What are you interested in? Do some self-guided projects. I know everyone likes to use him as an example, but designfabulous/Andrew Kim’s fame came from his self-initiated projects that he’s done for many years. Find something you have passion about and redesign it/come up with new concepts. Andrew’s projects mostly center around consumer electronics/mobile devices. When I look at your post/your work I just see an industrial designer who’s got some OK CAD renderings.
And regarding dual-booting: You’re in China and you can’t find Windows anywhere? I’m sure there are copies in the street markets for like $10. Not kidding. If all fails, download/install TinyXP (google it). Even if you need to go into the grey area in terms of legal/pirated software, if it’s something that’s holding you back from succeeding, screw the laws (plus, you’re in China where I’m pretty sure it’s legal).
I think you know yourself the things you need to work on (based on your post). I see:
Get Windows or
Learn Rhino. It’s really, really, easy to pick up… find some tutorials. Esp if you’re carrying a Masters in CAD, I’d expect you to be able to work your way around many different programs. “Ive never used rhino or modo before so its a struggle to learn these programs” neither has anyone else who’s just starting Rhino or Modo. There’s lots of resources online for this.
Practice your sketching. Get outside and draw stuff. Walk around the city. Buy some markering books, read some tutorials.
Do some self-initiated projects. The only project I remember you did was the Jetson foldable guitar thing… Is that what you’re passionate about? Go more in depth. Other instruments? Amps?
I hope this didn’t seem too harsh. I just think you’re making excuses for yourself that you shouldn’t have to. Good luck.
Oh yeah PS. all of Andrew Kim’s work is done in Photoshop, so even if you don’t have CAD, you can still pump out sick renderings.
Keep designing every day until someone pays you to do it (then keep doing it, obviously). Keep practicing and getting better at all your skills so this happens faster. Designing requires action, so make sure to take action on a daily basis.
Being tired is not a good enough excuse. Work at it work at it work at it. And look at the fact that you don’t have your usual tools as a bonus - now you get to work on some of the skills that you are not so sure of yourself in. And being out of work to go and get some cultural experience abroad is unlikely to be considered a negative by most employers - there is no way I would have ended up where I am now without the eye-opener of spending time travelling after university. My (now) boss told me in my interview that “most companies would pay a lot of money to give their existing employees the sort of experience you have already gained from travelling”.
I always love it when people tell me they are too tired or don’t have enough time to do something… as a creative director I still find time to mentor students, be on here, design cars for fun (working on my next project with these guys now: http://icon4x4.com/ ) … make time. You have to will it into existence.
You have internet and you’re in China, if really wanted you can easily get a copy of Windows. YouTube and other sites makes it easy to learn new programs; Rhino IMO is much easier to learn on your own than Solidworks.
Hi,
I’ve only just finished my third year of industrial design degree here in australia but in my holidays for the past couple of years I used to go to Korea to teach english. I don’t know what its like over there in China but I know teaching is a huge drain on energy.
But if there is one thing that those kids love more than anything is a hot sketch of a car or drawing anything on the white board, even in between classes when I finished planning I would sit and just sketch. They would come and peek over my shoulder and actually speek more english in my breaks than in the actual classes.
After work, I used to finish around 8-9 pm I would go home and learn new CAD packages or animation softwares untill 1 -2 am. When I started it was tiring but you just have to set a routine and follow it. I started learning Alias studiotools this time last year when I was in Korea and I’ve just managed to get a internship at ford as an Alias modeller for this coming year so don’t waste your time, I know the first time I went there all I did was chase the Korean ladies. Even if you just try to make some industry contacts over there for future work as a designer, keep your eyes open for every opportunity.