Long Time Comin'

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. There's a lot that's been going on but I'll give you some cliff notes so as to catch you up quickly.

-first semester at CCS has ended
-I received a 3.925 GPA (booya!)
-I had two pieces of my artwork end up in the year-end student show (pictures soon)
-I am currently away in Chicago at an internship under Erin Sarofsky

Those are like the giant, current bulletins of life.
So! I will most likely touch these topics in later posts, but since I am currently in Chi-town, I shall discuss what I've been learning here.

Bear with me, there is a lot of text here, but it's basically a briefing on what I've learned by being in a professional studio environment. For those of you that have no interest in this...you are more than welcome to check out my much more lighthearted vlog on youtube. Subscribe yo! I'll be posting random things there....DO IT! ;)

http://www.youtube.com/user/hellopengwen



Behold!!! My internship novel...

Recently I asked Erin what it took to choose a client and how she gets paid for the stuff she does. I mean—the creative world is a hard business to be paid for if you don’t know what you’re doing. She basically broke it down into three categories for me; Time, Creativity, and Money. “If you can get two of those, that’s awesome. If you can get three, take it!” What she meant by these three categories is a pretty simple concept. Basically, the decision whether or not to take a job takes balance. You don’t want to waste your time or money on a project that you know will give you nothing in return. On the other hand, there is a level of risk involved in committing to some projects. “If you are thinking about taking a project that you won’t get paid a lot for, but it may open connections later down the road, it’s worth considering.” Erin gave me great advice, “The biggest advice I can give any student thinking of going into this business is this; when you first start out on your own, spend your time on the small projects first. So many times students make the mistake of signing up for a big project they really can’t handle. Stick with the small projects that will keep your interest and you know you can accomplish on your own.” She went on to say that when she was establishing her own studio, she spent more money than she earned. “It was really important that I get a reel, so I’d sign up for these project that I thought might benefit me but it meant I had to hire on a full time, highly paid counterpart to get the project done and done well.” She also mentioned how she has to be careful what projects she signs onto because she can’t sign onto too may. There is a balance in what to commit to, as well. “You don’t want to be sitting around doing nothing, but you don’t want to sign up for too much.” She went on to say how that the level of intensity and stress in the studio can really vary. Not all projects are given notice weeks in advance, especially in today’s economy. A lot of clients need there stuff “right now.” Also, random clients can call in and ask for work. It really just depends on what you take, how busy you predict the season to be, and balancing between the money and time you spend on different projects.

I’ve come to find that there are two important things in this business, connections and a portfolio. A lot of the design world is hired through word of mouth. Someone knows someone who knows someone else that can do a project. It’s really interesting to see how that works here at such a professional level. It’s also important to keep good relations with your connections. Erin does a lot of work for Mccann, an advertising company back home in Detroit. She said, “A lot of times we’ll do their work for free because we know that if they get the gig, they’ll ask us to do the work for them.” It’s honestly been very interesting observing the balancing act.

Aside from the business side of things, I’ve learned a lot about what it takes to have a good work environment in a studio. Erin definitely keeps her coworkers happy. She has an entire kitchen setup (minus a stove) with snacks and drinks available at any point. She buys lunch for everyone each day, and when the days allow, she’ll let her coworkers bring their dog to work along with her giant Saint Bernard, Moose. It’s also become the office tradition to watch Family Feud while indulging in our daily lunch. From what I’ve seen, the environment is a comfortable, hardworking place. They have found the balance between staying relaxed and a high stress, demanding work environment. This is certainly the kind of work environment I will miss.

THE END

(you survived!!!)