Friday, October 14th, involved a lecture from Principle Design Director Joe Hallock. From his experiences at working at Microsoft, he explained how design positions for most companies and firms will involve a spectrum of work that will consistently vary depending on the company one would choose to work as a designer for. Big companies have a lot of differing teams working on, and it’s imperative to understand everyone’s role and function in order to communicate effectively and deliver a satisfactory product for clientele.
Time management is a must-have skill for any and every trade, especially when there’s multiple people relying on others to produce something quality. Joe stressed the importance of setting time aside specifically for proactive work (future responsibilities), and reactive work (short-notice occurrences). When teamwork is necessary, everyone has to pull weight.
Assignment Writeup (300-400 words)
When relating this to personal goals, some of them are pretty simple to line up. Illustrative focus can be applicable to almost anything that’s visually involved. However, when it’s technologically involved, it’s daunting. In regards to design, illustrative positions are specific and executive. Experience is needed, and from what little skills I can transfer from conventional and traditional art mediums, it looks rough. Even with the education provided by the program.
The general applicability of technological knowledge is not without its benefits, with so much of our daily responsibilities and industrial foundations relying on the modernization of computing. The difficulty lies in my personal desires for career: manga. With it’s roots lying in tradition (and niche cultural hysteria), anime and manga is usually a solo act. On my first chapter for my passion project, “Blazer! Blazer!”, I worked with one other artist. Ever since chapter 1’s release on Line Webtoon, chapter 2’s development has been all me. From initial concepts, character design, story writing, background art, all the way down to the storyboards, pencils, inks and screen tones. Additionally, I’m trying to get a physical print edition put in retailers out of my apartment without outsourcing to a printing company. And with prior experiences in freelance illustration spanning from high school to the present (commissioned artwork for other creatives), I’ve gotten too used to the idea of being of my own boss when it comes to creative work. It’s fine if it’s fulfilling, but there is no semblance of income stability in freelance when you’re not an “influencer”. The other side of the spectrum, corporate work, has it’s own set of problems
Teamwork has never been an importance to the development of my comic series. There’s a pride, as well as a solace to working in isolation. It’s mostly a mix of workload efficiency, visual consistency and management of production that drives the preference towards individual work. It would be daft to assume that working as a graphic designer wouldn’t involve communicating with other teams and working with other people. But it’s unnerving how expected it is for us to fit into the uniformity. Nevertheless, I do agree to the core value of understanding different mediums to communicate with specific focuses to specific teams, as freelancing experience has hammered in the importance of the concept.
Communication is scary. To desire something isolating at this stage in my studentship is to also have this naive, grandiose idea that I am capable of being my own boss right outta graduation. But the workload that comes with the lack of communication or cooperative involvement is comforting. This perspective definitely seems like it’d be a great mindset for something in fine arts such as animation or a medium deeper into the illustrative side of things. Which would be great if logistically the value of the artwork created would consistently earn a financial return equivalent in value. The greater landscape of the job market and their pay ultimately feels entrapping. Why wouldn’t I fall in line and work my way up the chain? If it’s the best option numbers wise, why shouldn’t I sacrifice more of my creative energy towards the paycheck?
Admittedly, it’s an uneducated and immature way to look at the process. Especially when design in its very nature has rules. Maybe research would be ideal, for it’s more about studying how the limitations themselves can be a medium. Still, the idea of communicating is scary.
How personal does one have to be in this industry? Creative expression is a conversation that, for some of us, is easier than words. The trade-off being that in a fine arts education, its perfect for making silent artisans that are shooed away from the social norms. And it wouldn’t be as frustrating and cynical of a conclusion if someone early on in the journey had told me no matter what I do in life, I’ll need to learn how to talk with people. Professionalism is easy in writing. Not when I’m talking with someone.
I plan to make use of everything this program has to offer when applying to my passion: to become a manga artist. But realistically, it’s gonna have to be something illustrative. So long as I can draw for a job, there will be no complaints about learning some basic social studies.