FullBleed » Education

Fresh Face: Jamielyn Smith

Stephanie Hay — Tue, 18 May 2010 16:29:12 +0000

Until very recently, Jamielyn Smith never lived in the same house for more than three years. While growing up as the second of five kids (three boys and two girls) in a family having a father in the Navy, the 23-year-old San Diego native remembers loving to create things.

“I had a subscription to Highlights for Children magazine and would always do the craft projects. I also did all the projects in old rainy day craft books for kids and would get different craft kits and art supplies for my birthday and Christmas.”

But it would be composing photographs that would lead Smith to an ongoing outlet for her passion for creation. At only 11, she started taking pictures with a friend. Then, at 12, she went to visit that friend in Phoenix and took a lot of photos of the city’s landscape. Her parents noticed her talent, and they decided to foster her skills by giving her a Canon SLR camera for Christmas.

From there, she set goals, worked hard, tried new things, and got involved in creative endeavors while continuing to hone her aesthetic eye, which she said really developed while in college at George Mason University.

“I had never been to DC before, but I have always loved the art found in cities and wanted to be close to a big city. I didn’t go to art school because I originally thought about majoring in International Relations or Journalism. I didn’t really know that you could make a living as an artist. But after going to one International Relations class, I realized that I would rather be studying art and photography.”

She expanded her existing knowledge of art and photography to sculpture, print-making, digital photography, web design, and graphic design. She helped to start a magazine, emDash, under the guidance and lead of her faculty adviser, Jandos Rothstein, though, she said that most of her photography and design professors also had a huge influence on her, including Peggy Feerick, Jessica Rodríguez, Shanshan Cui, Elliott de Luca, and Anne Kerns.

“[Jessica Rodriguez] exposed us to a lot of designers and different types of design. After taking her class, I decided that I liked graphic design enough to change my concentration. I learned concepts in my fine art and photography classes that I later applied to my designs, like color theory and composition. Anne [Kerns] also has her own business and is really involved in the DC design scene, so it was great to learn from someone who is actively practicing her craft. She also encouraged us to attend lectures and events and even had a few designers speak to our class.”

Now, having graduated in January with a B.F.A. in Graphic Design, Smith is looking to start her career full-time at a creative studio somewhere in DC or near her parents in Virginia Beach.

“I hope to be working on projects with a social conscience. One of my favorite projects in school was when we were required to create a brochure that brought awareness to a problem in the world. I did my brochure on TOMS Shoes, a business that gives a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair of shoes they sell. It made me realize the power of design and how designers can use their talent to create positive social change.”

She’s excited about finding similar innovative and impactful work among the DC creative community.

“I can see how people who are unfamiliar with DC would think that it’s really conservative and designers are only doing work for the government, but they couldn’t be more wrong. There are some amazingly talented designers and studios that are producing really creative and award-winning work in the area.”

And she’s already got a track record of taking initiative to market herself and create her own opportunities; for example, she landed an internship her senior year at KINETIK after sending her resume and portfolio asking if they needed an intern … and without their advertising for one.

“It was great to see KINETIK’s design process and what goes into creating a project. In school, you’re normally working by yourself and, although you are assigned some bigger projects as you progress through the design program, most of the projects are fairly small in comparison. But in the real world of design, the projects are on a much bigger scale, and there are many different moving parts and multiple people working on the same project. Even when I was just making photocopies of a round of project revisions or purging old job folders, I got to see the process behind the project, which is not something that every student gets to experience.”

That real-world design process introduction – combined with her collegiate experiences and some good advice to “be open-minded and learn from other people” – has motivated Smith to continue developing her abilities as a designer.

“It’s important to be open-minded because you can’t learn or grow if you always think you’re right. Plus, you can get so attached and involved when you’re working on a project, it can be hard to see where it can be improved unless someone else critiques it. And, after you graduate, you still have a lot to learn, so it’s important to be around people who are more experienced and are better designers than you are.”

She finds great design and inspiration in the DIY movement spearheaded by websites like BuyOlympia and Etsy, which feature artists who create handmade items. Someday, Smith hopes to create a line of handmade paper goods and housewares that she could sell.

But, until then, she’ll be looking for the right studio to start her post-graduate design career and polishing her portfolio, which you can see at her portfolio site: www.jamielyn-smith.com.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Lisa Greenfield — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 13:32:22 +0000

http://www.flickr.com/photos/paurian/

I just finished reading Katie O’Brien’s useful article in a recent FullBleed entitled,“Talking ’bout a Resolution.”. (Better late than never, I suppose!) One New Year’s tip she suggested was to “pick 12 museums and dedicate each month to going to a different one.” I think for budget-minded DC creative types, this is an ideal resolution concept that few other metropolitan areas could better fulfill.

In this regard, I thought it would be a good time to re-submit an article I completed several years back when FullBleed was actually printed. I was asked to write an article about a museum of my choice for an upcoming museum-themed issue. That issue was never published …and a lot of time has gone by. But the murder of Officer Tyrone Johns on June 10, 2009, in the entrance of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum underscores the relevance of this museum and the need to raise awareness of hate crimes that, sadly, continue to exist across the globe today — and in DC, too.

The current exhibit, State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda, reveals how the Nazi Party used modern techniques, new technologies, and carefully crafted messages to sway millions with its vision for a new Germany. Since we as ADCMW members are involved in creating communications, I think a visit to this excellent museum would be a valuable resolution to keep. 30-minute guided tours  of the Propaganda exhibition are offered on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Inquire at the museum’s information desk for tour times. The museum is free, but timed tickets must be obtained at entrance.

What follows is a brief overview of the design/logistical evolution of the museum.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

This museum will touch the life of everyone who enters and leave everyone forever changed—a place of deep sadness and a sanctuary of bright hope…if this museum can mobilize morality then those who have perished will thereby gain a measure of immortality.

