In case Nate or anyone else is actually reading these this week, it’d be nice to do a few features on great currently active designers/firms/agencies, just throw ‘em out.

You know, just a list of like 5 a week to encourage readers to check out their websites and post. Young blood, forgotten favorites, just plain solid designers, etc.

Here are a few ideas:

Büro Destruct

Michael Doret

Headcase Design

Copious Creative

The Chopping Block

So, yeah, maybe these are already well known, maybe not, but why don’t we offset all of the making fun of bad design with standing in awe of good design.

Those in the know should spread the love and share these sites. After all, most of us need a steady diet of inspiration to keep us fresh.

Thanks

-Zac

Clicking to listen to your podcast in Safari gives me a page of code. This is what I’ve found to fix it, but it’s a you fix not a me fix:

At 9:30 PM -0400 4/16/06, Dave Bittner wrote: Anyone know why Safari won’t recognize .m4a files as being media files? Any time I click on a link on a web page with a .m4a file I get a string of text loading, rather than QT recognizing the file type. I can download the file and load it into QT player, but I really shouldn’t have to do that, should I? Is there something I’m missing?

That usually means that the mime type on the server has not been set for m4a. Safari recognizes .m4a fine for me but only from servers with the MIME type set correctly.

Cheers

Well, as Donovan said, having friends to introduce you is a good way to start meeting single women (didn’t listen to the show? Check it out and this will all make sense). To that end, you need connections to people in the industry. And it’s not enough to just say “connections,” really. Being “connected” doesn’t mean much on its own when you’re starting out.

The best place to make friends in the industry who know single ladies is AIGA. I know NYC has a gigantic chapter, based on population alone, but I’m not sure of how many low-casual events they hold. Out here, we do something called Third Thursday every month where we meet up at bar and drink and socialize with other designers. Its not “networking,” per se, it’s just getting to know the people in the industry.

The trick is that most people aren’t going to know of job openings immediately when you meet them. But if you make a few friends, and then their friends tell them about job openings, your name is more likely to come up.

And again, like dating, the most important thing to remember is to be yourself. Not finding ajob right away doesn’t mean you’re not hirable, it only means you haven’t found the right fit. I can only imagine the bajillions of jobs in New York for designers, even if it means starting out slow. (forgive me, everyone, for the following analogy) Sometimes you have to date the ugly girl before you know enough to date the prom queen.

Bennett, look at it like this: I wouldn’t be working where I am today if I didn’t work a “starter job” for a few years to know what I was doing first. Sorry to say “ugly girls.” All women are beautiful in their own way. Not all jobs can say the same. In fact, some jobs flat out suck. And when you’re starting out, you may have to work one of those jobs for a little while.

And I agree there is a fine line between persistence and pestering. My point is not to cross it. Persistence is a strong, not-giving-up attitude; pestering is frigging annoying and will hurt your chances. Tell me that’s not true of both worlds.

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PS: The analogy never goes too far! You should hear the stuff we cut out!

No, but you can use the experience from your past relationships (like, when not to say “you look fat” or “your creative direction sucks”) when trying to move forward and eventually land a better, more successful job/relationship. That’s my point here. Get experience = know how to handle yourself. Except that I’m sure you were just as awesome with the ladies when you were 15 as you are now, right? So maybe it doesn’t work in that case.

Hey, If you don’t want to believe in the theory, that’s fine. As for that, I’m sure you’re not saying you’ve never heard of getting a date through a friend, a random person your parents know, a high-school buddy you haven’t seen in years, or online-dating? I’m not trying to say you’re wrong. But don’t hate on the analogy, man. It’s never done anyone any harm.

Really? Masters program or undergraduate? Because that’s cool, and very valuable information to learn.

Nate, It’s The Creative Center, so it’s an undergrad program. They like to make sure that we’re exposed to all the stuff we’d need to know before they let us out in the real world.

I’m a day or two (four) behind on this, but come on - hysterical arrogance? Nate, I suspect this post came from one of the “ugly girls” you dated early on and never called back…

I agree 100% Mike. I think it’s pretty stupid for some people to be so elitist when both platforms can get the job done.

This is not the perfect place to bash the PC vs. Mac drum. But for my two cents, Macs are worth hundreds more than PCs. That’s why we pay it.

Sally,

It’s like watching What Not to Wear. You can’t dress for the body you want, you must dress for the body you have. I have some experience with this in the non-metaphor world. First, make sure your resume is the pinniacle of typographic design. Designers will learn as much about you from your resume layout as they will from the content of it. Second, and I have said this to many people, don’t wait for clients or jobs to get experience. If you’re throing a party, design an invite. Brother have a baby? Design the announcement. Wedding invites are always huge. If you look around, there’s always something that can be designed, and picking those up will keep you sharp.

—nv—