13 February 2008

In the spirit of the recent Chinese New Year celebrations, I open my thoughts with a Chinese proverb;“guo zu bu qian” (binding your feet to prevent your own progress) sourced from the text, A Thousand Pieces of Gold, by Adeline Yen Mah –which illustrates the self destructive nature of mankind.

I use this proverb in reference to the notion that one can create his or her own destiny and a strong belief that you are in charge of your own future. Hence, in simple terms, if you intend to embark on a somewhat successful design career upon being released from tertiary studies into the industry, I would strongly recommend you help yourself by involving yourself in an internship program.

Doing so is a valuable experience, if one can find the time and a studio willing to take them on. If anything at all, on the most basic level, an understanding of the ‘ins and outs’ of a design studio is developed, and one designer’s name can be scratched from the ‘cold calling’ list and added to the new (and most likely quite limited) ‘friendly call’ list. All this and you have barely left your comfort zone. If you put your ear to the ground and observe, designers’ processes can be seen and new ways to develop and tease out ideas are discovered. Ask lots of questions and who knows what kind of incredibly useful tips and tricks you could come by. You can safely say partaking in an internship program enriches your mind and creativity as a budding designer and seems to reveal new inspiration that you can take with you at the end. As an intern you are given the opportunity to make industry contacts, be involved in studio projects and learn a few tricks of the trade ranging from dealing with clients to the short cut keys of indesign you never knew existed. I also personally feel that my time as an intern has given me the confidence to aim a little higher and think a little bigger - yan que yong you hong hu zhi (little sparrow with dreams of swans)

14 February 2008

Learning by observing –

During my time at the studio, I have observed various way that designers come across the inspiration or information that feeds the development of a concept for a brief. From what I can see, the best concepts do not always come from design related research and inspiration can come from a range of areas, from Bjork video clips to old school image dictionaries to trawling google image search for something random. And it’s the random that grows into something exciting and unique…

Erin Morris
Studio intern – February 2008
Communication Design, Honours – RMIT University