I graduated.

After being in college for five years, I have finally finished all of it a week ago. I am a free woman. After the years of stress, late nights and many fun memories of college life; all of it has come to an end. I finished my undergraduate career with a B.F.A. in Graphic Design, and graduated Cum Laude with a GPA of 3.60. Myself, my family and my partner have never been so proud.

I am unemployed.

Upon graduating, I had to say “Goodbye” to two jobs because they were student-based positions. Since I no longer have student status, I no longer have status as a student-employed graphic designer. As much as I appreciate the 50+ hours I have gained upon graduating, it is a little stressful to no longer have a constant income.

I am moving.

My partner of 1 1/2 years will be graduating this summer with a Masters in Geology and will be continuing her education to receive a PhD in southwestern Ohio. With myself done with school (until I decide to continue my education and get a Masters some years down the road from now) and how passionate I am to spend my life with my partner, I feel as if this has been a calling. With my partner continuing her education in southwestern Ohio and being passionate about spending her life with me as well, we have both decided to move in together in Ohio.

Moving hours away from where I grew up is frightening yet exciting to me. I will no longer be near family. I will be moving away from the majority of my friends.  I will be driving down numerous roads and highways I am unfamiliar with. Every morning I will be waking up to a scenery that is foreign to me, but… I will be experiencing all of this with my partner. Our bonds with our families will grow stronger as we realize how precious time is together. We will be making new friends that will be “our” friends and not originally “her” friends or “my” friends. We will be expanding our mental road maps that will make the foreign scenery no longer foreign. All-in-all, I love to experience new things, and I especially love to experience them with my partner. My partner is one of the most beautiful, passionate, loving, selfless, intelligent, people I have ever met. Everyday I feel very blessed to be with her, and everyday I am getting more and more excited to take the next step and live with her.

My entire life I have been living in Michigan, mostly in the southeastern area. With today’s economy, I continuously see my friends and family struggle to find career opportunities in this state. I have even watched my own parents struggle with employment for years. However, my parents have sacrificed their ability to be near their friends and family in order to be able to support myself, my brother and themselves. They moved out of state for employment. I have been convinced to do the same if I want to continue to be able to support myself, my partner, and one day my parents.

With being unemployed, I have been applying for graphic design positions in the Cincinnati, OH area. I have recently been accepted for an AIGA membership, and soon I will be transferring my status to the Cincinnati chapter. I am excited to start networking with other professionals, as a professional.

erinesullivan.com v2.0

Since I am applying for jobs, I felt the need to redesign my portfolio website to where I feel more confident about showing it to employers. The first version was done specifically for a class assignment. I am no longer a student and now consider myself to be a professional, so I need to represent myself as one. Hence, I give you erinesullivan.com v2.0.

The portfolio website is still no way near where I want it to be. I will eventually rebuild the entire website from scratch and fully integrate it into WordPress. Expect this for v3.0. There will also be a larger portfolio collection of my web design work, a “freebies” section of fonts and vectors I have designed, and the design of this blog will be integrated into the design of the website instead of no longer acting as two separate sites.

“Those 50+ hours of free time cannot entirely be taken up by applying for jobs!”

You are correct.

During the times I am not applying for jobs, I am doing freelance work to get some money in and to also build my portfolio. During other free time I have, I am spending it by teaching myself other things that could be of value since I no longer have professors to do this for me. I am teaching myself on how to customize WordPress layouts, JavaScript, PHP, Actionscript 3.0, HTML5, CSS3, etc. As a graphic designer, my strength is in print design. However, many of today’s jobs ask for web designers. Even though I do know valid web standards and bits and pieces of Flash and web development, I am not fully up-to-date with today’s new web design and development. I hope to incorporate all of this into v3.0 of my portfolio website.

Since I no longer have a boss or a professor to report to, I cannot allow myself to slack off in my skills. I am doing whatever I can to keep myself fresh and updated with today’s design, whether it is print or web. And on top of that, I hope to record my experiences through this blog and bring it back to a once-per-week update again!

Today I have decided to share you ten videos that I find to be inspirational. Some are funny, some are what we can relate to, some are creative and some are just plain jaw-dropping. I hope you enjoy!

Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod, and Jeff Brenman; Did You Know?, 2008

Chuck Jones, The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics, 1965

chronos1966, The Process, 2008

Oren Lavie, Her Morning Elegance, 2009

Bang-yao Liu, Deadline Post-It Stop Motion, 2009

Procrastination from Denise Trolezi on Vimeo.