— William J. Clinton, April 22, 1993

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum was created by an act of Congress in 1980 and is largely funded by the United States as America’s national institution for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust history. It serves as our country’s memorial to the millions who suffered during this grim period. Its mission is threefold: to educate, preserve memory, and provoke visitors to think about moral and spiritual questions raised by the Holocaust.

The architecture of the museum is provoking on a subconscious level – it is multifaceted and multilayered. The architect, James Ingo Freed,of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, is Jewish, was born in Esser, Germany, and is a Holocaust survivor. His parents sent he and his sister to the United States to escape, and they were unable to reunite for several years.

To prepare for this commission and inform his design, Freed traveled to the sites of camps and ghettos. The more he learned, the more difficult his job became. Materials and structures throughout the building communicate “viscerally” to the visitor. In Freed’s words, “The museum becomes a resonator of memory.” He did not want the museum to only dwell on the morose and depressing. He ultimately wanted it to be a representation of hope and resolution.

The main limestone and brick entrance melds the building into its federal environment. The arched portico is a light-filled facade that opens to the sky. “Visitors must pass through the limestone partition to enter the concrete world” was Freed’s written intent. This antiseptic “facade” represents the Nazis efforts to hide the crimes they were committing. The real entrance is past the granite portals.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ncreedplayer/

Once inside, the main entrance evokes hardened industrialism — A lop-sided train station. It was a bit more than ironic that I was drawn to visit the museum by a gripping story that reverberated as I walked into the giant space. Recently, my friend’s mother passed away. I asked where I could make a contribution to honor her memory. Unbeknown to me, her mother had been a Holocaust survivor. From a small town in Poland she was herded onto a train that would have taken her to a concentration camp. Though the train window was tiny, her figure was so emaciated that she was able to slip through it to freedom. Her Christian friend, who had recently married and changed her name, gave her the old identification card and she passed as a Christian for the duration of the war.

As I entered further into The “Hall of Witness” I encountered the steel plates, bolted metal, rivets, and off-center existence of Europe from 60 years ago. The metal is dark, but the skylight illuminating. This architectural “language” is an ironic criticism of early modernism’s lofty ideals of reason and order that were perverted to build the factories of death.¹ Glass and steel walkways overhead symbolize the constant scrutiny that prisoners endured.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/

I walked up the stark and steep stone staircase and entered the “Hall of Remembrance,” a six-sided marble chamber where an eternal flame is kept burning. There are slit-like windows along the hinges of the walls. One can spy through to see the plaza along Raoul Wallenberg Place below where Loss and Regeneration by Joel Shapiro is installed, one of four original sculptures commissioned for the museum. On the left side of the room is a view of the Potomac and through another, the Washington Monument. I lit a small candle to honor Janet Landau, my friend’s mom who was one of the lucky few who had found freedom through a similar narrow aperture.

The rooftop from this avenue evokes prison patrol towers. The building design is a multi-dimensional collection of abstract forms. On this same floor is the visitor’s center where there is an informative orientation film about the museum, The Wexner Learning Center, and The Meed Survivor’s Registry that encourages all who lived under the Nazi regime to record their history. For more in-depth research, visitors may use the museum’s library, archives, and photo archives on the fifth floor.

The exhibits contained at this museum encourage the visitor to reflect upon one’s own responsibilities as citizens of a democracy. Visitors are asked to contribute their thoughts on ledgers provided throughout the museum—the value of each entry is evident. The curators are cognizant that writing our thoughts down is a valuable way to deal with harsh realities, and some of the exhibits are indeed harsh enough so that they are given age appropriate ratings. The ledgers throughout the museum brought to my mind Anne Frank’s fragile thoughts. The innocent journal of a young girl that has informed so many about the day-to-day experience of being caught up in a horrific experience of being Jewish in Europe during WWII.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Among the permanent collections is “Remember the Children: Daniels’ Story,” a boy’s remembrance of his life and survival through the Holocaust. Visitors walk through the imaginary rooms of his house and absorb the artifacts and thoughts of this youngster. On the lower level there is a colorful installation of tiles painted by school children for The Children’s Wall of Remembrance. The wall is a tribute to the 1.5 million children murdered by the Nazis.

The current exhibit “State of Deception – The Power of Nazi Propoganda’ is one that may be of particular interest to art directors. But other special exhibitions are presented here, as well, such as the Committee on Conscience display, which is located outside the Meyerhoff Theatre. Again, exhibits are clearly marked with recommended viewing ages, as some of these images are brutally disturbing.

Now, more than 17 years since the museum’s official dedication by President Clinton, many of the issues focused on in this museum still resonate. Recently, for example, the museum presented a premiere screening of Hotel Rwanda, in its ongoing quest to inform the world on issues relating to genocide.

Raise your own awareness at:
100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW Washington, D.C.
202.488-0400

Although it’s free admission, timed-entry passes are required to view the Permanent Exhibit—The Holocaust: a chronological history of the Holocaust in a self-guided tour that spans three floors. The elevator ride to the top is lit with a bulb in a cage. The modern well-lit world of D.C. is left behind. Visitors are issued identity cards of real individuals who endured the trip to the death camps. Not till the end of your journey will you find out if you were one of the lucky few who survived.

This is an important museum, and there is much to understand inside this fine example of modern architecture, exhibit display and abstract sculpture.

The museum is open daily from 10 am – 5:30 pm. From April 5 – June 16, the museum will be open until 8 pm on Tuesdays & Thursdays. It’s closed on Yom Kippur and Christmas Day. For more information visit www.ushmm.org: This website is rich in graphic content and contains in-depth information on every facet of the museum’s mission and offerings.

References: Cornerstones of Freedom The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Philip Brooks, Children’s Press a division of Grolier Publishing, NY, London, Hong Kong, Sydney, Danbury Connecticut, 1996.

Talkin’ Bout a Resolution

Katie O'Brien — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:10:48 +0000

It’s resolution time, friends, and whether you’re a chronic breaker or never maker, 2010 is a whole new ball game. I realize that we’re 3 weeks in to the new decade but it’s never too late to make your annual vow to self improve.

