As promised, the panel discussion from Portland's Creative Employment Confab is online -- the first half of it, anyway. Panelists, from left to right, are as follows: me, moderating; Chelsea Vandiver, head of Ziba's Communications Design Group; Nick Oakley, lead industrial designer for Intel's Mobile Platforms; Beth Sasseen, senior creative recruiter for Nike; and Kirk James, creative director at Cinco Design.

This first half of the discussion, around 28 minutes long, holds some particularly useful insights on the creative hiring process, notably:

- Where creative talent-seekers look for leads on new hires
- What a portfolio can't show
- The dangers of relying too much on a single source of referrals
- How creative teams in large corporations deal with official hiring channels
- Finding the narrative in an applicant's work history and online presence

Hope you find it useful. Part two goes up tomorrow.

Posted by Carl Alviani at 07:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

In the face of a difficult job market, what's the last thing a designer ought to do? Leaving a steady position and lighting off across the country to start a new studio is near the top of the Insane list, and yet this is exactly what Interaction Designer Jennifer Bove opted to do in September of last year, just as the economic future slipped into freefall.

As part of FastCompany's frequently excellent Expert Design Blogger series, Jennifer has been invited to tell the story of her experience building this new venture: Kicker Studio, which she helped start along with Designing Gestural Interfaces author Dan Saffer. Admittedly this isn't quite your typical seat-of-the-pants startup: the team is something of an All Star lineup in the IxD world, with plenty of experience and contacts among the five principals. But selling design is never an easy proposition, especially in a newly frugal environment. And that makes this a must-read series for any experienced creative professional coming to grips with a precarious employment situation, and contemplating something similarly crazy.

Bove is the first to acknowledge that it's a daunting task, explaining that "people have been looking at me like I'm a crazy person" to Alissa Walker during a conversation at SxSW in March, while describing the studio's founding. Alissa's charming intro here includes a few samples of Jenn's work, and makes a great starting point for anyone interested in Kicker's history.

We're three posts into the tale at this point, and already there are a few nuggets of wisdom for those inclined to take a similar path. For starters, being connected really helps -- even more so than in finding a job, building a client base for a new studio means tapping on a lot of shoulders, and Walker's observation that "She knew everyone" probably has something to do with Kicker's continued existence.

The second impression was that, as complicated and difficult as freelancing or job-searching might be, starting a studio is even more so. Here's the first paragraph from Bove's account of Kicker's first few weeks:

The first three months of any startup endeavor is full of new things. How soon can we get the Web site up? Which logo do we like? Do we have an NDA? How about a fax template? We could really use some coffee mugs, a whiteboard and our own trashcans. If only we had some income, we might be able to buy these things. Oh what an exciting day that will be!

Continue reading "Founding a design firm at the worst possible time: Kicker Studio on FastCompany.com" »

Posted by Carl Alviani at 06:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's a good time to be a welder. A skilled one, anyway. A New York Times article from last week pointed out that certain trades appear to be largely insulated from the job-shedding of the recent economy, including nurses, electrical linemen, and the aforementioned guys with the torches.

One obvious response to this revelation is to lament the diminished status of skilled trades in the West, especially the US: it's been decades since jobs involving skilled manual manipulation were considered prestigious work, and the scarcity of such skills is certainly a contributing factor to the conundrum portrayed in the article.

But at least as important, and far more instructive for creative professionals, is a common trait of those welders, nurses and linemen enjoying such good pickings: demonstrated proficiency in a hard-to-learn field. The welders in such high demand, for example, are the ones with 10 years of experience who can create flawless welds on oil refinery projects. The nurses are critical care nurses: a designation that takes exceptional levels of schooling, dedication and -- again -- experience to achieve. And so on: "...employers are begging for qualified applicants for certain occupations, even in hard times," explains the article. "Most of the jobs involve skills that take years to attain." The Free Exchange blog on Economist.com extends the argument by noting that "experience matters. Employers are uninterested in those without five to ten years on the job -- enough time to master the skills in question. That's obviously not something currently unemployed workers can obtain right away. In the short term, the supply of these workers is essentially fixed."

