Monday, May 15, 2006

Summer is Here...

Although it isn’t technically summer, I sure feels like it. I am not talking about the weather; as anyone living in Toronto knows it is never truly summer until it reaches 39 degrees plus the humidex. What I’m referring to is the end of school. Last week was my final regular year requirement: the scholarship show. Once a year OCAD makes us print our work (strange, I know) and then some profs judge whether we are worthy of a scholarship. This year was definitely my strongest to date and I think I put together a pretty good presentation. Time will tell whether the judges thought so. However what I do know is that I can finally stop worrying about all things OCAD and concentrate on my two summer duties: finding a job and preparing for thesis.

The first is easier said than done. I keep running into the same old job postings of “entry level position must have 5 years experience”. Is there actually a real job out there that is given to someone getting into an industry? I have come to think that maybe that is why so many designers find themselves starting their own company. The freedom and availability that comes with making your own job is something that most designers want. However it is really hard to do this for only 3 months. So I have given up on any substantial design job and instead set my sights on a plain old retail/service job. I have a few lined up and they seem promising so I will have to see how they turn out.

But I have decided that I shouldn’t stop designing, I’m itching to do something. So I wrote this post with the intention of outlining what I hope to accomplish this summer. Hopefully any reader’s from OCAD will hold me to it!

1. Produce Physical Objects – As I outlined in my previous post, I want to make things. I have thought about this for the past month and really want to make some interesting things. I have some ideas in the works and will soon post some updates and show you my progress.

2. Choose a Thesis Topic – I am a really bad decision maker and I can already tell that this choice will be a very hard one to make.

3. Make Some $$$$ - Hopefully one of the jobs I applied for will work out and I’ll make some $$$. For my projects as well as next year and the possibilities that lie ahead.

4. Think of more things to do – As I said….