Blog

20 Ways to Prepare For a Career in Graphic Design

Many design students have a hard time transitioning from student to employees simply because of a lack of preparation. With the graphic design industry being so competitive, it’s important to make yourself stand out from your competitors. Graphic design is a fast-growing industry that requires a lot of skills from employees. Many students struggle with a real graphic design job because they don’t know what to expect and become overwhelmed. No matter what stage you are at in your career progression, we have complied a list to better help you prepare for your career. Create & design your logo for free using an easy logo maker.com tool.

1. Go to School

There are very few young graphic designers that have such a good combination of skills and awareness to be successful right out of the gate. Having a graphic design degree is a great accomplishment and many employers will weigh more heavily on the fact that you have a certificate compared to someone else. You still need a strong portfolio, but having a graphic design degree under your belt will be impressive.

2. Work Hard

Getting your first job out of graphic design school will be hard work. There is plenty of work out there, but you have to be proactive about your future and search for it. If you do the proper research and connect with the right people in the industry, it will be easier for you to chase down people who will be in the position to offer you a graphic design job.

3. Figure Out Your Specialization

There are many faucets to graphic design – logo design, business card design, brochure design, identity and branding, magazine and book design and advertising. Find out which channel you enjoy the most and work best in. Having a specialization will help you stand out when you’re preparing for your career as a graphic designer.

4. Plan Out Your Courses

Plan out your courses for what will best fit your schedule and lifestyle. If you want to start working sooner, work with school counsellors to fast track your graphic design program so you can start working sooner. If you wish to get more classes to expand your design knowledge (which never hurts anyone), you can also work this into your program.

5. Be Nice

Being nice will get you far in the industry. As you prepare for your career as a graphic designer, remember that many employers are extremely busy. When calling, e-mailing and interviewing with possible employers, remember to be courteous because they are taking the time out of their day to talk with you. Treat people with respect and you’re more likely to get the same in return.

6. Network

Networking is one of the most important things you can do as a graphic design student and the sooner you start, the better. #5 and #6 are connected – if you’re nice to people they are more likely to refer you to someone for a job. Keep in touch with your network of contacts and genuinely be friendly.

7. Master Your Software

Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign are tools you should be familiar and comfortable with. Most employers will expect you to know these tools once you graduate.

8. Take Advantage of Resources

Many of these types of services are not taken advantage of at college. The services are there for a reason – to help you. If you are looking for a job, help with a resume, interview skills, etc. they will more than happy to help you.

9. Do Side Projects or Freelance

The best way to get experience when you are young is to create your own personal projects or freelance on the side. This is also a great way for students to make some extra cash while attending graphic design school. Side projects are a good way to add work to your portfolio that is completely yours. Freelancing is a great way to work on real-world design projects with real clients. Use these experiences as a way to refine and sharpen your skills.

10. Look for Criticism

Nobody’s designs are perfect. That’s why seeking out other people to search for your mistakes is a good way to develop your skills. It may be tough receiving feedback at first because it can feel like your work is being personally attacked. Remember to differentiate yourself from your work and to use it to improve.

11. Find Graphic Design Internships/Placements

Experience is one of the best ways to make yourself stand out. Experience is what will put you on top of the resume pile at graphic design agencies. E-mail or call graphic design agencies you’d like to get the best experience from. Many agencies will take interns without advertising for them (and they may even pay you).

12. Read

Reading is one of the best skills you can inherit when preparing for your career as a graphic designing. Many elements of the design industry change so fast that you’re going to need to be able to keep up with the latest standards. Professionally speaking, reading books and internet articles will make you a smarter designer.

13. Learn Business

Being knowledgable in general business terms will prove to be valuable later in your career. If you ever want to go full-time freelance, you’re going to have to know how to run a business. Taking classes such as economics, marketing, advertising and business communication will be beneficial for you.

14. Be Original

You need to have a personal style. Without you, you can get lots within the hundreds of graphic design students that might be applying for the same jobs you are! A good way to differentiate yourself is to brand yourself. Brand your portfolio, your e-mails, your resume and cover letter and your social media presence. Be consistent across all of them.

15. Have a Portfolio

Not having a portfolio won’t get you very far in the graphic design industry. Portfolios are a way to brand yourself and promote your services. If you don’t have many portfolio pieces, create side projects for yourself, work for friends and family or freelance with real clients.

16. Have a Resume & Cover Letter

Even through some say the resume is now dead in the design industry, it’s still good to have one. If a graphic design job exceeds a number of applications, they won’t have time to look at your design portfolio. Rather, they will just look at your resume to see if you have the minimum requirements for the position. In your cover letter remember to include who you are, why you’re contacting so-and-so and why you want to work at that graphic design
agency.

17. Follow People That Inspire You

Following people you admire is important because it can be a constant source of inspiration. Twitter is a great community for graphic designers because you can easily follow all the “leaders” in the graphic designer industry.

