Yo-Pro Hour with Brent Caswell
Brent Caswell of Artsy reveals how he entered the world of product design.
School?
Brent graduated from UAB in 2014 with a degree in Political Science and a minor in International Studies. While he was a student at UAB, he worked as a Digital Media Fellow (woop woop!) as a UI/UX designer and did a little bit of writing as well. Following his time at UAB, he used the skills he learned as a student in order to help him in the real world.
Big Break
When Brent was a Digital Media Fellow, he built the very first version of our blog, Knowledge Jam. Through building the site and working with other Media Fellows to plan and organize content, he built the groundwork to establish it into the blog it is today.
He notes that his experience working on Knowledge Jam was extremely valuable in the working world, where he had to learn to work with teams to build something from the ground up.
Day in the Life
Brent’s current day-to-day job includes working in product design at a company called Artsy where he works as a product designer. “I design the interface of the product, so that can be on the internet with like a web app, or it could be an iOS app. It just depends on the platform.”
To understand what Brent does on a daily basis, it’s important to understand the definition of product design.
“It’s basically like understanding the users that are going to be using the product.”
This differs between the products being created and are catered specifically to the user base.
“So in the case of Artsy, I’m working with people who run art galleries who want to sell artwork. Essentially, my job is to understand the user and to design the interface and the product in a way where it’s really easy for [them] to use it and get the work done.”
Tips for you
- Set yourself up for more than just your first job
“Make sure that you’re going into a place where you’re definitely going to have ownership and responsibility over the decisions that you want to make. That doesn’t mean you don’t collaborate with people. In fact, collaborating with people is probably where you can get the best ideas. But it’s really about making sure that everyone knows that you’re the owner of that filter.”
2. Use the internet to your advantage
Brent noted that he took advantage of sites with high traffic to get some of his writing out there. He went to sites like The Verge and Gizmodo to write about tech, and that helped him bring attention to his work. If you’re new to writing editorial pieces, get your work out there through your favorite publications.
3. Freelance for smaller organizations for experience
“With graphic design, there’s an element of needing to understand how to work with clients. I could definitely see how going to volunteer for some organization that needs a graphic designer. That experience won’t teach you how to use Illustrator, but it will tell you how to work with a team, how to time manage and get projects done, and that’s ultimately 60 percent of what you need to be able to do, and the other 40 percent is actually executing the skills that you’re learning.”
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