PREPARATION:

1. Dress appropriately. Some shops are very laid back and wear jeans and flip flops to work. Some agencies wear business casual 4 days a week. Hopefully, you’re researching the place you’re interviewing, already, so you’ll be able to get a good feel for the personality of the company. Either place you go to interview, dressing nicely or being overdressed won’t look bad… but the opposite just might. So don’t risk it.
2. Know who you’re talking to and what they do. This is pretty much a no brainer. Knowing who you are talking to and the kind of work they do is very important. Firstly, the pacing of their portfolio online, is a good model for what they might be looking for (and how you might want to pace your portfolio / presentation). Know the clients they’ve worked on. Know the pieces they might be proudest of. Have questions you might have about their experiences / work / clients ready. This shows the interviewer that you’re interested, first of all, and that you possess the valued skill of preparedness.

INTERVIEW FIRSTS:

1. Be on time. 10 minutes early is good. 1 minute late is bad. Like super bad. They might be late. You should not.
2. Give a firm handshake. It’s really the first impression. I don’t mean to give your interviewer a crushing grip. But make sure it’s not limp. Limp is kind of gross, and it’s not what you want remembered after the interview.
3. Give them your resume in the beginning. Sweet, they know you’re prepared. Great. Also, they can take notes about you on this. (Let’s be true to ourselves here. They are sizing you up.)
4. Remember you are potential. Remember that you’re not looking for a Senior Designer position. You should know that, and the interviewer is definitely not interviewing you to fill that spot. They’re looking at your book closely, yes. But its as much in the presentation, your speaking and your personality as it is the work.
5. Be absolutely ready to give a dog and pony. I like to have people walk me through their book, and I will comment after they’re done. This shows me that they can present, are comfortable speaking, and will be able to sell me on their ideas, if perhaps they’re invited to join the team. The way you show your portfolio is a clue to how you’re going to interact with your CD or design lead in the future. So prep for the interview by knowing the same stuff you’d need to know when selling the idea. Even if its a student project. But keep it brief. It could be as simple as: This is a logo for client name. They do service description for audience. We wanted to emphasize key point, key point and key point and you can see that here and here with this visual solution, visual and tagline.
6. Make it a short and succinct dog and pony. Remember, the interviewer does have other work to do… so show your good stuff. Show your potential. And preparation will help you present everything succinctly without long awkward silences / drawn out explanations bc you’re making it up on the spot. If a concept is good, you shouldn’t need a long drawn out explanation.
7. Don’t mumble.
8. Like your work. Don’t hate on yourself. Be enthusiastic about your work. Don’t point out the things that don’t work. Most likely, the interviewer can see that. The interviewer can overlook that if the rest works, the concept is strong, and if you still hold lots of shiny potential. But they don’t want to work with a downer, or someone that doesn’t seem to like what they’re about to get themselves into.
9. Be ready to answer questions. This comes with preparedness. Know about your work. And anything you present – including non design related jobs on your resume. Have answers for anything you put in front of them.
10. Ask questions. Ask for feedback. Take notes. Have questions ready. It shows genuine interest and preparation. Take notes. It shows genuine interest, can help you improve your book, and it gives you something to do with your hands instead of nervously fidget.
11. Know thyself. Be real. But not fake. Really, don’t be a car salesman. Don’t blank out when an interviewer asks you an off-the-wall question to gauge your personality (like, “what’s the most spontaneous thing you’ve done?”). Don’t be fake or try to sell something that you’re not (bc if you do get the job, you’ll have to fess up or play that role).
12. Be nice. Be nice – because (a) it’s the golden rule, and (b) the design network can be pretty small. So if you’re well liked, but not the right fit, you might very well be recommended or passed along in the grapevine when another CD/hirer is looking. And no one wants to work with a jerk, even if their portfolio is really great. Because most likely, there’s an equally great portfolio out there with a nice guy holding it.
13. Don’t badmouth. That’s just a general rule to live by – but especially in an interview capacity. Even if the interviewer might agree with you, who is to say you won’t turn and say the same thing about him. If it’s evidenced that you’ll air dirty laundry in one place, it’s probably a pattern. And again, the design network can be pretty small.

THE END:

1. Say thank you very much, and again, give them a firm handshake. Make sure to say thanks for the time they took. Whether you could feel non-hiring vibes or not, you’ve made a good contact that could be a very good resource for input, leads in the future. And again, leave with a firm handshake. It’s the last impression you’ll have on them.
2. Follow up. Thank you cards are great. Not necessary, but a really nice touch. But something—an email, a note, sending chocolates to the whole office—is a good way to stay on the radar and to let them know you appreciate their time. But a good rule is one follow up during the week after, and then just wait. Go about your life. Hopes are you’ll get a call back.
3. Keep putting yourself out there. Keep practicing your skills and getting input from anywhere you can. The worst thing that can happen is that you’ll improve your presentation skills and grow your network, and the best possibility is you get an offer.

