Well this week marks another interesting event in our Doodle journey and an individual achievement that I’m pretty proud of. Doodle has been asked to go in to CIT and talk to the visual communication and media students about the creative industry and to share any advice that might be useful to help gain employment. We have 3 ex CIT students working with us and between us we are hoping to provide some kind of help, advice or inspiration!
On a personal level I’m pretty chuffed by this, as when I was in their position and just starting out – and reading ‘minimum 3 years experience required’ on all the available graphic design jobs, I always said that I would try and remember what it’s like and if I was ever in a position to help out I would. So pat on the back to me, I’m just happy that I now have the opportunity to share my experiences.
At a business level, I like to think that it’s a nice indication of how far we’ve come since we started out just over 3 years ago! Its great to think people are respecting us for the work we’re producing, it’s tough going so to get acknowledgements like this is really nice and keeps you driving on. We’re doing our best to not only move our company in the right direction, but also stay on top of the current trends and advances in technology and hopefully help to build the reputation of Cork itself, as a place that you can get top quality creative and design work. This for us is also why the talk at CIT is great, it’ll be interesting to talk to the next wave of fresh blood entering the industry!
When I was finishing my degree (a few years ago!), it was quite a different industry and looking back, I would have loved the opportunity to talk to people that were in the mix of it, just to understand a hands on view of the challenges and the huge difference between being at college/university and actually doing live work in the industry (might have saved me a few headaches and not taken so many years off my life expectancy!).
The reason I say the industry was different is mainly down to the many current advances in technology, social interactions, attitude towards design – there’s such a wealth of reference and tools out there. When I was finishing up – no they weren’t still hand crafting text blocks, (You might ask Jeremy about that, because it was waaaaaaaaaay before my time!) – we had computers, but the focus was massively on good creative, ideas, design for print, good typography and things like the stock of paper you were using! While all these things still carry forward, there is now much more of a focus on design for web, interactive design, ui/ux design, interface design, logo design, etc. The great thing I find is the foundation to all these things, whether it be online or offline is the term ‘creative process’, which I was fed up of tutors telling me when I was a young whippersnapper, but my word they were right. Tackling the problem thats in front of you, the right way from the start. It’s like crossing the road, there’s set rules to get you safely across, it sounds simple but it all depends on the kind of road your crossing that causes the problems! In fact thats probably a good basis for another blog post!
Doodle’s focus has always been ‘creative’, I’ve always loved the challenge of tacking a problem in a unique creative way. That magic moment of everything coming together, the concept, the image, the feel of the typography thats what keeps me ticking on. The passion for getting the balance of the spacing right, that subtly but completely changes the whole feel of whatever is in front of you. With the growth of Doodle and the demand for online projects, we are set up with a split of graphic designers and web developers. The most important aspect of this is still very much the emphasis on ‘creative’.
The reason we brought in web developers was to make sure our sites reflect our high attention to detail in our print work.
This is one of the points that i hope to talk through, the relationship between designers and developers, the fact that as a designer myself, my passion is for something to look right, the fact that a thin keyline or simple alignment of elements can lead to a heated debate. It’s my responsibility to make sure the design looks the best it can and that I’m not restricted by the limitations of knowing that something is going to be difficult to implement.
The design industry is a tricky industry and to be involved in it you need passion, a good attitude, thick skin, a creative spark and a whole lot of enthusiasm! Well wish me luck and hopefully I can help someone on the start of their design career!