All too often we make resolutions in order to change a life style or habit that is considered socially unacceptable. There’s the go-to resolution of quitting smoking, something my husband and I did on New Years in 2007 only to go back to smoking in October the very same year. Or working out more, which often ends up in an expensive yearly gym membership that you only go to in the first month.

I make a resolution every year. Some I’ve kept, some I’ve almost entirely blown off. Though statistics show that only 40-45% of people make New Year’s resolutions and 46% of those same people actually keep them, people who do make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their life goals than people who don’t. Think about it.

You have a choice, do you commit to doing all those things you “should” be doing (flossing more, eating right, sleeping regularly, drinking less, stopping smoking, eating in more) or do you choose some fun resolutions, like the AARP’s 10 fun New Years Resolutions that focus on healthy, or better, living. More specific resolutions that focus on bettering your every day are digestible bites of the broad categories like “lose weight” or “work less.” The smaller goals lessen the pressure, but still get you to the same goal. Here are some ideas.

PROBLEM: Your night life needs a make-over.
RESOLUTION: Go see a band you’ve never heard of once a month.

This was a successful resolution a friend and I made in 2003. We made a promise to see one band a month that we’d never heard of in order to change up our regular routine, meet different people and be introduced to new music. These new shows, paired with the shows of bands we had heard of, lead to a very expensive year, but opened my eyes to bands like the Long Winters, Minus the Bear, Rhett Miller, Pinback, and Spoon. We saw some surprisingly amazing shows that year, as well as some pretty terrible shows, but ultimately deemed our annual promise a success. My only regret is that we didn’t document our year with a mix tape because we both have terrible memories.

Bonus: This resolution taught me to never say no to a band I’ve never heard of. In fact, live shows with no expectation ALWAYS win over those you’ve been dying to see and, particularly when you’re having an off week, a random band on a random night can be an attitude game changer.

PROBLEM: You’re bored with DC

RESOLUTION: Pick 12 museums and dedicate each month to going to a different one.

I absolutely HATE it when people say there’s nothing to do in DC. Our fair city is filled with free entertainment, historical enlightenment, and other activities people travel from all over the world to visit. Sure we’re no Manhattan, but I’m proud of that fact. Where else is there 2 miles of free museums off a centrally located, metro accessible park? We owe it to this city to give it an honest chance, and not just when out-of-towners come to visit or during cherry blossom season. You need to experience the city during all of its conditions to truly appreciate where you live.

Suggestions: Don’t wait for weekends and vacations because that’s when all the tourists come out. See if you can work in a half-day from work once in a while to remember why DC is our nation’s capital.

PROBLEM: You’re a lazy bum.
RESOLUTION: Choose fun, effortless activities that allow you to move more.

This solution is very personal to one’s ability to incorporate activity into their individual lives. I can’t tell you what is manageable for you, but here are a couple thought starters of simple actions that can be applied to your daily life:

Daily Walk breaks. Maybe you eat lunch at your desk and have a very busy after-work social life (like me). Consider making some of your afternoon brainstorms mobile. Some of my best ideas come rounding Logan Circle on foot. You’d be surprised at how many of your co-workers would appreciate a moment away from under the florescent lights. Just don’t forget your sketchbook.

Another option, if you buy lunch, is to try walking a little further to get your healthy meal and take the long way back. You know as soon as you get back to your desk, it’s over for the remainder of the day.

Get some non-internet reliant hobbies We’re all slaves of the online: likely sit behind a computer all day and blog about it at night. Try taking a weekly dance class or hit the bike trails on the weekends. This is for those people who, like me, need to trick themselves into a workout in order to actually go. I’m much more likely to attend a weekly dance class than those daily gym trips I always find excuses to blow off. And our bike-friendly city is so accessible you could just pop a basket on your bike and ride across the river for groceries. Or take a lovely ride through the cute neighborhoods in Bethesda and look inside the houses you’ll never own. Leisure bike cruising can still make your thighs burn.

PROBLEM: You hate your job.
RESOLUTION: Get yourself out there: apply for 1 new job a week, minimum.

Before I get into this resolution please note (ahem, my team at FH) that I love my job and this is purely a suggestion based on the economy and the many people I know feeling stuck in their current situation.

With the economy in it’s current state, I’m having lots of conversations with friends who are staying at jobs because they feel secure, when, in reality, no one is truly safe from a surprise lay-off. While an annual salary is financially the way to go, if you hate your job and are just staying there for a paycheck, no one wins.

I’ve watched friends get laid off over the past couple years and, while initially it was an incredible shock, every single friend is ultimately happier with their new working situation. Lay-offs give people the opportunity to seek out that which they truly desire. Maybe you’ve been producing magazines for the past 15 years, but what you’d really love to do is design books for children: do it. Don’t let the current economy determine your career fate.

Dedicate this year to understanding what you really love doing. Start a blog, explore what’s happening in our industry or others you’re interested in moving to, get your work online (if you haven’t already), and vow to apply to 1 job a week until you have an offer.

This is obviously a monster bite for a resolution, but if you take it monthly it becomes easier to digest. January = Blog, February = Exploring our industry, March = Portfolio Web site, and April begins the weekly application process.

Please note: this is by no means a proven process for getting a new job. This resolution is merely meant as a motivator for those of you who are unhappy and overwhelmed. Nothing will change unless you activate.

PROBLEM: You’re too self-involved.
RESOLUTION: Get over yourself and volunteer one weekend a month.

For a current client of mine, I’ve been researching altruistic opportunities for them to sponsor and associate with their brand. Through focus research, we’re finding that their consumers like to volunteer, but don’t want to waste a lot of precious time finding the perfect experience that’s going to benefit from their skill level. There are several volunteer search sites out there: Volunteer Match, AARP’s Create the Good, One Brick, to name a few with presence in DC, that offer organizations the ability to post opportunities and give us the ability to search for the ones that suit our skills and areas most convenient to our daily lives.