PES, Western Spaghetti, 2008

Pump Holdings, Do You Eat Crap? Like Punching Sandwiches?, 2010.

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

This Is Where We Live from 4th Estate on Vimeo.

The only reason I completed this was because it was an assignment in my Advanced Graphic Design class. If it wasn’t for being an assignment, I probably would not touch the site until at least May 2010. Either way, this website had to be done because I will be graduating in April 2010.

During the creation of this site, I have learned something very valuable. As a designer, it is impossible to design for myself. So in conclusion, the design of the website is not permanent. I predict that there will be many redesigns in the future, not because of dissatisfaction but because of the improvement of my skills.

Enjoy!

How to Become a Design Genius: Take Time Off. Lots of It.

Original post on Fast Company

Every seven years, the graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister takes a one-year sabbatical. As he argues, that’s not so crazy.

Stefan Sagmeister is one of the most talented graphic designers working today, so he knows a little bit about keeping his creativity flowing. His trick? Taking really, really long vacations. In fact, every seven years, he takes an entire year off.

As Sagmeister describes it in his recent TED talk (which just made it to the Web), we spend our first 25 years learning, the next 40 years working, and the last 15 retired. “I thought it might be helpful to cut off five of those retirement years and intersperse them in between those working years,” Sagmeister says. And what’s more: “That’s clearly enjoyable for myself but probably even more important is that the work that comes out of those years flows back into the company and the society at larger rather than benefiting just a grandchild or two.”

You have to admit it’s a pretty great way of looking at things. And incidentally, it’s one that neoclassical economists such as Milton Friedman would endorse–those types are always rattling on “consumption smoothing“–the idea that consumers will spread their income or goods (such as leisure) over time, so that overall consumption is even. Sagmeister channeling Friedman? Who knew?!

Sagmeister notes that the first sabbatical wasn’t terribly useful because it wasn’t structured enough. But when he segmented his day into activities–from “storytelling” to “future thinking”–things started to pop. In fact, Sagmeister argues that all seven years of work after his time off sprung from ideas that were formed during the previous sabbatical. His proof is his own charming portfolio–including one example of a brilliantly flexible logo system he designed. Check the video for more.

Have you ever found yourself saying “I need a vacation… A really long vacation”? I know I have. The idea seems blissful, but then you start thinking about the biggest consequence to not working: no income. But, say that was not an issue (which is hard to believe in today’s economic situation). I know several times I have called off of work because I was becoming burnt out from the combination of my job, freelance work and classes. Then when I come back, I am refreshed and can work to an even higher capacity. Producing higher and higher qualities of work all thanks to these mini-breaks have given me several raises throughout the couple years of working as a graphic designer. When Stefan Sagmeister gets back from his vacations, he is able to create an even larger income because of the higher quality of pieces he develops all because of having a very long vacation. Now not everybody can take a year-long vacation after seven years and not regret about it, which is why I believe companies should enforce four-day work weeks. Instead of the Monday through Friday, eight-hour day, let’s change it to Monday through Thursday, ten-hour days.

As a designer, these are my personal reasons as to why I believe four-day work weeks are highly effective:

• Designers often find themselves get so involved in a project that we will not stop until we are completely satisfied with the results. When I get to that point, I find it very difficult to find the motivation to start back up again the next day, so an extra two hours in the work shift would not hurt.
• Let’s be honest, do we want to spend about 71% of our days of the week at work? Why not 57%? Imagine all of the extra projects we can do personally for ourselves but haven’t been able to get to them due to constantly being pushed back by other projects!

According to the Newser on a four-day work week experiment in Utah, there are even far more beneficial reasons in which help the economy, the environment, and even your health!

• Closed offices on Fridays have cut energy use by 13% and reduced the state’s carbon footprint by some 6,000 metric tons—and that doesn’t even count the gas saved through fewer commutes.
• There’s less traffic with people commuting at different times, or, on Fridays, not at all. That means less air pollution for drivers.
• After 9 months of the program, the state had saved $1.8 million in operational costs.
• A survey showed that 82% of workers like the new schedule more than the five-day scheme and “show decreased health complaints, less stress, and fewer sick days.” Meanwhile, “productivity and quality of service” are up, writes Ben Jervey.

So the next time you find yourself saying that you need a vacation, do not be afraid to listen to that voice. In the end, everyone benefits from it! Take a freakin’ break!