Last Wednesday I visited the graduating Design Students at my alma mater James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. I really enjoyed my visit, the students were inquisitive and (judging by the work displayed in the hallways) very talented typographers and creative thinkers. The conversation raised many interesting questions and started some engaging conversation.

Since I was in school “Creative Hotlist” has been the destination online when seeking employment opportunities for the overall creative industry (not just the web industry). Their online description is:

Creative Hotlist: Job Searches, Portfolios and Recruiting for Graphic and Web Designers, Writers, Photographers and Illustrators.”

When I do a basic nation-wide search on this site my results include all sorts of different occupation titles. All but a very few of these job descriptions require some knowledge of web or interaction design, and more than half are in the web industry.

While at JMU many of the students asked about “PDFs” as a means of sending their work to employers. I found this very interesting because every place I have worked since graduation has had a minimal requirement of an online “web presence” for consideration of any design position. Other alumni who were present seemed to think that PDFs were a fine practice for sending out work, and having an online portfolio was really more of a “web designer” qualification or an addition to your overall portfolio. This advice concerned me so I asked a designer who worked at a predominantly print studio what they expect prospective hires to send and the response was what I expected. They told me they accepted PDFs, but often did not even look at them or consider them because a web portfolio is more convenient to view when looking through tons of applicants. It also shows that the applicant is versatile. Should we as an industry advise students that the bare minimum is acceptable?

With so many jobs in the creative industry moving towards the web, shouldn’t there be less of a divide between the idea that there are “web designers” and “print designers”? Shouldn’t the basic understanding of interface & interaction design, user experience and information architecture be a requirement for all seeking design jobs and not just those seeking web jobs? Should the industry not try and encourage students to stay ahead of the curve and strive towards the future.. (even if it is a little more work and sometimes really uncomfortable for those old-schoolers)?

I’m not writing this post as a way to alienate those who don’t understand those concepts but to inspire them to broaden their horizons and realize design is design no matter what the media. The creative industry runs parallel to advances in technology and in the future there will even be more lines blurred between print and web. So why not get a jump on it?

I sat down on Saturday morning and put together a resource list in response to many of the questions I was asked on my visit to JMU. Basically I went through my feed reader, & books … and typed it up into wordpress until my eyes bled. So there may be some room for improvement, if you take a look at it and have suggestions for additions, feel free to comment or contact me. I hope that the list serves as a helpful starting point for anyone approaching the exciting industry of Web Design.

It’s hard to decide on how many pieces to showcase in your web portfolio. As a designer I know there are lots of factors that go into choosing the work you decide to display… versatility, creativity, exciting clients, recent challenges, technical capabilities, and experience. While I had been advised in the print world to limit my work to 10-12 pieces it is incredibly common to find web portfolios that feature 25+ projects. As a web designer it is very tempting to add EVERYTHING one may have done, especially when the web provides an interface that makes it so easy show years of experience in just a few clicks. So how many pieces of work should a web designer include in their online portfolio?

I have asked tons of designers, art directors, and creative professionals for answers and had lots of discussions. While the answer is a matter of opinion, the most impressive response was from Greg Johnston the Senior Vice President and Creative Director of Ogilvy PR’s Creative Studio in Washington DC. Greg is an old school Bad Ass (Matthew Carter style). He knows his stuff, has a pony tail, rocks out, and has played a leading creative role on many big-name accounts that make me drool. I asked Greg to sum up his response for this post because it is the best I have heard yet, not only because he has the experience to back it up, but because he provides solid reasoning.

I just saw someone’s portfolio who had brought a lot of stuff to show. I gave them a break because they were from out of town and wanted to make sure they “didn’t forget anything in case they needed to show me more of their work.” That’s usually a sign for me that someone thinks that all their ideas are good ones.

Editing your own work is probably the hardest thing to do. Your work is like your children––you love them all equally. So you have to really remove yourself from all the special circumstances that lead you to create your ideas. Yeah, like I said, it’s tough.

I believe you should showcase 10-12 samples of your BEST work, regardless of how you got there. That’s all I show after 27 years of creating ideas. (And I believe just because you’ve been doing something for 27 years doesn’t mean you’re good at doing it.) My best work. Some of it I did over 20 years ago, because the ideas still hold up. Some of it I just did last month.

Having looked at hundreds of portfolios––online and offline––I usually can tell after 5-6 pieces if someone is good. I judge their work not only on the quality, but their ability to know the difference between really good work and stuff that’s just OK. You don’t need to show everything you’ve done since kindergarden. That’s what Mom’s fridge is for.

Be hard on yourself. Be objective. Act like you know nothing at all about what you had to go through to get to that idea. Now you ready to edit your own work.

Which is what you should be doing every time you create ideas.

I want to thank Greg for the time he took to write all of that down, and I hope that advice helps others struggling with making those decisions. I will be taking all of his points into much closer consideration for the redesign (re-align) of this site… that I am working on right now.

