contributed by Hannah Mack

This summer I completed an internship at Kate Spade New York in Manhattan. I was a web design intern working on the creative marketing team. I worked four days a week 9–6. Growing up I wanted to be a fashion designer, but things changed as I got older and I found myself wanting to be a graphic designer,
interning at Kate Spade allowed me to join the two worlds together.

As an intern I was responsible for a variety of things. I was put to work immediately–and it was hard work! On the first day I created banners that appeared on websites advertising Kate Spade. Later I worked on e–mails, sweepstakes interfaces, more e–mails, as well as various tasks around the design department. As an intern I was also required to work on a larger project that would eventually be presented to the leadership team at Kate Spade and Jack Spade. Jack Spade is the male counterpart to Kate Spade producing both bags and clothing as well.

My large scale project was very exciting, I was required to design the creative for the Kate Spade website in August. Every month Kate Spade changes the creative on their website to reflect a ‘Color of the Month’ – this coincides with the 2011 Year of Color Campaign that Kate Spade is currently running. August’s color was Blue, and I was required to make the website’s assets reflect this color. This meant banners on the website, the landing page, etc. This project is usually executed by the head web designer, but they put it in my hands! I had to make sure that all of the assets on the website worked seamlessly with the product on the site as well as other campaigns that Kate Spade was running. It was a difficult job requiring lots of work and meetings, but I was able to pull it off.

This internship not only was a way to make connections and put myself out there, but it also boosted my design confidence. I ended my nine weeks at
Kate Spade with multiple portfolio pieces and knowledge of a real world design environment. I could not speak more highly of my experience, the
people I worked with were wonderful. I had a blast at Kate Spade and learned so much!

Hannah Mack is a senior graphic design major from Loveland, Ohio.

Great second meeting. Hope you’re all enjoying the Doyald Young books, which were graciously given to us by Brockett. (make sure you tell her thanks next time you see her!)

Here are some things that were brought up during the last meeting:

1 / First movie night will be the Thursday, Sept. 29th at 10pm in br305

2 / Green Mount Cemetery Trip tentatively for October 22nd. We will have sign up sheet within the next week posted in the lounge. I will send out an email to let you know when it goes up. This trip will also involve creating a collaborative Zine.

3 / SHAG’s free design lectures. If interested here’s a link to their site, which has a list of events.*
4 / Contest entry forms will be in the lounge hopefully in the next week or so, I will let you know via email when this happens too. As always you will be able to submit your contest entries into the department to possibly get reimbursed for any entry fees associated with that contest. The new forms should stream line the process.

5 / Workshops. From what I heard it sounds like people are interested in having workshops in some of the following:

a – Letterpress
b – Prepress production / offset tour
c – Web (indexhibit, wordpress, etc.)

6 / Write a book/exhibition review for the MICA Graphic Design Blog. You could get free admission to a exhibition or receive a design book. Contact Brockett for more information.
*Reminder SHAG is having a lecture tonight from 7-9pm at Towson University, Center for the Arts Building, RM2032. There is at towson.edu/main/maps

Also if you get a chance to head out to DC between now and October 28th, there is a show at the National Gallery you should check out called “Publishing Modernism: The Bauhaus in Print.” Maybe even write a review for the blog.

More information forthcoming on each of these as they approach, but a list of departmental events for fall:

September 10, 12pm, Chicago Invasion featuring Rick Valicenti and Stpehen Farrell in Brown 320
September 12: Blue Ribbon Popsicle Day, Cohen Plaza
September 13, 6pm Visiting Designer Rich Roat of House Industries in Main 110
Sept 23, 5–7pm, Fox 3: GDMFA gallery opening
Oct 3, evening, Falvey: Teddy Cruz, Architect, the William O. Steinmetz Residency presentation
Oct 10, 12–1pm, Brown 320: Visiting Designer Mike Freimuth
Oct 28, 12–2pm, Brown 320: Visiting Designer JK Keller lecture
October 22 or 29 (date to be finalized: Greenmount Cemetery Halloween tour
Nov 7, 6–8:30pm, Falvey: Book launch party for Graphic Design Thinking by Ellen Lupton and GDMFA and Participatory Design by Zvezdana Stojmirovic and Helen Armstrong
Nov 11, 12–1pm, Brown 320: Visiting Designer Jennifer Daniel
Nov 17, 12–1pm, Brown 320: Visiting Designer Anthony Dihle
early December, 3–4pm in Brown 320: The Type is Right Gameshow with Hostess Ellen Lupton

Thanks for coming out to the first MDL meeting of the year. Glad to see some new and returning people.

