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Reactions to the BSU Winter Portfolio Show
Every semester the Boise State students in the Portfolio class hold a show to exhibit the most recent graphic design and illustration graduates. Tonight was the winter 2010 show, so my coworker Thomas Walsh and I headed over to check it out.
The show is something I look forward to as a professional, not only to see what work is being done at our local university, but what students are coming out into the market. Supporting emerging designers is something I personally place a great importance on, and believe it’s our responsibility as professionals to support them and help prepare them for life in the real world.
But I have to say, I was somewhat disappointed in this semester’s show, so I’d like to share a few things I experienced and some feedback I have for emerging designers in our community.
Present Your Work, Present Yourself
Portfolio shows like this are tremendously important for students to not only present their work, but to get a taste of the real world and interact with professionals that work in the industry. Showing your book and the projects you’ve done in school is part of it, but a big part is selling yourself. Present your work as if you’re excited about it (and you should be), tell me a little bit about each piece, the concept and the research you did and anything you learned while doing it. This is a demonstration of presentation skills and critical thinking abilities as well as your design skills. If I were in the position to hire a recent grad I want to know they can think about their work, put a concept behind it, and present that idea to me or a client.
Your work should also be relevant. I saw a few books tonight that had some really random work, supposedly self directed pieces that looked more like experiments in Photoshop. That stuff is great, but not when it’s the majority of your book. I want to see that you can do those experiments within the scope of a creative brief and successfully marry it to an ad campaign, an interactive piece or an environment. A good portion of the work you show needs to be relevant to the types of job you want — art for art’s sake won’t get you very far in the client-driven design world.
Engage Your Audience
Shows like this present a rare opportunity for young designers to have a few minutes of one-on-one time with local industry pros. These people are busy, and getting an interview any other way might be more difficult. So when given that opportunity designers need to make the most of it. Introduce yourself to anyone who stops by your booth, talk to them, engage them — don’t talk to your neighbor about unrelated things, don’t stare at the ceiling or just stand against the wall quietly. Be proactive about making connections and relationships.
Out of probably 9 or 10 grads tonight, one of them introduced themselves. I intentionally keep to myself in order to entice the students to make the first move, but this time only one gal bit. I would want to hire designers who are interested in what I do, who make an effort to talk to me and share their work. Likewise, if you aren’t interested in me, I’m not interested in you and won’t make the effort to critique your work or pursue you any further. Engage anyone who stops by, regardless who you think they are, because you never know what connections they have or how much say they have in recruiting new talent. At the very least it’s good practice. If you aren’t making an effort to present yourself, you’re just wasting your own time.
Are You A Designer or an Illustrator?
This is the same problem I see at every show — students who have on their promo materials that they are a “Graphic Designer & Illustrator”. That’s great, but you need to pick one. In my opinion creatives who try to do design and photography, or design and illustration, rarely excel at both. At some point you’re going to have to choose. In terms of finding a job, I would want to hire someone who knows design but might also be able to illustrate rather than an illustrator who sort of laid out a business card once. I’ve seen a lot of “designer-slash-illustrators” who have a book full of illustration and very little design. In a small market a broad range of talent will go far, but if you call yourself a designer then you better know your stuff.
More Than Design
The biggest thing that designers need to grasp is that it’s about more than just designing. It’s more than making something look pretty, or using that cool new font you found. Students need to learn early on how to do research, how to develop a concept and tell a story with their work. That may be a lot to ask for students, but in a small, competitive market designers who can do that will get the better jobs.
Why Should I Hire You?
This is the question every grad should be addressing right from the start. Impress me. How would you be an asset to our company and our clients, or anyone else’s? And are you someone I want to work with every day? I would hire someone with fairly good design skills who was also motivated, passionate about design and excited to learn new things. I wouldn’t hire someone who had great design skills but didn’t show any interest in presenting their work to me. Sell your work, sell your skills, and most importantly sell yourself.
As I mentioned earlier, only one gal introduced herself to me and presented her work. Her name is Jenny Flint, and I told her she’d be the one to get a job somewhere. She had good work, was well spoken and knew her stuff. I don’t remember anyone else, couldn’t put a face to a name, and certainly don’t remember what work belonged to whom. But I certainly remember Jenny Flint.