18. Make a List of Places/People You Want to Work For

If one of your goals is to work for a specific agency, do your research before you even graduate. Are they looking for designers? How big is their company? How many employees do they have? What type of work do they normally produce and is it your style? Is the company environment somewhere you can see yourself fitting in?

19. Attend Events

Being active online is great, but meeting others and attending events offline is a great way to connect with the community. Although many of these conferences are rather expensive for graphic design students, if you can attend one, take advantage of it.

20. Do Research on Job Requirements

Job requirements for graphic designers will change slightly from one company to the next. This is a good way to prepare for your career because it lets you know what you should expect on the job. If you don’t know what your employers will be demanding of you, it can be a nerve-racking experience transitioning from student to employee.

Janna Hagan is a web designer from Canada. She is the founder of Student Guide to Web Design and Junior Design Jobs [http://www.juniordesignjobs.com], a resource to better equip design students with the information they need to succeed after graduation.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Janna_A_Hagan/1383713

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7437493

Accomplished Graphic Designers Expand Into the Digital Media Market

The definition of graphic design is expanding as new technologies grow. Skilled graphic designers solve visual communication problems or troubles. Proficient in design, drawing, color, typography, production, and rendering methods, off-set printing, as well as common software used in the graphic-design market such as Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign are necessary. With the development in new media, a comprehension about photography, and time-based and interactive media including film, video, and computer multimedia also are of great importance to keep abreast of technology. Although graphic-designers find solutions primarily for print, advertisements, annual reports, packaging, business stationery, brochures, flyers, catalogues, logos, and just about anything you can think of to help businesses stand out, their design “eye” is also used in electronic media sources such as video and audio recordings, multimedia presentations, slide presentations, CD-ROM and website content. A fancy onlinelogomaker company delivers a quality professional website, logo, corporate and company design solutions.

Determining the social and cultural norms of a specific audience helps graphic artists efficiently construct visual solutions. They need to identify the communication’s issue, then collect and examine information related to the issue, and finally crank out numerous approaches to solve the problem. Effective graphic design is perceived as understandable, appropriate, and useful. We see graphic design everywhere in our daily lives in magazines, newspapers, and books, in hand made work, on painted canvas, expressed through photography, or in pure text. The work of graphic artists and its impression has been around for many years.

While in art school, students take graphic and design courses aimed at both print and multimedia design. It is in the best interest of graphic artists to be introduced to both areas, because many designers work in the visual development of web design. If artists want to remain competitive, graphic / web designers must keep up to date with the latest software and computer technologies. In the constantly changing field of graphic design, there are website designers who also are graphic designers and vice versa. However, there are other artists who have decided to specialize only in print related graphic design or only in web site design and its development with a concentration on the technical side of web site building.

It’s fascinating to note that currently many people associate graphic artists only with the print medium. But the times are changing. Even though website designers are not able to exist without the web, and graphic artists really don’t need the web to practice their profession, there are numerous artists involved in the visual creation of websites. Within just the commercial art fie31ld there are discussions among artists about the differences between graphic and web designers. Many feel that website design is a sub category of graphic-design.

However, website designers have to take into consideration content design and usability, user experience, and other functional criteria which all relate to the particular features of the Web medium. Website designers need more skills beyond those of traditional graphic artists, whereas the conventional graphic designer continues to find answers to communication problems by deciding on color, font, and images. The conventional graphics job may call for branding such as logo design that showcase a particular idea or identity to be used in a business enterprise’s advertising and other marketing strategies, or almost anything you can think of to enable a group stand out, or it may require constructing posters, signs, brochures, books, or incredible images in the digital media.

Discerning graphic artists do become knowledgeable about the wants for elegant web design while working closely with the web developers, who will turn their visual web designs into the code which enables them to be displayed on the Internet. For the artists who also welcome the technical side of web site creation, they may end up either exchanging their graphic artists’ role for website designer hats or just using both simultaneously!

Although website designers are not able to exist without the web, and graphic designers do not need the web to practice their profession, there are a variety of artists interested in the visual development of web design. Hopping Mad Designs is a top rated graphic design and web design business located in Sydney and Melbourne.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Holly_A_Madison/1386160

Foodee Raises $6 Million Series A to Expand Corporate Catering in the US

Canadian Corporate Catering Events Poised to Continue Rapid Expansion Plans

VANCOUVER, BC–(Marketwired – February 03, 2016) – Foodee, a food concierge service that delivers meals from local restaurants to company boardrooms, today announced it has closed $6 million CAD in a Series A funding, led by BDC Capital, to fuel its ongoing expansion into US markets. To date, Foodee has raised $10 million from key Canadian and US investors including Yaletown Venture Partners, Voyager Capital, and Structure Capital.

