Overall Course Evaluation

Given that the responses here are all in retrospect of the assignments, I thought it would be nice to include a general response to the class as a whole. As a totality I think it was a very well executed class, much more intense than what it was in previous years. The lectures were much more detailed than I was expecting also. To be perfectly frank about the professional nature of the department, I am glad to learn from someone who has been there and done that. I think Iarc has a problem of hiring people who are very talented, yet un experienced when it comes to working.

I did not find the collaboration of the two classes, third year studio and pro practice, a very successful venture. In a cost/benefit view it was far more trouble than it was worth. I have seen few inter class collaborations executed by the department that worked successfully and were not catastrophe's in practice. It seemed like something that was great on paper, yet had so many moving parts it just was not as beneficial to the fourth year students because of the lengths that had to be gone to in order to accomplish it. That aside, the creation of mock firms and marketing packages for said firms was excellent!

To conclude the class response, it was amazing to me, someone without a sense for business to speak of, how much goes into practice as a professional. It is amazing how much goes into getting a business off the ground and keeping it from failing despite the most excellent of design being implemented. As Jeff explained about his music career, sometimes a failing business model can sabotage an excellent and highly talented professional.

Research Paper Response

The research paper was curious to me. While the exercise of it was intriguing, the situation of this assignment within this class did not make complete sense to me. It seemed something that would be in a history and theory of design class. Such as the series Patrick taught.

Despite this, the paper did turn out to be very fun to me. Mine was on skateboarding and architecture. The main critique was that it needed to be written differently to present the topic in different light.... more like a research paper and less like an editorial. This is absolutely true as I go over it again. Another draft would probably solve this.

The thesis of my paper was concerning the interaction of skateboarding and contemporary architecture. It seems that due to the litigious nature of American culture, and liability issues, skateboarding is largely prohibited. This would seem strange, given that skaters are often the most observent participants in architecture. All in all it was a fun paper assignment.

Networking Response

The networking assignment was INCREDIBLY difficult for me. I am very uncomfortable meeting new people and am not one of those social butterflies to say the very least. I found myself focusing so hard on just responding to what people were saying that I forgot what their names were, or I forgot what the previous conversation I had was about. It was good to get out and see other design professionals and students. As I said in my response papers, it really brought the industry down to human scale for me. Seeing how other professionals and students were in very much the same place as I am, struggling to find work and make contacts was very encouraging. I guess it's nice to know you aren't the only one.

While the assignment was very beneficial, on the other hand it was not entirely useful to me. My goals are not to find work immediately after graduation but to find a graduate school. I also have NO desire to work anywhere local or in NC. With that in mind it became increasingly more difficult networking with people at the AIA and USGBC meetings I attended, because it felt like something I was doing to fulfill a requirement for a grade, rather than a targeted effort doing what I knew I needed to do. Perhaps I was viewing the situation from the wrong angle.

At any rate it was quite enriching all together.

Group Marketing Package

When I was an intern at CBI one of the most impressive things I noticed was their firm marketing materials. Everything was compiled into templates, formulas, and prefabricated proposal parts. When a new project or proposal binder was to be created, all that needed to be done was to pull together the parts needed and fill in the blanks of the pre configured templates. All the work that was done only needed to be done once in advance. It was a brilliant system really, and a fine tuned way of doing business.

This assignment really made me appreciate all that groundwork that had been laid out. It is impressive that when something is well designed and composed, it goes largely un noticed. This seems to be the testament of good design in general. Either it is bad and we see that it is bad, or it is good and we only notice the content. Getting a firm marketing package together that fit this simple, yet impressively difficult bill is quite the lengthy task.

This assignment was a unique one for sure. I found it particularly difficult to balance the workload of studio, as well as the group work involved in this one. To a degree it felt as if I had two studios.

Personal Marketing Package

The personal marketing package is something I have struggled with consistently since the first time we had to put together a portfolio a few years ago. I find myself going from one design to the next without being able to commit to one without finding another I like better and changing. It seems something akin to designing a house for oneself. God forbid you ever move into it, you would never stop the critique! The only resume I have shown to an employer was one that I put together for my internship interview at CBI, and it was very unimpressive across the board. It was very plain and very simple in design. To be honest they barely even looked at it.

From doing this exercise I resolved some of my ideas about what a portfolio should be. I tend to think that the graphic design should be very good and catchy, yet the mechanical and physical personification of it should be as simple as possible. I don't know what most employers feel about portfolio design... from what I have learned thus far, the job search is something akin to dating... there are no hard and fast rules to go on. However, my limited experience has shown me that very little of a portfolio is actually viewed since the conversation in relation to the portfolio ought to take center stage.

For the same purposes as the first assignment, I think this is also an assignment that should have successive iterative submissions. This way all the kinks can be ironed out, all the edges filed down so to speak.

Proposal Response

It is interesting how the most elemental parts of a personal job hunt are the most difficult at times. Just being able to describe yourself in a succinct and deliberate way is something we do very seldom it seems. Without a job title to use to describe ourselves, it almost becomes what feels like a long reach to characterize who we are on paper.

While I did not enjoy the assignment, I did find it enriching because cover letters and resumes are not necessarily something I have worked on to any degree in the past. I also feel that this is an assignment that should have been repeated multiple times throughout the semester with successive revisions and critique. I tend to gravitate to a militaristic view of conditioning when it comes to skill development. Do it once, then do it a hundred times, and then you will be able to consistently perform under normal circumstances at half of what is your best.

In retrospect I think this assignment was great, though it certainly would take on a whole new life if it were repeated several times over.