Random rants of a graphic designer

I consider myself a fairly informed person, and that is especially true when it comes to the future of my career. Since I declared myself a student of graphic design, there hasn’t been a day that I have not gone online with the intent of getting a forecast into the future of my career choice.

I tend to take career news reports with a grain of salt, especially when words like “recession-proof” and “fast-growing” are used to describe the job market offered to those in the creative market.

Recession-proof is a stretch by all means. To prove it, all you need to do is a quick search on Craigslist. Compare the amount of jobs currently available to the amount offered a couple of years ago. The results are frightening. There was a time when one could do a quick search for creative positions in New York and yield several pages of ads in just one day. Try the same thing today, and you are lucky to get half of a page worth of hits.

Fast-growing is another word I am skeptical about. According to Yahoo Hotjobs, graphic design is one of the top growing professions today with a median annual salary of $41,215 per year. Art Bistro states a pay range of $35,000 to $100,000. These are some pretty interesting figures when the average salary I have seen tends to offer slightly more than minimum wage.

The second problem I see with this comment on fast growth is the lack of available entry-level jobs. Most are asking for a minimum of two to three years experience, and they still offer little pay. The number of professional creative people may be increasing, but the job market seems to be shrinking.

After all of this you would think that I have become pessimistic about my future, but in fact, it is the exact opposite. Within struggle comes growth, and this is as true in the job market as it is in any other setting. A tighter job market brings with it an opportunity to push myself and perhaps prove to my future employers that I have what it takes to flourish under pressure.

-Brian Randle

Communication and lack there of

As a communication design major with an option in graphic design, it would seem that communication is something that I will be dealing with for the better part of my life. I have taken classes on the topic, gone to seminars, read books, watched videos and have even sat in on a meditation class that was focused on improving communication skills. However, if I were to rate myself as a communicator, I would have to give myself a C+ at best.

I intend to be an art director someday. This means that I will be in charge of a group of creative individuals, and there is a good chance that I will have to talk to them at least once or twice.

According to eHow, open channels of communication are pivotal. Without them, a workplace is prone to “a negative effect on both productivity and office morale. A lack of workplace communication can lead to such things as gossip, resentment and high staff turnover.”

During my time at The Orion and TGC, I have seen both the benefits of successful channels of communication and the difficulty that can result when those channels are either closed or lacking in some area. I have tried to learn from each experience and see what I can take from the situation.

Top 7 Business provides a list of areas that are necessary for effective workplace communication. Some of these include personal contact, listening, courtesy and consistency.

These are important, but I would like to add a few that I have learned over the past few years, and especially last few months.

Clarify yourself. Do not assume that the person you are speaking with understands what you are trying to say because you do. Keep in mind that different people see things differently.

Reiteration is of the utmost importance. Most people retain only around 33 percent of the information being thrown at them. This means that repeating yourself a few times may be helpful. This can be maximized by also putting it in a form that they can review again later. A communicator can reinforce their spoken message by backing it up with an e-mail or a written document.

Asking questions is extremely helpful. This goes hand-in-hand with listening. There really are no bad questions.

Paraphrasing is a skill that is a key to understanding the needs of others. Try rephrasing their words into your own. This can help to reassure the other person while clarifying the message for yourself.

Communication skills can mean the difference between success and failure, and nowhere is this more evident than in the business world. Deals are made and broken, money is spent and lost, and messages are or are not understood because of excellent or poor communication. It is a necessary skill that should be learned, honed and put into practice on a daily basis.

-Brian Randle

Death of an Ad Man?

Children are often asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

Now those words should be directed at the 20-somethings that are increasingly filling college classes. For them, the question is no longer, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Those words should be rephrased to, “What do you want to be in a few years, at least until your career choice is declared obsolete, and the money you spent was not even worth the general education classes you were forced to take?”

I don’t mean to sound spiteful. In fact, I am optimistic that my degree will take me places my parents could not go. While spending nearly six years working toward being an art director for an advertising agency has definitely taken its toll, it’s been a goal well-worth the hardships.

At first, I encountered nothing but positive signs while looking for a little confirmation that my choice in a career path was a good one. Creative jobs were on the rise. Advertising was a mecca for creative minds. But this was of course before the economy took a down turn, and many lost faith in corporate America yet again.

