Lost Motion Assembly | Blog

Just yesterday I was asked for some words of advice to pass onto a recent graduate in a kind of friend-of-a-friend-of-a-cousin-of-the-postman scenario. When I queried his background it turned out he is a fine art graduate. Fresh out of uni and without work experience, he isn’t sure what he wants to do next, but fundamentally loves to draw and would like to make a living out of it. As luck would have it, that description would have applied just as equally to me some 10 years ago, so I felt compelled to pass on the kind of advice that would have benefitted me a decade ago. I intended to pass on 10 suggestions, then 10 became 14, then 14 became a rambling free-form list of advice, at which point I thought it might be worthwhile putting it up on the blog on the off-chance that someone else could benefit from at least some of the points. Although he was no doubt looking for more specific ‘who should I send my portfolio to?’ kind of information, that can be found without too much effort. Instead I decided to focus on ’20 things I wish someone had drummed into my head years ago’. Although some of these points might seem quite obvious I can hand-on-heart state that I have learned all of these lessons the hard way. Hopefully these will be useful to him – or anyone else – looking to move into the murky field of graphic/web/visual/design/illustration.

A slight digression – my less than exciting background

I spent most of the formative years of my childhood drawing – mostly Spider-Man – so when the careers advice tutor at my school extolled the importance of having a career path in mind I opted to study art, purely so I could draw more. The thought of it being a viable vocation didn’t spring to mind at the time, but as the years went on I realised that drawing comics seemed to be an entirely pleasant means of making a living. Unfortunately I finished college at precisely the same moment that the mainstream comic book market collapsed in the mid ’90s, and – unsure of what to do next – went on to study fine art at university.
After four years I emerged fresh faced and in debt. With a degree in my hand I set about applying for some kind of job that would allow me to be creative. After several months it became clear that all I was managing to do was dig myself even deeper into my debt and that I had been armed with a degree that – at least on paper – isn’t worth much in the working world*.

*To clarify; I’m not claiming that a fine art degree is inherently a waste of time. As with all degrees it demonstrates a skill set that is certainly useful out in the wider world. However, what was sorely lacking – at least in the course I was on – was any kind of emphasis on what do after uni, and in that sense, my fine art degree was next to useless when it came to securing an entry level job in any creative field, where employers look for design degrees as an absolute minimum.

Feeling somewhat disparaged I took on a series of temp jobs to make ends meet. I soon found myself working for a large commercial printers, performing the most tedious and repetitive of tasks. As unglamorous as it was, it was certainly enlightening to see how things we so readily take for granted are produced. I jumped on every opportunity I could to learn new machines; not because I was keen to impress but because it was all useful information. When I discovered they had a CAD/CAM table for producing packaging but no qualified staff to run it, I meekly mentioned “well, I’m pretty good with computers.” What started as a temporary position to earn some quick money then became a full time career as I went on to learn the ins-and-outs of large format and point-of-sale design and manufacture. At no point was I taught how to do anything; the other staff were far too busy to do anything other than their own jobs. Instead I quietly observed, paid close attention, and spent most of whatever free time I had wrestling with software I didn’t understand. Months became years, I moved from one company to another, operated many different machines, and worked as a pre-press artworker before I eventually realised that it was time to go freelance.
The first twelve months freelancing were much like my first twelve months straight out of uni; filled with uncertainty and many lessons, many of which are summed up below. It would be challenging for me to attempt to distil all of the preceding biography into just one sentence that might be useful. Thankfully someone else has already done it for me:

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

Thomas Edison

The Other 20 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me 10 Years Ago

1. Get a job…

I’m not being trite; trying to put together a portfolio, producing self-promotion work all while trying to pay the bills burns money and fast. Almost everyone radically underestimates how long it takes to get themselves off the ground, and when you start worrying about things like rent the natural tendency is to rush things which results in poor quality work, creating a vicious cycle. Find an entry level job that is tangentially related to what you want to do (such as in a print house or design studio). Not only will you earn some money, you’ll be in position to learn extremely useful things. And remember, many companies promote from within, so remember rule 15…

2. …know when to quit

You can stand on the board all you like, but until you jump off you’re not diving. Don’t feel guilty, all smart employers know that talented staff are either going to one day run the company or leave to start their own. Leave on good terms, stay in contact and prosper.

3. Develop your own style…

Of course, style is more than just a signature method of technique; it’s a a whole way of looking at things that effects the work your produce, but for the sake of expediency I’ve opted for the first blush definition. The emphasis here is to neither worry about having a ‘style’ nor not having one.

