V Assignments

Part 1: Reading on Salary Negotiations
Read the following excerpt from Richard Nelson Bolles’ book, What Color is Your Parachute, on Salary Negotiations. There is also a page that compares the methods of the job seeker to the employee seeker.

Part 2: Final Project
Continue working on the materials required for the end of the semester:

• Professionally printed business cards (at least enough to share with the rest of the class)
• Presentation quality printed resume
• Portfolio website
• Printed bio with professional quality headshot/portrait
• presentation quality printed sample portfolio

By this point, you should be finishing up your design for your business card and resume and have selected a printer to work with on your business card. You should also have most of the content for your website compiled and have selected a CMS. You should be experimenting with styling a theme that you like, and should have content on your site. You should have layout concepts for your portfolio and should begin printing test pages and experimenting with binding techniques.

f Christopher

Part 1. Reading
Read the following excerpt from John Mullin’s book The New Business Road Test. This introductory text outlines the important factors an entrepreneur should consider in order to predict their chances for success.  If you are interested to read more, this book is on reserve in the library for overnight loans. After you’ve finished reading, write a 5 sentence summary of the text. Print this text and bring it to class next week. If you are curious to learn about corporate structures – the difference between a sole proprietorship, LLC, LLP, etc, I’ve included an overview here, excerpted from The Small Business Start-Up Guide, by Robert Sullivan.

Part 2. Final Project
Continue working on the materials required for the end of the semester:

• Professionally printed business cards (at least enough to share with the rest of the class)
• Presentation quality printed resume
• Portfolio website
• Printed bio with professional quality headshot/portrait
• presentation quality printed sample portfolio*

* Your sample portfolio will be representative of a layout, print quality, binding technique, typography, etc  – in other words “design” – that can expand to accommodate your work next semester and beyond. For the purposed of this assignment, your sample portfolio should include 4 projects.

f Christopher

Part 1. Final Project
At the end of the semester, you will be expected to have the promotional materials listed below. Between now and the end of the semester, you are expected to be working on perfecting and producing these materials.

• Professionally printed business cards (at least enough to share with the rest of the class)
• Presentation quality printed resume
• Portfolio website
• Printed bio with professional quality headshot/portrait
• presentation quality printed sample portfolio

Part 2. Website
Continue working on your website. Continue collecting, creating and documenting all of the content you will need to include on your site, and consider what you want your domain to be and look into registering it. Begin populating your site with content and share your results with the rest of the group in the form of a post. Be sure to mark this post with the category “Assignment 8-Web.”

Part 3. Photoshoot
Team up with a classmate and photograph at least one piece that you plan to include in your portfolio. Create a new post with at least two of your best images. Be sure to mark this post with the category “Assignment 8 -Photo.”

f Christopher

Part 1. Reading
In preparation for next week’s guest speaker, Paul Loebach,  read the following content on licensing.

Part 2. Website
Start working on your website. If you are not comfortable with HTML or CSS, you are encouraged to use a hosted service, such as Cargo. In class on Monday, we will spend some time looking at how to use Cargo, and we will also look at some other options for easy to use website building tools.

Part 3. Printing
If you’re going to hand out a business card, having it professionally printed makes a big difference. Begin looking for a printer that can work with with you to achieve the result you are looking for. For next week, you should have 3 quotes for your business card.

f Christopher

Part 1. Reading
In preparation for our guest speaker, Steven McDonald, RISD’s General Counsel, read this packet (16MB) as an overview of fundamental intellectual property concepts. Make a note of any questions that come up as you go.

