Career advice from Graphic Designers please! What should I do?

Question

I want to start looking for a new job but, I feel like I've lost all my creativity to design. I have a few regrets about it now, but at the time I got a lot out of the Tech College I went to. I graduated 3 years ago with an Associates Degree and got a job right away doing production art. I figured it would be a good start to get a quick 2-3 years experience here and then get a better design job. Well that 3 years went by pretty quick and now I realize I feel so far behind everyone, even kids just graduating. I forgot what little web design I once new, I don't know Adobe InDesign, and I can't even draw anymore. I think that once I get back in a creative environment it will come back to me, but can I go into a interview with the same portfolio I graduated with or do I go back to school? or what? I need advice, I gotta get out of this boring dead-end job. I know I'm not the only one to go through this.

All good answers, thank you! CrazzyChk, I actually just picked up Caffeine for the Creative Mind, It's sitting right next to me right now, That's Crazzy!
Anyways, I guess I knew it was my fault for falling into the slump and I know what I have to do. I just wanted to whine a little bit and see if there were other people going through the same thing.

Answer 1

You must be willing to work on your own time. There is no excuse for your falling behind except for your own lack of trying, or realization that you should be.

You don't know indesign? Learn it. If you use other Adobe products, and you know Quark, then it will come to you quickly and easily. The more programs you know, the more you are worth. There are books that can teach you programs more quickly and cheaper then school ever could, and since this is a field where the tools are continuously being upgraded, it is our job to keep up to date with the most current tools.

Spend your free time brushing up on your drawing and creative ideas, upgrading your portfolio, and researching where you want to take your career. I wouldn't bother with web design - it's lousy pay and mostly lead by programmer types these days, but that's your prerogative of course. Have you looked into the different directions your knowledge can take you?

Unfortunately in the GD field most jobs are dead-end. You must be very good or very lucky to ever get rich off of it. I'm lucky because I don't need vast amounts of wealth to be happy, but I do need to enjoy my job.

Answer 2

I went from prepress to graphic design (my own company!) a few years ago.

The best advice I can give you is start networking with everyone you know, even if it's been a while since you've caught up with anyone. Former instructors, former classmates, even customers at the production art place you're working now if you know them fairly well. Start asking around if people know of anything that's open or might be coming up. Sometimes something like a portfolio is less important than how you came to their attention. If Bob or Mary or Walter knows you and thinks you're an asset, sometimes that means more or will help bolster what you may see as limitations.

Rather than focus on what your current professional limitations are, think of what you do have experience with and keep selling that! Be confident in what you know! If you have Quark experience, you will make the switch over to InDesign with no problems. Trust me. In the last year I went to 99% Quark to 96% InDesign with nothing more than limited production knowledge. Brush up on the things that you feel limited at, even if you're just doing projects for fun or for your Mom or church or something.

The main thing that I had an adjustment with was retraining my eye to what was current. I had been out of design for a long time and strictly production, and I spent a lot of time pouring over magazine ads and the mail that was coming in and posters up at the library. Start tuning into what's going on, design-wise, in your surroundings. Commercials, your favorite website, etc. Once you get an idea of what things should look like, you'll figure out a way to make it work with the skill set you have.

It's when you're doing the want ad thing that the standards get a lot higher just simply because of the pool of applicants. You've got no control over the experience (real or perceived) that the other applicants have. But where you have it over a kid just out of a program is that you have work experience. That's more of an asset than you think. Hey, you showed up at a job for 3 years, you dealt with deadlines and customer revisions and and and. Play that up!

Anyway. Best of luck to you!

Answer 3

I felt like I was in a creative slump once I was out of art school. What really helped me was a book called "Caffeine for the Creative mind" it's wonderful. gives you a whole bunch of exercises to do to get those motors going.

Make sure you make a new portfolio full of some personal touches, try not to bring too much school work. if you have gone to an art school, usually they have seen those projects before.

Make sure you know what your design style is. Of course its good to be flexible, but still you want to show them you've got something they want.

It's not hopeless. Just keep telling yourself how much your job sucks and how you want to grow creatively.

GOOD LUCK!