Overall I think the grads need a bit more coaching in their Portfolio classes — how to interact with people, how to be interesting and outgoing, and how to sell themselves and their work. I wrote an article about Career Tips for Design Students over at Arrows & Icons a while back, hopefully it might still be of help to someone. As professionals I think we need to be doing all we can to influence the local design programs and the students coming out of them.
Kelly Packer
3 December, 2010
Nice, honest write-up. I didn’t make it to this year’s show, but after going in past years I agree with all your points. The business side of design was wholly lacking. It’s design, not art. Thanks for challenging them to do better and giving constructive criticism.
Jane Naillon
3 December, 2010
Ryan — you are a blessing to our industry.
schlanghole
3 December, 2010
Dead on Ryan. I’ve been attending the senior show for close to 15 years now and this was, by far, the worse I have ever seen. The students presentation, skill level, lack of interest was so disappointing. I keep thinking it’s going to get better every year but, in fact, it’s gotten worse each year. And although these students need to ultimately take responsibility for their own future, I also question BSU and their ability to prepare these kids to enter the work force with any chance at all of being successful.
Ryan
3 December, 2010
Thanks everyone for your responses. I agree, Tony, that part of the problem lies with the program. And I think Glenn Rummler made a great point on Twitter this morning by asking where the teachers were. I saw no instructors anywhere for the hour or so Thomas and I were there. They should be the first to show up and support the kids. But at the same time it makes me sad to hear from so many veterans that they’ve given up on the program. Justin Kuntz is right in saying to try to make a change instead of giving up. I’m interested in what we as professionals can do to either influence the curriculum or provide some sort of initiatives or programming outside of BSU to bolster their education and experience. How can I as an individual help, how can we as a community help? I’m going to find an answer.
Ryan
3 December, 2010
Addition: I think the first step, as Justin also said, is to make known your criticisms. We all know instructors up there, make an effort to give them your feedback, give the students feedback, etc.
Justin
4 December, 2010
Again, Ryan, thank you for starting this dialogue. You are a great friend and a priceless asset to the design community. As a graduate from BSU, I was disappointed in the overall presentation and quality of the show. I agree with every point, especially concerning the work presented at this particular show. I too was never engaged and tend to take the same approach as you when attending these events. I am very interested in what we can do through professional organizations or engagements with not only BSU but other design and illustration programs to bolster education, passion and experience.
Christopher Raymond
4 December, 2010
I think that the situation regarding this particular portfolio show may have been the lack of leadership/initiative in the preparation. The location was awful, the room’s maximum occupancy shouldn’t have been more then 25, there was no beer, and the presentation was rather awkward. I also attend portfolio show’s with the expectation that I can get some good eats as well, and was rather disappointed that the refreshments consisted of sweets (which appeared to be bought from Albertson’s) and a mystery beverage served in one of those dispensers fit for gatorade at a siblings hockey game. Considering that my own portfolio show wasn’t that long ago (which I shared with Mr. Walsh) I can contrast a huge difference in motivation, presentation, and overall success of the show.
A side note Ryan, I would love to discuss your position on the Design vs Illustration topic.
Julia Green
5 December, 2010
I will respond to this because I was in the show, therefor there will be no assumptions coming from me.
In response to location and beverages provided– Really? You are going to complain that we didn’t give you free alcohol? Oh what a world you must live in that you didn’t get free booze at an event. Booze isn’t the focus at the events, the portfolios are. You need to realize that we basically had no funding for this event. Student fees are used as the base of this funding, which is 40 dollars a student. We had 7 students which totals $240. We then pitched in over $75 each for other costs we had. (And that does not include the money we each put into our own portfolios and promotional items which I spent close to $400 on). Please do not complain about a lack of alcohol or amazing catered food until you understand how small of a budget we had as compared to a portfolio show that normally has 15+ students which means they have at least twice the budget we did. As for location, we had to make lemonade out of lemons. Once again, no funding makes it hard to rent out a space which almost everything starts at $500 and three times too large for our small group. We were fortunate enough to get our location for free, which also means no insurance to provided your much beloved alcohol. PS most of the cookies were homemade and the “mystery” beverage was hot cocoa in a container made to contain things that are HOT.