As mentioned before the club itself is no longer affiliated with AIGA, but the student discount membership is available if you would like to sign up for one. Click here if you’re interested. It’s $50.

There will be a surprise for the first few who attend this weeks meeting.

Hope to see tomorrow (mon sept 19) at 3:15pm.

AD: Where did you grow up?
SM: I grew up in the Twin Cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is a lovely place with a lot of lakes, snow, good food and cultural institutions like the Walker Art Center, where I was first introduced to contemporary art and design.

AD: What school did you attend and what was your major?
SM: I went to the University of Wisconsin – Madison and have an undergraduate degree in art / graphic design. My education was heavily influenced by John Rieben, a modernist designer who worked at the Container Corporation of America with Herbert Bayer and Massimo Vignelli at Unimark. Many of our assignments were constrained by use of the grid  and sans serif typography. UW – Madison has a broad catalog of liberal arts classes too, which I took advantage of with my electives — everything from Forestry to Scandinavian Literature! I earned an MFA at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. I really loved the program there which encouraged experimentation and  design process, completely different from my undergrad design experience.

AD: What other designers inspire you?
SM: I love Dutch design and designers. I often look at the work of book designers Irma Boom, Ingeborg Scheffers and Karel Martens. In terms of typography, I’m amazed by April Greiman, and for work with a personal narrative, Lucille Tenazas.


AD: Favorite font?
SM: Such a hard question! I’ve always liked Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk, which in my opinion is a great workhorse typeface. And the number 2 has so much character.

AD: Any advice for MICA students pursuing graphic design?
SM: Make lots of work and take risks!

Learn more about Sandie by visiting her website or enrolling in one of her courses. In fall, she teaches Advanced Design 1 on Mondays.

Sandie Maxa joins up as a full-time faculty member and leader of the new post baccalaureate program in graphic design, relocating from New York. Junior April Dai interviews him below.

AD: What inspired you to get into design?
SM: As a child I was fascinated by visual information, the more complex the better: maps, phone books, catalogs, tickets, etc. I made a lot of books and little mockups of printed ephemera with paper and markers. In high school I learned that I could make these things and be paid for it as a graphic designer. I’ve been expanding my definition of graphic design ever since.

AD: Was there a defining prior experience that influences how you design?
SM: I am most influenced by the people I have learned from; my professors, but also my classmates and colleagues.

AD: What are some of your inspirations?
SM: One of my favorite places to go for inspiration is Storm King Art center in New Windsor, New York. It is a 500-acre sculpture park with rolling hills and woods. Each art work is specifically sited for the space it occupies, so there is a beautiful connection between the object and its context. My favorite pieces are by Richard Serra and Andy Goldsworthy.

read on.

A candid review of my post-graduation transition, in five parts
Contributed by Claire Mueller (11) 

Part One: Set Goals, But Be Open-Minded
Entering into my final year at MICA I had very specific expectations for myself. Apart from schoolwork-related goals, I wanted to secure a design job for myself by the time that I graduated. Even though I wanted to be open about where I was job hunting, New York stuck out because of the vast number of exciting design opportunities, and because the idea of living there was appealing. Nominated by professors, in May I attended the Art Directors Club student portfolio day in NYC. I announced to everyone that “yes, I plan on moving here right after I graduate!” One art director from a prestigious and hip firm in Philadelphia invited me in for an interview, but I politely declined because I was still completely engrossed in moving to New York.

Part Two: Wave Goodbye to Entitlement
I heard back from several people after the event; including a representative from a luxury hotel company. I was so excited that a company in New York wanted me to come in for an interview that I overlooked the fact that working for a hotel had never been something that I aspired to do. I paid for a bus to their offices in lower Manhattan, gave my student portfolio speech in front of three semi-interested designers, and learned about the design process for the company. The whole interview lasted about 20 minutes. The office environment and people seemed nice enough. When I got a prompt follow up email, they seemed positive and asked me to contact them when I was eventually living in the city. It wasn’t a bad response, but its vagueness was frustrating.

While apartment hunting in New York, I stopped by a different design firm where I had a previous connection. Two new designers there seemed patronized by my presence, and were clearly in a hurry to move on with their busy days. I left the design firm, walked a block down the street and started to cry. Looking back I know I was upset because at MICA I had been made to feel smart and unique (which I do think I am but maybe in a healthier way now), and out in the real world it turned out that I wasn’t entitled to a design job or praise from professionals.