Part 2. SiteMap
A sitemap is a document that represents the relationships and organization of all pages within a website. Create a sitemap for your website that defines the scope of work you plan to show, the organizational structure you plan to use, and the kinds of content you plan to include. If you already have a website, this is a chance to think critically about how it can be improved. The format of this document is up to you, but it should clearly express scope (how much you will include, what you will include) and structure (how things will be organized, how pages will be related, how navigation will work). It does not need to be visual, but often it is easier to show scope and structure in graphic or chart form. You are encouraged to try using LucidChart, and you all should receive an invitation to create a free account. As students with an .edu email adress, you can get a professional account for free. Whichever format you create your sitemap in, share it with the group in a new post. Be sure to mark it with “assignment 6” as the category.

f Christopher

Part 1. Proposal
Projects that involve research and conceptual, technical and material exploration offer significant opportunities for creative and financial reward. Since these kinds of projects often encompass a scope that is less predictable and more expansive than is required when selling an existing design, estimating compensation for this kind of work can be challenging. For this project you will prepare a proposal in response to the Chace Center Cafe brief that was presented to you in class. The presentation document is reposted below for your reference, as are the slides from the lecture on proposals. Keep in mind that your proposal will be evaluated for not only the time frame and budget, but also for your strategy on how to best address the needs of the client.

Approach
Begin by reading the attached guidelines for writing a proposal. One is tailored to the interior design profession, the others to graphic design projects. Neither address the specific needs of this project completely, but both provide good guidance that can be adapted to the task at hand.

From there, consider the needs of the project and how you would propose to address them. Keep in mind that this is not a design proposal and you are not expected to directly address any of the project needs with your proposal. You are not expected to do any design work or to describe the solution you might eventually arrive at. Be sure to be explicit about what you plan to deliver, when you plan to deliver it, and how you will complete the project. Your proposal should include, at the minimum, the following content:

• cover page
• problem analysis
• strategy / approach
• deliverables
• schedule
• budget and fees
• closing statement

Submit your work as a new post in PDF format. Be sure to mark your post with “Assignment 5” as the category. Name your file with the following convention: FirstnameLastname_Proposal.PDF

Slides from the lecture on proposals

Presentation from the Chace Center Cafe design brief

Part 2. Feedback meetings
Form a group of 3 students and schedule a meeting to give and receive feedback on the materials you have created to date. Spend at least 30 minutes, with time divided equally among group members. Each group member should print the content they want feedback on and bring it with them to the meeting. You are encouraged to invite the Instructor and the Teaching Assistant to these meetings.

Part 3. In-progress critique
Next week we will have a guest speaker joining us for the duration of class. Part of the time will be spent getting feedback on your work thus far. Make any necessary revisions to your work and bring printed copies of your materials to class next week. The work will be reviewed with an understanding that it is in progress, but it should be printed and presented so as not to distract from your content and is conducive to productive discussion.

Deliverables

• Professional quality proposal responding to the Chace Center Cafe design brief.
• Printed copies of your materials brought to next week’s class for in progress critique.

f Christopher

Determining the value of your efforts is an essential skill regardless of how you plan to earn your living. If you plan to sell your work, arriving at a fair, competitive, and profitable price requires careful consideration of many factors. For this project you will quote a price for a significant piece you have already designed and built assuming two hypothetical models: direct to the end user, and wholesale to a retailer.

Some conditions:

• you are not quoting for R&D, only the cost to produce and deliver the product.
• assume a nominal overhead of $600/month for rent and utilities (shops, studios, labs). Factor into your overhead any additional monthly business expenses you incur (supplies, services, etc)
• consider all of the factors it takes to get the product in the hands of your customers
• Assume that you are operating a business and that there are costs associated with any goods or services you derive value from (nothing is free). Wherever possible, figure out a monetary value for those costs.
• assume your direct sale customer is in Boston, MA and is ordering one unit
• assume your wholesale customer is in Manhattan, NY and is ordering 5 units
• determine a schedule / terms for delivery and payment

Some characteristics of wholesale vs. direct to customer models:

marketing goods direct to end user

• inventory – management of unsold product, use of space, cash tied up in product
• customer acquisition / promotion of product – effort involved with getting customers
• fulfillment – getting product to customers
• customer service – making sure the customer is satisfied, issues after product is sold
• retailers are  “middle men”, so of course they charge more for the product than they paid for it. If a producer skips the middle man, there is an opportunity for higher profit margins.

wholesaling / serial production

• potential for savings on bulk material purchases
• more value derived from production set-up time / ability to work an “assembly line”
• increased revenue
• lower profit margins – dealing with “middle men”