Monday was Martin Luther King Day and, for those of us that had a day-off, we were able to participate in the MLK Day of Service, a fantastic effort that invites people to help out in a variety of organized events around the city. The best part about this day is the uber-organized process that enables each participant to walk away with the feeling that they truly helped out.

In an effort to make that feeling last through the remainder of 2010, I suggest you dedicate one weekend day a month to a new organization. Opportunities range from environmental clean-ups or cooking meals for people living with HIV/AIDS in DC allow you to experience different areas in your community that can benefit from your time.

In conclusion: That’s a top 5 of my suggested resolutions to fulfill a void, explore alternatives, and just better your life in 2010.

Photo credits:

1. My 2010 Resolutions
2. Derek Trucks Band Live at the National Harbor
3. National Portrait Gallery: Portraiture NOW Exhibit
4. H Street Bike Ride with My Husband
5. Dilbert Comic
6. Fleishman-Hillard Volunteer Outing at Food & Friends

Marketing For Designers: Part II

Deane Nettles — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 15:55:39 +0000

In Part I of Marketing for Designers, ADCMW’s own long-time member Deane Nettles shared how he has learned to leverage the web as a foundation toward promoting his creative work. In Part II, he discusses social media’s role to other ADCMW members who, like him, have found themselves asking, “What are all these social media tools about?”

Social media tools provide people with ways to reach a large number of contacts while establishing individualized relationships, too. Through these tools, you as a creative can talk about your interesting new clients, the things your clients are up to, the new work you are doing for them, the photographers and illustrators and copywriters you’ve gotten to work with on that project, the techniques you’ve learned in the process, and the fabulous awards you’ve received. It’s also a way of getting worldwide exposure for your work — without a world-class budget.

In short, like Peter Corbett wrote in FullBleed last year, social media can be used to market yourself and your business. So your overall social media strategy should consider questions like: what are my strengths? Who is my target market? Who inspires me? Whom do I inspire? What would my target market find valuable about my strengths?

In Part I, I described how I’ve been helping clients and students understand the importance of websites and newsletters as a baseline for promoting their work. In Part II, I’m building upon that foundation to describe several social media tools that I’ve found are helping people extend their reach. Specifically, here’s what I’ve learned about writing for social media and using some popular tools.

WRITING

Being active with social media involves a lot of writing, which can be intimidating. You want to demonstrate your expertise, build trust, and land new connections and projects. To do that successfully and sustainably, I’ve found you have to write about what you know in a way that’s true to your voice.

For example, remember the e-mails that Katie O’Brien sent out to the listserv for the Art Directors Club a few years ago? They were ideal examples of communicating expertise in a friendly, upbeat tone. Her creative ideas and “Gee-whiz, I wish I’d said that” style seemed easy. But Katie said it was hard work, and difficult to keep up that level of inventiveness and commitment over time. Her communication efforts went a long way to build community and good-will, and that sort of model is perfect for finding success in social media.

Know your limitations. Take writing courses, or ask colleagues how they approach writing on the web. Once you start, stick with it; like anything, it’s best to create your own regular deadlines. If you don’t enjoy writing, or aren’t disciplined enough to do it consistently, you might want to hire someone else to learn your voice and do your writing for you. (Even Obama admits he’s never tweeted, but his more than 2 million Twitter followers might not have guessed as much!)

BLOGS

Blogs are a good way to share industry news, promote your latest work, and hone your writing skills about what is happening now. They are structured to provide feedback in most cases, offering a “comments” field (like here in FullBleed) to encourage responses. I’ve found that blogs, like newsletters, are at their best when there is an overall topic (like http://www.ilovetypography.com), and their advantage over a newsletter is that you can post quickly and easily whenever you have new information without worrying about contacts or recipients. It also exists permanently on a website — instead of buried deep in someone’s e-mail — and search engines can see it, so it becomes a searchable reference.

STRATEGY:
Post new and interesting information regularly; find blogs that are important to clients like yours and participate in them.

POSITIVES:
Blogs are good for quick updates. Relatively easy to maintain. Can capture readers’ information if they respond via the “comments” field.

NEGATIVES:
Content and style needs to match your business and your audience. And anyone can respond, so needs to be monitored to avoid spam or inappropriate postings, or respond positively to negative feedback.

FACEBOOK

Facebook is an informal way to find and keep track of people you know, and to let people know what’s up with you. You set up a profile and request to be friends with people in your network or those whom you find through the “friend finder” search feature. It’s really useful for keeping people in your network up-to-speed about new work you’ve created, new links you’ve found, or that great new design exhibit you’re going to. A standard Facebook profile isn’t searchable by search engines, but you can set up a profile for “Fans of” your studio site, which is searchable.

STRATEGY:
Connect with friends and let them know what you’re up to or what you have questions about. You never know who knows the answer or who might need your skills.

POSITIVES:
Easy to expand to people you don’t know well, easy to push new information and post new work.

NEGATIVES:
Easy to get involved in your friends’ lives and lose sight of professional aspect.

LinkedIn is a professional connection site, based on the theory of “six degrees of separation“. You create a LinkedIn profile listing who you are, what you do, where you’ve worked and where you went to school; LinkedIn will help you find associates you’ve worked for previously and people you went to school with. Then you can search your associates’ contacts for the connections you need. You can also post your latest business news, which is broadcast to all your associates. Your associates can also “recommend” you. LinkedIn’s format is formal and managed; for your protection, you probably only want to link to people you know. Joining groups on LinkedIn also lends itself to the professional social networking benefits of gaining access to information about what’s going on with that group.

STRATEGY:
Link to your clients, collect recommendations from your clients, request connections.

POSITIVES:
Formal; intended for business connections (more than Facebook). Possible to create connections to business contacts who work places you want to work; who know things you need to know. (Very useful for job hunting.)

NEGATIVES:
Limits to what you can post.

