Cora's Blog: January 2011

This week our guest speaker was Steve Miller, the Creative Director of OneMethod. He gave an informative presentation about the company, resumes, resources, and interviewing.

OneMethod works on websites, advertising, mobile media, social media, digital content, motion design, branding, print design, interior design, strategy, and curriculum. Their biggest client is Nokia. To check out more of their work, watch this video.

Resume Hints:

Be creative about how you present yourselves, your resume and web portfolio
Your portfolio website should be a work of art
Design a resume that shows you think differently
Info graphic based resumes are attractive to Steve
Have your resume consistent with your website

Interviews (Do’s & Don’t’s)

Work (50%)

Presentation (consistent, professional and scaled at the same size)
Brief/Rationale (why did you build it in Flash (or another program and speak intelligently about your work)
Include mobile in your book
Social (ex. design contest for Facebook)
Show your process and ideas

You (50%)

First 5 minutes (1st impression – what you are going to say and how you are going to present yourself)
Speak intelligently
No suits. No ratty t-shirts
Have an open mind and develop a thick skin when being critiqued
You’re only as good as your weakest website (people remember your weakest site – if you have 4 strong designs, include only 4)
Don't have an ego

Resources

Flickr (wireframe group, hundreds of examples)
FWA (great websites)
Designrfix (50 awesome website galleries)
Twitter: Pete Cashmore, Adam T. Bailey, Grace Smith, Mitch Joel, OneMethod, Steve Miller
Books: Outliers, Perfect Pitch (Jon Steel), How to Catch the Big Idea – The Strategies of Top Creatives, Collapse (Jared Diamond).

About the Creative Director

What

Creative & Strategic Thinker
Presenter
Performer (get clients into their comfort zone)
Communicator
Client Realtor
Marketer

How

Marketing Course
Presentation Skills
Stay current and up to date on design, trends, media, new programs, etc.
Practice and improve your skill set

Final Thoughts

Think “Social” (current and up to date – get people involved – social means more then just adding a like button). Think contests
Think “Integrated”
Get on LinkedIn & Twitter
Site (Blogger, Wordpress, Flavours.me)
Dev Savvy (Flash, HTML 5, Wordpress)
Offer more than “just design”
You’re a salesperson
Be a people person

Contact Information

135 Liberty St. Suite 201
Toronto Ontario CAN M6K 1A7
steven@onemethod.com
t 416 649 0191
c 416 816 7077
888 OneMethod

This week’s guest speakers were Keith Durrant and Leslie Horan of ecentricarts inc. Ecentricarts is known for their design work, their attention to detail and their designs for large cultural organizations. Overall, the presentation was both interesting and informative. I really enjoyed learning more about ecentricarts and the design industry.