Harry Cole

During my time at Seattle Central Creative Academy, I’ve thought a lot about how graphic designers often create content as well as curate/present it. As a graphic designer, I’ve found it helpful to be a mindful viewer and creator of current work in other mediums. I love reading new fiction and poetry, watching movies for their color/cinematography/pacing, and looking at art and fashion magazines. The photography and video industry is fascinating to me in particular because there are so many comparisons to draw between those industries and graphic design. 

When AJ Hanneld, an SCCA graphic design alum, spoke last Friday to our cohort, someone asked about the potential threat AI poses for graphic design jobs. In response, Hanneld talked about how so many people thought the film industry would begin to rapidly shift and die down in an age where basically anyone could shoot video on their phones, edit rapidly in iMovie, and post directly to Youtube or social media platforms. Which obviously didn’t happen; the film industry is alive and relatively well. Hanneld, told us not to worry, that AI wouldn’t take away our jobs, and I agree. But it’s interesting to think about how the way we think as professionals in the design and film industries does change, for better or for worse, because many of the technologies we use have become commonplace and automated so that the general public can easily create content. 

I think that to stay relevant as a designer or photographer/videographer, one should be as attuned to the aesthetics of personal content such as memes, Instagram photos, TikTok, Youtube blogs as one is to fashion branding or mainstream cinema. In my design history course this quarter, we talked about the social media website BeReal and how we’re at a cultural moment which prizes integrity, casual aesthetics, and diy-ness while distrusting things which are too sleek and corporate. 

I’ve always loved and wanted to create work within this gray area between professional and amateur, well crafted and diy. I got interested in graphic design in high school by scrolling through tumblr and other blogs on the internet that blew my mind through their surprising aesthetics, content, and interactivity. Today, I see many personal Instagram accounts (many are artists, djs, musicians) which shock and surprise with their content, captivating me in ways that lots of professional branding or content fails to do. 

In both graphic design and photo/video, I feel like it’s beneficial to explore and make work at different points on this spectrum. If I was a photographer, I could see both DSLR product photography and artistic polaroids playing a role in my life, even if one doesn’t really pay the bills. Similarly, as a graphic designer, I want to get good at making both corporate branded websites and collage art, each thing has its own place in my life.

Ownership

I’m great at taking ownership for my actions when I do well and good about being pretty honest with myself and others when I’m not doing well on a task. During my Interactive class this quarter, I came in pretty confident knowing that I had taken a couple programming classes before. Ironically, it became the course that I’ve occasionally fallen behind on and have had the most trouble with mastering concepts. I worked with Maria and Pao for our first project, which was a redesign of the Yale School of Art website. Honestly, I had fallen behind in learning about Javascript plugins for the class and ended up focusing on the visual design and project management for my team. I think taking ownership about strengths and weaknesses in my performance allows me to work better on teams and complete tasks more efficiently. 

Learn and Be Curious

I don’t feel any hesitation about diving into subject matter I’m not completely familiar with. During a previous work experience as an administrative assistant for a psychologist, I had to pick up new skills quickly in order to fill in knowledge gaps at my office. Without having any previous knowledge or experience in accounting, I learned Quickbooks software and became the main bookkeeper for my employer, a task that I came to look forward to at work. This taught me to be pretty open to learn things that I didn’t necessarily think were in my skill set when needed. 

Deep Dive

I love diving into interests and reading about topics that interest me. While I was an art student during a previous degree, I realized that I was also interested in graphic design. I started following lots of graphic designers on social media platforms, read graphic design classics such as Grid Systems and Elements of Typographic Style, and collected designs I was interested in on a Pinterest account. I feel like continuing these small routine habits over long periods of time has allowed me to develop an eye for design, and I’m happy to finally get some formal training in the field!

Strive to be Earth’s Best Employer

I don’t believe that any large corporation is ‘earth’s best employer,’ but I do think that large corporations have an important part to play in the future of our planet. For that reason, I would like to hear more from workers at Amazon about what people could do at the individual level to make things better within their company.

During summer of 2019, I landed an internship as a graphic designer for a large art museum. I got this job through a good interview, and I hadn’t even shown the design team any past work or portfolio beyond the typography on my resume. Although I had some print production job experience and had taken a UX design class before, I quickly realized that I was in for a wake up call. 

So I learned a lot the hard way about what makes a good graphic design intern and what I didn’t bring to the table at this job. I feel like I’m a strong conceptual thinker, but a design intern is not a design lead. My Adobe Suite skills were advanced to me yet beginner to everyone I was working with.

So I realized that software efficiency, file management and sharing, and good communication skills are the things that can make or break an internship experience. Also, I was an art major who spent most of my creative energy working alone and being someone defensive about my artistic decisions during critiques. 

While learning these lessons the hard way felt difficult in the moment, I now have a more realistic view of what working in the design profession is like. I now view graphic design as a means of efficiently helping and/or communicating with others, which is a far different skill set from my background as a 2D visual artist. It also freed me from being as precious with the work that I make. If a client or boss can’t understand or doesn’t feel like my design decisions are working towards what the piece is trying to communicate, it actually feels good to change the work. Something I didn’t often feel as an artist. 

And additionally, during the internship, I met some younger professionals working on my team who were both designers and artists. I used to think that you had to choose one or the other. And I’m glad I don’t feel that way about my creative and professional life anymore. I’m interested in how the two are different yet feed off one another.