How to market yourself as a designer once you graduate

1. Designer U
job hunting tips for new graphic designers
—Mitzie Testani, Interactive Designer

2. Steps
– Marketing yourself
– Getting experience
– Resources

3. GETTING IT
Five opportunities to see (OTS) are believed required for
a reasonable [advertising] impact....To achieve [this] may
require 20 or 30 peak-time transmissions of a commercial,
or a significant number of insertions of press advertise-
ments in the national media.
— D. Ogilvy, ‘Ogilvy on Advertising’ (Pan Books, 1983)
via Wikipedia

4. Almost 30 years later, how many more times
should your information be visible in a market with
distracted attention spans that are now spread thin
over a multitude of channels? You must create your
own opportunities.
— Mitzie Testani
interactive designer & sometimes job hunter

5. Competition{s}
Getting in front of the right audience.

6. Competitions
Low range
CMYK Magazine $45/15 ImaGEs | Creative Quarterly $10 EaCH
Adobe Design Achievement FREE | AIGA somE FREE wITH mEmbERsHIp

7. Competitions
High range
Communication Arts $35 sINGlE ENTRY / $70 sERIEs
Art Director’s Club $35 pER ENTRY | HOW Design $30-50 pER ENTRY
Print Magazine $50-75 pER ENTRY | Graphis $60 sTudENT ENTRY

8. Portfolio{s}
Channels for exposure.

9. Portfolios
Fees/membership benefit
AIGA | Creative Hotlist | Graphis | Design Taxi | Art Director’s

10. Portfolios
Free or partially free
Behance.net | Coroflot.com | Flickr.com | Cargocollective.com
Carbonmade.com | Shownd.com | Squarespace.com
Viewbook.com | Dripbook.com | Virb.com

11. Portfolios
Blog/microblog
Linkedin.com | Facebook.com | Twitter.com | Google+
Posterous.com | Wordpress.com

12. Portfolios
Highly recommended, with a note of caution
You.com

13. A quick glance at the markup
will also tell me how organized
[the] designer is.
—Jeffrey Veen
Five steps to a better design portfolio
November, 2006

14. Options
Designer for Designer +
front-end or front-end
developers developer

15. Designer for
front-end
developers
Should understand
• How integrate cross print/multi-channel with interactive
• Wireframing and site maps
• Design patterns
• Technical capabilities of code or interaction
• How to work with information architects
• How to fight for usability over form/features
• How to create hierarchical navigation systems

16. Designer +
front-end
developer
Should understand designers’ requirements, plus
• Accessibility
• HTML / CSS /Javascript
• Responsive interaction design
• How to work with back end developers
• Be willing to grow coding knowledge
• How to translate to clients

17. Portfolio building
• Self-authored dEsIGN pRaCTICE
• Volunteer ClIENT pRaCTICE, basElINING
• Freelance ENTREpRENEuRIal pRaCTICE

18. Start list
• Logo
• Stationery
• Timesheet
• Contract
• Estimate form
• Invoice

19. Resources
Interactive
InterACT with Web Standards: A holistic approach to web design aaRRoN
walTER, VIRGINIa dEbolT, dEREk FEaTHERsToNE & dENIsE R. JaCobs
CSS in Easy Steps mIkE mCGRaTH
Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design aNdY ClaRkE
Designing with Web Standards (3rd Edition) JEFFREY ZEldmaN
Responsive Web Design ETH aN maRCoTTE
Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML ERIC T FREEmaN, ElIsabETH FREEmaN
& ElIsabETH RobsoN

20. Resources
Freelance
Graphic Artist’s Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines GRapHIC
aRTIsTs GuIld
The Designer’s Guide to Marketing and Pricing IlIsE bENuN & pElEG Top
Graphic Designer’s Guide to Pricing, Estimating & Budgeting Revised Edition
THEo sTEpHaN wIllIams
Business and Legal Forms for Graphic Designers (3rd Edition) EVa domaN
bRuCk & Tad CRawFoRd

21. Thanks.

22. Sources
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising_media_selection
• http://www.designstudentresource.com
• http://veen.com/jeff/archives/000935.html
• http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2011/06/14/uietips-ux-practicing/