12/03/2009

A few weeks ago I was asked to speak to the Bachelor of Fine Art fourth-year class, at Queen’s University, and I was a bit nervous, to say the least.

The expectations of young creatives are high because they are constantly exposed to solid creative work to help inspire them. All I could think was what can I share with fine art students as a graphic designer?

I decided to treat it like I would any presentation and, after a brief introduction, shared my current portfolio. The reason I’d been asked to speak to the students was simply from an observation I’d made during work on the BFA’s catalogue in 2008. During one of my visits to discuss the project I was asked a barrage of questions about self-promotion by the students in that class.

A short conversation with Kathleen Sellars, a fantastic sculptor and professor in the Queen’s University Department of Fine Art,  peaked her interest in the topic and, a year later, I was invited, upon Kathleen’s recommendation, by Associate Professor Ted Rettig to present.

Now, my hopes for the presentation were to share some of my experiences, which have been both positive and negative, but also to show the students there is a viable way to make a living in the creative world. As time moves forward, there is an endless need for creative thinkers to help shape the world and replace the many veteran creatives approaching retirement.

So, ask questions and learn from the experience of others. The path to your ultimate career may not be a straight line because there are so many ways creatives can step up to the plate and having fun along the way is as important as some measure of success.

Design may not be considered fine art by some but the technical knowledge, craftsmanship and concept development all amount to a similar goal, except that we as designers work almost exclusively in a commercial market. I hope I was able to impart some of these ideas on the class and am certainly thankful for the opportunity to share.

Cheers!