Approach
Begin by reading the attached excerpt for guidelines on how to arrive at a price.
For each sales model, create a spreadsheet that itemizes every factor that contributes to your quote. Include at least the following information:

• value of your time per hour
• cost of raw materials
• cost of services
• cost of supplies
• cost of delivery
• operational expenses (overhead)
• profit margin

From there, prepare a professional quality quotation document that includes at least the following information:

• your contact information
• client’s contact information (create a tasteful, generic, dummy persona)
• date
• indication that the document is a quote
• price
• description of goods quoted
• quantity of goods quoted
• payment schedule and terms
• delivery schedule

Deliverables:

• 2 spreadsheets, itemizing all factors that contribute to your quotations. Make a spreadsheet with a “sheet” for each client model. You are encouraged to use Google Doc’s spreadsheet application, but any spreadsheet application is fine (excel, etc). Name this file FirstnameLastname_QuoteSpreadsheet.?
• 2 professional quality quotation documents suitable for presentation to a client. Make a single PDF that contains both quotes on seperate pages as well as a photo of your piece on a seperate page. Name this file FirstnameLastname_Quote.PDF
• Create a new post with these documents attached or linked. Be sure to mark your post with the Assignment 4 Category.

f Christopher

Part I: Bio Revisions POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE
Taking into account feedback from your peers and instructor, make any necessary revisions to your bio. Submit work in the form of a new post with “Assignment 3A” as the category.

Part II: Formatted Resume
Taking into account feedback from your peers and instructor, design your resume for the format of a single 8.5” x 11” page. Carefully consider how the structure and categorization of content, and typography can best serve your audience. The goal is to have a coherent and concise document that can be digested quickly and efficiently, but its also important to consider this as an opportunity to begin to formulate and implement a consistent visual identity system that will be expanded upon as the semester progresses. Work for this assignment should be submitted in PDF format on a new post marked with the category “Assignment 3B”. Files must be named with the following convention:
Firstname_Lastname_Resume.PDF

Part III: Business Card
A business card is a useful item to have as you expand your network of professional contacts. In addition to serving as a memory aid to the person who receives your card, it’s also another opportunity to affect (positively or negatively) the perceptions of your new contact through your visual identity.

Design a business card for your personal use. Create 3 iterations on a single theme that offer some variation on some of the following:

• content (mailing address, email, land line, mobile phone, etc, etc…)
• size
• orientation
• color
• stock (paper, etc)
• printing method
• cost
• 1 sided or 2 sided
• font / typography
• graphics

Work for this assignment should be submitted in PDF format on a new post marked with the category “Assignment 3C”. Files must be named with the following convention:
Firstname_Lastname_BizCard.PDF
Additionally, print a “mock-up” of your 3 design iterations and bring them to class.

Deliverables:

• Revised Bio. Submitted in the form of a new post marked with the category “Assignment 3A”.
• Formatted Resume. Submitted as a PDF in a new post marked with the category “Assignment 3B”.
• Business Card Designs. 3 variations on a single theme. Submitted as a PDF in a new post marked with the category “Assignment 3C” and in the form of a printed mock-up for each variation.

f Christopher

Look at the short biographies and portraits (and if possible, résumés) of other designers. When you find a good one online, post a link with a brief description in the comments of this post. If you find something offline, make a note of what it is and where you found it in the comments. If possible scan or borrow it so it can be shared with the group.

f Christopher

Part I: Unformatted Resume
a. Read the document linked to below for clarification on what content to include and advice on best practices. This same content is also available on reserve in the library.
ResumeReading.pdf 

b. Type all of the content you will include in your resume. You will need to consider how your content is formatted, but the primary objective of this assignment is to perfect the composition of your content, including: spelling, grammar, punctuation, wording, tone, accuracy. Consider the hierarchy of information you are presenting and how the structuring of your content helps the reader’s comprehension. At a minimum, your resume must include the following content:

• your contact information
• your relevant educational experience
• Your relevant employment experience

