tools of the trade

1. I'll answer the hardware/software part of the homework first as it's the most fun :)

The position I'm after(large format advertisement) dips into multiple industries, (sign, print, advertising, graphic design), and requires varieties of software and hardware requirements. When designing something destined for output on a billboard, or other large format substrate, the use of two separate digital workstations if often required. One for designing and one for ripping or printing. The reason for this is that the drivers for most larger format (60"+) printers that print the designs are 32bit, and most design software is made to run most efficient on 64bit OS's.
Sure you could run a VMWare virtual machine with multiple OS's, however, VMware has no support for firewire which is what all printers in the industry run off of. So the hardware requirements for something in my position would be a design station computer, with essential design software (PS, AI, ID, cs3+) running on a 64bit machine, dual 24" widescreens, 24" wacom cintiq touchscreen, intel i7 processor, 8+gb ram, 10,000rpm high speed harddrives, 3way SLI *sweeeet*, i'm dreaming here...This is the design station, the computer that can handle the design, with no more parser module timeouts in PS or error, not enough ram to complete task. You cannot tell a client you can't print their file becaues of your inadequate hardware... A rip station would be a 32bit machine, running just the software required to print. It's not uncommon for files as large as 3 to 4 gb's to take hours even days to rip, and when I mean rip, I'm talking about from the time you hit print until the time the printer starts to print and process the file.

Most software thats used in the advertising industry is used for the print/sign industry as well, as you never know what kind of file type you may need to open, modify, or print. The entire Adobe Creative Suite is absolutely essential, as well as knowledge of ripping or print software, such as Flexi, Gerber, and AutoCad (especially since PS CS4 has more support for 3d objects, I forsee a shift towards more 3d capable software in the future.) I use go media's Arsenal line of fully scalable vector graphics. Check them out at gomedia.us they have freebies!!

Technology in the advertising and desigin industry is always changing. Your badass new design rig can be outdated before you can say intel fsb 1333 3-way SLI. Most hardware does not stay new for long. Time is money. The faster your hardware, the faster you can crank out work for clients, the faster you can get paid.

2. To research three more career positions, I chose to use the site careerbuilder.com, this is what I found:

1. Amsterdam Printing in NY is looking for a designer to do design destined for print, and web use. Basic requirements such as 2 years exp. 4 yr degree are required. They list the position as one being a designer for print, manufacturing, and marketing, right up my alley.

HERE

2. NINTENDO! is hiring a graphic designer to prepare graphics for websites(oftentimes satellite sites for game releases) I am majoring in web design, and extensive knowledge of basic html, xml, css is required. Acute attention to detail is required as well as up to date video game knowledge, which I definitely have!

HERE

3. CW11, a news agency is looking for someone to prepare graphics that go alongside headlines for news casts. I think this is an interesting position because it involves information design, or involving themed design with essential information. Deadlines are very important, which is something I enjoy working with.

HERE

(employme)nt

first up, time warner, my aunt works for them, I'd love to work for them, doing anything

HERE

o'leary and partners, simple, right on their homepage

HERE

smashing magazine, would love to do do ad-tutorial work for them

HERE

these guys have an opening for a position i'd love, a graphic designer/illustrator, with only 2 years experience required for entry level

HERE

Imulus web design, they have some awesome designs that i'd love to contribute artwork to!

HERE

untitled

What software do you know?

PS, AI, DW, ID, MS Office, LR, Vbulletin, Flexisign, BR, Gerber Omega, pro tools.

What creative skills and talents do you have?

I airbrush, i dragrace, i golf, I do photography, I do vehicle wrap design, work with cms drupal, i can freelance like a mofo, do WP + VBulletin skins, random photoshpin.

What are your favorite things?

punkrock, blink, canon 5dmkII, 2002 corvette, lol cat, nigerian scammers, moe's southwestern grill, bhphoto, california, surprises, roadtrips, disneyworld, tiger woods, mcdonalds sweet tea, jersey shore, golf, mark hoppus, calling911, leaving numeric pages, taco bell, bittbox.com,

What are you interested in?

good design, people with more talent than attention, careers in design, making people stop and look.

What are you passionate about?

Learning as much about the things that interest me that I can.

What do you HATE, can't stand or despise?

Pennsylvania + South Jersey drivers, broken brake lights, ignorance, internet explorer, comic sans, papyrus, procrastination, people that interrupt you while you're speaking, or chime in at an innapropriate time with useless stories. opinions, romantic comedys, child molesters, pearl jam, dishonesty,

yay for me

so today I got a new, well actually, another, job! I'm the new graphic artist at godfather paintball supply! I believe I'll be doing shirt design, hopefully I'll be able to test out my new design software from the best vector studio in the land, gomedia.us

When I grow up I want to be a...

