Some examples of word marks I designed for friends' resumes at Syracuse. I gave them the same mini questionnaire from the post below and this is what we came up with. I'm pretty sure Alexis, Ally and Jaime are still using these. The one with the green "O" is my old one and the swirly purple "g" is my new one. Another point - fun with color is allowed!
Clearly I'm a fan of welovetypography.com (wlt) as established by the random insertion of images with type throughout this blog, not to mention showing that I actually find fonts for fun.
Love of fonts is a curse and a gift.
Writing surrounds us and therefore different font choices made by someone who thinks they know what looks good. Sometimes they do and its a great joy to recognize that font on that random billboard as being Helvetica Neue, but the spotting of a font used from the standard Microsoft Office set can be pure torture.
Being skilled with font knowledge is a gift because it helps me define myself, other people, companies by their logo design, etc. For examples, I'm a sans serif, all lowercase kind of girl. The occasional pairing of all caps sans serif with all lowercase slab or regular serif can be fun to. In colloquial terms, it means i'm contemporary/modern, sometimes more casual, and (I like to think) sleek.
What are you? Gut impulses here only, please. Sans serif? (without the little tails on the letters, i.e. Helvetica) Serif? (with the little tails, i.e. Times New Roman) Slab Serif? (I really can't think of a common slab in the Microsoft Office font library)
In summary, this article is about Brian Deese, the man appointed to restructuring G.M. following its unavoidable bankruptcy status. The content of the article actually does give some props to Deese's for his political resume once you get past the headline and opening paragraph. But that's the problem - so many people don't get past the intro to articles. They just want to gist of the story before they move onto the next title in the overabundant list of news they're challenged to sift through on a daily basis.
People need to realize that sometimes age really doesn't matter. If this guy has the chops to do the job, give his Ivy league brain some room to spin its wheels before you criticize. I enjoy the NYT, but I hate when news media forces a mindset in their presentation of information... of course I'm all for mindset manipulation in the world of advertising! But back to Deese...
One last point: People criticized Obama in the beginning of his administration for preaching about "change" and then having oldies but goodies re-enter the White House as part of his team. Where's the praise now critics?? This is change for a White House administration - a young guy with a whole lot of responsibility. Ok, so he's still a white male with power in the United States, but at least he's not balding.
So in my criticism of the New York Times, I'm really saying GOOD LUCK MR. DEESE!
College is supposed to prepare you for your career. There are two problems with this: most people have no idea what they want their career to be in college and knowing what you want to do involves knowing who you are. As a recent college graduate (again, self-indulgent shout out: creative ad major, Newhouse School, Syracuse University) I can say that the aforementioned expectation is a little backwards. My perception is that college helps you define who you are in order to figure out your career. Those cherished four years are the ultimate opportunity to explore all your interests through classes and extracurricular activities. College should be every student's experimental arena to screw up or succeed as much as possible, as long as they discover something about themselves.
My dad always told me that you have to have a passion in life. As I got older, he explained that it would be a logical move (and he knows how much I love logic) to find a career that incorporates that passion. Even though my dad never said anything remotely alluding to this, I thought a person's passion had to be something morally admirable, skillfully substantial...or something along those lines.
It took going through college to come to terms with my passion: entertainment & pop culture. Of course this is a fancy way to say that I love TV, celebrity gossip, and glossy magazines. What's wrong with that? NOTHING. Newhouse helped me realize that I could apply a universally praised skill - writing - to pursue that passion.
I thought I wanted to be an art director in an ad agency when I went into college, so I majored in creative advertising. I kept telling myself that I was following in my mom's footsteps of being a graphic designer (ruzowgraphics.com) because I so thoroughly enjoyed looking at graphic design websites and discussing captivating visuals with her. Newhouse classes got me to write and think creatively, constantly challenging me to come up with the next best thing. I became obsessed with individual words and typography, brand identity and strategic planning. My friends have heard me say that word choice is SO paramount to a person's ability to communicate. I'll say it again and put emphasis on MY word choice: I was and am obsessed with words.
I'll be honest - I still can't perfectly define my career path in terms of a job title. What I can do is tell anyone the elements of my dream job and cross my fingers that they know what the hell I'm talking about.
• writing in a promotional capacity - whether it's articles, ad headlines, tweeting, or packaging copy. • involvement in event coordination and/or promotion - creative organization of some capacity. • in or about the entertainment industry, with necessary knowledge of pop culture.
The bottom line is that I think I am prepared to be an effective wordsmith in the art of promotional persuasion.
Now that you know what I want to do, think about yourself. What is something you enjoy doing on an everyday basis? What are the topics of articles that pique your interest? What can you talk about for hours on end? What was the class that induced a bored drool in most students but that kept you on your toes during every lecture? WHAT DO YOU LOVE?
Ok, now take that love and apply a skill to it. Writing/speaking/math/analyis/organization/whatever. There are so many jobs out there that you would never think exist. You'll be surprised at what you can find within your passion. I have a friend whose curiosity is one of the things I admire about her because she raises so many questions on a daily basis. She constantly asks things like "who do you think is responsible for doing THAT?" when she finds something that is new and interesting. Maybe next time, you can be the answer to her question.
I wish I had some links to help you find your passion, but unfortunately this one is on YOU. (no pressure.)
P.S. I include images at the end of each post because of another passion - design - that I learned in college that I wanted to save for my personal satisfaction. Today I'll include a video ABOUT design and a fun font find.
