After hearing from Joe Hallock, the principal design director at Microsoft and seeing the diagram he created to illustrate the different types of work he encounters for commercial design I began thinking about the kind of work I would like to do outside of the Seattle Central program. Hallock’s chart was comprised of four different sections; high information density, low information density, broad audience, and specific audience. On the high information density and low information density spectrum he had examples such as specialty icons on the lower end and medical illustrations on the higher end. For the broad audience and narrow audience spectrum he had the examples of airport signage on the low side and research portals for the high side. If I had to choose, the type of work I would ideally want to make would fall somewhere in the lower left square in the low information density and specialized audience area. I think I would work best in this portion of the graph because I enjoy creating logos and icons as appose to page layout and user experience design. I also think the types of designs I do don’t appeal to a very large audience. I’m not saying this to try and portray myself as edgy or different I just think the work I create has a more industrial and pragmatic twist to it which I understand is not everyone’s cup of tea. On the other hand I also think designing for a very niche audience is a negative aspect as much as is it a good one. First off limiting yourself like that limits the amount of people you can work with and people who will appreciate what you do. I also believe it’s always a good thing to try and design outside of your comfort zone when possible. I’m happy with my ability to design but I don’t want to get to happy with it and stop exploring what else I may be able to do.
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