I can’t and won’t defend anyone’s portfolios other than my own. Which, if you have something to say, you are more than welcome to tell me here or email me. Instead of posting on a blog, how about you send your critiques and words of advice to the students. You probably collected their business cards, how about you email them and let them know what needs to change. Instead, none of them are going to see this and your words will go unheard in vain.
As far as a lack of professors there, yeah, that was a bummer. It is pretty piss poor if you can’t even get your graphic design professors out to a portfolio show. Also, the professor who helped us this semester had to be at the 9+1 show that was at the exact same time. Unfortunate but we had to go on without her.
John Francis
7 December, 2010
As one of the graphic design faculty at BSU, I would like to make a response to some of what was said about the portfolio show. First I would like to say I was there at the event and so was Tom Elder who is another faculty member in the graphic design area. The reason the professionals who mentioned we weren’t might not have seen us is that out of courtesy, I usually come after the time that professionals are asked to attend. The reason I do this is if you want to talk candidly with a student about their work you don’t have one of the student’s instructor standing around nearby. I think that Julia Green did an excellent job of responding to several other comments regarding the event that were made out of naivete so I won’t go there. I will say however that this is a rather bad time in the economy to be a recent graduate looking to find work, as many of you know who have lost jobs or seen others loose theirs. I would just like you to think how you might feel in if you were one of these students who might read this blog.
I do think that if professionals want to do something positive about the education of students I would suggest you get involved professionally. As the AIGA Idaho Chapter education board member I can suggest a couple of ways. First AIGA has a mentor program for students, started by the AIGA Student Group themselves that you could contact me about and become a mentor for a student. Secondly, I am planning an AIGA student portfolio review event next Spring that will involve as many students and professionals as possible from our area, and this would be a venue where your critical feedback could be welcome and possibly quite useful. I would also welcome you to that and challenge you to do something positive to improve a student’s preparation for becoming a designer.
Ryan
7 December, 2010
Chris — looks like others have made the point before I had a chance to respond, so all I will say is that your attendance and support of your fellow graduates needs to go beyond your expectations for free beer and food.
Ryan
7 December, 2010
Julia — if my response to the show seems harsh I apologize, but you need to realize critical feedback (whether you agree or not) is a big part of this profession. Do not take my criticism as a personal attack on the students or faculty, but rather as honest, critical feedback. If you cannot respond to criticism without becoming defensive, I am afraid you will have a difficult time professionally. That said, I realize your frustration is primarily with the previous comment. I intentionally made no comment about the venue because I knew the limited resources and struggles in putting things together. And as for food, I’m not necessarily in favor of — if it was me presenting my work with a freshly minted portfolio, the last thing I would want are a bunch of people with greasy fingers pawing at my book.
As for sending you or the other students a critique of their work, I will not do that. Now if you (or anybody) were to email me personally and ask for my feedback I would be more than happy to sit down and critique your work and share with you anything you want to know. As mentioned before if you do not show interest and initiative in getting feedback from me or any other professional, we will not take the time to give it to you. Many of the students did not show interest in the professionals in attendance, so why would any of them make the effort to email every student and offer their critique? There is a bigger lesson to be learned by seeking out professionals and making those connections, more than just getting feedback on your work. Nothing will be handed to you freely; you and the other students need to take responsibility for yourselves and go out and get the careers and success that you want.
I sincerely wish you the best of luck and success in your career.
Ryan
7 December, 2010
John — again, I’m not making a personal attack on anyone; it was my honest, critical response to the show. If you read my post again you’ll notice that I don’t criticize the faculty, the work or the program directly, rather I’m making a comment on how the students presented themselves to professionals that night. As evidenced at the show, some of the students need a reality check that they aren’t getting elsewhere. Many of them are unprepared for the shock of being released into the professional world, and therefore have a hard time finding success in their first jobs. I know this because I have seen it myself the past few years. They need to learn to be accountable and responsible for their own careers. These students don’t need more hand-holding. They need honest, critical feedback to help prepare them for the realities of the professional world. And while I’m a huge supporter of AIGA, our local chapter has been very scarce since April. I look forward to a portfolio review in the spring, but at the moment AIGA Idaho does not appear to be doing much more to help students and emerging designers outside of the mentor program, at least as far as any regular member can tell.
