The Topic: Preparing Students for Industry Success
Moderator: Chuck Carey, President and Co-Founder, Troika Design Group
Panelists: Michael Benson, EVP, Marketing, ABC Entertainment Group
and PromaxBDA Chairman
Bear Fisher, SVP, Creative Director, Comcast Entertainment Group
Steph Sebbag, President and Creative Director, bpg
Niels Schuurmans, EVP Brand Marketing & Creative, Spike

So here is the “take away”–

For students preparing for an interview and planning a career in media, six things to know. (These really are universal as far as preparing for any interview.)

1. Where do you fit in? You must know this before going to any interview. Know what your skills and strengths are, and basically what you want to do.
2. Be prepared to show examples of the type of work you want to do.
3. You must do your homework before going to an interview. The panelist said 90% of the applicants they interview have not looked at their web site (!!!)
4. Understand all aspects of the field. Understand how the business works.
5. All the panelists said that they put personality and passion above education. The panelists talked about passion a lot…
6. But work experience is important too, so internships are critical.

I see it way too often that if creative and technical work together at all, they work in a sequential manner. First comes design, then comes technical. The two work completely independent from one another — sort of a “here is the design, can-you-do-it kind of approach.”

Maybe this kind of thinking dates back to the “old” days of print when the designer designed and the printer printed and there wasn’t much collaboration between the two. Nowadays, this does NOT work and nothing could be more detrimental to the quality of a project – nothing leads to more mediocre work than dividing the process into two separate stages.

In order to be successful, the process needs to include input from all sides. And notice that I haven’t really mentioned what this “thing” is that we’re designing, but I’m speaking of any design that is digital and requires technical considerations.

Design and technical unite — collaborate from the beginning to create better work!

This is a fantastic video explaining how designing for web is different than print — all students new to website design need to watch this video!

Jason Santa Maria
Jason has been recognized for designing stylistic and imaginative web interfaces that maintain a balance of usability and readability. Jason is a celebrated speaker worldwide at such conferences as South By Southwest, An Event Apart, @media, and Webstock. He also maintains a popular website where he frequently holds discussions on design for the web.

About the Lecture Series
The Dot Dot Dot Lecture Series is meant for broad explorations of interaction design, business, and aesthetic inspiration. Practitioners and thought leaders give short talks in an informal setting. Wisdom will be revealed and methods will be shared in a environment intended to satisfy both social and scholarly pursuits.

http://interactiondesign.sva.edu/

My first thought is, you don’t want a website.

Let’s just put that out on the table and rather than jumping to the solution — because a website is (or should be) an interactive solution to a problem — let’s talk more about what you do before we talk about what you need.

Sure, I need to know what the client wants for the company and for the product or service. Selling widgets may require a different solution than finding a market for a service. But most importantly, I need to know everything I can about a company’s customer base and what they want. And it might not be a website — although it will probably include something interactive. (okay, yes it will probably be at least a website.)

I’ve been thinking a lot about the article “Multiscreen Mad Men” from the New York Times’ Screen Issue from November 2008. Here’s a great quote from Lars Bastholm of Ogilvy North America:

“Now our job is to have a conversation with your consumers about whatever story it is you want to tell about the brand.”

That pretty much nails it on the head. Effective communication design is about having effective, relevant, useful conversations with consumers. And that is why a client doesn’t want a website, a client wants an effective conversation with consumers and whatever can deliver that communication best is what the client needs.