DDP Ch. 5:

Collecting your work is a big step in creating your digital portfolio and in this week’s reading Baron makes it quite clear that you must keep everything organized. It’s absolutely necessary to collect everything you’ve done in IDD (and yes, even the stuff you think is bad because eventually you’ll weed things out). It also helps you find projects that you completely forgot about (for me it was two flash animations that P.B. said I should include).

But getting back to the subject of organizing, that’s where I bump into problems. I’m a very organized and clean person—at home my room is tidy; everything is in its right place, etc. But once I walk into that IDD room and log into the computer all hell breaks loose. I have too many projects that aren’t in folders, images saved from way back, files all over the place and some files on the desktop (which Baron says is a big no no). I’m just horrible at saving and organizing projects correctly. I felt a little better about this though when reading the second paragraph in the beginning of the chapter… Baron says, “Let’s face it: organizing isn’t sexy. Creatives aren’t supposed to be organized… it’s part of our mystique”. Call it mystique… but I just think its poor organizational skills on my part. But now that P.B. has gone through my work and we have chosen what I should include in my portfolio I am sure that I will start backing all of it up and organizing it in the right fashion that Baron goes in depth about.

HBG Ch. 9:

In this last chapter of the book, Shaughnessy explains the creative process and discusses the importance of briefs. Briefs are a major criteria when being a graphic designer. It’s important to not let all the power be in the hands of the client when dealing with briefs. It’s also good to independently set up a brief with a client so that you both can have a successful relationship. Basically Shaughnessy summed it up when saying, “Designers need briefs like cars need fuel: they don’t work otherwise”.

I’m sad that we’re at the end of this book. I really enjoyed each chapter and Shaughnessy’s style of writing. In the final chapter he gives us more insight and honesty to the craft of being a designer. He talks about fear and indecisiveness and how a graphic designer needs to overcome his or her weak traits to be successful and most importantly, to not lose your soul. I’ll leave off with this uplifting quote from Shaughnessy:

“There’s something uniquely privileged and stimulating about having a job where you know you will have an effect (however slight) on the lives of others; there’s something magical about doing something that might be seen by millions; and there’s something exhilarating about having a job where you get to make a mark.”