and non-profits. How do you think design can work to address social problems or further social causes, and do you see any or all of your roles in this light?

Design has the power to make people’s lives better. If we ask how can we give the people we design for a sense of hope, empowerment, strength, and make their lives a bit better than they were before, then we are using design to address social problems no matter what they scale. This is the kind of work I’ve tried to chase down in my career. Work that helps to improve people’s lives, helps them be more informed, more empowered in their careers, get the basic human services they need, helps improve cities, financials, our government services. Design and its uniquely human-centered approach has the potential to affect and improve everyday life.  

 

Where do you see the field of interactive design moving in the future? (And if you are comfortable answering, how could this apply to the field of social design?)

It used to be that interactive referred to only that sliver of business that wanted a simple website. Over the course of years, it’s now hard to find a thing or a place that isn’t touched by some kind of interactive design. Looking ahead, we’ll start to see more and more complex problem spaces being affected by interactive design.

 

What advice would you give a designer interested entering the interactive design field?

Read the new “LEAP Dialogues: Career Pathways in Design for Social Innovation,” which in full disclosure, I was a co-editor on. In it, 84 practitioners and educators weigh in on the role of social impact design in a changing market and world through interviews conversations, essays, and case studies. Next, read Khoi Vinh’s book, “How They Got There,” which talks about the paths of 14 digital designers. This is important as, for a field that’s still relatively young, the field is still inventing itself. It’s useful to see how some of the most important designers got their start. After reading both, consider where you want to do interactive work. Then, and most importantly, look for great people you can learn from. No matter what field you want to enter, it will be the people who surround you who make your career. Find people who inspire you, and head in their direction.

 

What are your favorite projects and why?

The MFA Interaction Design Program at SVA. Starting this graduate program been one of the more rewarding parts of my career to build a graduate program, which is truly building a community of people, then watching them change the world.

NPR One. Working on this storytelling platform has been one of the more challenging and broadly influential projects in my career, and I’ve learned more deeply what it means to do product design.

Bobulate. This is my personal site and a place where I get to be entirely myself through writing.

 

What is a surprise you have encountered over the course of your career?

People who are top of their field are generally the ones who are most willing to help and/or the first to respond to your request, no matter who you are.

 

What are 1-3 challenges you have encountered over the course of your career?

I’ve always had a problem saying no. But over the course of years, I’ve learned to be grateful that I have so many opportunities to say no to! So it’s a challenge, but a welcome one. Perhaps relatedly, I have worked to maintain balance in my life. Balance between work and play; between travel and home; between impactful work and work that pays the bills. But the truth is: there is no “between.” Once I realized that it’s all part of my life, rather than thinking about it as some intricate balancing game, it all started coming together. But it’s a lifetime of learning.

 

 

DesignForGood

About Design for Good

Design for Good is a platform to build and sustain the implementation of design thinking for social change. This platform creates opportunities for designers to build their practice, their network, and their visibility. Design for Good recognizes the wide range of designers’ work and leadership in social change which benefits the world, our country and our communities.

Design for Good supports and sustains designers who play a catalytic role in communities through projects that create positive social impact. By connecting and empowering designers through online networking tools, inspirational stories, chapter events, training, national advocacy and promotion, Design for Good serves as a powerful resource for designers who wish to work in this area and a beacon for designers leading the charge.