Image still taken from this video.

Of course, when you search using the words, “branding” and “checklist,” you get a million results – some good and some bad, but all more to do with what makes a brand a brand… which doesn’t help me much in my task, but in reading a bunch of these, I think the ways we can talk about branding a company are also appropriate guidelines for defining yourself as a designer — especially a student designer who wants to enter the field.

So I’ve taken a few points from some branding guidelines and questionnaires and put together an inventory of considerations you might gather to help you when (a) you’re figuring out what kind of designer you want to be and who you want to work for and (b) you start to sell / promote yourself to potential employers.

So before you put that portfolio together and before you make those phone calls and send those emails, take time to think, process and resolve the following checklist. I left the “branding” talk in there because you should take a step back and look at yourself as a brand.

1. What is your brand vision?
What is the vision behind what you do? How do you describe your design, your aims, your goals? Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years?

2. What are your company values?
This is pretty self-explanatory. What are the things you value? How can you incorporate those values into the way you design?

3. What are the good and bad features/attributes of your brand?
Where do you excel? Where do you need improvement? Really think about this, be honest and be humble. Your idea of “expert” in Illustrator is probably closer to “novice” to a Creative Director.

4. What are the bad aspects of your brand, and how can you dispose of them?
What are some negative impressions you might have left behind, be it at a past internship or with one of your old professors / adjunct or otherwise. Think about the impressions you may have left or mistakes you might have made, and make sure you know how to address those issues if they come up in an interview. What can you learn from these experiences, and how can you improve?

5. What are the practical benefits associated with each of the good features/attributes?
What can you offer with your skills, design or otherwise?

6. What are the emotional reasons why customers might buy your products/services?
How are you in interviewing? Another part of getting a job is how well you present yourself. Whether the CD or hiring person likes you. Looks (the book) are great, but personality does go a long way.

7. What are the rational and emotional personality characteristics of your brand? What can you do to bring these personality characteristics to life?
Again, your personality, along with your work will help you stand out and be remembered. Think of ways you can incorporate parts of your personality into your presentation (but don’t go overboard).

8. How can you use the brand personality to attract and retain more customers?
Think about ways you can follow up with CD’s/AD’s or others you might meet at industry meetings, portfolio reviews, etc. Learn to network. Make sure people want to recommend you. How can you do this?

9. How can you deliver on the promise of your brand?
Once you get the job, make sure you can back what you say. Delivering on your promises is very important.

And lastly,
10. How are you going to generate more trust in your brand-customer relationship?
Once you have the job, keep improving upon your brand. Go back from question 1-10 periodically throughout your career, like companies do when they reassess their presence in their customers lives. Like brands, creative directors and shop owners and clients want a designer they can trust and believe in to get the work done and done well.

So, reevaluate your goals. Look at your negatives and positives and continue to make your brand (your presence) bigger, better and more trustworthy, and one day you might be like the Apple of the designer world. Everyone will want you, and all the other designers will want to be like you.

Okay, so you’re designers. Some of you write well, and some of you don’t. If you’re lucky – once you get into the real world, you might have good copy writer to work with — but that depends on what kind of place you go to work. If you go to work at an ad agency — you’ll get a copy writing partner eventually (once you get past the junior stage, most times). But if you go to a small shop or mid-size design firm – you’ll be writing your own copy or depending on the account manager (eek!).

So here’s a quick how-to for writing the body copy.

Firstly — for the poster — your body copy should be about 3-5 sentences. As engaging as your piece may be – you have to consider the audience. Assume the imagery/look of the poster and the headline captured the viewer’s attention – so much that they got closer and want to read more. Now you have to sell them to your cause, and for the average audience, you have about 10 seconds before they become distracted/stop reading. So your copy needs to be strong and succinct – as well as compelling.

Okay – so let’s say the poster I’ve designed is against Diamond Mining in Congo because of its contribution to death and civil war. My headline says, “Is a 2-Carat Diamond Worth 2 Million Deaths?”

The Lead-in
The first sentence should tie into the headline — this is called a lead-in sentence. So let’s say my audience is intrigued. They’re concerned that people are dying because of diamonds and want to read more. My lead-in could be – “No jewel is worth a human life.” It is effective to reference the headline or use a word contained in the headline. In the case of my example – I use the word “jewel” (equivalent to the reference to the diamond), reused the word “worth” and used “human life” to counter “deaths” in the headline. This connects the headline to the copy and helps pull the reader in to read more.