Moreover, these aren't skills that can be implied or hinted at by a resume or a solid Personal Brand. I've never hired a welder, but I suspect that if I did I'd want to see them weld before offering them the job, and that I'd want to look at those welds very very closely. Same for a special education teacher, another of the professions mentioned: teachers are typically observed in a classroom setting before being handed a contract, especially if they're to work in an especially difficult or high-stakes environment.

Creative professionals tend to walk a border between white collar and skilled labor, and as such don't have extremely clear routes for demonstrating competence. There's the portfolio, of course, which serves a similar function to a welding test in that it showcases ability in a straightforward way: if you can't draw, it'll show. No way around that. Contrast this with management skills, which are nearly impossible to test for directly ("you have 35 minutes to make this team of engineers and marketers into a smoothly functioning team..."). This is one reason why a white collar worker can build a career on affability and good connections despite a lack of skills: they're just that hard to measure.

Designers are generally judged on both. Recruiters and creative directors comment repeatedly on the double-whammy nature of the creative hiring process, where a good portfolio is the cost of entry, but the interview and the referrals seal the deal. It's a bit like being hired twice. The mistake many young creative professionals make is in assuming that their success hinges more on one side than the other. In the current economy, it could be argued that the intangibles, like management, decision-making, and "design thinking" are diminished in importance, since tighter budgets mean more risk-aversion, and an "intangibly great" applicant with a mediocre portfolio is a risky (though potentially fantastic) hire.

A likely short-term solution is to focus more than ever on demonstrable skills. Yes, personal brands are important, networking is important, and communication skills are important. What's more important, especially in a tight economy, is the ability to demonstrate skills in a direct, understandable way. What's the Graphic Design equivalent of a welding test? How does an Interaction Designer showcase her chops the way a critical care nurse showcases his? More and more employers are starting to ask these questions and act upon them.

For the designer, this makes right now a fantastic time to brush up on basics. Successful consultancies tend to spend their slow periods working fanatically on capacity-building projects, practicing the skills that make them competitive by developing their own spec projects. Jobless creative professionals would do well to follow suit, by taking classes, volunteering, or pursuing spec projects of their own: you know, practicing.

photo: Nikola Bilic, courtesy of Shutterstock

Posted by Carl Alviani at 01:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

1. What do you look for when hiring a designer?

Craft: Does their work demonstrate an eye for design and the ability to produce great work within the realities of manufacturing and budget constraints?

Design Thinking: Can they think broadly? Do they have an awareness of design's role within the context of business and culture?

Cultural Fit: Can they work in a rigorous multidisciplinary collaborative environment?

2. Is there a particular "tell" that signals a good or bad fit?

Craft and design thinking are competencies that can be easily assessed by viewing a designer's portfolio and listening to them present their work.

Cultural Fit is more difficult to gauge. The most telling signal of a potential good fit is an engaging dialogue. If a candidate does not demonstrate a genuine curiosity in the work that we do here, it's typically a red flag.

Continue reading "What Do You Look For in a Designer? : Chelsea Vandiver, Ziba" »

Posted by Carl Alviani at 06:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CNN Money writes in an article from earlier this week that the percentage of American workers employed in freelance, temporary or self-employed circumstances is expected to climb to 40% in ten years time. For creative professionals, the future is already here.

The Salary Survey we've conducted here at Coroflot for the past several years has long supported a suspicion shared by many designers: that they engage in freelance or other flexible working situations at a higher rate than the workforce as a whole. The 2008 survey shows most fields reporting around 60% of respondents in corporate positions, with the remainder divided between freelancers and consultancies, plus a few odd "other" replies, and while consultancies certainly employ full-time staffers, the core-plus-freelancers model is probably the most common. Add the growing popularity of project-oriented hiring in corporate studios as well, and you've got a total flexible workforce that's probably pushing 40% already, if not surpassing it.

The reasons for this tendency have been discussed for quite a while -- the perceived optional nature of design work in many fields, the intense competition for work, and the never-ending search for more interesting projects, among others -- but its appearance in other fields is a relatively new thing. A typical graphic designer can pretty much expect to have a spell of freelance work at some point in her career, but for most bankers (for example) this is still a fairly novel notion.

