Danni Goss - But is it Design

12th January 2012

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Which ways can you use interactive self promotion in obtaining job opportunities?

With the introduction of social media it has be come both easier and harder to obtain jobs. It has become easier because, people that would never have thought of applying for design jobs because they believe they are not good enough are spotted on the internet, at the same time it is becoming more difficult because of these people being identified. This means that the people that are actually aiming to get hired are not, because there are so many designers on the net.

Personal websites: Anyone can create websites now, there are even websites that will create one for you. creating a portfolio website is a good way to promote yourself, it makes you seem professional and dedicated; usually because you have to pay for your own website and because it is just about your work, it isnt a social networking website so the only thing to concentrate on is your work. there is nothing to get distracted by.

Art sites:
There are websites such as deviantART that have the soul purpose of displaying art work. The main downside to a website like this is the sheer volume of work on there, it means your work may get overshadowed and therefore never seen.

Facebook: 

Facebook is a good website for promotion because you can send invitations to everyone you are friends with to see your work and they can then invite their friends etc, so work can go a long way, the only problem is that facebook is not professional and that would reflect negatively on your work. For instance, photographers criticize other photographers for putting their images on facebook to linger with all the mobile photo’s of people posing in some generic way and drunk teenagers.

Tumblr and other blog sites: Websites like tumblr are the most useful way of promoting yourself as a designer because they do not have a bad reputation and they are free to use. as well as this you can also make your own designs and layouts so that it seems more like a personal website and the way you choose to lay it out shows what you are like as a person instead of having a generic blue and white layout. One of the best things about Tumblr is hashtagging, you can hashtag posts, so when people search the topic you have hashtagged your post will come up, this means that people searching for a specific type of designer can find you much easier than on other websites. 

Twitter: 
Twitter is only really useful for promoting websites that have you created for work, it can be quite useful if you have a lot of followers on twitter. Once again hashtagging comes in handy here.

Mobiles, Tablets and apps:
A good way to self promote is on apps. Artistic apps for phones and tablets are bound to get you noticed, especially if you are using the app to create designs because you are using a new media, it shows you can adapt which is very important in design considering all the recent shifts in technology. Instagram is a good example, it is purely photos, so you can take photo’s or screen shots of your work and share it. the focus is fully on the images, nothing else. Once again hashtagging makes images easy to find so if an employer was looking for a specific style designer it can be found in an instant.
 

This blog is an example of interactive self promotion, I am promoting my ability to research and then condense information into a blog post.

Tagged: graphic designfacebooktwitter

12th January 2012

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What other skills do you need to acquire? And what steps will you take in obtaining these skills?

Generic skills:

• Confidence - To gain more confidence I will practice presenting in front of people, the more I practice, the more confident I will become.
• Self motivation - I am going to set myself earlier deadlines than the ones that are already given so that I have no choice to motivate myself. I could also use incentives, if I work hard enough and get enough done in a certain time frame I can allow myself to do something more fun than the work such as reading or going somewhere with my friends. 
• Time management - I will create a work schedule/ calender to divide my time evenly between work so that it will all be done in plenty of time.
• Presentation skills - once again, to improve my presentation skills I will practice giving presentations, I will also make sure I am thoroughly prepared for presentations so that I still have my notes to fall back on if I get nervous.
• Communication - I will try talking to people about my work more often to get opinions, this should make it easier for me to communicate with people.
• Numeracy -Although numeracy is not the most important thing for graphic designers to know it is quite important if you are self employed so you can work out hourly rates etc. To improve this I will try to work out how much it would cost for each of my projects on a basic designers salary. 

Subject specific:

•  Hand drawn design - To improve my drawing I can try the drawing a day challenge, where you do at least one drawing every day. 
• Imagination/ creativity - Doodling is supposed to help people be more creative, so I will try and doodle as much as possible. 
• Fear of being bold - Just do it. There is nothing I can do to be bold other than just being bold and trying to do new things. 

Tagged: graphic designdesign bloguniPCAD