Dream Job.

I see a dream job as a place and type of work you are happy to go to every day. I know this is a little bit out there in the fantasy land because reality gets in the way and you might not get what you want when you want it. A perfect job for me is the kind that keeps me excited no matter how challenging it is. For my first job I want a place that would let me grow and accept that I am still learning, but will push towards becoming a better designer. The last thing I want is a job where I know everything and all I have to do is show up at 9am and look at the clock for the rest of the day. My dream job is also the kind that has good management and a good team. I think both of those are essential to a good experience for an employee.
I am pretty sure that my dream job does not involve coding or web development. I am fascinated by the tactile nature of print and the possibilities of making it more sustainable while attractive and interactive. My idea of "interactive" print is something that serves as a means of communicating a message and does it in a way that is creating an interesting experience for the user. I see myself working at a place that is heavily based on research and documentation and founds its design decisions on carefully studied results. It is not to say I want to be purely a researcher, but I want my work to have meaning.
I am interested in publication design, book design, print media that compiles information and organizes it in a clear manner. I think I am falling in love with typography and grids, so I would imagine those to be a big part of what I do. I am very interested in user experience and their interaction with the artifact, so packaging can be something I can do one day. Since I also enjoy creating systems that have a consistent theme and feel to them, I see branding in my future as well. I don't think brands are evil monsters that are out to get us. I know great branding agencies that design socially-conscious smart brands. Working in the brand industry would allow me to explore various media and become more informed about the everyday influence of brands.
Some say that any job is an experience, even if it is not exactly what you envisioned for yourself. Hopefully I will get a job that will have at least some of the important aspects that I mentioned.

Wooo! Holidays!

Senior Year 2009-2010

The senior year in design just started. This semester is in a way a preparation for the final degree project. I am taking three design classes as well as an illustration elective and liberal arts. My design classes are Visual Advocacy (VA), Design Systems (DS) and Multimedia Experience (ME). I will use this blog to document process in all my classes, including illustration. (Image below found on FFFFound.com)

T4: Just some thoughts.

I thought a little bit about the discussion our class had today and realized that it corresponds with something that I wrote during the summer on my Z Intern blog. Even though the "loosey-goosey" approach to this project is something unusual and was not practiced in our previous classes, I feel like it is one of the projects most relevant to the "real" world. We don't have set deadlines in this project and it is interesting to see how people manage their time and progress. I feel like not having a red flag in the calendar, screaming "TURN IT IN" allows us to be more focused on the process rather than the outcome. It is important because we will not always be responsible in the outcome, while the process can sometimes belong to us completely. So I guess this projects teaches our some non-design skills too, which is a pretty good addition to the usual learning outcomes.