Forget your portfolio. It's who and what you know that matters. A presentation by Michael Aron to college seniors studying graphic and interaction design.

1. Forget your portfolio. It’s who and
what you know that matters.
A presentation by
Michael Aron
to college seniors
studying graphic and
interaction design.

2. Your teachers and classmates
are really important.
Lou Seymour Herb
Me
Yasuo Jason Peter Lynda

3. Lou, Herb and Seymour were
classmates at Cooper Union.
Lou Seymour Herb

4. They became design legends and
hired each other in different ways.
Lou Herb
Seymour

5. They also were great teachers.
on Yasuo Herb Lou
Me Seymour
da Peter

6. They hired us after school.
Herb Me Lynda Jason
Lou Yasuo
Seymour Peter

7. At night, I freelanced for Lou.
Herb Lynda Jason
Lou Yasuo Me
Seymour Peter

8. We played musical chairs a bit.
Herb Seymour Lynda Jason Me
Lou Yasuo
Peter Inc.

9. We played musical chairs a bit.
Herb Seymour Me
Lou Yasuo Lynda
Peter Inc. Jason Inc.

10. Eventually, we all started
our own firms.
Yasuo Lynda Me Jason Peter
Inc. Inc. Inc. Inc. Inc.

11. Jason and I merged our companies.
We had 14 employees.
Yasuo Lynda Peter
Inc. Inc. Inc.
Me & Jason Inc.

12. Yasuo became one of our biggest
clients. Lynda and Peter were our
biggest competitors.
Lynda Peter
Inc. Inc.
Yasuo Inc. Me & Jason Inc.

13. After 10 years, I left Jason and
joined Peter’s firm.
Lynda Me & Peter
Inc. Inc.

14. After 9 years, I left Peter to join
Lynda’s firm—where I am today.
Lynda & Me
Inc.

15. So look around the room and figure
out who will be your next boss!
Lou Seymour Herb
Me
Yasuo Jason Peter Lynda

16. Your Craft:
head
can Painting Drawing Color theory
hold Typography Art history Design
a Photography Design Perspective
lot... Calligraphy Film Sculpture
Printmaking Storytelling

17. Disciplines:
Editorial Advertising Fashion
Wayfinding Corporate Packaging
Exhibit Identity Illustration
Experience design Motion design

18. My early tools:
Haber rule Typositor Lazy Lucy
Gouache Ruling pen French curves
Proportion wheel Rapidograph
Rubber cement Waxer

19. Vendors & collaborators:
Writers Illustrators Photographers
Reps Printers Signmakers
Retouchers Programmers
Architects Interior designers

20. Operations:
Bookkeeping Invoicing Payroll
Estimating Tax Profit & loss
Rent Word Excel Powerpoint
SalesForce QuickBooks
Constant Contact Survey Monkey

21. Basic software:
InDesign Illustrator Photoshop
Bridge Dreamweaver Flash
Deltagraph MacOS AutoCAD
iMovie iDVD iPhoto FontBook
Suitcase FontExplorer Keynote
Pages GarageBand Acrobat

22. Advanced stuff:
FinalCutPro Premiere Avid
After Effects CSS3 Javascript
Php JQuery Drupal Wordpress
Joomla Typekit HTML5
iOS SDK iBook Author Balsamiq
Media Queries

23. Lucrative mumbo jumbo:
Consulting Business Intelligence
Databases Analytics Simplification
List management Training
Service design: Value propositions
Personas Journey maps
Service Prototyping

24. If you get it right, you’ll be
fishing in Italy when you retire.
Michael Aron
arondesign.com