I will ask you to please be respectful toward mine and any professional’s previous and continued efforts with the students. Every professional I have spoken with has volunteered quite a bit of time to the students over the years. I can only speak for myself however: I have participated in the student mentor program as a mentor every semester since it’s inception; I’ve been involved and keep close touch with many of the current students and graduates over the years, and have also worked with many in some capacity; I’ve attended every portfolio show in the past few years and gladly offer my critique to those who ask it and frequently meet with students after the shows; I also served on the AIGA professional board for 16 months and helped coordinate and support student events. Because of these reasons, I believe I have an objective basis to give a critical response to this most recent portfolio show. I have willingly and gladly given my time to numerous students the past few years, both current and former students, and certainly wish them to succeed as much as anyone in the community, however there is a point when they need to learn to take responsibility for themselves and their careers. That’s not to say that I’m not doing anything now — I’ve talked to many people since the show to gather advice and ideas for how we can help students moving forward.
Thank you for your response John, I certainly respect you and your opinion and appreciate what you, Tom, Stephanie, Jennifer, et al, do for our students.
Francesca Wilson
9 December, 2010
Wowzers this is a heated topic eh? I went to the show as well and to be honest, I think that the bitter taste was an automatic thing when I had to ask directions from 4 people to go up a few sets of stairs, down a long dark hallway in what seemed to be a closed down floor on the building and basically into the closet. I totally get that the budget is low, but I also know that a year ago we had our show at the Water Cooler for $50… even a classroom at BSU would have been better. Maybe a little more research would have been a good thing for the location. Though the location isn’t really what it’s about, it really did make it very hard to look at each students work and try to talk with them. I felt like I had to wait in line forever to see the next student’s work and the energy in the room was just not inspirational or flowing nicely at all. I feel that it contributed to the overall feeling of the show, and probably taking a toll on the students as well. They had to sit there and stare at one person in line in front of them for 10 minutes each and deal with awkward silence. Now, whether they decided to take advantage of that time with each spectator or not is another issue. But, I really feel that having an open environment, some music, a more relaxed vibe (which is why alcohol helps!) would have made for more confident students and more successful show. I did this not too long ago (and I know that there were probably things that could have been better about our show too) and I know how much stress it can be. We did have a few more people but still no money. We collaborated on a small “pro-bono” web design job for a client who “donated” over $1000 to the class to put the show together. That’s what we do.. get creative. I think that there was some really great work at the show, but I do agree with the statement about some of the people who say they are illustrators/designers. You should be really confident with both of your disciplines if you are going to claim both. BTW on the same note, in my opinion, Julia Green is the shit. I feel like she was super duper prepared and she is SO talented. I love my tote. Anyway though, I feel there were more illustrators at this show and it’s confusing since it’s actually called the graphic design portfolio show. I think that there are a lot of illustrators that call themselves designers simply because a lot of people out there don’t know what an illustrator does. Also, at BSU the illustration program doesn’t focus much on design principle or typography and that was evident in some of the portfolios that I saw… however if those students were simply advertising themselves as illustrators, then I would be hesitant to critique their design skills and only look at the illustrations. Anyway, this is a very interesting conversation and hopefully some things will be learned and taken away from it. The portfolio show is an excellent opportunity to meet potential employers… I really feel that it just wasn’t planned well enough. It’s all in the presentation. Lastly, in reading everyone’s comments on this post I can see where everyone is coming. I think that it needs to be discussed, so that the following students will know what they can do to have a more successful show. Perhaps next semester as an AIGA outreach to the students, some professionals could come in and chat with the students or do a presentation about what exactly it is they are looking for in a prospective hire. Their portfolio, confidence, presentation and skill level. What can we do to make this better or not happen again?
Ryan
9 December, 2010
Thanks for your response, Francesca, I appreciate your point of view as a former student who went through this same process. I think you make a great point that when resources and budgets are tight you need to get creative to make things happen. In regards to Julia Green, in looking back through the few things I collected she was the only person (that I can tell) that promoted herself solely as an illustrator, so I do applaud that.
