Talking to Another Desiger
Beth Bennett, a graduate of Southern Illinois University, has not always wanted to be a graphic design. At one point she had an interest in architecture, but that involved a lot of math, and like most people, she was tired of doing math. Her sister knew she had an interest in creating things so she took her to go meet a designer and that is how she got her start in design. She got her start working for Atomicdust by doing a design internship, and then, was hired on after her internship. She still works for Atomicdust as one of their Senior Designers.
She does not do much for her personal brand, but she does do a lot for Atomicdust. Her job is to promote Atomicdust using different types social media including, Twitter and Facebook. In addition, she does a lot of blogging for the agency. She said, “The more you blog, the more you share on social media, the higher your ranking is in Google, the more content you have to share, the more you stay in front of people’s faces.”
This is certainly good advice for anyone working to build her personal brand. Before this class I had never taken the time to write a blog and I had barely used Twitter. In fact, it had been about fours year since I last tweeted! Being on social media is very important, and hearing that from someone who actually works in the industry backs encourages me to be more active on Twitter. It also encourages me to blog more, and, in Beth’s words…
“Do what you need to do to stay in people’s faces.”
She has done freelance work in the past, but as I have learned from other designers freelance work comes with its challenges and is stressful. She was trying to do freelance work in her off-time which was hard for her to do because she was busy with other work. It was hard to make time for finding new and working with current clients. You want to give the people you work with the proper time and attention to make sure the work you give them satisfies them.
For Atomicdust, they do not try to follow trends, but rather, they like to set them. They do pay attention to trends, but they do not “hinge their whole design on them.” With Atomicdust, Bennett says, they like creating designs that are clean and simple, designs that “will stand the test of time”
She stays inspired by looking at what other artists are doing. Beth gets online a lot just to check out other people’s work, as well as to see what is new, and what is archived — such as old pictures of 1960’s design. She does this to stay in the design mind set. And when she gets to them, she says old books help inspire her a lot. She especially likes work from Frank Chimero. She likes people who talk more about practicality, usability, and using design for a purpose. She does not like the people who talk about aesthetics, but the usability. At Atomicdust they are trying to gear their work more towards this concept of usability.
Beth had also written a couple articles for Atomicdust. Check them out.
Finding the Unicorn
Using Your Brain as a Desinger
I really enjoyed talking to Beth. I appreciate her taking the time out of her busy schedule to talk with me. I think she is a great designer who is dedicated to her work and there is a lot to be learned from her.