Supporting Sentences
The sentences following your lead-in (between 1-3 sentences is a good amount… but it takes a really good writer to be able to do it in one succinct sentence) would explicate on your position, discuss the situation you’re protesting and explain your key points. Take the most important – the most effectual facts/statistics – and compose the copy from there.

Closing Sentence/Call-to-Action
The last sentence is the closing sentence. this one should refer to the headline/lead-in as to tie the whole piece together, as well as bring in the call-to-action. How do you want to leave the audience? You want them to think – to research – to be motivated so much as to want to act. In this case, for example, my supporting sentences have explained the death and civil war in Congo, and the illegitmate means of trading that cause those autrocities. And the last sentence of my supporting group talks about the alternatives to diamonds. My final sentence could be, “Choose a diamond alternative, and help save something of more value – the lives of the people of Congo.”

This is the basic structure of the body copy for any kind of design – whether it’s an anti-war poster or an ad for diapers. It’s why having a really good creative brief is important – because that should be the only reference you need.

Another tip is to write the body copy in a separate file. So you’re not trying to think and design at the same time. You can manipulate the rag and rivers later. This is a separate type of creativity.

Writing your own copy is a good thing to practice – even if you hate it or think you’re not good at it. It builds up your creative muscle and helps you because you can think more wholistically about the concept and make your piece much richer in value. That’ll make your talents/skills more valuable as well.

Preface to Content – Resume Design
First things first – do not over design your resume. Do not use one of the free fonts off dafont. What’s supposed to stand out is the content of your resume — not the fact that you have heirarcheal inconsistencies due to too many fonts being used. A good rule of thumb is to keep it simple. Keep it clean. Keep it classic. 

Now onto the substance. Following is a good model of the order and content for a student designer’s resume.

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Name and Contact Info
Of course, you should put your name and contact info at the top of the page. It needs to be easily distinguished and legible. The most important information is your name, phone number and email. 

Personal Statement (your objective / goals)
Write a short statement about the position you want and your goals in the field. Add a bit of how you stand apart and how you – above all other designers of the same level – can benefit  the employer if they take the risk on you. Some resumes have a brief one sentence statement. Some have a paragraph. Just make sure its well written, spell-checked and absent of clichés.

Education
— Your Degree and Major (e.g., BFA in Graphic Design)
— Date of (Expected) Graduation (Month and Year)
— College You Attended
— Location of Your College (City and State)

Experience
List the jobs you’ve had — since the beginning of college — newest job first. oldest job last. For each job, include the job title, dates, location and a brief description of your role. List  If you have design internships – list them first. 

I tend to like to see students who have experience in retail or restaurants. Especially if they held the job longer than 6 months. It shows responsibility and that you’ve had a job before – but most importantly that you know how to work with people. But know how to edit yourself as well. Hopefully you don’t have more than 8 jobs to list. You don’t want it to look like you hop from job to job – it’s good to be able to hold a job for a long period of time – otherwise, you could come off as a risky investment.

Capabilities
Under capabilities, detail the abilities you have such as: ability to manage multiple projects at once; experience working with groups and individually; strong copy writing skills, etc. Only list those capabilities that you can assert with the confidence to back them up. You don’t want to be proven wrong.

Software Skills
Here you list the programs you know how to work in and if applicable, program languages that you know. You can add “intermediate” or “expert” to each software qualification — but be cautious. “Expert” to a design student is far from “expert” to an experienced creative. So, it might be best to keep this list to program names only.

Awards
Designers love awards. List any awards or contests or annuals you may have been featured. Include art shows that you may have had a fine art piece in. You should also include academic honors.

Organizations
If you belong to any organizations – whether they are design related or not – you should list them. Note any leadership roles as well within these organizations.

References
At the end of your resume, note “References available upon request”.  You can bring the reference attachment (same design as your resume and on a separate sheet) to your actual interview. I recommend having no less than 3 references. List your reference’s name, job title, association. By association, I mean were they an adjunct / professor, or someone you did design work for, or someone you worked for outside of design (limit the latter type to one if you have three references, two if you have more). Also for each reference, include email and phone number.

Ask the reference for permission before you include them on your list — and really think about whether they will give you a good recommendation or not. Their impressive title does not matter — if they won’t give a good one. Your potential employer will call – so don’t chance it.

