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Have a question for Christine or Agiri? Ask about work, school, life, or anything you want! Just send an email to nocturnea@gmail.com and we’ll post the question and answer here.

Christine

Personal note: Feel free to ask me about my career, becoming a designer, and any personal stuff. But please don’t ask for tutorials or scripts!

Question: Is it hard working in the design industry without a degree? Do you think you’ll ever go back to school and try to earn your degree? - Candice

Answer: It can sometimes be challenging working as a professional designer without a bachelors degree, but most employers only care that you have some education in the field and that you have real work experience; which I have loads of. I have the equivalent years of education to a bachelors degree, but none of my credits transfered from Boston when I moved to California, and that is probably the only thing that’s stopped me from buckling down and getting that piece of paper. I just don’t want to have to start all over for no good reason, because I hate school anyway. I’m much more of a work person.

Some challenges I face on a daily basis is that, since recently I’ve become more of a manger or Art Director, I usually have a lot of designers working under me. Some of them actually have degrees, and they can sometimes feel threatened taking orders from someone who didn’t even finish school. I’ve had to fire one girl because she felt that she didn’t have to listen to me or treat me with respect, even though I was her superior.

It’s hard gaining the respect of your peers when you’re the only one that hasn’t committed to finishing school. But if you prove to them then you know what you’re talking about, usually that goes away.Maybe sometime in the near future, I’ll think about taking night and online classes to work towards my degree.

Question: Hi [real name removed],
I stumbled upon your site by accident. I was looking at the web interfaces on DevArt and I saw your andbreathe portfolio. I was impressed and wanted to ask you a question. I want to be a webdesigner like yourself. I’ve been studying plenty of web languages and realized that I wasn’t at all good at photoshop. I want to make graphics like you do, with creativity and hopefully they’ll turn out well. Do you know of any good websites where I can learn about graphic design? Or any other suggestion? I’ve tried many tutorials from sites but I really can’t say that they taught me anything, I thought they were rather boring. - Ranniel

Answer: While I was first delving into the graphic design world, I found that tutorials and whatnot helped me a lot less than just screwing around with Photoshop (and eventually, Illustrator) did. When you take the time to learn the tools and features of the application yourself, without any aid from literature or classes, you often come up with your own techniques and ways of creating things that no one else would think of. This goes a long way towards developing your own style and keeps you a lot more passionate about your own art, because you aren’t just copying what a tutorial tells you to do.

Some things I can recommend: Look at the websites and graphics that inspire you the most and try and figure out how their looks were achieved. From there, try to create something better. Test yourself.

Some sites that have really helped inspire me and my own style recently are: webcreme.com, ideabook.com, and urbancollective.com.

Question: How do you find jobs in the design industry without a degree? Are employers more likely to not take you seriously without a degree? Do you ever walk into a job interview and feel like the interviewer is no longer interested in hiring you once he/she learns you do not have a degree?

I ask this because I don’t have a degree either. I’m not planning to earn one in design, even though I’m still in school. But I have been working as an assistant graphic and web designer for my school’s Department of Resident Life for the past two years, and I’ve done some freelance as well. I think I’d like to keep it as an option to find a job in the design industry once I graduate since I’m still unsure about what to pursue as a career. – Deanna

When an employer calls you in for an interview, nine times out of ten, they already know whether or not you have a degree under your belt. In this day and age, most preliminary contact with a potential employer is done through emails, and the first thing they ask for is a resume. Your resume should include any educational background you have in your field, along with any degrees or certificates earned.

So when I goto an interview, I already know that they’re considering me despite my lack of an associates or bachelors. In the design industry, a degree really isn’t as important as real work experience; Although sometimes they can justify this by paying you a lower salary than what they would pay someone with a bachelors. It’s a shame, but usually you win them over with your expertise, efficiency, and dedication to the job, and most of the time they are more than willing to reevaluate your salary.

This may seem obvious, but usually when I look for jobs, I hit up craigslist.com and monster.com first. Sometimes I do find jobs through referrals, friends, or former colleagues. When I look for a job, I try to be very clear on what my expectations are and I try my hardest to also get a clear understanding of what the employer’s expectations of me would be. Minimize the possibility of being taken advantage of by people on the internet, because it does happen. My job at MyWebTeam turned out to be the complete opposite of what was advertised in their craigslist ad. I was doing the job of four people, had to run customer support, and also worked crazy hours all for $14 an hour. I’ve learned my lesson since then.

Question: Hey, I stumbled on your website through twitter. I just wanted to ask when/where/how did you get most of your design inspiration from? Was it after you came here to socal ( I read through your bio >_< ), or was it before you moved? I have a friend that graduated from Long Beach State and I still find him delirious about art. I mean, usually towards the end of your education you tend to follow a certain style that makes your own unique and you stick with it. My friend on the other hand is still in delirium.. in that "Work In Progress" mode, despite the fact that he's graduated. He hasn't really experienced anything big in his life compared to yourself - having to move from the east coast to the west, adjusting to the surrounding environment, etc. To me things that make a big impact on a person's life enhances the way a person takes on creativity. I respect what you've done in a short amount of time, seeing how we all have similar backgrounds (I, too, am [still] growing up in a traditional Vietnamese family). - Tu

Answer: Inspiration, for me, has always come and gone in waves. I can be inspired by something I see in a magazine, tv, even in nature, so I wouldn’t say that I draw inspiration from any one thing or event. I started designing before I moved to California, and even before I ventured into the world of graphic/web design, I was always a creative person, inspired by everything around me. I was and still am interested in all kinds of art.

I don’t really think that graduating from school has anything to do with developing your own sense of style either. I think school can sometimes stifle the creative process, and it’s not until several trials and errors after breaking away from the academic environment that you develop your own personal style.

Agiri

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