About four years ago, I decided I wanted to follow in my fathers footsteps and become an electrical engineer. I understood math fairly well, took all the appropriate courses in high school, and even received several scholarships to study in the field with a few well known companies. However after attending my first semester at MCCC under the NJSTARS tuition program, I quickly learned that engineering wasn't for me and that my hobbies at the time (airbrushing, tattooing, and music) would ultimately fuel my passion for something in the arts. I enlisted in the graphic/web/DMA program at MCCC and didn't look back. It went hand in hand with my job at a local graphics company in Trenton, where I designed and printed large format graphics (billboards, vehicle wraps, bus wraps for bands and such).
As I got better and better at making graphics and illustrations my interest in the field and industry of graphic design got stronger. I started to outsource my work on various freelancing sites such as 99designs.com where I could make a quick $100 for a few hours work, or registering with modelmayhem.com and doing portraits to add to my portfolio. I enjoyed doing large format work because it incorporated root information design and artwork that would be seen by thousands, BIG. Fast forward a year, when one afternoon at work, my boss who is heavily involved with dog agility competitions came to me and asked me if I wanted to design a few ads for a magazine called "Clean Run" a nationally printed magazine about dog agility competitions. I knew nothing about dog agility and that was ok, because I would just be laying out tribute ads for fallen dogs lol, and it would be awesome to have my work in a nationally printed magazine. Well, after my first ad went over well, I started doing more, and eventually did a 2 page spread for one of my bosses dog agility friends. My boss would bring in the magazine that month and she'd give me a copy and I'd hang them on my wall, each issue with each ad I did open to that page. It was pretty neat I have to admit, seeing your work you did on your computer get transformed and printed into a magazine. After that I was hooked, I was on various forums offering my services for free, just to see if I could get a hook and get my work out there.
I ended up doing websites for a cookie company, Phoebe Murphy Cookies, a powder coating company Powtek in Trenton, anything. Then in Summer of '08, I attended Vans Warped Tour at RaceWay Park in Englishtown, NJ as I always do, where I work part time every now and then. It's a pretty neat gig. I drive around in a golf cart all day and take dehydrated or beaten up kids to first aid, sometimes hot girls too. Well, while I was around, I take this cute Romanian girl to her lost band. She gets talking to me in my golf cart as we're driving and she tells me that she's from this band called "Me Talk Pretty" and was interested in my stuff. I ended up doing their website and eventually she approached me with talks of getting their bands tour bus wrapped. Now for those who don't know what a wrap is, it's essentially designing something on a computer, printing it on a large format printer on giant sheets of vinyl media, then sticking those pieces on the surface of whatever it is you intend to wrap, just like a billboard. I had never done a bus wrap before, but this was big, literally. I did the design for them, a 2gb file at 72dpi in 1/4 scale mind you, and it wasn't long before I was contracted by this other band called "I am Alpha and Omega" to do their bus wrap. It was really neat, seeing my stuff on the sids of 45ft buses in full color giant illustrations!
Now, I know everyone always thinks they always need to know someone on the inside to get a job, or the hookup or a position, but thats not always true. I used free means of online advertising to get my work out there, freelance. I have an uncle who is a singer and music producer in a rock band but he lives in CA, and I never contracted him for work. So with all that being said, once I graduate from Mercer this spring, with the NJSTARS program, I can attend Rutgers with NJSTARSII for free assuming I maintain my 3.0GPA at Mercer which I have done. Once I'm done with Rutgers my ideal position would be somewhere doing full scale illustrations either for bands touring, advertising firms, etc.

For the five positions we're supposed to lookup, I decided to use the site that I owe so much to, Craigslist.

Craigslist is great. It represents the most basic functions in terms of layout and features, but its the simplicity of the website that makes it so great, every hear the term, if it ain't broke don't fix it? yeah...KISS (google, helvetica, the big mac, blue jeans. dont mess with a good thing

When looking for a job on craigslist, it first asks you to locate the area in which you're looking in. New Jersey>Central Jersey> BINGO, everything that Craigslist has to offer is before your eyes at this stage. On the right, jobs, awesome, art/media/design, thats me.

1. Multimedia Developer, Bridgewater, NJ - Using FL, and PS to create training videos for our company, comp. 35-55k.
2. Wanted: someone to develop a social networking site - I actually started to create a SNS back in the day with Drupal, a CMS that I wanted to use to create an Instant Messaging archive site. called impile. http://www.bv-techsolutions.com/beta/drupal/impile.com
3. Product Photographer - When I did bus wraps for the bands at Warped Tour, often times, they had nothing to give me for artwork, so I had to get and make my own, which included photos, and lots of them (you know how big a bus is?)

4. Admin / Design - I don't really understand this position, they claim to be the best at what they do and are looking for people to join their staff WingIt Innovations. i like being the best at what i do...

5. Flash/Web Designer - This is my major, web design, so this looks like a good opportunity as a fallout for my first choice (large format design) because there seems to be less of a demand for large format advertising with the current economic situation. Although the best thing you can do for your business in a down market is advertise...


kyle-

homework

as per our homework assignment-

ive found the cheapest place to get the book for our class. i asked my parents to purchase the book for me at an online retailer, and it ended up costing me $0! i suggest everyone to attempt this method, theres no better price to pay for a book when it costs you nothing.

b is for oBAMA

yea i know his first name is barack, but its more fun to say obama. this post needs no explanation.

dayum

hey, if you're like me and you're always looking for inspiration to use for a new project or idea, check out this small sample portfolio i found on flickr, its really neat

HERE

hi my name is kyle

i go to a community college.