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Before You Send It Out
Once you’re done writing your resume, have people with good writing skills – especially those experienced with writing and receiving resumes – proof your resume for errors in spelling or grammar. Don’t get sensitive. The best thing any one can do for you at this point is to find them – because if they don’t, the employer will. Also – check for formatting consistencies. Are your bullet points  just statements, or are they bulleted sentences that end with periods? Is the heirarchy right? Is the type large enough to read? Just because you like using 8 pt type doesn’t mean the hiring creative can read it. Once you correct any of the errors found – spell check and grammar check it again. Go over it at least two or three rounds with two or three different sets of eyes. 

And last thing to remember when sending out your resume — is relax. Remember the following: the person receiving your resume knows its coming from a student or recent graduate. The person receiving your resume is looking for potential — not an experienced senior designer. So again — relax. You’re going to have to do this again, most likely. But it’ll get easier, and hopefully, you’ll get to add more experience and more awards to it. 

Get everything on paper at the very beginning.

With a house, you line up your architect and contractors and develop a budget and expectations of every one at the very beginning. It could take weeks or even months to reach agreements or a concrete plan of action. The architects don’t just draw up and execute the project without ingesting the thoughts and considerations of the home owners. Nor should the home owners let them. It’s their investment. It’s a house they have to live and breathe and stand. With a house – you can’t just Apple+Z.

The same goes for any creative project.

At the beginning of every creative project – there should be a contract. Like building a house – you  should develop a budget and establish the expectations of every one at the very beginning. This process should not be glossed over. Because also like a house – the owners will have to live and breathe it (especially if its a brand or website) and stand it. So after the initial invoice and deposit – there should be a creative brief.

WHAT IS A CREATIVE BRIEF?
The creative brief is a document that agencies/firms employ to define a project. Each creative brief should start from a series of simple questions asked by the creative team and answered by the client. This floorplan becomes the guidepost for the development of the creative deliverable. It is a document that should be overwhelmingly strategic – covering all the possible and unforeseen bases imaginable. This framework – like many strategic declarations – should hold everyone accountable if the project goes off track. And if the project does err -  referring back to this mutually agreed upon document can help to guide the project back onto the right path, and it is a good place to see where the project might have been strayed.

DOES EVERY AGENCY HAVE THE SAME BRIEF?
Most agencies have their own creative briefs. Most agencies are different from each other. Creative briefs are usually tailored to the agency that is developing the creative deliverable. Each individual group knows which questions (and answers) are of paramount importance to them in order to deliver a high-quality, sustainable, creative execution.

SO, HOW DO I WRITE ONE?
Start with a simple conversation. Start with the right questions. You can gear the questions towards achieving the answers that will populate the outline of a typical creative brief. Most clients don’t mind talking about themselves. So listen. The creative brief can tell if you were listening or not.

WHAT’S TYPICAL IN A CB?
Most creative briefs are outlined as follows:

• Background — what is the background of the project? Why is it being done?
• Target audience — who is the target audience? who is the expected target? who is an unexpected target? what do they already think about this subject?
• Objectives — what is to be accomplished? How will the success of this be measured? What is my long-term goal with this? What is my short-term goal with this?
• Single message — what is the one thing to tell the audience? What is the single thing they should remember about the offering? How will they believe what we say?
• Deliverables — what is to be used to give the audience the message? What is the best way or place to reach this audience – a website that’s build in html? a blog? a flashy brochure?
• Timeline — how soon is this needed? When is it expected to be done? How many rounds (revisions) will this project undergo?
• Budget — how much can be spent to get this developed? Is there any budget needed to publish/flight the creative
• Approvals — who needs to give the “okay”?

I DRAFTED THE BRIEF. NOW WHAT?
After the brief is drafted and spell-checked and fact-checked and compared with notes and notes of every one who was there when the client(s) answered the questions, the creative brief goes back to the client. At this point they say, “yes, you were listening! this is great!” or “yes, this is great, but add…” or “which meeting were you at?” (at which point, you go back and redo the brief). You get the brief right and you get the client to sign off on it. You don’t start drawing anything or putting anything into the computer before you get it right and signed.

OKAY – SO MY CLIENTS ARE ALL MAKE BELIEVE BECAUSE I’M A STUDENT. DO I REALLY NEED A CB?
What are creative briefs good for – besides improving your analysis of clients, besides showing you points you may have missed or not considered when you’re in the midst of the project? As a student or potential designer about to enter the workforce – the creative brief is the most useful document to refer to before your presentation. Reciting the audience details, unknown facts you may have found out to fill up the background section, defining the objectives and the single message – is more than impressive – to your professors and potential employers. It’s proof that there’s something behind your design. It’s proof you can talk about your design.

The creative brief defines the expectations. And for the student designer who can master the CB and talk about the points of the project in person without notecards, it goes above them.