Long-Term Project Part III

This final phase of the ongoing Long-Term Project requires research into local and regional studios, agencies, and in-house job opportunities.

Objective: Choose three different places and write about why you'd like to work there. Actually applying to one or more of these places is optional, but since you have a portfolio and résumé in hand, you should strongly consider doing so.

Learning Outcomes

• continuation of learning outcomes from Parts I and II
• applying those learning outcomes for job hunting
• (optional) using those learning outcomes to apply for a job

 

Required Reading

• Ins and Outs of In-House
• In-House Is No Outhouse
• Get Your Foot in the Agency Door
• The Small Studio Life  
• The Future Studio
• One Studio's Approach to Hiring

A. Planning

1. research places of employment that fall into each of these categories:
   • design studio: communication, design, art direction
   • advertising agency: marketing, communication, advertising
   • in-house communication: working in a company that has its own design department, for example, being a designer at Belk the retailer, Belk specializes in retail and sales but they also have an in-house design department; see Required Reading links above for more background
   • if you have an alternate place that’s not in one or more of the domains above, provide a justification, and state why you’d prefer a place that’s different from a design studio, ad agency, or in-house role
     
2. find one place in each of the above categories that you would want to work at
3. note the business name, address, and website
4. for this work, you can use businesses you have already applied to 
5. the places you've chosen do not have to have current job openings
6. but if they do have job openings, you should really consider applying
7. write about these things within our shared Dropbox Paper, all students should put their writing in that one place which will help us during the reading/reviewing process
   

B. Reflection

1. in your Dropbox Paper, write 90-120 words about each of the places you want to apply to
2. the work they do, why do you like it
3. the place it's located, what makes it appealing
4. what can you specifically offer them from your set of skills, your own talents
5. why would they want to or need to hire you
6. what do you want to and hope to learn there
7. in each of your reflections, tie in at least one quote from the Required Reading in an appropriate way

 

• Each student writes their content into our shared Dropbox Paper 

• 444 Job Hunting LTP III

 

Worth 70 Points 

• 20 points Planning via Dropbox Paper (max. 5 points each): curating your list of possible employees; organizing it into Dropbox Paper; appropriateness of content; use of Required Reading in your own written response
• 30 points, Reflection, (max. 10 points each): addressing the required questions above, appropriateness of your personal responses, spelling and grammar
• 20 points, overall quality and professionalism (max. 10 points each): meeting deadlines and format guidelines, clarity of writing and overall professionalism

See class calendar for deadlines.

Long-Term Project Part II-A-B

Our ongoing Long-Term Project will be done in addition to your existing client work for Arts Winthrop, Theatre & Dance, and other on-campus and off-campus clients. This résumé is a continuation of your portfolio and information architecture. It will be viewed in conjunction with your portfolio.

Objective: Create a one-page, 8.5-inch wide by 11-inch high, single sided résumé of your educational background, professional experience, hobbies, and qualifications.

See full details below, including typography instructions.

Learning Outcomes

• defining who you are, in a one-sheet written résumé
• typographically aligning this résumé with your portfolio is recommended, but keep in mind, your PDF portfolio may have fonts that do not necessarily work with a one-page resume

Required Reading

• Ten Common Résumé Mistakes 
• Insights on Résumé Writing
• Typography, Mixing Fonts (you can do it!) 
• Typography, Pairing Fonts (you can have 2, or more!)
• You don't need to use the exact fonts shown above, but note the way differing styles come together

A. Planning & Design Process

1. access and read the Dropbox Paper file found in our LTP folder, with instructions for using Dropbox internally
2. look through your work experience:
   • see class calendar share a Dropbox Paper with the instructor, text-only, listing what written content will go on your résumé
   • instructor will share feedback by see class calendar
3. use feedback from the instructor, and begin to design your one-page résumé, this is Part II-B, see below

B. Design Your Résumé

1. 8.5-inch wide by 11-inch high format
2. first review of PDF résumé due, shared on Dropbox see class calendar, to LTP folder
3. use Apple's Pages, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator
4. spell check, spell check, spell check
5. use your text-only content from Dropbox Paper, taking all feedback into account, revising as needed
6. for your résumé design, typographically, create order, organization, and hierarchy
7. use a font that has various styles, giving you more variety
8. normal, narrow, normal bold, narrow bold, thin, thin narrow
9. use a grid 
10. consider how your résumé design can relate to your PDF portfolio design
11. color, while a possibility for your résumé, is not necessarily a requirement

Worth 100 Points 

• 40 points initial work, Part II-A via Dropbox Paper (max. 10 points each): curating your experience and work; organizing it into Dropbox Paper; sharing with instructor and peers (instructions forthcoming); appropriateness of content
• 40 points, Part II-B, craft of your design and typographic composition as PDF (max. 10 points each): hierarchy of information (headline, subhead, running text, smaller text), use of grid, precision (spelling and alignment), readability and legibility
• 20 points, overall quality and professionalism Part II A+B (max. 10 points each): preparedness and professional, meeting deadlines and format guidelines

See class calendar for additional deadlines.

Long-Term Project Part I

Objective: Create a unified and well-curated selection of at least five of your best design works, for use in a job or internship application. Your work may be from a college class or freelance, personal, or professional work.

This Long-Term Project (LTP) is scoped in our Google Calendar, with assets in Dropbox, and has multiple parts. Part I requires you to audit your design work, define a portfolio layout, and design that layout. Parts II & III are forthcoming.