TWITTER

Twitter allows you to send out a 144-character message about what you are doing. People who want your updates will “follow” you so they can receive your “tweets” much like they would a newsletter. Tweeting about accomplishments should be occasionally sprinkled among more general information — like upcoming events, interesting links, or questions about specific challenges — that you provide followers. It’s informal and quick, and you can follow anyone from your neighbor to big brands like Starbucks or Dell.

STRATEGY:
Post short snippets of useful information and events that confirm your business strengths, build community, and validate your expertise.

POSITIVES:
Keeps you up-to-date on what’s happening with people and brands you want to hear from.

NEGATIVES:
Having something useful to say; knowing whose tweets are worth following.

FLICKR and YOUTUBE

Flickr and YouTube are media sites. On Flickr, you can maintain portfolios of still images and videos, and YouTube stores videos only. Each has the capability of allowing viewers of your uploaded pieces to comment on them. In the Fall 2009 issue of PhotoMedia magazine, writer Rosh Sillars says that Getty Images searches Flickr in search of new talent, so it can increase your chances of being found by distributing your content to social media sites like these two.

STRATEGY:
Post new work to create additional exposure.

POSITIVES:
Searchable, more exposure.

NEGATIVES:
Duplication of effort and content management, if you maintain these separate from your website/portfolio.

OVERALL

Social media is a class of online tools that facilitate publicity and interpersonal relationships. They help people connect with supporters, current clients, or prospective clients. Plus, there are tons of tools out there not mentioned above (like Posterous & Tumblr) that also help to bridge the gap of distribution across social networks.

But using social media tools appropriately takes time and effort even though they’re almost all free — and it has to be something you *want* to do. For example, if you are just punching the design time clock, so to speak, then social media probably won’t be useful. You have to be excited about the work you are doing, or it just won’t come off well or be interesting to others.

If you are better at talking to people directly, you may be more productive going out and networking. But consider social media tools to help you follow up with the leads you generate by networking and help you find new leads online.

With tens of thousands of people jumping on the bandwagon every day, hitting the jackpot through social media is as probable as hitting any jackpot. But if you pick your media carefully, and limit your intent, it can be worthwhile — and you’ll gain expertise that can be valuable for your clients, and new connections that can be valuable to you.

Fresh Face: Russell Heimlich

Stephanie Hay — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:27:44 +0000

Photo courtesy Sean McCormick

Russell Heimlich is a lefty. And an only child. And he knows a thing or two about computers.

“My parents really wanted me to be good at computers, so there has been a computer in our house for as long as I can remember. My first computer was a Commodore 64; my parents wrote DOS commands so I could play games,” he said. “As we upgraded computers I learned more and more about them. My dad worked for the government, and he once took me in so I could use Gopher, a pre-Internet computer network.”

But this 24-year-old Marylander wasn’t ONLY into computers. While growing up in Columbia, and particularly in middle school, he started skateboarding with a group of friends. Which led to getting a video camera to film their tricks … which led to video editing … (wait a sec) …

“Of course, after you have a bunch of footage, you need to have a website where you can show it off. This was how I got into web editing. I learned web design like most people did in the late 90’s: by creating a Geocities site (which still can be viewed in its later version).”

When Russell moved beyond middle school and found himself a sophomore, he met his now-fiancee.

“The single most important moment of my life was when I walked around the corner in high school and bumped into my future wife. She has had an enormous impact on everything I do. I find it interesting how everything builds into who I am today.”

They’ve been together for almost nine years. When they get married in May 2010 at the Strathmore Music Center in Rockville, they’ll be bringing down the house. (Get it?)

Now, after spending a few years as a web developer at U.S. News & World Report, he’s working at the Pew Research Center as their sole, in-house web developer.

“I support the various research projects with whatever they need help with web-wise. I’m also going to implement a new CMS that will make it easier for the projects to update and manage content on their own without having to go through me.”

Russell is considering how life will look for him in the future, whether he’s working for someone else or for himself. Regardless, he wants to be using the latest web technologies to help communicate ideas, and he’s not particularly worried about how he’ll get there.

“Things have a quirky way of just falling into place, and as much as you think you can control everything, you just can’t. You have to trust that everything will work out. Even when it doesn’t, it will be OK. There are very few choices that you can’t later correct.”

He said that his biggest influence has been the sea of information shared online about new techniques and tricks. Whenever he had a problem, he would go online to find the answer. For example, he learned HTML by reading articles on A List Apart, viewing source code, and following the blogs of other web developers. It’s also the web that’s influenced his more recent explorations in photography.

“Everything I know about photography I mostly gathered from scouring online message boards that would offer critiques of images. I’ve also been posting my own photos to deviantart.com and receiving feedback.”

Part of Russell’s commitment to the knowledge-sharing mentality of the web can be observed in his participation within the DC tech community events.

“I absolutely love the DC tech community for all of the free events and camps that are offered,” he said. “I remember coming to the first Refresh DC meet-up when I was visiting home from Philadelphia, where I went to school. It was amazing to see so many like-minded web workers come together to discuss issues related to our industry. Also, I think DC BarCamps are the best places to meet local web geeks. I’ve written about each one on my blog and took pictures at them, too.”

Russell said that, throughout his education and career so far, he has learned that under-promising and over-delivering is a great formula for success. And, when it comes down to it:

“I’ve learned you can’t do better than your best. So, plain and simple, always do your best.”

Marketing for Designers, Part 1

Deane Nettles — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:14:15 +0000

In Part I of Marketing for Designers, ADCMW’s own long-time member Deane Nettles shares how he has learned to leverage the web as a foundation toward promoting his creative work. Stay tuned for Part II, which will include his recommendations on how he has used social media tools to build upon his website and email marketing efforts.

Let’s presume that there is an inside world and an outside world. The inside world is your studio where you live, and the outside world is where your clients live. If you’ve been in business for a while, you’ve built up a client base. Those clients recommend you to other people, and there is this buzz in the outside world … which provides you with new business.

But, to build buzz in the online world, where do you even start? Here’s the answer: with a website.