Going after the 10 billion dollar corporate catering market, Foodee has capitalized on an unmet need within the food delivery space. Since launching in Vancouver in 2012 it has grown rapidly, establishing over 4000 customers, 250+ restaurant partnerships, and successfully expanding to Toronto, Austin, Denver, and Philadelphia. Foodee is gearing up to launch Atlanta and Minneapolis in March with several more US cities planned throughout 2016.

“Building on our success in Toronto, Vancouver, and our three pilot cities in the US, we are excited to continue our expansion plans to get quality food into boardrooms across North America,” said Ryan Spong, CEO of Foodee. “Many on-demand apps create more work but less profit for the restaurants on their platform. We’re looking forward to giving our new restaurant partners large, off-peak corporate orders that in many cases double their lunch-time revenue.”

Foodee has set itself apart from other consumer-focused services like Postmates, Caviar and DoorDash, by catering specifically to corporate clientele and partnering with high-demand restaurants that don’t deliver. Through its innovative end-to-end service, Foodee elevates all nodes on the corporate customer experience, from sales to live customer care to highly trained, office appropriate waiter-delivery staff. The tech-enabled platform ensures group dining is on-time, accurate and top quality.

“Food is a bonding experience for many people, and something that can bring a high level of morale and commadarie between coworkers. By bringing the best food from local restaurants, we’re providing companies the ability to offer their employees something beyond the traditional.”

“We’re proud to invest in a company that is resolving the corporate catering challenge all companies across North America share,” said Andrew Lugsdin, Foodee investor and partner at BDC Venture Capital. “In the upcoming months, we look forward to watching Foodee’s next wave of expansion success.”

For more information about Foodee, or to order your next business lunch please visit www.food.ee.

About Foodee

Foodee has made its mission to solve the biggest problems facing the corporate lunch hour: a lack of variety, meals that arrive too early or too late, and excessive package waste. Paying close attention to its impact on the environment, Foodee uses biodegradable packaging, low emission delivery methods and has partnered with in-office composting programs to lower the carbon “foodprint” around the corporate lunch. Foodee has satisfied lunchtime cravings with Fortune 500 companies such as Apple, Amazon, Comcast, eBay, Facebook, Microsoft, Starbucks, and more.

How To Protect Your Car And Treat It For Rust

Cars today are more expensive than ever. Many cost more than the average Americans paycheck. Most Americans have car loans that average over 60 or even 72 months. That’s basically 6 year car loans with very hefty payments, so if we are going to invest that much money, not to include taxes and insurance, in our cars than we best protect them and make them last as long as possible. One area of grave importance is rust protection and treatment. Australia’s leading provider of car detailing products waxit.com.au uses car polish machine and dual action polishers that make your care shine.

Rust is like cancer for a car. Once it starts it will only get worse and grow. Being that every car manufacturer except Saturn uses sheet metal and all use metal frames and undersides, rust is a major problem. Rust isn’t just a northern state problem. It can happen anywhere that there is moisture, extreme weather, salt (road salt used in winter weather and salty air and spray from the ocean). Rust can be prevented and treated, however.

We have seen commercials showing us what extreme weather and conditions can do to our cars and trucks. Your vehicles sheet metal is coated by a thin protection of primer paint and clear coat. All it takes is a small nick, a chip, road debris, even hail to cause this very thin protective layer to become damaged. Even the smallest damage like a little cut can let in moisture and this will start the oxidation of the metal commonly called rust. Rust is basically a loss of electrons which weakens the metal and allows oxidation to occur. Every car gets door dings in grocery parking lots, rock chips from trucks and vehicles on the road (tip, never follow a construction truck too closely as they are always throwing rocks), etc.

It is a good practice to clean and wax your car at least every two weeks and while doing so, look for any possible areas where rust could start. Look for nicks, scratches, dings, anything that breaks through the paint. It is important to notice these areas as early as possible so you can prevent rust from ever starting. To treat a deep nick or scratch, it is important to cover the spot and seal it from moisture.

Touch up paint matched for your cars exact color will of course look best and give good protection. If touch up paint is not readily available you can use a clear touch up or even clear nail polish. Be sure to use a toothpick instead of the included brush for application. The included brush will put on too much and actually make the repair standout. It will build up both sides of the scratch or nick. A toothpick works better as it will put the touch up paint directly where it is needed, inside the cut, nick or scratch.

For best results either go to an automotive dealer or an automotive parts store whom can easily locate your particular cars paint. The exact paint will look best and help hide the repair. Some cars have clear coats and will look best with a clear coat touch up after the initial repair. This will help seal out moisture and keep your car rust free.

If rust has already started than there are treatments available for this. It is a little more involved, though. You must sand the area until the rust is gone and there is just bare metal. Wal Mart carries a scratch repair pen that works great for minimizing the area affected. Next a product like NeutraRust is added. This will actually chemically alter any rust that is left and prime and seal the surface for paint.

