1. When I was going to school, I was often jealous of the liberal arts kids. It
seemed like such a fun way to get through college. My parents insisted that, if
they were going to help me pay for college, I had to get a degree in something
practical. I started out in mathematics, then moved to engineering. After doing
a little bit of that, I switched to graphic design. My dad was proud of me. It
was a really practical approach to education and, with a science classes I had
already taken, I also had a concrete understanding of the way physics worked.
That was very important to my father. He believed strongly in the hard sciences,
and thought his kids should too.
It is strange that, when I graduated from college, I ended up in the same firm
as some of those liberal arts kids. Working in a design company, I have this
great opportunity to see people from all different fields work together. Design
companies are like that. Back in the day, advertising, graphic design,
industrial design, and publishing were all distinctly separate businesses.
Nowadays, a lot of businesses have learned things work better in partnership. A
lot of the design company offices are picking up on this message.
Although there are some things like engineering and industrial design that Still
require a lot of specialization, the increasing trend at your average design
company is to try to do it all. This can be a lot of stress on the people who
work there, but it can also be a lot of fun. I already knew a little bit of web
design programming, but since I started working at the design company, I have
had to learn about advertising, get my English skills up to snuff, and learn
quite a bit more coding. Nonetheless, it has been a lot of fun for me. I have
really gotten to see how image, marketing, Web infrastructure, and all the rest
of it work together. Our clients come to us for a complete image makeover, and
we deliver.
Of course, the problem is that anyone can use the phrase design company to mean
anything nowadays. If you are looking for a web designer, advertiser, or a
combination of various services, you need to be very specific. Make sure that
the company design specialists can do everything that you need them to. Don't
rely on their word, either. Make them show you examples of the type of work you
need.