Whether it is Michael Bierut’s witty posts on Design Observer, or comments on Brand New I never cease to get a kick out of what he has to say. If you are down for a little Typography geeking-out this evening… sit back and relax to a few minutes of Mr. Bierut’s ramblings on typography.

I found this video done by theAltantic.com via Typograhica and highly recommend you check out their post on it.

Meet Missy: my parent’s 13 year old miniature schnauzer who hates to swim, must have her hind quarters touching another living being at all times, and has an alarmingly pitiful bark. Missy struggles with a very embarrassing personal hygiene issue which makes her ridiculously stinky. If you have a miniature schnauzer you probably know the issue I am talking about, if you don’t… I will spare you the gross details. Regardless… she smells like Butt.

One summer break back in college I spent a few months at my parents house to work on a giant fish for the City of Richmond and brought a whole load of my art and design supplies back with me to work on some projects. In school my focus was on print design, and one of my favorite exercises was printing on sheets of velum and then gluing them together with Super 77 to achieve a rad layered effect. According to 3Ms product site, Super 77 “forms strong bonds with everything from paper, cardboard, fabric and cushion foam to plastic, metal, wood and much more.” If you have ever used Super 77 you are well aware that if you get that stuff stuck on your hands, everything is sticking to your hands for the next few days.

My parents have a utility room where they keep all their odds and ends, canned goods, and fix-it tools… this is the dank area to which they banned all of my art supplies. Once I moved off to college my mother turned my room into her Floral Arrangement-Making studio, and I never again had a real place to keep any of my personal belongings. There… in the Utility room, on a shelf below a light switch sat my 24 oz can of aerosol spray adhesive… right next to a 24 oz can of aerosol doggie deodorant destined for Missy.

What happened next was inevitable… all I heard was screams from the backyard. I ran outside to find a small dog so scared and so sticky, she stood as still as a statue.

So here is the money question: How do you get Super 77 off of a 12 pound salt-and-pepper Schnauzer?

The other questions that followed included … how do you keep herself from licking it and poisoning herself? How do you keep the flys from not sticking to it as she plays outside? how do you stop the blades of grass from attaching themselves to her coat?

So I rang up 3M. The call went like this:

Me: Hi sir, I am having a problem with your product that was mistakenly used in a way not recommended by your company, do you think you could give me some tips on what to do?

3M Guy: Sure, how was this product accidentally used? did you spray your hands? your hair? clothing?

Me: A schnauzer

3M Guy: (Silence)

Me: It was an accident.

3M Guy: A dog?

Me: A small dog, that does not shed. THINGS are sticking to her.

3M guy: (Silence) (more silence) Please hold.

——Cheesy hold music——

3M Guy: Ma’m, we are working on this for you, (roaring background laughter) please hold just a little while longer….

In the end 3M held it together long enough to let me know that they recommended bathing the dog in vegetable oil. The idea of having an oily dog versus a sticky dog wasn’t that much more appealing so we just shaved her.*

The Moral of this story :
Design supplies can be dangerous stuff &
3M super 77 is some Bad Ass Sh*t.

*No animals were harmed in the making of this blog post

Martin Ringlein of n’clud recently wrote a post called
“Should Web Designers Know How to Code?”:

All designers must know the medium and canvas in which they design for. How can a sculptor sculpt without knowing the difference in stones? How can a painter paint without knowing the difference in brushes, paint or canvas? How can a print designer create without knowing about the printing process, types of paper stock or difference between CMYK and RGB? And how can a web designer design without knowing how to code, or at least how the code works? The important aspect to mention is that a web designer must know how to code, but doesn’t need to or have to actually code.

I started to write a comment and realized I really had a blog post…

I find myself smack in the middle of this debate all too often and I can’t agree with Martin more. I especially disagree with the argument “that designers who code will let that knowledge limit their design “. Thats a load of crap and a poor excuse. Since I have learned CSS and HTML it has allowed me to see the big picture, understanding the limitations puts me in the position to think of new ways to push the boundaries. Some important advantages of knowing HTMLand CSS as a designer (in addition to the ones that Martin has listed) are:

Being able to estimate budgets and timelines more effectively. A designer who understands how much work it will take a developer to execute their design can more effectively design within budget constraints.

Cutting corners on load time. The first time I shaved several seconds off of a site for replacing image based navigation with one that utilized system fonts felt great. The satisfaction of knowing the user was not going to have to wait a few seconds longer was a release on that anal retentive print mentality that it had to be that very specific font.

Appreciation for Bad Asses. Its one thing to be a killer designer but its another to be a bad ass. My biggest “AHA! moment” came when I experienced the site of a developer who was just as innovative in his use of javascript as he was in his use of beautiful swiss typography. There is a creativity in development that you can not understand until you learn it and it will change the way you look at the web. Don’t miss out.

Remember designers; a Photoshop document is not your canvas. A PSD file will do nothing on the internet but take a really long time to download.

Disagree? I would love to hear opposing opinions… I know they are out there.