I certainly hope AIGA can put some initiatives together to reach out to students — it’s no secret that I believe they need to do more for the students aside from the mentor program. As a side note, that awkward silence you talk about should have never happened, but that’s neither here nor there at this point!
Ryan
9 December, 2010
I sincerely appreciate everyone who has made the time and effort to respond so far, be it here, on Twitter or otherwise. I encourage everyone to continue the discussion (especially outside of this post) in a spirit of respect and polite disagreement/discourse!
Christopher Raymond
10 December, 2010
I feel I need to clarify my previous statement,
Julia, I am well aware of how the senior portfolio show works, and I am also aware of how hard it is to muster the motivation of fellow students to go above and beyond in an already stressful semester. However in my portfolio class regardless of the lack of budget, time, and technical knowledge we created divisions of labor where we designated tasks regarding photo, web, and print material (including a website that my team of 3 and I directed) a group that sought after donations, and another that figured food and location. We also managed to individually raise upwards of 100–200 dollars per person due to the lack of funding to begin with. I also would like to note that within our miniature campaign we tried to not only express ourselves as individuals but show our strength as a collective by working together and combining our knowledges in all medias we dabble in(which considering BSU’s curriculum was rather difficult for us creating the website). I felt that Monogram lacked the collective energy that most shows have and I do not feel that it was due to the smaller amount of graduates. If anything I would say you were luckier for having less people as I spent half of my semester studying the concept of student politics.
I also feel that the thesis of your argument was my disapproval for the lack of food or alcohol… I wont lie I would have probably stayed longer than the 15 minutes I did if I had a drink to sip on. The truth is I was actually looking for potential talent as we have an interactive position available at YellowBox but considering that I could barely peek my head over to see the work I was forced to focus on the location and quickly left.
I apologize if I came off as offensive.
Sean Boone
10 December, 2010
Accurate criticism, Ryan. In the real world the big shots are showing up at these events to scout talent and it can and will leave a bad taste in their mouths if its half-assed.
A student portfolio show is an ice-breaker at least, and may or may not result in a hire. It should be a positive experience for the students but also help give them the confidence to jump to the next big thing by providing or preparing them efficiently.
I felt bad for the students having to present themselves in a cramped room. Hopefully some better planning by faculty next time — or added motivation for the students to take action into their own hands. Yes, they are graduating but they’re not full blown event planners yet.
Ryan
10 December, 2010
Thanks for your follow up, Chris, and clarification of previous comments. There was a lot of hard work that went into the previous Re-Mark show, but at the same time there was a lot more manpower. But you’re right, get creative (as Francesca mentioned), take charge and delegate tasks and make sure everyone is putting forth their best effort. Good advice.
Toby Robin
10 December, 2010
Okay, just thought I could add a different perspective to the conversation. It’s great that we all have years and years of experience that have helped shape us into the creatives that we are today. But I would argue that none of us left school as polished professionals. Take a look at your student work and try and remember classroom critiques. Pretty sure we’ve all grown as designers and speakers since leaving school. I know as a student I hated presenting work. Still hate it to this day. But I’ve learned to do it through experience. Experience being the key word here. I’d much rather have a new hire learn the business/client side of design on the job, not in school, where they SHOULD be experimenting. There will be plenty of time for creative briefs after graduation. I understand that selling yourself and your work is huge, but like everything else, it’s something we learn with experience. Again, I’d ask everyone who’s commented here to take an honest look at where you were as a student and compare it with where you are now. I think it’s awesome that we have 7 individuals who have chosen to embrace design/illustration as a career path. I’m guessing the quality of the shows hasn’t changed that much over the years. It’s student work! It is what it is, and there’s a reason it is what it is. They are LEARNING. No disrespect intended to Julia or any other student. After all, we were all students at one point. We all had real world lessons to learn. And we all probably learned them on the job, not before we left school. And Ryan, I do think that your intentions with this post were noble. I would argue that the greatest impact you could have had with these students slipped by you the night at the show. You could have pulled each aside and offered some apparently much needed advice. You could have encouraged them to speak up, sell their work and engage. Because unlike them, you now have the experience to know what professionals like us are looking for.
John
10 December, 2010
Disclaimer before I write: I missed this year’s show due to illness. I just want to chime in on what Toby said. Great stuff man!