Illustrators don’t get hired for their mastery of three-point perspective, nor their exceptional cross hatching ability. They are commissioned because an editor or art director saw their work and liked their style and – most importantly – decided it was appropriate to a project they were working on. Folks like Stanley Chow, Jessica Hische and Frank Chimero all have signature styles you can spot a mile away. Note that I say ‘develop’ a style, not ‘pick a style’. Style isn’t a tool that you can readily apply to things like a Photoshop filter. Rather it’s a method of doing things that will naturally evolve as time goes on. The lesson to take away is; you will eventually develop a style, so nurture it, don’t fight it.

4. …but don’t let it be a microscope

Don’t rely on a particular stylistic technique to produce work, and be cautious if you find yourself working in a particular way because it feels easy rather than appropriate. A beautifully rendered image that doesn’t tell the viewer something is just a picture, not an illustration. Always keep an eye on the bigger scene, and don’t let one particular style limit how you look at every problem.

5. Learn to tell a story

Simply being able to render a recognisable image of a person or object is rarely enough, no matter how beautiful the style is. If an editor wants an image of a car or rap artist they will often settle for a photograph – it’s usually quicker to turnaround and they have a much clearer idea of what they are going to receive. However, illustration often trumps photography in its ability to convey stories, themes and ideas. This fact explains the glut of bad stock photography that you see everywhere. Writing an article about bank accounts and want to show how confusing it is to be confronted with such a vast array of choices? How about a photograph of someone looking confused? Except they never look confused – they usually have the same expression as someone with trapped gas. Instead why not use an illustration of – say – one single lock and a dozens of different keys. Which one sums up the problem of having not a lack of options but of too many options to be useful? Which one sums up the feeling that you shouldn’t have eaten that buritto last night?

6. Know your tools…

Whether it’s Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Quark, Pixelmator, Acorn, collage, screen printing or etching you need to know your tools so that you stop fighting with them. Because once you’ve stopped fighting with them, you can stop thinking about them and start thinking with them.

7. … but don’t let them own you

Like style – don’t let your tools become a microscope that limit your way of looking at things. There are plenty of poor illustrations out there that flounder because rather than conveying an idea they hide behind a Photoshop filter or Illustrator’s autotrace feature. When first presented with a problem or brief, pick up a pencil – it’s the most intuitive tool anyone has and it will allow you to quickly work out ideas without imposing itself upon them.

8. Love your pencil

More paeans to our humble graphite friend: when presenting concepts/wireframes/sketches/rough ideas to a client resist the urge to ‘work them up a little on the computer’ so that they look more presentable. During the early stages you want a client to understand the broad concepts you are presenting. The moment you start putting it on the computer you are forced to make decisions about things like typography or colour. In turn the client will start to form opinions about these issues prematurely. I’ve presented sample comps in the past purely to demonstrate the kind of content that is required for a site only to have the client spend the rest of the meeting fixated on the choice of font. Once that happened it became next to impossible to get the actual content from them as they insisted on seeing multiple typography samples. Don’t let this happen to you! Keep things as loose as you can in those early meetings.

9. Buying design books is not the same as designing…

Don’t buy design books with more pictures than text. Seriously. As tempting and inspirational as they are, only two things will come of it: 1. Your work will start to look like somebody elses’ 2. You’ll be broke. I speak from experience. There’s a plethora of websites that have cropped up recently which showcase a vast array of inspirational material. Save your money and look there instead.

10. … but these books are worth buying

How to Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing your Soul – Adrian Shaughnessy
How to be an Illustrator – Darrel Rees
The Graphic Designer’s Guide to Pricing, Estimating & Budgeting – Theo Stephan Williams

Although two of them are about graphic design, they all feature solid advice about the more pragmatic ‘get an accountant, writing invoices and making money’ side of the business.

11. Beware the ‘open brief’

It’s paradoxical, but there is nothing worse than an ‘open brief’. It sounds like a designer’s dream – the client is willing to hand over complete creative control to you without specifying any restrictions or directions. On the surface this sounds like ‘I don’t know what I want, so feel free to come up with anything you like’. In reality this usually means ‘I know exactly what I want, I just don’t know how to articulate it’. When faced with such a scenario push for more details, as that will be the yardstick you measure your work against. If they still can’t give you any meaningful direction (‘make it look cool’ is no-one’s idea of meaningful) here’s a tip: produce something very quick and a touch unconventional. The idea is that when confronted with something they don’t like, clients suddenly become very articulate about the direction they want to go in. Think of it as a kind of sacrificial concept and don’t spend too much time on it.

