Blog Gareth Botha

Archive for the ‘Design’ Category

A Graphic Designer’s Guide to Applying for Jobs

How not to apply for a graphic design position

It’s no secret that graphic designers, artists and other creatives are often introverts and may lack a certain level of social skills that come naturally to others. I’m putting together a simple checklist of do’s and don’ts that may hopefully help aspiring design students who may be looking to apply for a design internship, part time work, a contract position, or freelance opportunities.

For starters, let me start by saying that I don’t work in human resources, and I’m not a hiring manager. I was however recently tasked with reviewing resumes of applicants for a graphic design internship at the company I work for, and I must say I was actually quite surprised at the lack of common sense in around 70% of the responses I received. I’m not an expert on the subject of resumes or professionalism standards, nor do I claim to be, but the majority of applicants I received led me to believe that this is apparently not common knowledge. I am just writing about my personal opinion on the majority of the responses I received, and sharing tips from one designer to other designers. If nothing else, this can be used to understand how your application may be received and interpreted by the person who is reviewing it.

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In Progress Environment Design

athletics entrance

This is a small part of a large environment design project I’m working on for a division 1 college’s athletics department. This would be the entrance to the building used by visiting teams, dressing up an ordinary garage-style door in a manner intended to intimidate the visiting team players, while branding the home team’s territory.

I couldn’t wait any longer to post this here – I just had to share it! I’m really excited about this project. More info coming soon.

Tradeshow Graphics for UPPI

I just recently finished a new project – tradeshow graphics for United Pharmacy Partners, Inc (UPPI), providing branding and messaging to their booth. It consisted of 8 large fabric graphics around a central tower, and two large fabric banners displayed at opposite corners of the booth space. The central focus of the design was a custom map, pinpointing the 100+ member locations throughout the United States, and displaying each location’s 75 mile radius of coverage.

UPPI Tradeshow Booth

In the above picture, the booth was created in 3D by Todd Gurley, and rendered with the graphics that I created.

Click the “continue reading” link below to see a larger view of two of the individual graphics.

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Tradeshow Graphic for Shelmarc Carpets

This is a trade show graphic that I made for Shelmarc Carpets. I used a baroque-inspired theme that complimented the patterns of the carpet. The graphic size is roughly 8′ W x 6′ H, so the small text is significantly more readable than it is in this low-res version. I was really happy with the way this one turned out.

Shelmarc tradeshow graphic