Part Three: Don’t Fight Your Frustration
I emailed back the Art Director from Philadelphia, and in early June went in for an interview. In contrast with my previous experience, this firm paid for my travel expenses. I spent five hours (not 20 minutes) speaking to Art Directors, Graphic Designers, and Copy Writers. It felt like they were taking great care in the interview process, which made me a lot more comfortable and confident in myself. More importantly I had an exciting revelation; I really wanted to move there, even if I didn’t get the job. I was never made a job offer by that firm, but for the first time after graduation I had been treated like a professional, which I respected.

My family was concerned about the risks of my decision to move to Philadelphia: I had no job, no emotional support group there, no money (at least for the time being). I was hurt that the one concrete decision that I had made post-college was being undermined, but in reality my anger was because I knew they were right. My “one concrete decision” was flimsy, and my father wanted me to move back home. Leaving college for home had never been part of my plan, and there was so much stigma associated with doing so that for the first time I was worried what my peers would think of me and my job hunt. One day in mid July I stopped feeling sorry for myself and forced myself to brush off rejection. I kept searching.

Part Four: Finding a Job is a Full-time Job
For the rest of July I sat in my apartment Monday through Friday treating 9-5 like working hours in which my job was finding myself a job. I made a chart of all the places that I applied to, the date at which I applied to them, what city they were in and what the job position was. When I heard a “no thank you” back from one of them I would strike the name through on the list, and not give it a second thought. A week before I was scheduled to move back home, I attended another vague interview in New York for an e-commerce site. This time however, I let the lukewarm interview roll off me and didn’t allow myself to be upset.

In early August, one week after I moved home outside of Washington DC, I scheduled an interview at a nearby news media company. The associate with whom I had made the appointment called instead of emailed, sounded good-natured and even made a couple of jokes. During my interview I was taken seriously and was not treated like an inexperienced recent college graduate but like an intelligent creative individual. The interview felt like a conversation, not a police interrogation. The people I had met were embarking on creative projects that I truly wanted to be a part of. Two days later my interviewer called me to request references. Two days after that he called with a job offer, and I began working there last week.

Part Five: Don’t Compromise
I am not sure why I was hard on myself for not securing a job right away, because it was so unrealistic to do so. Yes, every year a couple MICA graphic design students have a job before they walk across the stage at the symphony hall, but not being one of them should not have made me feel any less competent of a designer. Go into your senior year without getting hung up on the details of a path you may have forged a long time ago. Make decisions based on what your life is like now, not what you feel like it should be. Do not settle for something that does not feel right.

Claire Mueller is the Visual Designer of User Experience at CQ Roll Call in Washington, DC.

Rich Roat of House Industries will provide a free presentation on Tuesday, September 13 at 6pm in Main 110.

Poster printed by the lovely Heda Hokschirr.

Enjoy a free, homemade, blue-ribbon popsicle on Cohen Plaza.

Monday, September 12, 12–2pm or run out, whichever happens first. Meet other graphic design majors and toast to a new year. Sponsored by the Design League. Look for flavors like: orange julius, mango lassi, macchiato, sweet tea peach, canteloupe mint, etc.

Postcard design by seniors Andrew Walters and Emily Long.

Join us Friday, September 9, 12–1pm in Brown 320 for a presentation by Stephen Farrell and Rick Valicenti.

Stephen Farrell creates work that is intricately detailed, avowedly non-commercial, and unabashedly intellectual. Farrell designs experimental fonts and fiction, and he teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC. Projects include the novel VAS, a full-on collaboration with author Steve Tomasula. Farrell’s digital typeface Volgare is based on a 1601 Florentine manuscript written by an anonymous clerk. Volgare includes over 500 distinct glyphs, including ligatures, word endings, and combination characters.

Rick Valicenti founded Thirst in 1988, a Chicago-based design collaborative devoted to art, function, and real human presence. In 2006, Valicenti was honored with the AIGA Medal and was included in Cooper-Hewitt’s National Design Triennial: Design Life Now. He is the editor of a monograph on Thirst, Emotion as Promotion, whose suggestive title evokes the wit and passion that invariably animate Valicenti’s work. Rick is the 2011 recipient of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Communication Design.

Sponsored by MICA’s Graphic Design MFA Program