Two in one week!? Heyyoo! This quote is from Will Bryant (@willbryantplz), who seems like an all around awesome dude. Will is in Portland (I’m sure he hangs out with Fred & Carrie all the time), and is also part of an Austin-based creative group called Public School.

Go ahead, watch Will’s Humble Pied spot here.

Katherine Walker is a graphic designer & illustrator currently living and working in Chicago at VSA Partners (!!!). I first saw her during the 2009 Command X Competition at the AIGA Make/Think Conference in Memphis. 

Katherine is also part of Quite Strong, an all-female collective of Chicago creatives.

Her advice is so important, especially for just-out-of-school designers (I’m including myself in that group) who sometimes feel frustrated taking direction (revisions) from clients. In my two years since graduation, I’ve really been working towards finding a happy medium, making the client happy and still doing work that I’m proud of. It sometimes is a struggle but as I learn and grow it gets easier. 

View Katherine’s Humble Pied interview here.

Doug Bartow (@dougbartow) is Principle + Design Director at id29. When I first started this project, (a long time ago before I decided to slack off for…10 months..) my job had just gotten a poster in the mail from HOW magazine titled “29 Things Young Designers Need To Know.” As someone who had only been out of school for a year, it immediately grabbed my attention. A major thing I learned since graduating is that I didn’t really learn how to be a designer while in school to become a designer (that was confusing to type.) I’m grateful for that advice. (And surely hundreds of other young designers are too.) 

I found “become indispensable” especially important, because when you accidentally make mistakes (which of course I have never done..ha!), you don’t get fired because your good qualities make up for your bad qualities.

Ok, enough brown-nosing.  Hope y’all like this (10 month late) post! 

So, I realize it’s been kind of forever since I uploaded my first image. However, I changed jobs and summer came (meaning the pool took precedence over everything…oops.)

With that being said, I’m excited to post my second image in my Ready for Seconds series. This one is based off of Carlos Segura’s interview (see it here). Segura, Inc. created custom fonts for Jack Daniels, so I wanted this quote to reflect that look and feel. 

Carlos Segura and his team set a great example of not wasting time getting ready. Over the past few years, Segura, Inc. has launched numerous side ventures (like this, and this). What a boss.

An interesting realization

Like many other designer desk jockeys around the world, I spend a good chunk of time each day visiting blogs. As I’m doing research about each of these people, I’m realizing that I’ve seen a lot of this work before. It’s nice to put a person behind the work. It reminds me that in a lot of ways, we’re all a lot alike — just trying to do what we love to do. 

#1. Nick Campbell, “Great designers are never content, struggling with a design is okay.”

I kind of already followed Nick (@nickvegas) before I started this project. Almost every facebook profile picture since June has been cross-processed thanks to his app. (I need an intervention.) He also runs Grey Scale Gorilla, a blog/tutorial site where he talks about all things Cinema 4D, After Effects, and Photography. Basically, he’s baller. Before going freelance, he worked over at Digital Kitchen in Chicago. (They made the Dexter credits y’all!) Definitely check him out.

About the Project

Ready for Seconds

This is a project to keep me thinking creatively outside of the 8-5, to show that I appreciate the advice, and to get better. Below are my goals for completing the project.

Project Goals (in order of importance)

1. Get better. Have stronger typographic and composition skills. Learn to work with new techniques and methods. Take risks.
2. Understand each piece of advice and take from it how it applies to me. Reevaluate the way I work, interact with clients & coworkers, and how I think about design.
3. Learn about all of the interviewees on Humble Pied. Study their work; try to understand their point of view. Make a subtle nod to each creative without copying.
4. Drive traffic to my portfolio. Become better known among designers. Network with people both in and out of Memphis. Stand out from my peers.
5. Be a BALLER.