Learning Outcomes:

• qualifying your "best" works
• preparing them for presentation
• designing a unified portfolio
• oral presentation of work

Process:

1. look through your work:
   • place five "best works" into Dropbox LTP folder
   • if a website or app or other interactive design, place a screen capture there
     
   • students will review a peer's work in class
     
2. identify what best represents you and your understanding of design
3. your chosen design work should be varied in your use of fonts, colors, and overall look & feel
4. create a plan for organizing those works into a multi-page PDF portfolio, due see class calendar
   
5. layout your portfolio as a PDF (first review see class calendar) revise and resubmit for grade see class calendar
6. PDF layout required for all students
   

Packaging & Presenting Yourself, Required Reading

• http://adcglobal.org/i-wish-i-knew-that-before-i-created-my-portfolio/
• https://www.aiga.org/portfolio-presenting

Worth 100 Points 

• 40 points selection of work: curating best works; adequate number of pieces shown, at least 5 works; readiness of work: legible and readable designs, sized appropriately; demonstrates knowledge of design
• 20 points quality and professionalism: broad range of competencies, varied work; overall quality, preparedness for professional presentation
• 40 points craft of your portfolio: your portfolio layout, alignment, precision, use of grid; high-resolution images with adequate lighting and color adjustment; proper spelling, grammar

• A–B+ for covering all of the required content in this brief, in a clear and professional manner with high quality imagery, photography, layout
  
• B–C+ for sharing some of the required content, clearly designing the work, but lacking some quality of visuals
  
• C- to D- covering very little of the required content, not clearly presenting the work, no visuals shown
• D- to F failing to show all required content, lack of clear explanation, no visuals shown

 

Digital & Remote Presentations

Wed. Sept. 2 GOALS:

1. introduce students to the Google Meet presentation space
2. explore methods for presenting work visually using the screen sharing tools
3. participate in an informal, in-class exercise where you present your own work to the class using screen sharing

PREPARATION: At 9:30AM, students will receive a link to a shared Google Slide deck that covers this work. Review the deck, take notes on the process you'll need to follow. Ask questions as needed.

STUDENTS PRESENT at 9:50AM, by sharing one design project and talking about how the initial research component helped you create the work. If you have that initial research component handy, you can show that too: sketches, rough photos, rough thumbnails. You can layout multiple images on one "page" or have multiple pages to show. You may screen share to a browser tab to show your Behance page, your personal website, or create a unique Google Slide presentation.

Presentations will take place, with each student screen sharing from 9:50 to the end of class. Each student will have approximately 5-10 minutes of presentation time. This is a "low risk" assignment meant to introduce you to these tools.

ASSIGNED READING like this article about things to avoid during screen shares will help you better prepare for giving virtual presentations, and avoid potential blunders.

Worth 10 points

• 10-9 points for exceptional work, proper use of screen sharing, demonstrating knowledge about your own design and the research process
• 8-7 points for satisfactory work overall, use of screen sharing, some knowledge of your own design process and how research informed the final work
• 6-5 points for inconsistent work overall, some understanding of screen sharing, your own research
• 4-0 points for unsatisfactory work, lack of screen sharing, technical malfunctions, etc.

NOTE: if you have inconsistent wifi and internet, consider closing only the tabs that you need to do this work. Close Spotify, close any other open web or online tools. And, if worse comes to worse, you can email me and I'll provide you with an alternate platform to connect.

 

Getting Started

Bookmark this website in your browser.

Everything you'll need to get started with the class, including the term's schedule, supplies, and syllabus, can be found at this website. Course content will be shared with students weekly during class lectures, web posts here, as well as with YouTube videos, reading assignments, and podcasts. 

How the semester looks…

• Client Design Projects will happen throughout the term, and have the largest point value, 100 points.
• Other classwork, such as professional development, writing and editing your résumé, and designing a portfolio, will also happen this term.
  
• We have no formal exam. See the class calendar for complete schedule.
  

Delivery of work…

• When a client project is due, the grade gets processed at that DEADLINE when the work is closed. 
  
• In some cases, a client may require you to revise a project after the DEADLINE but that does not necessarily guarantee the chance to revise the grade too.
  

Materials: Students should have the following tools & materials to complete the work assigned and participate in class…

• smartphone with camera and internet access 
  
• tablet or laptop or personal computer and internet access
  
• web browser, Safari or Chrome or Firefox, Opera works well too
• headphones with microphone (optional but encouraged for best video conference experience)
  
• notebook or sketchbook and pencil or pen, for taking notes as needed; Google Keep or Apple Notes also work well for this, as does Dropbox Paper
  
• Dropbox (free account, 2GB tier, see instructions below, DEADLINE)
• Instagram account for visual research and sharing your own work
• your mailbox.winthrop.edu email tied to Winthrop's Google Drive
• design software, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, other apps are optional provided they're appropriate for our assigned tasks

Some helpful words about email…

• in addition to this class website, course communications will be routinely sent to students' mailbox.winthrop.edu email which you are responsible for checking
  
• if email becomes burdensome, use rules and filters to help sort messages, and also consider using important and priority inbox designators
  

DEADLINE, Monday Aug. 31st, on or before 10:00AM.

• Students will receive instructions at their mailbox.winthrop.edu email about accessing Dropbox. Follow those instructions and complete the sign-up process.
• Read the Dropbox share instructions.
• Read the Syllabus.
• Check your email and complete the quiz that covers both the syllabus and Dropbox process.