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Mentorship August 14, 2018
I didn't actually eat cake, but I was still on cloud nine.
via pexels/@moose-photos-170195Design Week at ENTITY HQ convinced me that ENTITY x Adobe are the perfect tools for baking up success. Imagine that ENTITY’s values of mentorship and experiential learning are the ingredients. Adobe Creative Cloud represents the baking utensils needed to mix these ingredients properly. And the final result is the cake.
No, we didn’t make actual cakes at ENTITY this week. What each of us created is even better and longer-lasting: a personal brand, a portfolio of work and the confidence to conquer the job market.
It was a whirlwind of a week, to put it mildly. Here’s a breakdown.
On day one, we created three memes, three quote cards and three GIFs using Photoshop. We also had a lecture about design basics, where we learned about the importance of CRAP: contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity.
As a detail-oriented perfectionist, I have to say I felt a bit daunted at first. However, these assignments were a good exercise for me to get comfortable with the software. At the end of the day, this is the quote card creation I’m most proud of:
You know what else besides Photoshop has layers? Cake.
On day two, we focused on creating our personal brands. We began this process with InDesign style guides. Before we could run with the software, we had to think hard about our core values, what we stand for, what personality traits we want to project and other thought-provoking concepts.
Then, we were instructed to find a color palette, two fonts, brand keywords and pictures for a mood board.
I found this exercise challenging, because I hadn’t thought about the answers to these existential questions in a long time. It helped to talk to my fellow mentees and get their feedback.
I also found the Adobe Color website useful in coming up with ideas for a color palette. Bonus: you don’t need an Adobe Creative Cloud account to use this tool.
I used Google Fonts to find two fonts that pair well together. That’s another thing I learned; like wine and cheese, two fonts can be paired for an excellent experience.
Using Illustrator, we also learned how to digitize a hand-drawn picture or logo and then convert it into vectors. I definitely plan to spend more time with this tool, because there’s a lot of science behind creating a logo that’s visually appealing, simple and instantly communicative all at once.
On day three, we created our own resumes and business cards using InDesign. These assignments followed our brand-new style guides. It was exciting to use a resume template that I had personally created rather than mooching off someone else’s.
On day four, we used InDesign to create portfolios that reflected our best work at ENTITY. It includes every graphic design project we created this week plus some of our SEO articles. I’m sure it will be a useful tool to take to interviews as tangible proof of our new skills.
On day five, we presented our completed projects to each other. I definitely learned a lot about each of the nine other mentees by viewing their style guides and portfolios. It was amazing to see how everyone viewed their personalities and translated these ideas visually.
Throughout Design Week, I reevaluated my basic notions of branding and the job market. Before ENTITY, I hadn’t given much thought to my own personal brand from a design perspective. Nor had I even considered that personal branding can be for everyone, not simply social media influencers or entrepreneurs.
Illustrating your personal brand by using Adobe’s industry-standard graphic design tools is more important than ever in the job market. Consider the following statistics:
According to Forbes, an average of 118 people apply for a given job posting.
Many companies use talent-management software to weed out resumes before anyone even looks at a resume or cover letter.
Additionally, evidence from a study via TheLadders claims that recruiters spend an average of six seconds per resume.
Furthermore, graphic design software isn’t only for graphic designers. In fact, US News states the Adobe Creative Suite is one of the five skills everyone needs to have on a resume.
Beyond graphic design, plenty of social media, marketing and communications-focused jobs look for applicants who can use these software.
This week was an exciting opportunity for me to branch out from my existing media production skills. I learned how to use the video editing software Final Cut Pro in my high school’s arts program and Adobe Premiere while working for my university’s multi-media resource center. Because of my past experiences, I already had an idea about some of the amazing things you can do with Adobe software. I also had known that Adobe apps are infinitely customizable according to your needs, which is a big plus.
But while I’ve had opportunities to play around with other Creative Cloud software before, I’ve never done so at the intense and personalized level that ENTITY afforded.
I’m a big proponent of “learning by doing,” so it was helpful to have concrete assignments in a small classroom-like environment. Personal brand-building also added a little fun to the mix. Now that I can advertise my improved skills in Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign along with examples of my work, I’m more confident than ever that I can present myself to employers as “the whole package.”
So, there you have it. ENTITY plus Adobe is better than cake. Powered by Adobe software and mentored by ENTITY’s #WomenThatDo, Design Week has fed my ambitions to further develop my creative side and stand out as a job applicant. And unlike cake, this experience was guilt-free.