You need a quality website that forms the basis of your entire online marketing and email strategy, from which you can build a wider-reaching social media campaign (which I’ll talk about in Part II) if you so choose. I think the trick is to come up with a comprehensive identity that (1) attracts your target market, (2) promotes your work in a meaningful way, (3) is useful across a variety of media, and (4) allows you to collect contact information from visitors, so you can continue to promote your work to them.

YOU CAN’T BEAT A WEBSITE

In a recent article, Harvard Business School Professor Mikolaj Jan Piskorski said that people on the web mostly look at pictures. So, as a creative, you need to be on the web and using pictures to promote your work — and use them big.

A website serves as an online portfolio of your work and an official source of information about your business. You can’t beat a website for displaying a body of information in an ordered fashion. The disadvantage is that, unless your viewers click the “contact” button, websites are one-sided. People come in, they look, they leave without a trace. And designer’s websites don’t change often, so unless carefully strateg-ized, there’s no reason for viewers to come back regularly.

However you design your site, be sure to make it easy to edit; you want to update the portfolio at least a couple of times a year, and your site should be completely redesigned every two to three years. Your work and your target audience can change a lot in that time, and your site should reflect this.

STRATEGY:
Tell your story to your target market using compelling words, images, and rich media (like video) that reinforces your work rather than distracts from it.

POSITIVES:
They’re the number one marketing tool on Earth, and they’re perfect for creating and promoting a cohesive story about your work.

NEGATIVES:
It’s generally time consuming to keep it fresh with work, and feedback can often be limited.

YOU REALLY CAN’T BEAT A WORDPRESS SITE

So, you know that you need a website. How do you get one? There are so many free or low-cost technologies out there — and freelancers and firms galore who can help you. (Just check Craigslist alone, for starters).

Wordpress is one of several blogging platforms that anyone can sign up for free to use. You can be up-and-running with your own website in a matter of minutes using any of the platform’s free themes. It has a web-based interface for editing content, and there are tons of great customized themes (from themeforest.com, for example) that are already cross-browser compatible (able to render correctly across a variety of internet browsers). Those themes are additional costs, but inexpensive — some are less than $10 and will give you features to easily manage a more design-heavy portfolio.

If you’re more aggressive or want a custom theme, you can paste your own cascading style sheets (CSS) into Wordpress, though (as these things go), the more custom efforts may require a web-savvy developer or designer. (In fact, the FullBleed site is currently built in a custom Wordpress system.)

I think the top advantages of Wordpress is that it’s affordable, has an actively contributing open-source community, and anyone in your office can make changes to your site from anywhere in the world.

STRATEGY:
Create a website that is easy to edit.

POSITIVES:
Versatility, ease of updating, integration of your site and blog in one, manage access to site, and collect contact information.

NEGATIVES:
Not fully editable by you unless you are knowledgeable in both CSS and PHP.

NEWSLETTERS CAN KEEP INTEREST

Via your new website, you can require visitors to provide their email addresses. And one way to entice them to register is to offer an e-mail newsletter that includes information they can’t get anywhere else. If your potential clients are marketing firms, you could talk about new marketing strategies. If you work in a niche market, you could talk about new ideas in that market. You could talk about exciting new projects for your clients and how you are helping them meet their goals. You could talk about new photography capabilities you have. Newsletters tend to be serious, and they tend to be focused. They have to be written, designed, and managed. I receive one from a tech company and read it religiously because they teach me things.

If you have a regular or heavy email marketing campaign that includes newsletters, you can explore a host of email platforms like Constant Contact provides — robust, auto-contact management. Plus, they will allow you to view the trends of your email campaigns — who is opening the emails, who clicked through to the website (which should always be referenced in the email message, of course), and who unsubscribed. You can learn from these reporting features … but of course these providers typically come with a heftier price tag.

STRATEGY:
Show off your expertise, keep people informed.

POSITIVES:
If your content is good and your clients use e-mail, they will read it when you send it.

NEGATIVES:
Writing style and content needs to match your audience. Generally contain more than one story, so requires commitment to produce.

Next month, I’ll cover blogs and social media tools like Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube, and Twitter, and how to write for social media marketing efforts.

Fresh Face: Jen Fose

Stephanie Hay — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:24:55 +0000

Wisconsin-native Jen Fose admits to being the black sheep of her large, mid-western family. Of her 25 cousins, she’s the only one who “stayed the somewhat uncertain course of a creative professional.”

Now, the 25-year-old is living in DC and working with the Creative Studio team at Ogilvy; not necessarily your black sheep of design leaders in the industry.

“My family members have all selected very practical career pathways and have become either accountants or engineers,” she said, acknowledging that she’s always received widespread support from her family for her creative pursuits. “I’ve proven that you can make a living doing something a bit less conventional.”

And being somewhat unconventional is something Jen’s been motivated by since she was young, when her grandmother introduced her to drawing.

“Some of my fondest memories are of my grandmother and I sketching together when she baby-sat me. As a child, I was constantly designing or creating something, whether it was a mural, a film, or a cd cover for a fake band my friends and I pretended to be in. I remember once wanting to be a doghouse designer, of all things! I just always knew I was going to be a creative in some capacity.”

As she moved from hometown exploration to collegiate education in the University of Delaware’s visual communications program, she found new influences — in her design classmates. She said the program was competitive, keeping only those students who demonstrated hard work and dedication.

“I was given an extraordinary opportunity to meet some great people that are as passionate about design as I am. Each of my classmates influenced me in different ways, but they all pushed me to be the best designer I could be.”

Being the best designer assumes some degree of experimentation, which Jen said has been harder to come by in the tightened economy. She’s found that clients are less willing to explore new ways or printing or to attempt innovative layouts. Instead, she said they are sticking with more inexpensive solutions that still communicate messages effectively. But she’s not deterred from continuing her pursuit of the unconventional and has been practicing her crafts in her free time.

