PP, Week 5: How to be a graphic designer, without losing your soul.

In this chapter on how to be a graphic designer, without losing your soul, I would say it gave me quite an insight into how someone experienced with the design industry has to designers that are fresh meat to the market. Here are some of the points I thought were insightful to me:

1. the part in "Getting Noticed"

I couldn't agree more with this statement. The only way to succeed with your design is to get noticed by clients and the design industry. But to get noticed, one must have something that makes them someone, that special essence that attracts people's attention and leaves an impression. Originality at this time of age has been hard to comply with since aesthetic have been so mainstreamed, and people enjoy things that a widely accepted. Yet it is hard to come out and be your true self, still, I think as a designer we were born to stand out and be who we truly represent, that way we can leave a flag on people's impression.

2. the part in "Work done for the portfolio, not the bank balance."

Reading this part, it can be hard to go along with it fully, cause like most Asians, I love money, and if there's a chance I could make it, I would. And we've heard stories of how designers get underpaid for doing so much and not getting recognized, it kinda left a mark for me there. Nevertheless, having the opportunity to create works for 1 client that pays you equally do not equal 10 client's work with no pay. It is said that when it comes to portfolio, quantities still matter cause that is where you'll get your name spread and your impression imprinted as someone that has experience and know what are they doing.

3. the part in "Design competition"

Like most competition, it is centered on competing and seeing who's the best of the best. But joining competition can be a form of advertising as well, though you might not win, your work has still been judged by people with taste. And if you were to stand out to them after submitting every year, they would actually remember you and might keep you in mind in each competition.

4. the part in " Professional Organizations"

A club basically saying. "Clubs" are aiming toward a particular group and with design, there is no particular group, some can be practical focused or even digitally focused. It can be quite hard to fit in too if you don't find people that resonate with your work, you might even lose your passion especially in a surrounding where it practices to do things similarly.

5. the part in "attending conferences and lectures"

Though in organizations, they might organize activities that invite speakers to talk about a certain topic, it can be hard to be in a room of people you don't like and in the end, you are not able to focus or even enjoy what the topic was about. But voluntarily attending conferences and lectures that could benefit your work is something every designer should consider when it could improve ourselves and meet new people with different skills. I for one is grateful for the talks that the lecturers made us go to, we get to learn new skills that we didn't thought was a thing and we might even end up majoring in it.