As the economy begins to recover, it is assumed that the advertising job market will recover, but this does not seem to be the case. According to iMedia Communication, ad agencies worldwide are in decline. Clients are jumping ship and heading to the Web and digital forms of media for new marketing strategies. This can be attributed to research that shows people are spending less time with traditional media, such as TV and newspapers, and more time on the Web. The problem with this research and new push toward digital forms of media is that consumers still spend time with traditional media. Therefore, a solution that involves eliminating long-standing and successful forms of reaching the masses is a flawed solution. However, many clients are very short sighted; they see dollars dropping in one area while increasing in another and decide that it is time to drop the axe.

Common sense dictates that the decreasing amount of time spent in front of traditional media is directly related to the increase in Web usage, but advertising’s lack of effective results is perhaps related to the lack of cohesive traditional and digital campaigns.

Some of the most successful advertising campaigns have employed a well-rounded approach. A couple of these campaigns include MTV and Axe Fusion’s Game Killers and Coca-Cola Co.’s Coke vs. Coke Zero. Both campaigns employed strategies that hit their target audiences on multiple fronts and left no one out. They met their audiences with witty and fun entertainment that directed to them to the Web sites. This caused the audiences to absorb the messages that the companies were trying to get through and invited audiences to be part of the advertising process.

There are dangers in the advertising world, and missteps and lost opportunities can send the ad world down the same direction as the dot-coms of the late ’90s. However, this could be seen less as an impending doom and more as an opportunity for the ad world to reinvent itself. The old model is becoming obsolete, and it is time to breathe new life into the dying ad men (and women) of the world.

- Brian Randle

If you’re working, then why are your eyes closed?

Think back to when you were 5 years old. You are just an average kindergartner trying to make it to first grade. After a hard few hours of Duck, Duck, Goose and finger painting, your teacher tells everyone to drink some warm milk and take a nap. How resistant were you to this concept?

I’m sure one of the more stressful times of a person’s life would be to convince 20-plus children to stay still and close their eyes. I guarantee that if a boss or one of your professors were to announce that it was nap time in the middle the day, there would be no resistance whatsoever. Perhaps that seemingly insane kindergarten teacher was onto something.

As students, and soon to be professionals, it is easy to let a busy day of work wear on our shoulders, and every once in a while, working a little extra can be harmless. The problem is that for most it is not an every once in a while occurrence. Whether the culprit is attempts at over-achievement or, in my case, complete slackerdom, when it is time to work, the blinders come up and the world around you disappears.

The trick to surviving these work binges is to find time to step away.

If you do not believe in the power of separating yourself from work, then you need only investigate the practices of a small mom-and-pop company I like to call Google. According to Seattle PI, this revolutionary company considers it common place to provide its employees with as much as 20 percent of their time spent at work as play time. To put it into perspective that equals to one workday a week and nearly one week a month. If you think this is a silly idea, then take a look at Google’s numbers. The results are apparent.

Sadly, not all of us are going to being working at Google anytime soon, but we can all hope that they take over the world and make these perks the global standard. Until this occurs, it is up to you to find ways to get away from the monotony of the office. If you are like me, then your first instinct is to do nothing. Maybe you prefer to sit and watch TV or switch windows to tend your virtual farm.

Stop and re-evaluate your choice. Jersey Shore may seem like a good escape, and how can you resist the urge to tweet about work? Does staring at a screen sound familiar? That’s right. You have tricked yourself into believing that you have freed yourself.

Listen closely, and I will let you in on a secret. You have to do something that involves more than the sense of sight. Personally, I am a fan of the mini vacation. Daily Takeoff provides several good ideas for mini vacations, but a couple of my favorite are becoming a tourist in your own town and going hiking. You would be amazed at how much you can discover about your immediate area by opening the door. I’ve found more entertainment in abandoned and overgrown lots than Farmville can provide.

Another idea is to pick up a new hobby. Shoot for something non-work related. Personally, I am a designer, so I try to stay away from drawing as a hobby. It feels too much like work. Instead, I have taken up guitar. I am blown away by how easily an hour or two of practice can put me in my own world. If that is too active, try meditation or yoga.

There is a world of possibilities out there, so throw your computer to the side – not literally of course – and collect some stamps, watch a bird or two, or learn how to back flip. Think back to some childhood dreams you had during nap time. You might not be able to become David Beckham, but you can still hit the local soccer field.

- Brian Randle