Part II: Biography
If a resume is summary of your career in non-narrative format, a biography (or “bio”) similarly summarizes and highlights your accomplishments and experiences, but in narrative format. A professional bio can serve several purposes, often different than what a resume might be called on for. But in general, the goal is to provide people with a better understanding of who you are. A bio will help a journalist (or blogger) understand your work, personality, and outlook, but it will also give them a starting point if they are writing about you (in many cases, the starting point is “copy and paste”). A manufacturer who produces your work will often want to include biographical information about designers in promotional materials, as will a gallery when exhibiting your work, conference when hosting you as a speaker, grant when announcing fellows, etc…

Compose a brief biography that can be used in the promotion of your professional career. Your bio must be written in third person and should be 1- 2 paragraphs. Some guidelines to follow:

• Don’t be funny, clever, inappropriate, or irrelevant
• Don’t start every sentence with your name (or he/she).
• Use descriptive language to emphasize objective facts about you and your work more so than to provide a qualitative assessment of your character or your work. For example: Jim’s drawings are huge and they rule. instead: Jim makes large scale drawings and they have attracted an international following.
• Who – What is your name
• What – what do you do, what do your call yourself (artist, designer, craftsperson, maker, etc)
• When – how long have you been doing it
• Where – where are you from, where are you now, where are you going
• How  – what is your approach, methodology, values
• How – how did you get here
• Why – why do you do this
• What – what significant things have you done

Part III. Portrait
In many cases a portrait accompanies a bio and is used for the same purposes. Take a photograph of yourself, or have one taken for you, that is suitable for professional uses. Consider what message the composition, lighting, content and styling convey to the viewer. Take a high-res image (at least 1500 pixels by 1500 pixels).

Deliverables
create a single post for all of your work this week. It should include the following:

• unformatted resume, zipped and uploaded in orginal document format (word, illustrator, etc)
• biography, entered as text directly in the post
• portrait photograph, saved as a jpeg, no larger than 700×700 pixels
• Be sure to assign your post to the “Assignment 2” category

f Christopher

Part I:
Setting concrete goals for your career can have a profound impact on the trajectory of your professional development. By clarifying your near and long term objectives, you can weigh decisions and take actions that will bring you closer to achieving your ambitions. In order for the class as a whole and you as an individual to better understand your professional ambitions, formalize your goals into a thoroughly considered and strategically composed written document.

The primary objectives of this assignment are to help you navigate your career path and to establish a framework upon which your efforts in the class can be directed and evaluated.

Approach:
Begin by reading the following articles:
http://www.mindtools.com/page6.html
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_87.htm
Using the S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound) principles, write your goals for the next 10 years with specific milestones outlined for this semester, this year, 2 years from now, 5 years from now and 10 years from now. Consider how your near term goals relate to your long terms goals. Write your goals as positive statements; state the desired outcome and not the situation to be avoided. For example: “I want to be wealthy” is a positive statement, as opposed to, “I do not want to be poor.” It may be that you will have fewer goals the farther out into time you project, and you are likewise not expected to detail a day-by-day schedule for this semester. What is expected is a realistic, clear, comprehensive, and actionable plan for your future.

Some realms of achievement to consider as you compile your goals:

• Education
• Recognition / Awards
• Financial / Salary
• Public Service
• Philanthropy / Charity
• Rank / Title / Status
• Artistic / Creative
• Publicity / Media / Publication
• Exhibition
• Production / Distribution
• Skills / Knowledge
• Travel
• Peer Group / Relationships
• Clients

Part II:
Create a list of professionals and organizations (companies, collaboratives, etc) whose careers you admire. Include a brief explanation for each item in the list. Your list can draw from any field, but should include some entries that are directly related to the areas indicated by your goals.

Part III:
Set up your profile for the class website.

Deliverables:

• Well organized, thoughtfully composed, carefully edited document stating your goals for a scope of 10 years.
• List of professionals and organizations you admire with brief explanations.
• Post your work to the class website. Be sure to check “Assignment 1” as the category.

f Christopher