Impressions
Often your first impression will be made through a letter or e-mail sent to a potential employer. This is an opportunity to let them know who you are. So your letter should be simple and straightforward. Avoid flourishes and eccentricities. Be professional. This is an example of how familiarity can be too cute (note the critical annotations):
Hello
(To start, this is too informal; stick to “Dear Ms. Jones”)
I'm sure by now, you've received my little mailer from sunny., where I was working for.. studio. I've since returned to the good ol' US of A and I am looking for full-time employment!
(Never assume anything. Never send your work separate from your introductory letter. And watch out for sayings like “good ol' US of A.” It may be fine in speech, but in a letter, it is an annoying affectation.)
I'm looking to work in a place where I can implement all of my creative and professional skills to create high-quality work. That's why you've received a little mailer from me – You've been hand-picked! You're obviously talented, and I'd love the opportunity to work with you.
(YOU'VE BEEN WHAT?!!? Never suggest that you are doing a prospective employer a favor.)
Please see attached resume; I look forward to hearing from you! Kind regards,
(This letter will ensure you will be ignored. Remember, the quality of your work will get your foot in the door. The brevity and sincerity of your request to be interviewed will get you the appointment you need.)
Part 1
Graphic Design
What is graphic design? That question has vexed most practitioners who were compelled to answer when a parent asked, “What is it you do again?” Graphic design was once enigmatic – a specialized field that was visible and yet a mystery. Then the computer revolution of the late 1980s brought enlightenment. Apple Computer ran a TV commercial showing a pair of hands doing a pasteup. To paraphrase the voice-over: This is what a graphic designer does. With the Apple you no longer need a graphic designer. With one 30-second spot, the world was introduced to graphic design and told it was obsolete – anyone with a Macintosh could do it. That was the age of “desktop publishing,” a moment in time when it seemed that graphic design was about to be devalued. But clear heads and machines prevailed. Instead of taking over the field, the Mac became its foremost tool. What's more, graphic designers became culturally significant as communicators, aestheticists, stylists, and even authors.
The world became aware that all those beautiful (and not-so-beautiful) books, book covers, posters, magazines, record covers, typefaces, signs, packages, exhibitions, trademarks, and information graphics were all components under the graphic design umbrella. Graphic design is not just about making pasteups and mechanicals or the equivalent on computer using InDesign; it is about conceptualizing, conceiving, imagining, constructing, producing, managing, and realizing an aesthetically determined functional piece of visual communication. Once it was primarily paper; now graphic design affects screens of all kinds. But the fundamental definition of graphic design as a way of organizing, “formatizing,” and functionalizing word and image remains constant.
Graphic designers all speak the same basic language (and use the same jargon), but graphic design is not an intuitive endeavor: Some designers are more adept at fine typography than others, who may be better skilled at sequential narratives or information management. It cannot be done without knowledge of the task, genre, or medium in question. Graphic design must be studied, learned, and continually practiced to achieve even basic proficiency. To go further, to transcend simple service and craft with inspiring work, graphic design must be totally embraced – body and soul.
This section offers a brief survey of some of the current design specialties and hybrids. Some of the viable opportunities discussed in the previous edition have disappeared or are now marginalized. Print work is increasingly being integrated with digital (online or handheld). The following interviews provide insight into and wisdom about the overall graphic design experience – how people became designers and how their careers evolved – with emphasis on each designer's unique specialties.
Chapter 1
Inspirations and Motivations
The decision to become a graphic designer can hit you on the head like a wave on a beach or sneak into your consciousness like a fragrant aroma. Whatever the reason for joining the ranks, inspiration and motivation must be present. This is not just a job – graphic design is a passion. In these next interviews, designers reveal the various ways they were drawn into the vortex by inspirational yet magnetic forces.
Michael Bierut
On Being a Graphic Designer
After graduating in graphic design at the University of Cincinnati's College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning, Michael Bierut worked at Vignelli Associates, ultimately as vice president of graphic design. “I had learned how to design in school, but I learned how to be a designer from Massimo and Lella,“ he says. In 1990, he joined Pentagram, where he designs across disciplines for a wide range of clients. His awards and distinctions are countless: president of the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts from 1988 to 1990; president emeritus of AIGA National; Senior Critic in Graphic Design at the Yale School of Art; coeditor of the five-volume series, Looking Closer: Critical Writings on Graphic; cofounder of the website Design Observer; author of 79 Short Essays on Design; member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale; elected to the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame; awarded the AIGA Medal in 2006. Last but not least, he was winner in the Design Mind category of the 2008 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards.
Saks Fifth Avenue LOOK
Shopping Bags
Saks Fifth Avenue
Designers: Michael Bierut, Jesse Reed Illustrator/photographer: Pentagram
2013
When did you know you wanted to become a graphic designer, and how did you achieve that?
I did a lot of art classes in public school in suburban Cleveland where I grew up. I liked going downtown to the art museum, but I liked looking at the covers of 12-inch records even more. Finally, in the ninth grade someone recruited me to do a poster for the school play. I did something entirely by hand and turned it in on a Friday. By Monday morning it was all over the school. It was thrilling, seeing something I had drawn at home on my kitchen table, out there in the world, seen by everyone. It was also fun to work with the drama people, who were entertaining and dramatic, unlike the art people who were usual circle. Without knowing it then, I decided that Monday morning to be a graphic designer. This combination of entering other private worlds and interpreting for those worlds for a broader public, was what excited me then, and it still excites me now.
Did you have a clue you were doing graphic design?
At that point, I still couldn't figure out what the connection was between the famous artists who had paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art and the less famous people who were credited on the covers for my favorite bands. Right around then, and pretty much by accident, I happened to find a book in my high school library called Aim for a Future in Graphic Design/Commercial Art. It was by a man named S. Neil Fujita, whom I would eventually learn had designed the Columbia Records logo and the famous cover of the 1972 novel, The Godfather, by Mario Puzo. It was filled with profiles of designers and art directors. All of them were doing exactly what I wanted to do, and it was then I found out that this aspiration had a name: graphic design. I went to our neighborhood public library and looked up “graphic design” in the card catalog. It turns out they had a book by that name. For reasons I cannot fathom, they had a copy of [the] Graphic Design Manual by Armin Hoffman. I'm not sure anyone had ever taken out this book, which was the cornerstone document of design as it was then taught at the Kunstgewerbeschule (“school of arts and crafts”) in Basel, Switzerland. I was enthralled. My parents asked me what I wanted for Christmas, and I told them I wanted the Hoffman book. Of course, there