Level Orange

A few weeks ago, I received an e-mail from a student at Georgia State University requesting an interview to be used in an assignment regarding careers in design and the design industry itself. My first thought was that this should have occurred to me (or rather my school should’ve required it) when I was in school. Then again, I didn’t have classes even remotely named anything like “Critical Issues In Contemporary Art” but more like “Editorial Layout II”. How’s that for cookie-cutter curriculum?

One thing I’ve discovered is that school doesn’t prepare you for the real world. It prepares you for how to use tools and exercise your creativity, but it doesn’t necessarily show you how the business end works. I mean, you’ll have classes that might appear to simulate a client/designer relationship or scenario, but there’s no money on the line and there are no businesses’ reputation/marketshare at stake.

My advice would be to not give up. There are many ways you could take that and all of them would probably be right.

Not to mention that each studio/agency usually has its own process or way of working through projects. Sometimes, it’s all a matter of common sense, and anyone can adapt easily to it. Other times, especially if your company is part of a larger company, there are politics and channels that every project has to go through. That’s something that you can’t possibly learn in school.

That said, I thought this would be a good chance to spread some sage advice to an aspiring designer/artist. Hopefully, I would be able to not only help someone with their assignment, but actually provide some insight about what it means to be a professional designer.

Without further ado, read the interview after the jump…

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After brushing by the southern tip of Florida just last weekend, Hurricane Rita plunged into the Gulf of Mexico and has been gaining strength ever since. With landfall predicted to be square in the middle of the Texas coastline, people everywhere have already started leaving the area. The island of Galveston has already been under mandatory evacuation orders since yesterday, and all reports show that the island is virtually lifeless.

Here in Houston, about 50 miles away, the sense of panic is growing stronger every hour. Yesterday, I left work to start picking up supplies like water and batteries and such. I came away empty-handed. Items were flying off the shelves just as fast as they were stocked.

I’m still not sure about whether I should just up and leave. There are so many things to consider. Since we have two children, the possibility of being without power for extended periods, flooding or even damage to our house could make things really complicated. I know that cellular service has been spotty in the last 24 hours and traffic around town has grown to monumental proportions. Reading the news, it would seem that this is possibly the worst storm in recent history, dwarfing Hurricane Katrina that devastated Louisiana and Mississippi just three weeks ago.

But when I look around the neighborhood, I don’t see anyone boarding up their windows, I don’t see anyone packing up and leaving. In fact, on the way home today, I saw people at a park, sitting by a pond talking. I saw people riding their bikes down the street. I saw people going to restaurants.

One thing I heard on the radio was that the fact that it’s been sunny and hot all week might be misleading people into a false sense of security. But is there really anything to panic about? Could we just be overreacting in light of what happened with Katrina? Or is this a real threat that could endanger thousands of lives?

UPDATE - As everyone should know by now, Rita managed to not only calm herself, but miss Houston almost entirely, bringing us nothing more than a little wind and rain. Unfortunately, lives were still lost, including the 23 people on a bus that exploded on the way to Dallas. Most of the deaths were actually attributed to the heat and traffic during the evacuation before the storm even made landfall.

On Friday, I received word that an old childhood friend of mine passed away. There were no details about how or when, not even a way to get in touch with his family. It pretty much took the wind out of my sails for the rest of the day. I tried to get through my day at work, just so I could go home and have my weekend to sort through my thoughts and feelings about it.

And with all of the death and destruction from Hurricane Katrina in the news, it’s gotten to the point that I don’t want to hear about it anymore. Really. I know that’s probably a bad thing to say, but it’s the truth.

Then yesterday, being the fourth anniversary of 9/11, I think everyone in this country takes at least a moment to count their lucky stars and think about what they have to be grateful for. It’s my hope that most people take this day to think about their loved ones and express that to each other. But with that comes the memory of it all, the memories of witnessing the destruction of thousands of lives right before our very eyes.

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Talk about a man seizing the moment. Kanye West, already known for being unusually candid and frank on truly important issues, lit the media on fire last week.

During NBC’s fundraising concert for Hurricane Katrina victims, he took advantage of his live television segment to express his own perspective and emotion on what’s happening in New Orleans. He even made the concession that he had gone shopping and tried to ignore the news before finally deciding to make as much of a donation as he could. It was a spontaneous, heartfelt moment and even though he stammered through it, he came across as absolutely sincere compared to Mike Myer’s canned words.

As for Mike Myers, I’m not sure whether to feel sorry for him or just lose all respect for him. His failure to acknowledge what was happening right next to him by continuing to read his written lines was an uneasy moment at best. That is until West dropped the bomb.

“George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”

Notice he didn’t say “President” Bush. No, he called the man out by his first name. Nice.

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