Continue reading "As more professions go temp, what happens to the designers?" »

Posted by Carl Alviani at 08:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Job-seeking is a stressful task, but especially so for designers: not only must we make the right connections and have the right combination of training and experience, we're also judged -- sometimes quite coldly -- on the merits of work that we've poured our sweat and soul into. It could be argued that the most useful thing design school teaches is how to take rejection and criticism gracefully.

But did you ever consider the job search from the perspective of the ones doing the hiring?

Creative hiring is unique from the employer's perspective as well. The past two months have had me interviewing and conversing with a broad range of recruiters, directors and senior designers (for the Confab series, mostly), and one subtle theme of those talks that caught me off guard is how hard the hiring process is for them as well, and how daunting. It's easy to lose sight of this fact when you're a recent grad or newly unemployed, scraping for something, anything, in what feels like a completely skewed and unfair system; but as with many design problems, sympathy for the client can be a powerful tool.

Continue reading "Hiring a Designer is a Deeply Frightening Thing" »

Posted by Carl Alviani at 05:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you're looking for a reason for Creative Seeds' recent two week hiatus, look no further. The Portland installment of the Creative Employment Confab is done, and judging by initial response, succeeded admirably; both as a source of information and a network-building opportunity. Much of the credit must go to the four panelists for providing a nucleus around which the event could form, and a list of points for further discussion. More of it, though, goes to the attendees: a surprisingly high turnout of around 125 highly engaged designers, directors and recruiters, most with years or decades of experience in their books. To put this in perspective, the New York Confab drew around 140 total, from a city approximately eight times as large -- a testament to the size and vibrancy of the Portland design community perhaps, or just the result of better publicity.

Video of the panel discussion is being processed at this very moment, and should be live later in the week, but for immediate gratification, there's a summary of the conversation on Core77, and a brief gallery of panel and crowd shots on the Confab page.

Next steps: Plans for the San Francisco installment of the Confab are already underway, tentatively scheduled for the second week of September, and if initial interest is any reliable gauge, expect it to eclipse all previous Confabs in both size and variety. As always, this blog and the Confab page are the primary sources of news on schedule, venue, speakers and registration.

We're also eager to get impressions from those who were at the White Stag Block last Thursday. Observations, suggestions, praise and pontifications should all be submitted to the comment section of this post, and will be thoroughly mined for information in shaping the remaining two dates.

Posted by Carl Alviani at 07:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you haven't seen it already on Core77, here's the official announcement of Portland's upcoming Creative Confab date -- I'll be moderating the panel discussion again, and sticking around afterward, so any Coroflot fans in the Pac NW, please come by and say hi:

Hot on the heels of the highly-energetic, highly-crowded (140+ person) New York City installment of the Creative Employment Confab, Coroflot is bringing the panel + networking event to the City of Roses in its only Pac NW appearance, Thursday, June 11 at the University of Oregon's White Stag Block in Old Town.

As before, the event will run for three hours, feature ample opportunity for networking with local creative professionals and recruiters, and center on an engaging panel discussion with some of Portland's top designers and design recruiters. We'll be spotlighting each of the panelists over the next week, but you can get start getting yourself acquainted right here:

Chelsea Vandiver - Head of the Communications Design Group at Ziba

Beth Sasseen - Senior Design Recruiter at Nike

Nick Oakley - Industrial Design Lead for Mobile Platforms at Intel

Kirk James - Creative Director at Cinco Design

In addition, there will be a limited number of dedicated Recruiter packages available for design-driven companies looking to establish a presence at the event -- check the registration page for details.

Coroflot's Creative Employment Confab
June 11th, 2:30-6 pm
The White Stag Block
70 NW Couch St. in Portland, OR

Posted by Carl Alviani at 08:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

New York was a thrilling, exhausting whirlwind of activity, as work trips often are. If you've been following both Creative Seeds and the Core77 blog, you may have noticed that the Confab that just wrapped up coincided neatly with New York Design Week, and that some of the same people were involved in organizing and covering both, myself included.

