FINDING A JOB

With the economy in dire straights and companies across design industries announcing freelance hiring freezes, this seems like a good time to offer up some valuable ways for our current and past students to find potential employment.

One of the questions students ask me on a regular basis is "How do I find a job in the design industry?"

This is always a great question, and I want to offer some links on where to look if you're one of our students who already has a portfolio and a bit of experience.

Indeed.com is a link that was just sent to me by John Avakian, Statewide Director of the Multimedia & Entertainment Initiative. Indeed.com is a great resource. Go to the site and type in "freelance design" or "freelance graphic"and "California" and take look at the large number of jobs (163) that pop up in the search results.

For local work, craigslist Chico is a great site to check on a regular basis. I check the site at least once a week, and often end up sending e-mails to students I think might be interested in specific postings.

Checking today, there are postings for: (School Portrait Photographer), (Wedding Photographer), (Apparel Graphic Designer), (Web Graphic Designer), (Sign Maker Assistant).

Below is a list of design and technology related job links:

Craigslist Chico: local jobs. Click California and then "art/media" to see recent jobs.

Creative Hotlist: Jobs for creative professionals and portfolio site.

Reel Exchange: A professional networking website connecting film and video professionals with clients and collaborators.

KROP: Creative and Tech jobs

Computer Love/Coroflot: Design and Tech jobs.

GURU: Providing/connecting freelancers for design projects

HOW design magazine: job bank and portfolio resources.

Indeed: Design jobs

While I'm listing job sites, I think it's also important to give some links for agencies (temp agencies) that hire temporary and full-time positions for the design industries:

Aquent: Check out the agencies video resources.

Big Creative: Freelance, Project-based, Permanent

Visuals: Freelance and direct-hire for creatives.

Artisan Creative: Finding jobs for top creative talent

The Creative Group: Marketing and advertising jobs

If you have any links for creative jobs that aren't listed here, send them our way.

-Daniel

CRAIGSLIST JOBS AND DTG

Last week I was out at Butte designing and producing t-shirts for our Recruiting department's Campus Orientation students. Since last semester, Campus Graphics (our in-house design organization) has produced about 300 shirts for Butte College special projects. 

Last year our students also designed and produced over a hundred shirts through our MSP66A Super Graphics class and other design classes. This coming year, we plan on building our apparel and textile design curriculum through the purchase of new equipment and new classes. The research I've done into the Direct-to-Garment (DTG) industry, shows significant growth in the future, and I want our students to be ready and trained with the skills to enter this market.

I was just on Craigslist and saw that Fifth Sun has posted a job announcement for an "Apparel Graphic Designer (In house only) (Chico)". 

I've heard a lot of great things about Fifth Sun. The company sounds like a great place to work and a growing company that entered the industry at the perfect time to set themselves up as a leader in the t-shirt apparel industry. In an economy that is in a major downturn, getting a job with a local company such as this, with benefits, would be a great opportunity for the right person.

The job sounds like a great entry-level position. They require the experience listed below.

• Best candidate stays current with popular culture and current trends in fashion and music.

• Highly motivated and responsible persons only. No Slackers.

• The best candidate will be familiar popular Cable TV shows and maybe the gaming industry and be able to visualize how these can be transformed into graphics for apparel. Cleverness helps!

• Must be able to follow directions and be able to create graphics from studio design style guides or or other references. Must be detail oriented.

• You must be able to follow art direction well and take criticism even if it means several design revisions. This is important as we produce graphics not for ourselves, but for the masses.

• Must be able to work under pressure and meet deadlines while juggling multiple projects.

• 3 years minimum Adobe application experience such as Photoshop and Illustrator (we work in a mac environment) . Appropriate education may be substituted.

• Industry experience in retail or screenprinting a plus.

• Must have a keen eye for good design, color and typography

Note the requirements for the job. Must know and be proficient with Mac computers, Photoshop, Illustrator, and typography. These are what we tell our students on a regular basis. You must know typography to be a good designer. More on this later.

If you know someone who might fit this position, pass the word on to them to check out Craigslist.

-Daniel