Alumni Spotlight
An Interview with Google’s Barbara Eldredge, Class of 2012
Polly Adams (class of 2020) caught up with Barbara Eldredge (class of 2012) for our first Alumni Spotlight. Barbara is a design writer and editor based in New York City currently working as a content strategist at Google.
Tell me about Barbara. Where were you before D-Crit?
I moved to New York in 2008 to work in theater. I was a lighting designer and technician working off broadway, hanging lights in theaters and running the lightboard. I was in theater for two years and just fine at it, but I knew it wasn’t really what I wanted to be doing. So I started to think more seriously about grad school.
What brought you to the program?
The first thing that tipped me off was that my lighting portfolio ended up being mostly writing, which was weird. Normally, it’s comprised of photos, and instead I had 10,000 words of writing. I would show off my portfolio to people to get lighting jobs and directors would ask me what they were looking at. I had never thought of myself as a writer, but the more I kept writing the more I thought about it. I had always been a journaler, someone who used writing as a thinking process. One day I thought, ”maybe there’s something more here.”
What happened next?
I had to really ask myself what I cared about. I liked writing, art, and beautiful things, well-designed things. That kind of sounded like art history, so I was looking at art history programs at SVA back in 2009 and stumbled upon an event in the “Design Criticism” program. The more I read the description, the more I was intrigued. I ended up going to an information session and was totally sold. I applied, not thinking I would get in because, why would I? Alice Twemlow, who was running the program at the time, was also skeptical of me, I think. I didn’t have a commercial writing portfolio or a traditional design background. But she met with me anyway and told me to submit another essay if I was serious. I did, I got in, and it totally shifted the path of my career.
Do you remember what that essay that got you in the program was about?It was this object my grandfather had given to me when I first moved to New York City. He just sent it to me in the mail without any context, and it was the most bizzare thing. It was a giant screw with what looked like brass knuckles on the end, but it was actually a stage screw that theater stage hands use to attach a flat to the stage when they do a quick change.
That sounds terrifying.
He’d stolen it from Cornell University where he and my grandmother met doing theater together. So it was this beautiful, personal thing that I wrote my essay about after learning more about it. But when it came in the mail I thought “Is this a weapon? Does he think New York is really dangerous?” Instead it was him sharing with me this symbolic thing, encouraging me to work in theater through this love story between him and my grandma.
Was that style of writing new to you?
I had written in college, essays and papers… I had written theater criticism, but that was the first time I had done that kind of personal exploration through material culture. It took me a couple of months to find my footing. I remember the first paper I actually wrote in the program was so bad, so very bad. But every first draft is bad! I know that now. I didn’t know that then. I wish I did but every writer has to learn that lesson the hard way I think.
Did you ever think you would make it as a writer?
Honestly, I didn’t think I could ever be a writer for a living because I thought being a writer meant having a creative spirit, living in a garret, only drinking coffee or alcohol, and being miserable. But it was really building up the habit–writing so much so frequently–that changed my mind. My first year at DCrit was all about figuring out what my core process for writing was in a way that felt sustainable.
What was the most important thing you learned from the program?
When I try to explain it to people, I always think of that scene in The Devil Wears Prada where Anne Hathaway’s character is wearing that blue sweater, and Meryl Streep’s character says something like “you don’t even know what color that sweater is or why you’re wearing it.” And she goes into how it’s because someone made a choice two years ago that caused a chain reaction of other choices that eventually filtered down to Anne’s character, a normal person who doesn’t necessarily understand or see all of those steps or their implications. I love that scene, because it reminds you that every object in our lives carries all of this meaning, history, and importance that you might not notice until someone brings you in on the secret. The most important thing you walk out of this program with is the lens to see design or designed objects as a way of talking about bigger things–like people, history, and culture–with people who aren’t in on the secret.
What has been the most valuable part of the experience?
At SVA you also get the people, your cohort and all of the faculty, and the chance to form a solid community in this world of writing and design. It’s really encouraging, because everyone wants to support each other and do exciting work. Everything I’ve done professionally has been all about the connections I made at SVA — being in the right place at the right time and knowing the right people.
What skills from D-Crit do you still use in your work today?
A lot of my work is unpacking what the intent is behind something, making connections between disparate ideas and then figuring out what to do with them. The Material Design team is responsible for the design system at Google — what the user interface looks like, how it works, what makes it feel like Google. It’s an open source system, and my job as a content strategist is to figure out what we need to communicate to who, when, and how. Our product is really all about communicating ideas. We do it in a lot of different ways– interactive guidelines, video tutorials, developer documentation, tweets, medium posts, talks at events–and what I try to think about is the idea we’re trying to communicate, and how we get it to the right people at the right time in the best way possible.
Do you think anything has changed in the landscape of design writing since graduating in 2012?
When I was in the program, it felt like there were more specific publications and demand for this type of writing. We were still in the realm of blogging, so it felt very easy to just pitch stuff to Core 77 and Design Observer etc. Today, things have ended up solidifying in a different way. I think the type of work new grads out of this program are doing now might look different but still use all of the same skills, like critical thinking and being articulate about that critical thought.
What are the skills someone needs to survive as a design writer today?
The world will always need good writers and people who can read design and be able to explain it to normal people. Whether that explanation is “here’s what this thing is made of and here are its environmental implications,” or “this is why this thing is culturally important.” Being able to take the mental space and give yourself the permission to pay attention is a skill you get mainly through practice, and that is incredibly valuable, too.
Have any advice for new and recent graduates?
Be patient and always ask for more money. There’s only been one time I haven’t gotten a job over asking for what I was worth, and you have to respect your own time in this world so you don’t get taken advantage of. It might not feel like the work you do pays off immediately, but, trust me, working on something you care about is always worth it in the end.
About SVA MA Design Research, Writing and Criticism
The SVA MA in Design Research, Writing and Criticism is a one-year, intensive MA program well suited to the circumstances of established professionals, in addition to graduates wishing to continue their studies at an advanced level. In providing the research tools and journalistic techniques for researching, analyzing, and critically interpreting design, the program amply prepares its graduates for future-facing careers in research-driven design practices and institutions, in journalism and publishing, or for continued studies in a design-related subject.
We are now accepting applications on a rolling basis. Our next application review will be February 15, 2020. Successful candidates will be granted significant scholarships. Apply here.
Please contact us for more information at designresearch@sva.edu.