“The best piece of advice I’ve ever received is, ‘Practice.’ You can read all you want and ask as many questions as you need, but the only way to get better at something is to put your knowledge and skills to work.”

She admits that print is her first love, but has been expanding her knowledge and skills by becoming more involved in the interactive world of the web.

“I’m constantly trying to learn new things to improve my creative skill sets. And because the internet has become such an integral part of our daily lives, web design seemed like the obvious choice when looking for my next skill,” she said.

“I think as a print designer, the web has been this mysterious other realm that I was always nervous to wrap my arms around. But as of late, I’ve finally taken the plunge, and it is slowly revealing itself to be a wonderful resource.”

Branding and package design remains her current passion, however, and she’s aiming eventually to land in an agency specializing in those areas.

“I’ve always enjoyed the process and conception of branding and package design. They are the things that got me interested in graphic design in the first place.”

As she continues to grow in the design fields, she wants to become an expert in related brand experiences spanning advertising, print, and web.

“When I retire, I wish to look back on a successful design career that didn’t force me to sacrifice other things I wanted for myself in life, like a family. I’m determined to have it all.”

See more of Jen’s work online at: http://cargocollective.com/jenfose

Three: Favorite Projects

FullBleed Editoral Staff — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:59:57 +0000

Featured Illustrator: Christa Smith

Fall is a great time for meditation and reflection on what went well this past year. For this month’s “Three” our selected ADCMW members share with us: “What was your favorite project ever?”

My favorite project ever was a branding campaign for an infectious disease research repository. BEI Resources was looking for a new image and it was great to see how my concept came alive through different print collateral. However, what was even more exciting was the design surprise incorporated into the printed materials. The branding campaign was designed with warm and cool colored images so they become 3D when the reader put on 3D glasses. After all, there’s nothing more fun than when you add a little unexpected dimension to work.

–Kirian Villalta, Freelance Graphic Designer, Kirianv.com

My favorite project was also one of my most challenging. Our studio, Dever Designs, was charged with creating an exclusive limited edition commemorative volume, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the James Madison Council of The Library of Congress. The job started with a twenty foot table covered with boxes full of photos, documents, and memorabilia of the councils activities. From this array our team was to deduce, write, and produce a coherent history, wrapped in a unique binding suitable for presentation as a gift. Needless to say the project was at times seemingly endless, but it yielded one of the most beautiful and unique pieces of my career. The finished volume was 124 pages, custom bound in a gatefold hard cover volume that closed with hidden magnets to align an embossed line drawing of the library’s unique dome then tied closed with contrasting ribbon. The whole piece was then ensconced in a custom handmade presentation box, stamped with the individual recipients name. The project was so well received that a follow up custom paperback edition was created as a gift for the library to present to special guests and patrons. I guess that the projects that challenge us the most yield the finest results when we remember to work with our clients rather than against them.

–Jeffrey L. Dever, President-Creative Director, Deverdesigns.com

My most favorite recent project was the launch of the new American University Web site last March. I was part of the launch team to build some excitement among students, faculty, staff, and alumni prior to the launch date. It was a lot of fun planning and executing something that had taken 2 years and many, many hours of creative input to develop. The team consisted of staff from media relations, marketing, special events, Web communications, and publications. We used a truly integrated marketing approach and came up with a theme to “rediscover” the Web site. I developed art that was used on T-shirts, a USB flash drive giveaway, and other things. I created art for the old Web site that was used to count down the days until the launch and pique curiosity and it linked to another page that showed the old site “peeling” away to show a hint of the new one. We had cookies decorated with our “connect,” “interact,” and “explore” tag line. I even helped select music for the event which was held on campus in our performance hall. The event was a huge success and many people attended to see the official unveiling, visit kiosks to see what the new site offered, eat those cookies, and try to win an iPod Touch. Our President later told one of the team members that his favorite part was walking on stage to the theme from “Mission Impossible” which was my suggestion.

–Wendy Beckerman, Associate Director, University Publications, American.edu

What was your favorite project? Share with us in the comments!

Fresh Face: Claire Manibog

Stephanie Hay — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:11:28 +0000

Since graduating from McGill University in Montreal, Claire Manibog has been working as a philanthropic advisor — and she loves it.

“Basically, I help people like Bill Gates make smart choices when they donate their wealth to charity. I work with an incredible team of smart, young people and their energy, optimism, and brains keep me motivated every day.”

Though, Claire doesn’t seem to be short on motivation.

The DC native was born to a French mother and Filipino father who both worked in international development. Claire — who speaks fluent French, basic Chinese, and some Tagalog — studied the same after being influenced by an early exposure to the developing world. For example, she was on an airplane to the Philippines at the tender age of one month.

“Seeing what the world is like outside U.S. borders is a humbling experience,” she said. “The combination of my travels and the fact that some of my relatives in the Philippines live in very poor conditions led me to study international development in college.”

So, how do her international development and design interests mesh?

“One passion of mine is how design — whether 2D, 3D, or in motion — can create positive social impact. From designing affordable laptops to communicating to an audience that might not be able to read, I find the whole process of designing for social impact fascinating. That’s why I am also a freelance graphic and web designer. The balance keeps me happy.”

She credits Egon Schiele as being her biggest artistic influence.

“His work is both violent and calming. There’s a lot of truth in that paradox, which inspires my work, whether it’s design or drawing or painting. My family’s also influenced me; they’ve shown me that it’s okay to be an economist, engineer, artist, writer, or DJ, all at the same time.”

Her artistic side increasingly manifested itself throughout college, when she took courses in animation, photography, and graphic design. Claire completed a semester in Paris through the Parsons School of Design, which “was like being a kid in a candy store.”

“There’s nothing better than being an art student in Paris,” she said. “I also delighted in studying illustration and animation with professors there who encouraged all the students to discover a world beyond Disney/Pixar … an incredibly rich one, I might add!”

After discovering the world beyond DC while growing up and pursuing collegiate studies, Claire made her way back to DC and started exploring its creative community.

