Day 10

My day in three words would be "long, slow, rainy". I spent most of my time today working on my second design, but Photoshop keep giving me a message saying there wasn't enough RAM space to do anything and it took over five minutes to save just once. I worked on the design, and after I figured it would be more productive to work on Dailies, I restarted the computer to help clear up the RAM and memory and worked on some. The only interesting bit of my time there was that it rained so hard we could hear it. It had a nice, soft, muffled beat to it, so it was relaxing (I'm just glad it stopped before I left--I didn't want to get my suit wet!).

As I was working, I had to wait for the computer to render things a lot, so I got to thinking. I thought about what my mom said about how I shouldn't be taking my work home, and I do it anyway, so I thought, "is it okay? Does anybody else ever do it? I know teachers take home their work a lot...". I mean, I like doing art and designing things! I would have done it even if I weren't at work. It's a hobby. So if it's for work and I like doing it, I would definitely do it on my own time.

Five Interview Questions
I already got some done yesterday, so I'll post the answers to the new ones once I have them.

Is there a reward for what you do, and if there is, is it worth it? What motivates you to work?
Yeah, there are times when you feel a certain satisfaction, when you design something well. Basically, you're just taking pride in your work.
It's more for me, a personal thing, where if I design something well, I'm generally happy. The flip side of that coin is when you don't have time to put into something that I feel is deserved, or a lot of time we're rushing and you don't get to do the best possible job, and I like to do quality work. And so that's kind of the flip side. When I get to do quality work, I enjoy that, and if for whatever reason if there's not time for that, that could be demotivating.
There are elements I like, and there are elements that drive me insane.
[I like it] When I actually get to spend time designing, or when I get to work with the designers in the room on a project that comes out well or I think is successful.
[It drives me insane] Just kind of the day-in day-out grind, and dealing with people that either don't know what they're talking about, don't know what they're doing... Just people who are either incompetent or bad ideas and you have to execute on them anyway.

Are you/do you feel successful, and what is your idea of success/being successful?
I feel alright. I definitely... I guess when I was your age, I thought I would probably be more successful.
[What is your idea of success then?] Being more in-control of your own destiny. I assumed I would have something that was more mine and less part of a team like this.

What advice do you have for a beginner? What would you advise aspiring graphic designers to do?
I think you have to put in way more, for anyone who wants to be a designer, you have to put in way more work than you probably think you do. There are so many people who think they're designers, but they're not--they either lack the drive, the intelligence, or the motivation to be really successful with it--there's a lot of mediocre and bad designers out there. The other thing is that there are a lot of good designers out there, so there's a lot of competition, and if you don't offer something really special, it's one of those things you're something like a [dime a dozen]. Design is also like everything else right now, where it's a very global marketplace, you know you're competing with people in China and India and Europe and Brazil, all over--and so, to be like a design star, where you get to pick your clients, like Nike or Apple or whoever is coming to you and going like "we want you to do the work", now that's like a handful of people. It's kind of like, to be a star in design is something like being a star in professional sports, where it's like, you're going to have to put a lot of effort in and on top of that you have to have the talent to back it up. So I would say my advice to anyone who's wanting to pursue a career in design is just like, you need to really be working really hard and always looking at what else is out there, and you know, don't compare yourself against other students. Compare yourself against the best work you can find in the world, because that's what you're up against, not the other kids in your class. When I was in high school I was always like, "Oh I'm the best drawer in my class," and it's like, "alright well, that's 30 kids, so what?". It's more like, it's not whether you're better than the 30 random kids in your class, or are you better than the 500 thousand people you're competing against? There's a lot of people going into design, so I'd say, it's basically, kind of find something that's original about you--part of design is having a unique perspective, especially if you're getting more into illustration--and basically working really hard, not being satisfied with where you're at.

Do you ever take your work home?
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Where do you see yourself in a few years? Is there someplace better you want to be (promotion, better-paying job, etc.), or are you satisfied with working at Skinit?
I really don't know. I have no idea. I would imagine, it depends on what sort of time frame, but I'd either be here, maybe... I worked freelance for a while, so kind of having my own design studio, I mean I did that for 4 years prior to Skinit, I was a freelance designer, so I was my own studio. So maybe going back to that, maybe working for another firm, or maybe doing something totally different--maybe getting into teaching, perhaps.