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Wish I Had Known: Community Matters

November 17th, 2010 · · articles 8 comments

College was an amazing experience for me. I had grown up in Columbus and was dying to get out. I looked all over for the perfect college just far enough away from my parents, but close enough that I could still do laundry on the weekends or get that home cooked meal I wanted so dearly after the first week on campus. Kent State University became my school of choice and I began my degree with no idea what to expect. There were only four people from my high school who also attended Kent so I was flung into a new city, school, new experiences all at once. It was terrifying, yet liberating.

The Visual Communication Design program was much more difficult than it read in the pretty printed pamphlet I received. We had over 200 students start the first semester as freshman and were whittled down to 25(ish) by graduation. We pulled all-nighters, spent long days and nights at Kinkos and found ourselves calling each other at all hours for either the assignment for our 7:45am Friday studio or a stiff drink. In all of this hard work came the best work. We gathered in groups to give each other critiques, emailed pdfs of sketches for feedback, joined together at Kinkos with Starbucks in hand or just sat at dinner and vented on how our weekend was already over. The community we had built for ourselves was just amazing. If we fell, there was someone there to help. As graduation neared, however, I got more and more scared about where our community would go.

As we all set out to different jobs and cities, a large group of Kent grads still lived and worked in nearby Cleveland where I found myself still able to have a smaller design community. But after enjoying a year and half in Cleveland, I was laid off. It was the best thing to ever happen to me. I was thrown back into new territory: my hometown. I left my friends, apartment and design community to move back home while I figured out what my next move would be. I hadn’t lived in Columbus since I was 18 and while I had internships for a few months during the summer, life in general had very much changed from high school. I immediately missed my Cleveland life. After realizing I couldn’t function without some other form of design in my life or someone to talk about it with, I looked up volunteer opportunities with the Columbus Society of Communicating Arts. It changed everything.

It’s always awkward being the new person, but after I attended a few volunteer meetings and lectures, I started to remember names and faces. It was wasn’t immediate, but I started getting to know more and more people and found that they too were dying for a design community. In almost two years back in Columbus, I have made a whole new design community, have found all of my jobs through the organization, and I’m still in awe at how much my life has changed for the better.

It’s amazing how as designers and artists we desire to talk about our work, continuously learn and ask for more out of our day jobs, even when we don’t have to. I feel that designers are the most likely to stay late, make it perfect, or take the pay cut to do what we love, all because it’s a piece of us on that screen or printed paper. As much as we’d like to say we’re separated from our work, any good designer will tell you a small piece of themselves is in every piece they create. This is why we love and crave community so much. The desire to be better, stronger, even just to reminisce about the all-nighters and Kinkos runs, keeps us going when we’re doing our day-to-day lists and projects we’re less than thrilled about.

My message in all of this is that I wish I had known how important community was sooner. I took school for granted and it took me a long time to realize how impactful a community is on who you are as a designer. Find your community. Just because we’re not in college anymore doesn’t mean there aren’t designers, developers and creators that want to talk “designy.” Joining a group changed my perception of the creative side of Columbus and I’m forever grateful for my experiences so far with the new design community I have built. I’m no longer scared to leave my safe group of design friends because there are designers everywhere looking for the same thing. No matter where you are, someone else desires a community. It’s just a matter of setting it in motion. Be the person to do it.

Wish I Had Known… RSS Feeds & Inspiration

September 13th, 2010 · · articles 5 comments - Tags: ,

While at school, in an open classroom with 17 or so students, you’re limited on your “competition.”  You sit at a critique, hoping your project is picked first or at least second, which would mean you made an impression and might get some credit for the all-nighter you pulled to finish it. Besides a few magazines or books I had for reference, my scope of design was limited because I didn’t know where to find it. I had no idea what RSS feeds were and only knew of a few blogs that peeked my interest. This has changed drastically. The scope of “competition” has become limitless.

In school, my teachers encouraged us to gather inspiration for our illustrations, identities, competitive brands, etc., and I started to see how good or bad my projects really were. The gathering of designers and illustrators broadened what I thought design could be and I started to realize it can take many forms. In the last few years of school, I became addicted to saving images, pages of Print, HOW and Communication Arts, and I felt two things: the excitement of being a graphic designer but also the disappointment of how untalented I was or how far I had to go.

With the discovery of the RSS feed and blogs after graduating (I know, I was a little behind on that one…), I started collecting an even more vast array of links, pictures and anything I could get my hands on that could relate to a current or future project. I started checking it regularly, at any break I had in the day, posting this inspiration on The Donut Project and became really unfocused on what my own designs had become.

I became more focused on “research” than on creating a project of my own or developing my own style and opinions. When I would have a bad day, feeling like I wasn’t much good at design anymore, I’d see that another 25-year-old designer just made it onto one of my favorite blogs, was recognized for a major achievement, sold 1,000 prints or already had a new project on their site and I would become more disappointed with myself than ever. I started to focus more on how behind I was in my plan for where I wanted to be at 23 or 24 and how I could never be as good as these designers I followed. I stopped doing my own projects, but continued to feed myself “inspiration” on the internet. I realized one night that I couldn’t keep doing this to myself. And things changed.

While in school, this inspiration was a necessity to grow my opinions of design and possibilities. After graduating, all of this inspiration put me in a sad spiral of self-doubt and disappointment.

I stopped my RSS feed cold turkey, I picked up my sketchbook and began to make lists of what I wanted. While learning about other designers was important for me in school, I realized quickly that limiting the amount of design I feed myself helped me get back to creating. This feed of inspiration is only good when it’s building you, pushing you or helping you get out of a creative rut. Otherwise, turn off your computer, put your magazines and books away and just start creating. Getting wrapped up in other people’s successes and designs can be toxic to the creative process and my mind has been relieved and refreshed since I limited how much I see. It’s a freeing feeling and I suddenly have my design ego back. A healthy ego that is!

Today, I still read my RSS feed when I have a spare moment and I still enjoy reading Print, HOW, Communication Arts, and I’m a huge fan of twitter, but my philosophy has changed. I’ve learned that there are “good” design days and “bad” ones. Your design ego goes up and down and I now know the days I should avoid my inspiration blogs and twitter all together. I nurture the creating side of me more than gathering “inspiration” and “research” and suddenly feel inspired, nurtured and happy. I’ve realized my inspiration comes from other places, too, and have never felt more inspired.

The Best Workshop Ever – Sahre Victore Wilker ’10

July 28th, 2010 · · articles 4 comments - Tags:


As I fly home with suitcase full of dirty clothes, a notebook full of scribbles and quotes and dirt in places I didn’t know existed, I reminisce about my amazing week with 3 very inspiring men and 17 other students who taught me more than I ever anticipated.


Jan + 17 of the workshop students posing with our ridiculously amazing $20 bill sunglasses.

My goal for this class was to not have a goal. I wanted to be a blank canvas, living in the moment of the city, the people and my teachers. The week started off with a happy hour and I immediately realized how diverse the class was.  We had a designers from Portugal, Austria, Australia, Brazil, New York, two from Portfolio Center, India and as a complete surprise, a previous classmate and a new friend, both from Kent. It would turn out to be a remarkable mix.

It was a very long, information filled week, and while I’d love to share every detail, I think the class is different for everyone and I highly recommend you take it if you get the chance. I do want to share some highlights of what I learned, though, and the major ideas I took away from the week I had with Sahre, Victore and Wilker. I hope that even just one quote will inspire you like they did for me.

(Oh and I also added some pictures because who doesn’t like to see pictures? You can read and see more after the jump.)

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