Notes from 11/10 meeting w/ Bruce Stanley from redpepper

1. How to sell yourself: Situation –Most schools don’t properly prepare you for what’s about
ti hit you. It’s a game...do you know how to play?
“So you’re creative?”
–Act like it, look like it: The people you are wanting to sell yourself to are looking for creative people.
Don’t let them down.
–Be prepared: Research the companies you’re talking to. Then cater your creativity to their style of
clients or company self-promotion efforts
–Pre/Post-game efforts: Set the stage for your introduction. Send something ahead of yourself. A sort
of trailer preview to what’s about to come. Then follow up with a creative thank you or reminder that you’re it.
“The big sell is yourself not your work”
–Everyone is looking for the next big addition to their team. Yes your work is important, but you are the
biggest thing in your portfolio.
–Understand the team you’re about to work for inside and out. Align your strengths to that team so
you’ll have the right answers for the questions they’ll ask you.
–Have your own set of questions. People like it when you have your own questions for them. It is just as
important that they fit your criteria as well as theirs.
Activity 1 (compile a list)
“Where have all the good guys gone?”
–Finding the companies you want to work for isn’t a easy as a Google quest.
–Make a short list and a long list of who you want to work for. This is your life, start taking control of it.
Activity 2 (role play)
“Attitude is everything”
–Think positive, not cocky. Be honest, don’t over-sell yourself
–If you have an excuse for your work it doesn’t belong. Be proud of what you’ve created.
Closure:
“Embrace failure”
–It will happen, it’s ok, it’s supposed to be this way...it’s the ONLY way to get where you want to be.

2. Anything you can offer about students contacting you and sending work would be appreciated.
Warm regards,
Barry –MTSU Graphic Design Professor, Chair
Do not to send one-off images. That never really seems to be very cohesive.
Have all of your work contained in one place, presented consistently, with some insight into their personal creative process.
I prefer a digital portfolio as opposed to a pdf because whether you have digital capabilities or not you CAN have an on-
line portfolio. Put it on flickr or setup a tumblr if you have to, but get it out there in the world. Your portfolio sitting on your
harddrive in pdf format doesn’t seem very opportunistic.
We’ll find you, not the other way around. So, it’s important I think that students are getting their portfolios up in the world
like on the AIGA site. Some other really good places that you can put your portfolio up are:
The Behance Network http://www.behance.net/
Kontained http://www.kontain.com/
Virb http://virb.com/
These three have nice interface design that’s easy to work with and doesn’t get in the way of your own design. There are
many more and some are even free.
Hope that helps. Feels funny giving student advice. I feel old, but I hope to always maintain being a student. –Neely