This makes an interesting opportunity for comparison, between the employment-oriented crowd at the Confab, and the low-key salesmanship on the floor at the ICFF. Both groups are striding a narrow path between forming connections and making a sale: on the convention center floor, it's furniture and objects being sold; at a networking event, it's your own creative expertise. It became quickly apparent that the most successful "sellers" in each circumstance shared at least one notable trait: an ability to avoid dropping into "show mode." This is easier to describe in the context of the furniture fair.

Those charming two-minute video interviews we post during Design Week are usually the second time the designer in question has explained his or her project to us; this is a strategy we've developed over the past couple of years to help screen for compelling content and fluent presentation. We stroll through the fair, or the off-site site show, seeking unusual objects and chatting with their owners about them. About half of those interactions are immediately off-putting: if what we're hearing is clearly a script, we move on. Of the remainder, perhaps 20% have a good story about the project. We linger for these stories, and if it's an especially engaging or visually rich one, we ask them to tell it again for the camera.

This last step would seem to be the simplest--"tell the camera exactly what you just told me"--but for some reason, the urge to slip into "show mode" is simply irresistible. The casual, earnest story becomes a manifesto, or an ad campaign, and stretches from two minutes to six or seven, leaving us struggling to edit it back down to something resembling that first conversation.

The networking equivalent of this phenomenon substitutes a portfolio (whether present or not) for a line of chairs or lighting fixtures, but the behavior is remarkably similar. So is the solution: the most successful conversations are real ones, not pitches, and the most successful presenters those with an interesting story to tell.

Strolling through the Art Directors Club on Friday during the post-panel hour and a half was deeply instructive. Because most of the attendees were more experienced mid- and senior-level designers or recruiters, the overall tone was relatively comfortable: two or three people getting mutually excited about a point of common reference, hands gesticulating, intense attention paid, and the occasional broad smile and chuckle. Little wonder, then, that so many of the recruiters in attendance opted to not be identified as such, as it's hard to imagine that kind of easy communication occurring so frequently in a job fair format.

And yet, over and over we hear from recruiters, directors and senior designers that a clear, honest, passionate voice is the second most important quality they look for in a new hire, right after a strong portfolio. Is this unfair? Is such a voice exclusively the result of years of experience and the confidence born of multiple successes? Based on the number of seasoned designers who still "pitch" rather than talk, and the number of recent grads I've seen knock 'em dead with authenticity, I'd have to say no. Or rather, that there is a correlation, but it's not as strong as you'd think.

Perhaps it's mostly a matter of intent. My own design schooling, for example, never really explained that it was necessary to be direct and at ease when talking about my work; they focused on preparation. And while I cannot fault this focus, knowing that a poorly prepared presenter is straight-up agonizing to watch, it bears stating here: if you want to speak of your work, whether a project, a concept, or yourself as a designer, do these things:

1. Have a story (or three) to tell.
2. Be genuine.
3. Be at ease.
4. Don't pitch. It's not a show, after all, it's your passion.

Posted by Carl Alviani at 06:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For those of you who made it to the Art Directors Club in New York on Friday for the most recent Creative Confab, thanks for being so active, engaging, and numerous. Initial responses have been great, noting some great insights from the panel discussion, and some exceptionally useful contacts made in the pre- and post-panel conversation. There are some first impressions and key quotes up on the Core77 front page, a string of live quotes from the event on the @Coroflot Twitter feed, and a video in the works--should be up here on Creative Seeds later this week or early next.

Next month, the Confab heads across country to Portland, Oregon, with a locally appropriate shift in focus from digital media to the design fields that have made Portland modestly famous: sporting goods, consumer electronics, and a growing interaction design community. Official details and registration information are coming shortly, but for the moment, interested parties in the Pac NW should save this date:

Thursday, June 11, from 2:30pm to 6:00pm, at the White Stag Block (UO Portland) - 70 NW Couch St in Old Town. We've got a similar format and a great panel lined up. Hope to see you there.

Posted by Carl Alviani at 03:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)