What's it like to be a designer in New York

I am writing this blog for guys from the industry - who are interested in how work works from the inside, what are the differences and advantages of working as a designer in New York. I'm a designer at a creative agency Your Majesty Co, and already separately wrote about how I moved from Kiev to New Yorkк.

I’ll say right away that, in my opinion, New York is simply an ideal city for designers and for a career. If you are still thinking whether you should go here to work or not, my answer is to go.

And now in detail - why.

Team. I worked only in one team and I will not speak for everyone, but the main difference, which was confirmed by my other design friends in New York: no one will sit up, no one cooperate “against” someone, no rumors, discussions and others, in principle, no. If in the CIS this occurs very often in absolutely all groups, then it is not accepted here. And in work it is very appropriate, because within the team there is no need to clarify the relationship and you can fully concentrate on the tasks.

Client. This is probably my favorite part. Again, I judge from my own experience. The work here is based on a partnership format - I give you a design and solution to the problem, you give me money. The client does not hire a team, he comes to solve his problem with people who can solve this problem. I’ve already written about this, but you won’t meet a person here who will throw a wad of dollars on the table and say “for me for yesterday.” What is called “American hypocrisy” is basic politeness. Therefore, it is always a pleasure to communicate with clients and discuss the work process. However, another nuance appears here - sometimes the client is so polite and holds back his opinion that this opinion is revealed only at the end of the project. Even when you have a project for half a million dollars, the problems are the same. But in general, in a year of work in New York, I met more adequate clients than in 10 years of work in Kyiv.

Roles. The most obvious examples of roles are:

– An art director is the same as a designer, only who draws better and more. Art may have junior designers under his command, but he also draws like everyone else, if not more. No one puts their feet on the table and commands to move the pixel to the left, as is customary here (in our country = in the CIS). Sometimes it happens in an agency that there are only art directors and not a single designer, which means that the team only has experienced designers.

– A creative director is often a manager who was once a designer, that is, has visual responsibility for the project. But he rarely draws.

– A UI designer has nothing to do with UX design (they sometimes even laugh at us because of our favorite wording “UI/UX designer”). Yuixers are generally a separate caste of people who have nothing to do with visual design; they are more connected with testing, strategy, prototypes and workshops with the client.

- The visual designer himself does not impose his project, as it was once fashionable in the CIS (everyone said that the designer should impose, but no one, of course, didn’t impose, here at least they would have learned how to design). But the designer should know html a priori, of course.

- The visual designer should be able to animate and work with 3D, this is much more important than the skill of prototyping or layout. Without knowledge of after and tridemax, in principle, it will be difficult to compete with other designers.

– An interesting point is that you can often retrain within a team. For example, our girl came as a graphic designer and became a web designer. Or if you arrived as a visual designer, and then decided to become a user-designer, this will be allowed and helped within the team (depending on the team, of course, but with us it was possible - it’s easier for them to retrain and leave than to bring in a new one).

- If you have a narrow niche in which you want to develop - this is a big plus.

Projects. Here, of course, it also depends on which agency you work for. But it is very easy to start design for world names from the start. And this is not a banner about the stock on Samsung, but really large orders of world brands. Does the American market have specific design? In general, I did not notice, draw everything that is on Siteinspire и FWA.

Designer Events and Meetings. Well, here, of course, expanse, in one only AIGA so many things are going on, and a lot of meetings from Dribble, Bihans, Google, local design universities and the community. How much knowledge do you get at these events? No, but a lot of experience. There are also a lot of design conferences from Awards and others, in which the best studios in the world also share the experience of their projects. At such events it is easy to meet everyone and find a new job in the city. As a rule, people are looking for everything all year round, the only question is how quickly you are ready to go to a new job.

Cult figures. This is, of course, a very insider joke, but there are designers who are fan of Tobias, Sagmeister, and Repponen. So, all these guys live here in New York. For example, we did a common project with Tobias, and he often hung out in our office, sitting in the same building with Sagmeister, the Pentagram office in 4 blocks from my office, and from the street you can see what's going on inside.

So “touch the living legends” here, too, can be (and then it turns out that they are ordinary people and also did not switch to the sketch!).

Career. In this city (and not only in this), to be the best - you need to run very fast. Read every day the news of his sphere, be interested in new trends, keep up with the times. According to my observations, now everyone is talking a lot about artificial intelligence and augmented reality. It’s hard for me to switch from a photoshop to a sketch, and they come up with a design for artificial intelligence)). Therefore, sitting in the basement and drawing neat layouts odnostranichnikov not work.

Knowledge Accessibility. In terms of development, a good visual culture also helps here. That is, you can come and see for yourself the rebranding of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Hold the signet in your hands, see how different media are designed inside the museum, how the signs in the toilet have changed and how people use the new tickets. And this is a completely different approach to consuming and analyzing design than flipping through visualizations on Bihance. The abundance of courses and latest books on any topic is also a plus, and, of course, access to the best designs in the world for collaborations and new work.

In general, in terms of career development for me, even there are no minuses in this city. If you have rested against the ceiling, you do not know where to go to work in your city, you do not know how to develop further - come to New York.

For an internship, for a year, as a junior designer, in a small design studio or startup. Doesn't matter. The main thing is to come and work here 80 hours a week. And in a year, draw conclusions for yourself. Someone stays, someone leaves, someone starts doing something new, someone starts their own business, but the fact that a person will never be the same after this experience in New York is for sure. One creative director once said: “In any unclear situation, go to New York,” and this is the true truth - although everyone will eventually have their own truth. ?

And then read about why did i still leave from new york.

Blog text published on Online Elena Base. Reprinted with permission of the author. The material used by the author.

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See also:

Personal experience: New York through the eyes of a novice

7 of things that New Yorkers lack

10 tips for tourists on how to ride the subway in New York

Personal experience. How to get kids to school in New York

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