12. More fonts does not equal better fonts

Although this sounds like a purely design related concern, a lot of illustrations incorporate typography in them somewhere. I’m about to save you days worth of downloading and sorting: don’t bother with free fonts. At least not the fonts you find on ‘1000 awesome free fonts’ sites. And definitely not until you’ve got a good grasp on the fundamentals of typography. Those fonts are free for a reason and that reason is usually things like poor construction, bad spacing and an incomplete character set. Likewise having 1,000 fonts available usually means you can spend days sifting through them just trying to find what you want. Find a good book on typography fundamentals (not too many pictures, remember) and have a look at the typefaces used; you can considered them good a solid collection to start with because they are well proportioned, with a good array of characters and readily applicable to most situations. Start a font collection from there and grow it naturally to keep it under control.

13. Understand print

If you get the opportunity to work in a print house for a period of time – especially a busy one – take it. While I worked in print I was constantly amazed at the amount of work submitted that was simply not suitable for print. I put this down to most graphic design and visual arts courses not covering production fundamentals. It certainly wasn’t covered when I was in uni, not even to a rudimentary level. Working in a busy print shop is like being on the front lines of print design; deadlines are tight and mistakes are costly. You’ll quickly learn about important things like bleed, separations, print finishing and file types, and you’ll pick up a great lexicon of odd terms like saddle stitch, work-and-turn and wet-proofs that you can sprinkle liberally into dinner-party conversation. But most importantly you get to see that the print process is more than just uploading a file to an FTP.

14. Look more, talk less…

I’ve worked alongside some firebrands in my time who – eager to impress – are quick to shoot off comments like “we should do things like this.” However when time came to put their money where their mouth was they could never deliver, because they hadn’t taken the time to understand why the status quo was the way that it was. Most people have two eyes, two ears and one mouth. Use them in the same proportions.

15. …but still talk

One of the things that surprised me most when I first started freelancing was how much work comes from word-of-mouth. In hindsight it’s obvious, but it’s easy to forget when you first start – you’re eager to produce that show stopping portfolio, the flashy (but not Flash) website, you overlook the more mundane act of simply telling people what you do. Avoid bragging and awkwardly shoe-horning it into casual conversation, but do make sure that people know that you’re out there and available for work.

16. Be wary of the trappings of the designer

Much like suggestion no. 7, many a designer/llustrator/creative has been caught by this trap, myself included. The notebook with a cult following. The collectable vinyl toys. The obscure analogue camera. The oh-so-on-trend typographic poster. Are they cool to look at? Yes. Do they display a refined cultural awareness? Possibly. Do they actually help you produce work? Hell, no.

17. Know your contracts…

Odds are if you’re looking to move into illustration, you will probably be a freelancer, and if you’re a freelancer you have to have contracts.They’re boring, they’re complicated and they make your head hurt. And when there is a dispute (and it’s always ‘when’, never ‘if’) you will love them. Having contracts in place doesn’t just protect you from problems, they set the parameters for the job you’re working on, clearing up any potential mis-understandings and helping keep that pesky scope-creep at bay. Also nothing says ‘I take my work seriously’ like a contract.

18. …use your contracts

Don’t do any work until a contract is signed. This isn’t so you can be seen as a hard-nosed negotiator. Projects without signed contracts are prone to alterations and can rapidly become time-sucks. Getting the contract and project specifications in place first makes sure that you and the client are both clear on what the project entails. This applies to even the smallest of jobs.

19. You need deadlines

Deadlines are like vegetables; most people grudgingly accept them because they are fundamentally good for them. And the place you need them the most is any self-promotional material. Doubly so if you consider yourself a perfectionist. Months will easily slip by you when designing your own promotional material as you strive to achieve that layout that is the Platonic ideal of self-expression. Remember your portfolio/site doesn’t need to represent you for all eternity, it needs to look good enough to last until you next redesign it. Which you will. Often. Set yourself a deadline to produce it and simply go for it. Guaranteed you’ll overshoot the deadline anyway, but you need a fire under your ass/arse to get things done.

20. Don’t work for free

Seriously, don’t. Unless it’s for a good cause that you believe in and are happy to do it. If you don’t believe me look here.