Getting Designy

Well, I did it, I survived the first week of my new job.  I'm enjoying the hours for sure. It's a strange workflow though, as I'm in the office myself all week as my employers have other jobs as well. I guess the idea is that I can do the designs during the day and then all they have to do is print and mount for a few hours in the evening, since the longest part of a project is usually the design and layout stages. I'm sure I'll get more used to it as the weeks go by, it almost feels like I'm a contractor. I'm definitely up to the task though and it's a great starter job with new things to still learn that we didn't touch in school. Seems like I may be the whole marketing and design departments, which is fine, I'm up for the challenge... I hope :)

Anyway, I leave you with a piece I did today, it's going to be a promotional mailer for the place I work at.

First Day

So today was the first day at my new job, wait, did I mention I found gainful employment? I may not have. Well I did, I'm now part of the official working-class-citizens club and honorable-tax-payer's association. I was hired on at a sign-shop/printing business as their lead, or senior, or only graphic designer as it were. Which is great for job security I dare say. I will be responsible for translating clients ideas into workable designs for print. My boss (who I shall call Alphonse to avoid privacy issues) has a full-time job elsewhere, so not only have I been hired on as the lead-graphic designer but I am also: phone service, email respondent, sales representative, and any other title I can think of to give myself, while I hold down the shop during the day. It should provide for some much needed experience while putting to use my newly acquired skills from school.

                       

These are two close-up screenshots of a logo I'm working on for "Alphonse" my new boss. I purposely made them close up shots so that I was keeping it as much under-wraps as I can, but still show you what I'm up too. I haven't signed any "non-disclosure" agreements and I don't really expect to be given one there, but still it is for my boss and not my own freelance projects which I'll have no problems showing you here as it will be in my contracts with my freelance clients... well that's all for now. :)

Yeah!

It finally happened. Over 4 weeks of serious job hunting and I finally captured a prize. It's not high on the rungs of designdom, but it is a great start. I've been hired as a designer at a sign/print shop, and I already have a couple projects to do… although that is the reason I got the job lol. It's only 35hrs a week so I'll still have time to work on freelance projects that will be coming up shortly :)

Getting Started

One full week out of school already, where does the time go? I have applied (sent resumés) to many many places the last 3 weeks. While waiting for replies and continuing my job search I've been keeping busy around the house getting projects done in preparation to sell. 

I keep thinking that if I don't keep up with what I've learned the last 3 years in school that I'll start to forget it, but I suppose that's just the irrational mentality of not finding work in the industry right away. I have many, many ideas to incorporate into my website still that will keep me busy. I also really want to get out and do some photo-shoots, but I'm so tired of just being in the middle of rock and trees ( I live in semi-northern Ontario), I want to get into a town and do some gritty, urban photography, or an old, abandoned settlement someplace. 

My ideal position right now would be to work Freelance gigs. In a little different position than the rest of my class-mates, I've already worked for 20 years for other people and I'm definitely ready to get my wings spread and move on my own business. 

Well that's all for now, I know it's not a major posting but I didn't want to get out of the habit of posting at least once a week... be patient, I'll start posting more design related posts soon :) 

It is Finished...

I successfully completed my 3yrs of Graphic Design! Final grades were released today, 3rd semester in a row with straight A's :) After a 3 weeks of submitting resumés I finally had a productive call back, it's not for graphic design yet, but hey, one has to pay the bills... I can't afford to wait for a call back from a studio. I have an interview set up for May 10th. I also have a quote out on a job that will be my first post-graduate freelance job :) Times, they are a changing...