Type Society - Sarah Boris
Birmingham City University host evening lectures, in which guest speakers from the industry come in to talk about their area of expertise. This evenings' guest speaker is Sarah Boris is an award-winning graphic designer and art director based in London with over 12 years experience.
Sarah Boris came in and shared with hugely interesting insights about her professional life to date, with the main focus being on her personal work experiences and design chronology. She began in a trial and error sort of method, trying jobs and sometimes literally quitting a few jobs days after starting, knowing that the jobs weren’t for her! She later went on to work at a couple of places before the Barbican for a few years. Helped to create the new design identity with the Barbican - based on north design studio templates. She then later became the senior designer at the ICA; International Contemporary Art - her first in-house job, in which she found herself working with students a lot. This was then followed by Roland visual magazine.
Part way through the lecture she went on to describe the relationships she had with other working professionals and stated that "you get to know everyone and know the different departments; curators, marketing team, admin and directors etc" . Sarah actually then headed an ICA rebrand but then due to cuts, she had to accept a part-time role at ICA and Free-lancing/teaching. This then took her into a job at Phaidon Press, as a full-time design manager from 2012-15. Before finally launching her very own Sarah Borris Studio - Specialising in Editorial Design, Branding, Direction etc.
The finaly gem she left us with was this, her10 hurdles in design:
1. I am not an athlete - constantly running after work, personal projects, freelance jobs etc. Talk about it. Make a change. Meet new people. Don’t isolate yourself.
2. Realising my portfolio was not quite right for me to land the jobs I hoped for. find an internship or take on a junior position to build up your portfolio - show your current portfolio to professionals to get advice, include self-initiated projects.
3. Working in the warehouse & porn mags - know what you are prepared to do and what not, setting your ethics.
4. working in a place in a design studio or in-house and you see the exciting projects moved out externally.
5. You need to show people what you do to get their trust.
6. Facing rejecting - don’t take it personally and it’s important to understand why.
7. Not getting paid/working for free - don’t under-estimate the business aspect of design and being an independent designer. It’s important to value your work.
8. Saturation - remember to take time for yourself! take a break and be fresh in each project.
9. Knowing when to make the next move - if you do not feel good in a place it’s time to make the next move.
10. Finding the right workspace - there’s the idea of the dream studio but actually sometimes working from home is the best way. There is more to life than increasing in speed.
TOP TIP: Source typeface from editorials, look for typefaces once printed in books. swiss books
... and I think that's it? Thanks and God bless