I’d rather not get into knocking specific schools, but has anyone seen what kind of work comes out of vo-tech style schools with a 4 year design program? From interviewing some graduates, I’ve learned that their emphasis is primarily centered on real world style projects, forsaking creative experimentation in favor of practicality. And you know what? I’ve never seen a graduate from Boise State put together a portfolio that colossally inept. If you have to favor one, favor creative experimentation while you don’t have to work with real world deadlines.
I’m all for closing the gap between graduating and being ready for the big leagues but I have yet to see one pro-active example of how to bridge that. I’m assuming the industry-wide standard of low pay for less than 3 years of experience is there because this gap exists for nearly every school and that 3 years is what it takes to transition into translating your potential into time-crunched deadlines.
But really, I want to hear an example on how students can prep themselves for the real world beyond griping that we’d teach better. You know why? Because we wouldn’t.
One real example would be internships. I’m not sure how many are actually offered each semester by qualified pros, but the time I spent doing mine was incredible.
Jenn Jackson
10 December, 2010
Ryan, first off I would like to thank you for the honest approach to your post. I am going to be graduating from the Graphic Design program at BSU in a week. I was also supposed to be a member of this past portfolio show, however scheduling conflicts prohibited it from happening. I can tell you that the portfolio show was what I was most excited for in my senior year at college. I wanted nothing more than to have the time to showcase my work and my passion to whom I hope to be in coming years, a professional. I must agree, I was dissapointed in the overall atmosphere of the event. I knew a few people in the show so of course I had some previous “biases”… but I can tell you that not ONE individual introduced themself to me. I introduced myself, but as an attendee to your event, I would expect you to go above and beyond to make me feel welcome. It was fairly awkward, the arrangment of the tables, the volume of people in the room and the engagement from the designers/illustrators. However, I agree with Toby 100%. It’s hard to lay it all out there, especially as a student who has only a smidgen of a clue what the real world is like.
I would go far to say that the program has a lot of responsibility of what (meaning portfolios and designers) comes out of it.
Julia Green
10 December, 2010
Chris, you are making a lot of assumptions about how we handled this. Tasks were divided out, we did have committees for different tasks, and we had class discussions on what we liked about past shows and what we didn’t like about past shows. One example– I personally thought the Water Cooler had the same problems you guys are describing our location. Cramped, hard to find people, and weird paths that led around the show and often bottlenecked lines of people. There were even problems with the Powerhouse show–also cramped and also really hard to hear and talk to people. This sounds like a standard problem with event planning for every portfolio show, so to try and say it didn’t happen at other shows is wrong.
What I think part of the problem was that night were people showing up to the show in a bad mood before even seeing anything. I think people had been previously burned at past shows and then showed up with negative energy thus souring the event. I do like the comments about us being students. Don’t forget that everyone starts somewhere and remember where your work was when you graduated and be humble.
Thanks, Ryan for clarifying that I am an illustrator. I don’t classify myself as a designer and I do correct people when they think that is what I do. Yes, design does play a role in the work that I make as it should with almost everything. But I am not formally trained as a graphic designer therefor I don’t advertise myself as one. We did put on our posters and postcards that this was a design and an illustration show. I am not sure why so many people are surprised at this as we have one of the best illustrators, Bill Carman, as a professor, so of course most students take courses from him and thus their work is influenced in that way.
thanks for the discussion.
Jenn Jackson
10 December, 2010
Oops accidentally pressed the enter key one too many times. I hate when it does that. Anyways, continuing with my statement about the program.
