what was your first job in ID?

Design Discussions design employment
1

Hi!
Just wondering if you could share what your first job in ID was (title and what it consisted of really doing?)?

Thanks.

2

hi, I got my first job while I was still a student.

I started as a part time junior designer at a consultancy. It was a good experience because I had the chance to design different types of things: POP, stands, packaging and products.

I you can, I suggest you try to get into consultancy first, at least for a couple of years.

That will give you a better idea about what you want to do in the future.

Good luck,

nico

3

First I worked here:
http://www.gisser.com/default3.htm

Then here:

Both freelance for not very much money. I was doing a little bit of everything, concept sketching, renderings, CAD, presenting to clients even a little. Both places where very small at the time and you had to wear a lot of hats.

I freelanced for them for about 6 months and it helped me to understand what professional level work was and rebuild a portfolio to get a job here:

4

I’ve always hated that indexid site. It has it’s own pointer doing all kinds of stuff, freaking me out man!!!

I started here right after graduating as an intern/freelancer:
http://www.gtech.com/
Did sketching, foam models, cad, concepts, presentation models.

Then a lot of good times here:
http://www.samsonite.com/global/globl_homepage.jsp
Very little sketching, an incredible amount of illustrator lineart, design concepts, material + color selection, sample shop and far east communication, presentation artwork, etc…

And currently, lots of interesting projects with the design and packaging consultancies in chi-town. Everything from brainstorming, strategy, market research, competative analysis, concepts, illustrator, sketches, photoshop renderings, foam models, presentation work. No 3-d work yet, waiting until I’m completely kick-ass before I start offering it as a service.

5

Yo

you mentioned your job helped you to “understand what professional level work was…”

Could you elaborate on this a little bit more?

6

aside from various freelance jobs in university and earlier, first job here

http://www.dwcanada.com/home.htm while in a 1.5 yr co-op program and as well after school freelance.
lots of concept sketching and creative, modelling, CAD for production, and learning business creating project briefs, contracts and client meetings.

then straight outta school to here

http://www.powerfootwear.com/power_flash.html for 3 years
first intro to footwear design, footwear development, travel to asia and footwear production and more.

now here

everything from design, development, business and planning and marketing.


R

7

Well, for me it was developing a few more skills:

Designing for the consumer instead for for myself.

Making every sketch count, working in a presentable way so that if the boss comes by at any point, you can quickly present and get feedback.

Being creative from 9-5 instead of slacking all day and cramming all night before a deadline.

Working on real world projects with real world parameters. In school we developed a lot of crazy ideas with no real commercial applications. A good folio balances blue sky, with nitty gritty.

Learning how to properly discuss, negotiate, and even shutting up and listening at times (hard for me, especially then)

8

First job - an internship, really, but it paid well: www.chasedesign.net - relatively large firm with established internship program, hot as hell in the summer.

Then right out of school: www.artisent.com - sanding bondo molds of ski helmets. It was fun though - small group and great bunch of guys. I guess you could call me staff industrial designer. Or Junior ID.

then: catalanoinc.com

then: ideinc.com

now: www.precor.com