A fake day in the life of a graphic artist.
7am. Awaken, exhausted because you only got in five hours ago after a night out at a design industry awards event. You didn't win anything.
7.02am. Fall back asleep.
7.53am. Wake up again as your partner-with-the-sane job slams the door on their way out to work. Panic. But only a little.
8.05am. Run for the train, hoping that quick shower wasn't too quick and the air-conditioning on the train will be working.
8.16am. Miss the train - damn!
9.08am. Get off the mercifully cool train. Stop for a double-strength cappuccino despite the fact that you're late already. And there's a queue. Four of your design firm colleagues are ahead of you in that queue. But they've already ordered.
9.23am. Arrive in work. Feel guilty. The boss is impressed - only 23 minutes late today. That almost qualifies as on time.
9.25am. Sit down, boot up, gulp coffee.
9.27am. Check emails. Work emails, of course.
9.33am. Open last of the new emails. You were due at a WIP meeting five minutes ago.
9.36am. Sneak into the WIP meeting, apologetic. Try not to slurp your coffee.
9.55am. Your one required contribution to the WIP meeting: The time you need to finish the big product catalogue look-and-feel work for presentation this afternoon. You say 2pm. You have no idea if that's realistic. But it feels realistic. And the suit seems happy.
10.20am. Realise as WIP breaks up that you've contributed nothing in the last twenty minutes and could have been using that time to (a) work on that look-and-feel or (b) check out the cool design-related emails that your creative director has been sending on. There's a really interesting bit of brochure work in one of them from the Czech Republic...
10.30am. You've been working on the product catalogue for ten whole minutes now. But you need another coffee. You can't afford the time to get one yourself. So you pray for a colleague to do a coffee run.
11.34am. Finally someone goes on a coffee run. Not a moment too late.
11.48am. The coffee runner returns. Many moments late, as it turns out, but you hit the coffee anyway.
12.15pm. That 2pm deadline is looking a bit optimistic now, so you ask someone to pick up a sandwich.
12.33pm. That sandwich had better hurry up. You've had nothing for breakfast but coffee, remember? But on the up-side your product catalogue design is looking really rather schmick.
12.35pm. You realise that you don't really know what "schmick" means, but your CD (Creative Director) uses it when the work is good, so you figure you will too.
12.55pm. The sandwich arrives. It's not what you ordered. Oh well.
1.35pm. You look up, thinking it's about 1.05, then remember you stopped to eat your sandwich. You're almost there.
1.50pm. The suit shows up, looking for his product catalogue. If he's happy to present digitally you're flying.
1.55pm. He is! (Possibly because he'd rather present digitally and be on time than wait for you to board the work up. Either way - you're flying!)
2.05pm. The suit is gone. Time for another coffee? No, you're pushing your luck now, you want an early night tonight and all that caffeine will only keep you awake. Besides, your next brief is at 2.15. You've barely enough time to check your personal emails. Which you do on your iPhone. In the loo.
2.20pm. Your next brief. Postponed to 2.30pm. Time to check out that Czech brochure design in more detail. And hey, look at that super-cool flyer idea from New Yoike, linked via a friend on Facebook. Facebook's great, isn't it?
2.31pm. Your next brief. A new client - a new business, in fact. The hour-long briefing gives you the background on mozzie.net.au, an importer of mosquito nets. They're selling direct to the public online, and you're in at the start of the design process. They've a rough logo, and some idea of the brand strategy, and you're going to build the whole book: Finesse the corporate identity, start working on flyers, a brochure, letterheads, business cards, an online product catalogue and e-commerce website, digital and press advertising, and anything else innovative you can think of. You make sure not to pitch that lovely Czech flyer idea, nor the New York brochure that looked so great, but you know they might inspire you to think of something just as schmick. Or schmicker.
3.35pm. You sit down, focus and get going.
5.33pm. Your nearest colleague shouts goodbye. You're shocked - you thought it was only about four. Time flies when you're having fun.
5.45pm. The suit from earlier pops his head around the door. They loved the product catalogue look and feel. It was schmick. They just have a few changes. For tomorrow. You smile. And you shudder inside, because you know what "just a few changes" might mean. But that's tomorrow's work, you're busy on the mosquitos...
6.00pm. You were on a roll, so you kept working. Besides, you were late this morning. But that's enough. Home-time now.
6.15pm. Timesheets up to date, leave the office, you're heading for the train.
7.10pm. You're home. Time for a real shower. What a relief. Then dinner with the loved one. And then... do we go to that exhibition of new photography your friend is having in that funky-if-a-little-pretentious wine bar in Surry Hills? Of course you do.
2.00am. Home. Exhausted. You're up at seven tomorrow. Today. Can't be late again, right? You fall asleep, your last thought "must buy coffee machine".
