Designing meets the Consulting World

Mostly with my face glued to the computer screen in tunnel vision position, I tune out the outside world. After attending webinars, meetings and a fair time of news updates with my co-workers, I am stuck in the same position. Okay I guess I should start at the beginning, I am a recent Syracuse University graduate holding a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Advertising Design. As a recent graduate and young designer, I must say the real world is cruel. For one it’s hard to know where to begin to even look for a job, and two the transition from being a design student to a professional designer is…complex. While in design school we are taught key pointers like not taking a critique to heart (we know you poured your heart into it, but I’m going rip it to shreds anyway), the best gadget in Illustrator is the pen tool (it became my best friend when I spent over 12 hours illustrating a circular tree for a telephone directory cover), how the professional world is more cutthroat than school (for those of you who cried during a crit, it gets worse) and last is that my professors were only tough to bring out the best in each student (Thanks Cookie, Toni and Donna). 
In April 2008, while in school at a symposium, Andre Andreev and Dan Covert had a presentation with Q+A, and then shamefully plugged their new book Never Sleep. I bought this book before graduating and put it on my bookshelf of textbooks, magazines, and design reference books so therefore I didn’t read it. During the summer of 2010 after graduation, I was stuck with no job, no prospects and searching for internships (most of them non-paid). It was the perfect time to crack open Andre and Dan’s book. I couldn’t have read it at a greater time in my life. Never Sleep was witty, funny and relatable; I knew I wasn’t alone in being frustrated, confused and hesitant. So here I am shamefully (well, not really) plugging their book. This book will make you laugh, reflect and most of all gives you action provoking advice. Both Dan and Andre give great insight on the transition from being a design student to a professional and this couldn’t resonate more with me.

After sending numerous cover letters, resumes and applications out of all over the world, and most times not seeing a response you begin to wonder should I go back to school. Now that I am sitting here typing this at my desk, the real world doesn’t seem so cruel after all. I am the in-house Graphic Designer at Govsphere, Inc., a government consulting firm. Working at a government consulting firm is quite the transition from an intern. As I am collaborating with people (my co-workers) who have years of experience in their perspective fields we have formed a mutual respect for each other’s craft. Govsphere, Inc. is almost like working for the CIA (my family doesn’t know what I do). My response is I would tell you, but I’d have to kill you. All of the knowledge I have accumulated at Syracuse University is being applied to many of the projects that I am working on. Brand Identity is on the top of my list, but it all starts with a logo. The logo is a key element that is memorable yet simple. How can one element hold so much information and carry so much weight? Without a logo you are lost and technically do not exist. Of course I think about design 24/7 (what designer doesn’t?!) so after many times on www.logodesignlove.com I made the conscious decision next time I’m at Barnes and Noble (which for me would be within the next day or so) I would purchase David Airey’s Logo Design Love: A Guide to Creating Iconic Brand Identities. Even though I am out of school, my education does not stop; I continue to cultivate my knowledge of design. My continued education helps me to improve on my projects at Govsphere, Inc. It takes time and that is just a little something I am working on.

So until next time peace, love and harmony
<3 Mel