Choose a Mentor Wisely

There are a lot of so called dodgy designer’s out there. Some of these dodgy designers have been on a trip to Malaysia and grabbed a cheap copy of the Adobe Suite and set up shop. Maybe this dodgy designer has done a year of Secretarial College and an elective in Graphics in Word. Be careful; don’t pick up bad habits from these untrained and inexperienced people. In my experience, if they constantly bag other designer’s work for no reason then they are usually compensating for their own inadequacies.

Don’t just chase Graphic Designers for mentoring, look into people who are in communications positions. Writers, Public Relation Officers and publishers are also full of knowledge and advice.

I once attached myself to a woman called Rita. She was a Senior Publications Manager at the Ministry of Planning, Western Australia. Rita old and grey, to see her on the street you wouldn’t stop and give her the time of day. When I first met Rita at a job briefing many years ago, I was just a junior and thought I knew everything about publications. At first impressions I thought, gee I’m the new kid on the block, I’m going to teach this old lady how things are done in the 90’s! How wrong was I! Rita knew everything there was to know about publishing large documents. An absolute gem, she may of never know this, but I loved going to her in our little boardroom. None of the other designers ever got it, I would always volunteer to do Rita’s work.
In those short meetings I would learn so much about grammar, page layouts, font issues. She just had answers, to any issue we were dealing with. Now I’m, an ex-printer, you’d think I knew it all. Nothing compares with real life experience of a professional such as Rita.

Now if you are about to apply for entry into an art college, now is also the time to be looking for advice. Everybody wants to be a Designer and everybody applies to do so. Your entrance portfolio needs to shine too. This can be an incrediably daunting task when you do this. So GET A MENTOR. I was lucky enough went I applied to have my printing background, so I had seen how artwork and visuals are meant to be mounted. SO I had a chance. But lots of applicants don’t, here is where, you start your brilliant career. Ask to be shown how art and samples are meant to be displayed. Ask your mentor, what is a relevant piece to display. Get advice on fulfilling the brief that the art colleges have requested you do. I’ve helped many young applicants at this stage of their development and seen the great outcomes down the track.

I didn’t have any mentors while I was studying or even while I was looking for my first job. I didn’t realise back then how beneficial they were.. It could have been so much easier for me. However, having mentors while you are working is also beneficial. That was something I worked out quickly once I was on the job. Rita is an example. Over the year’s I been extremely lucky to learn from some amazing talent. You’ll find many talented people are just bursting to impart something to you.

It’s the stories that are the best, the life experiences. One of my bosses from the past was an ex-manager of a car yard. He sold cars! He was brilliant, he didn’t know everything about design, but boy did he make sense when any issues arose. Calm and full of useful suggestions, it’s what a room full of Designer’s want to see when there is a crisis. What a great work mentor.

Unfortunately not every boss is going to be that role model for you. It is the luck of the draw. I’ve had some real doozies. One boss I had was of no use to me. If anything, if I had taken any of her advice, well I think I would have gone backwards in my development. It’s just the luck of the draw.

Graphic Design is a cut throat and highly stressful business. There are going to be some nasty bosses out there. Some nasty and dominative, some hardly ever there and some are just stupid, inexperienced and just plain useless. I’m not really painting a particularly nice picture here. Relax, there are also caring, helpful and talented bosses out there too.