7am. Awaken, exhausted because you only got in five hours ago after a night out at a design industry awards event. You didn't win anything.
7.02am. Fall back asleep.
7.53am. Wake up again as your partner-with-the-sane job slams the door on their way out to work. Panic. But only a little.
8.05am. Run for the train, hoping that quick shower wasn't too quick and the air-conditioning on the train will be working.
8.16am. Miss the train - damn!
9.08am. Get off the mercifully cool train. Stop for a double-strength cappuccino despite the fact that you're late already. And there's a queue. Four of your design firm colleagues are ahead of you in that queue. But they've already ordered.
9.23am. Arrive in work. Feel guilty. The boss is impressed - only 23 minutes late today. That almost qualifies as on time.
9.25am. Sit down, boot up, gulp coffee.
9.27am. Check emails. Work emails, of course.
9.33am. Open last of the new emails. You were due at a WIP meeting five minutes ago.
9.36am. Sneak into the WIP meeting, apologetic. Try not to slurp your coffee.
9.55am. Your one required contribution to the WIP meeting: The time you need to finish the big product catalogue look-and-feel work for presentation this afternoon. You say 2pm. You have no idea if that's realistic. But it feels realistic. And the suit seems happy.
10.20am. Realise as WIP breaks up that you've contributed nothing in the last twenty minutes and could have been using that time to (a) work on that look-and-feel or (b) check out the cool design-related emails that your creative director has been sending on. There's a really interesting bit of brochure work in one of them from the Czech Republic...
10.30am. You've been working on the product catalogue for ten whole minutes now. But you need another coffee. You can't afford the time to get one yourself. So you pray for a colleague to do a coffee run.
11.34am. Finally someone goes on a coffee run. Not a moment too late.
11.48am. The coffee runner returns. Many moments late, as it turns out, but you hit the coffee anyway.
12.15pm. That 2pm deadline is looking a bit optimistic now, so you ask someone to pick up a sandwich.
12.33pm. That sandwich had better hurry up. You've had nothing for breakfast but coffee, remember? But on the up-side your product catalogue design is looking really rather schmick.
12.35pm. You realise that you don't really know what "schmick" means, but your CD (Creative Director) uses it when the work is good, so you figure you will too.
12.55pm. The sandwich arrives. It's not what you ordered. Oh well.
1.35pm. You look up, thinking it's about 1.05, then remember you stopped to eat your sandwich. You're almost there.
1.50pm. The suit shows up, looking for his product catalogue. If he's happy to present digitally you're flying.
1.55pm. He is! (Possibly because he'd rather present digitally and be on time than wait for you to board the work up. Either way - you're flying!)
2.05pm. The suit is gone. Time for another coffee? No, you're pushing your luck now, you want an early night tonight and all that caffeine will only keep you awake. Besides, your next brief is at 2.15. You've barely enough time to check your personal emails. Which you do on your iPhone. In the loo.
2.20pm. Your next brief. Postponed to 2.30pm. Time to check out that Czech brochure design in more detail. And hey, look at that super-cool flyer idea from New Yoike, linked via a friend on Facebook. Facebook's great, isn't it?
2.31pm. Your next brief. A new client - a new business, in fact. The hour-long briefing gives you the background on mozzie.net.au, an importer of mosquito nets. They're selling direct to the public online, and you're in at the start of the design process. They've a rough logo, and some idea of the brand strategy, and you're going to build the whole book: Finesse the corporate identity, start working on flyers, a brochure, letterheads, business cards, an online product catalogue and e-commerce website, digital and press advertising, and anything else innovative you can think of. You make sure not to pitch that lovely Czech flyer idea, nor the New York brochure that looked so great, but you know they might inspire you to think of something just as schmick. Or schmicker.
3.35pm. You sit down, focus and get going.
5.33pm. Your nearest colleague shouts goodbye. You're shocked - you thought it was only about four. Time flies when you're having fun.
5.45pm. The suit from earlier pops his head around the door. They loved the product catalogue look and feel. It was schmick. They just have a few changes. For tomorrow. You smile. And you shudder inside, because you know what "just a few changes" might mean. But that's tomorrow's work, you're busy on the mosquitos...
6.00pm. You were on a roll, so you kept working. Besides, you were late this morning. But that's enough. Home-time now.
6.15pm. Timesheets up to date, leave the office, you're heading for the train.
7.10pm. You're home. Time for a real shower. What a relief. Then dinner with the loved one. And then... do we go to that exhibition of new photography your friend is having in that funky-if-a-little-pretentious wine bar in Surry Hills? Of course you do.
2.00am. Home. Exhausted. You're up at seven tomorrow. Today. Can't be late again, right? You fall asleep, your last thought "must buy coffee machine".
Art Webber has written two other stories on "A day in the life of a Graphic Designer' he also writes tutorials on photoshop CS5 and Illustrator CS5.
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