“As a newbie to the DC creative community, I have yet to become fully engaged, but my cursory sense is that web tends to dominate. As a print person, I’d like to see more events focused on print. I wish DC design was a little gutsier, but that goes with the city we’re in. Still, I think we’re getting there!”

She has been flexing her creative design muscles by pursuing freelance work, which has been influencing her consideration of future professional and creative opportunities.

“I would also like to live abroad again. Right now I’ve got my eyes set on London, because it’s an incredibly international city on the cutting edge of design. I’m also a huge fan of Agenda, the typeface for the London tube.”

Wherever she lands, she’ll take with her an admitted “passion for good, smart design and good, smart ways to improve people’s livelihoods.” Ideally, she’d like to fuse those together with a focus on supporting women and girls in developing countries. She believes that by doing so, she’ll be helping to facilitate empowerment, which she thinks is a major element toward alleviating poverty.

As she looks to the future, she’ll be trying to live some advice she received in the past.

“Many people have told me, ‘take a risk,’ but I haven’t always listened. But, when I have, it’s always paid off.”

Find out more about Claire at www.clairemanibog.com.

Fresh Face: Jessica Avison

Stephanie Hay — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:10:50 +0000

Jessica Avison wishes she could tell her younger self to stop worrying. “Don’t be afraid to try new things. Things will come together, as long as you keep trying.”

So far, her life has been following that advice (although with *some* fretting, after all). For examples, she just started a new career in design, she’s about to be married (on Saturday), and she’s getting involved with DC creative groups (even if she doesn’t initially know anyone in them).

But putting her faith that everything will turn out AOK is a challenge for this 26-year-old DC resident, who was born in Korea. She grew up in a military family and spent her formative years in California before settling into Yorktown, VA, where her dad retired.

“I’m a typical ‘first child,’” she said. “I’m driven, independent, and maybe even a little bossy … according to my [three] sisters, anyway.”

That drive is something Jessica was recognized for at age 16, when her high-school English teacher put her in charge of a significant creative project.

“My teacher sponsored the literary magazine and eventually asked me to be the editor-in-chief, giving me total creative control. It meant a lot to me knowing someone had that much confidence in my ability. That was my first experience working on a big, creative project from start-to-finish.”

She was always reading and thought poetry was romantic and bohemian. Though her dad was a programmer, she never thought about technology or computers. She always wanted to be a writer, even through her senior year of college at James Madison University, where she double majored in literature and technical writing.

Oh, and she was on the archery team.

“I had never picked up a bow and arrow in my life, but the coach needed women on the team and was willing to train me, so eventually I got to shoot in major tournaments alongside Olympic archers.”

After graduation, she moved to the DC area and worked in government contracting jobs as a technical writer. During this period, she discovered her interest in using the web as a tool for communication. She consulted with her fiance, Chris, about her desire to make a career change. He, as a “great cheerleader and coach,” inspired her to take the risk.

“I committed to making a career change, and that was huge. I had a lot of anxiety about it, thinking that it was too late to change my career path. I’m so glad I did it, though, even if I felt very behind the curve in the artistic department.”

So, she started venturing from her cubicle after work to the Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University in Georgetown, where she took night classes to expand her digital skills. In May, she earned her certificate in graphic and web design.

“My certification has given me a lot of confidence and a sense of legitimacy; it’s also motivated me to continue working hard to accomplish my goals. I learned about the creative aspect of web work — typography, art direction, layout, color theory. I totally embrace my nerd status, and I consider myself a lifelong student. I want to keep learning.”

That continuing passion to expand her capabilities has led her to explore ways she can learn more on the front-end development to build up her “designer’s toolbox.”

“In five years, I’d love to be working as a web designer at a smart, creative agency, surrounded by people who are fun to hang out with and also smarter than me. I want to constantly be learning and tackling challenges. Eventually, I think I’d like to try my hand at full-time freelance work, but I’m not convinced it’s for me right now. I like the social aspect of work; I want to be inspired and working with people who care about their craft. It’s great to be surrounded by people with whom you can collaborate and discuss ideas.”

Jessica said that several people in the DC design community have helped her already, including Karol Keane, Bob Gray, Samantha Warren, Brian Talbot, Nick Whitmoyer, and Jim Webb.

“I’ll never forget when Karol made my class hand-draw the alphabet in Helvetica. I got a reputation in the class for hating the typeface, but it was only because I complained that it was incredibly hard to recreate by hand. It made me appreciate how precise and hardworking the Helvetica type family is. As a new designer, receiving instruction from seasoned creatives that still practice what they teach was invaluable.”

Jessica said that the DC creative community has been an enormous influence on her, and she’s excited to be surrounded by so many talented people whose work she follows — and whose work pushes her to expand her own skills, too.

“I know a lot of people think that DC is very square and government-focused (and it is), but the creative scene here is thriving. At first, I felt out of my element and insecure being surrounded by so many talented people, but they have all made me feel like one of their peers. That’s what I love. The DC scene has been so welcoming … so willing to foster new talent. I don’t feel shut out. I don’t feel the cut-throat competitive vibe that may exist in other cities. I don’t get the sense that DC feels threatened by another generation of creative types; this community actually embraces it. I’m grateful and excited to be jump-starting my design career here.”

See more of her work online at: Jessica-avison.com

FullBleed » Education

Fresh Face: Jamielyn Smith

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Talkin’ Bout a Resolution

Marketing For Designers: Part II

WRITING

BLOGS

FACEBOOK

LINKEDIN

TWITTER

FLICKR and YOUTUBE

OVERALL

Fresh Face: Russell Heimlich

Marketing for Designers, Part 1

YOU CAN’T BEAT A WEBSITE

YOU REALLY CAN’T BEAT A WORDPRESS SITE

NEWSLETTERS CAN KEEP INTEREST

Fresh Face: Jen Fose

Three: Favorite Projects

Fresh Face: Claire Manibog

Fresh Face: Jessica Avison