For Art Institute of Nashville Students - Recap

Links Mentioned

http://www.emptees.com - Great place for getting feedback, networking, with amatuer to professional level apparel designers. Tends to be catered to a specific market, but regardless, I have yet to find a better site with a similar community.

http://dearcomputer.nl/gir/ - Google image search without all the extraneous data. Good for when you are searching for reference photos.

http://compete-tee-tion.blogspot.com/ - Nice list of the biggest t-shirt design contest sites online

http://funkyduds.blogspot.com/ - Also a list of t-shirt contests online.

Good Portfolio

1. Stake out the position you want, cater your portfolio to the position.

2. Create a portfolio with 10 of your strongest images, 15 at most, provide more if they are requested. Make sure the images are related to the position.

3. Be persistent, but not annoying. It will let the hiring person know you are motivated, than 97% of the rest of the applicants. While searching for my replacement at my former employment, no one followed up except the few annoying ones that didn't have the skillset to obtain the job. But at least those annoying ones, say spent 3-6 months getting better and polishing their portfolios and kept in touch with updates, would have gotten in.

4. If creating an online portfolio, cut the fat, show me the money, follow rule #2, and make sure to have contact info prominently. I don't want to have to click 2D, then Illustration, then Apparel, to just see the goods. Unless you are applying for a wed design position, none of the fancy stuff matters.

An example of a good catered portfolio for apparel designers would be

http://ithew.com/

5. If you have no experience, participate and create experience. Win some contests, design some posters, something. Just because you went to school doesn't mean you are any different than thousands of students being pumped out into the job market with a degree and thousands of dollars in debt.

6. If you communicate through email, 3 solid images of your work, web link, and contact info, short and sweet, is great. I received over 40-60+ cover letters and resumes in a couple days once, and after the first hour of cleaning my mailbox, I was tired of reading all the BS CV.

Contest

They are good.

1. You can make money.
2. Makes you create art.
3. Refines your ability to perceive market trends.
4. Promotes you as an artist.
5. Fill your portfolio with imagery YOU want to create.

I will post year end results in December or January. Currently I have won over $12,000 in the last year of contests, and a ton of shirts. Until then, here is an article I wrote about my experiences.

Freelance

Read http://jimiyo.blogspot.com/2008/09/about-freelancing-useless-observations.html for more details.

Cheers