By program, I don’t mean the professors. I have had all four professors of the program, each having a beneficial impact to my career as a student and future designer. By program, I mean structure, competitiveness and drive. I have always felt the the gd program at BSU has fallen to the wayside of the university itself. I entered the program in 2005 and luckily did not fall victim to the recent changes (which I do believe is a GREAT step forward, yet poorly timed). I think it would be beneficial to have a portfolio class focusing more on the advertising of the show as opposed to the event planning. By this I mean a specific course where the designer spends time building a website, compiling their work and planning an identity for themself. Then the semester afterwards would have the portfolio show planning class. I think splitting the class into two distinct classes would help alleviate the stresses of planning a show and creating a professional identity. I also feel that if the instructors stressed more the importance of treating yourself as the marketing tool as well as your portfolio, these portfolio shows would all be more successful. I have been to a total of 5 shows and have been confused by the caliber of work and the caliber of student in all of them. But don’t get me wrong, I have seen some magnificent and inspiring displays as well. I hope that the students in future portfolio shows know that they are not only there promoting themselves,they are representing the school, instructors and program from which they came. They are also there to inspire future graduates. As a youngin’ in the program a couple years ago, I remember meeting a gal (whose name I can’t remember because I have the memory of a gold fish), and being completely inspired by her display and energy. I would think that if you chose design as your intended profession, you would be passionate to share it. I hope honest, real posts like this will help future students/ graduates know what is expected of them. I plan on taking the class next semester (even though I will have already graduated), not to fulfill some degree requirement, but because I think this show is an excellent opportunity that shouldn’t be taken lightly.
Christopher Raymond
12 December, 2010
Julia, I based most of my assumptions by your previous comment. You made it seem that budget was your number one problem in regards to how successful the show was. However I feel that the biggest issue wasn’t necessarily the budget, nor the caliber of the student work, it was the planning.
I also am aware that there isn’t such a thing as a perfect show, My show in particular was, as you stated, in the PowerHouse event center, which in my opinion was rather difficult to locate, not to mention it was raining that day…
I am a little confused with your theory regarding the initial mood of the crowd. Were you stating that you thought that the attendee’s were “burnt out” by previous portfolio shows, and that is why the event was unsuccessful?
If so I am going to have to disagree with you, respectfully of course. At this point you can take my criticism or not however I was an attendee and as others have stated the reasons for the sour sensation you are recollecting was primarily due to the poor choice in location, not in the lack of wanting to attend your show.
Regarding the actual portfolios. I didn’t notice a huge difference in the quality of work, nor do I think that digital experimentation should be looked down upon. Yet I would have liked to have seen more work that was created outside of school, even if it was fake. I get somewhat frustrated when a student’s portfolio only contains work that was accomplished as a school project. This pertains to every portfolio show I have ever attended.
But that is a controversial subject, as I faced much criticism that my portfolio had barely any school work in it.
Julia Green
12 December, 2010
I agree with you on that portfolios should be filled with work you made outside of class. I can’t begin to tell you how much I hate seeing Gene Harris Jazz Festival posters and really boring wine labels. I feel that if you fill your portfolio with stuff you have come up with on your own, 1–you are going to stick out from the rest, 2–it seems as though you have more passion for what you do, therefor you want to make work outside of the structures of a classroom. I follow my own advice and I would say 95% of the things in my portfolio were from outside work and not school work.
glad we agree on something.
Christopher Raymond
15 December, 2010
Ha, even though I too am sick of seeing Gene Harris Posters, at least that specific project was geared to prepare student for a more real world experience (even if it was spec work)
But yea, more self initiated projects aimed in the design discipline you would prefer to work in is what I attempted to do.
Chryssa Rich
20 December, 2010
I’m a graduate of Boise State (BFA Graphic Design) and I’ve also been surprised by the low quality of work seen at recent portfolio shows. It seems to me that students are making little to no effort to do real work — even if it’s free for a friend — and book after book features the same few school projects. I know it’s crazy busy when you’re going to school and working to support yourself, but you have to step out and get that real project once in a while to make your book strong.
Public speaking/presentation classes are non-existent in the current design program. The focus is on visual art and not on communication, strategy or collaboration. Possibly the program’s greatest weakness. Even the design often fails to communicate, with unreadable font treatments or the ant-sized letters so loved by designers.
Regarding the low budget — get used to it. Especially in this market, you need to learn to make miracles happen. Try writing and designing an entire outdoor campaign in 4 hours or producing 3 professional TV spots with $5k (and that has to pay the agency, the production company and the talent.) You barter, you make deals, you get creative to make it happen.
Good luck to all the new graduates. I thank my lucky stars I graduated under better economic circumstances.
Clayton Borah
5 January, 2011
um.… wow. Ryan look what you started. LOL. I can’t believe I missed this. Great post and I second your observations. I didn’t attend this years show but did last year and I had similar feelings then.
Thanks for all you do for the local design community and your willingness to give back.