It is a good idea to check the underside of the metal where the rust occurred to make sure it hasn’t penetrated to the other side. If it has then treat it the same way, but instead of touch up paint there are under car spray treatments that will give thicker and longer lasting protection.

For surface area repairs follow up with touch up paint. This also works with larger areas, but it may be easier to have a body shop do the job as the results will be much more noticeable. A good idea that will save you some money is to stop by your local car dealers used car department. Ask for the paint touch up guy that they use or what days he comes. He will do the repair for you at a fraction of what a body shop would charge and it will be very professional.

There you have it, how to treat and prevent rust from little nicks to bigger problems. A little proper care really can make your car last that much longer.

For more great information, tips, safety and money saving products for your car or truck please visit: Best headlight restoration, Cloudy headlights, Paintless dent repair.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/David_Maillie/19149

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/311252

Stellar Auto Repair Tips And Tricks For You

Getting a car fixed can be costly. It becomes so expensive because you are paying for both parts and labor. Isn’t it far cheaper to learn to do the work on your own? Thanks to the wonderful advice in the below article, this is possible. It hard to distinguished the car paint protection Sydney that will work unless you will try it. The only solution is to find a good reviews in the web.

Never underestimate the value of keeping an emergency car kit handy. Be sure the kit has tools for charging the battery, adding gas to the tank, and changing tires. Also, flashlights, batteries and blankets are all crucial items as well.

Make sure you often check the radiator. Run your car for a bit, turn off the engine and then open the hood. Do not lift the radiator lid when the engine is running or if it is too hot. Check the level of fluid in radiator and add any if necessary. Be mindful that some coolants are meant to be mixed with 50% water.

There are certain repairs that you can do yourself. Many things can be easily fixed. Check online to find out what might be wrong with your car. If it’s a quick repair to make, you can save yourself some cash by doing it yourself.

Prior to paying for any repairs you’ve had done, you should go on a drive to figure out if it was really fixed. Many people fail to do this and they end up having the same problem that they had before taking the car in to get it repaired.

Be careful of mechanics who will do unnecessary work on your vehicle. Good mechanics will tell you about worn down pieces without replacing them automatically. If an auto technician performs unnecessary repairs or repairs that were not agreed upon beforehand, don’t return to them for further services.

Ask for parts that are classified as OEM parts. These parts are the genuine article, produced by your car’s original manufacturer. Generic parts might be cheaper, but they may not be good enough quality. What may seem like a deal now can cost twice as much as buying OEM in the first place.

Prior to picking an auto repair shop, speak with people you know regarding their experiences with shops. Your family and friends may have a few recommendations for you that will make your search much easier. Don’t rely entirely on what your friends tell you, though; do your own research. Use the web as a resource to find information about car repair shops.

Remove unnecessary key chains. The ignition of your car is not meant to hold much weight. Although these keychains may not feel heavy to you, they will to your car. If your key starts sticking, you need to change the tumblers and eliminate the troll buddy that’s weighing down your keychain!

Your car still needs to be washed during the winter, even though the weather makes it more difficult. Although it may seem like a waste of time, winter weather can really damage your vehicle. Sand and salt is something that can cause rust and abrasions. Dry your car as often as you can during the winter to maintain quality.

When auto repair issues are complicated, don’t diagnose them yourself. Don’t forget that you are not a repair wizard. Problems can be more complicated than they initially appear. Let repair shops diagnose your vehicle. Be knowledgeable about the details, but let the repair shop make the diagnosis.

OEM is something that means Original Equipment Manufacturer. You need to know this when replacing parts. If you specify that you want original equipment manufacturer parts, the mechanic will think you know what you’re talking about. This will make someone less likely to try placing used parts on your vehicle.

A lot of auto repair is based on people being consistent in what they do. If you have a mechanic that you trust, then stick with them. Each shop may provide a different answer to your problem. They might also charge you more for the work done.

Having AAA on your side when it comes to auto repairs can be extremely beneficial. This is a great service to have when you are stranded and need help. In fact, you will often find that AAA will have discounts that will save you a lot of money.

For things that aren’t too difficult to repair, like putting fluids in your car, you should be afraid to take care of these things. Don’t be fooled into thinking that only a professional mechanic can change your oil or check your fluids. Realize what you’re getting yourself into, but don’t be afraid to get dirty!

Getting your car fixed at the dealer’s mechanic can cost more, but it if often the best choice. You can rest assured that the technician working on your car is a specialist who know their way around your model. They can pinpoint the problem quickly and are trained to fix problems common to your model. They are trained frequently, too.

Cars need repairs, it’s just the way life goes. This does not mean that you need a mechanic for the repairs. It is possible to do your own repairs. This article will be a huge help.