Are you someone who is interested in fashion design? Then the Marie Claire Fashion Contest IED is a competition that may help you to get additional career training in this exciting design field.

The Contest
Illustrators are encouraged to render a fashion design creation that has the theme of “Ethnic Trends for Spring and Summer 2010″. The submitted design may be for women, men or unisex.

What to Submit
Each entry should have a project title and an accompanying description of what the project is about in 80-100 words.

Format for all submissions should be in JPG, 300 dpi resolution, and no more than 3MB in size. Acceptable media in generating the illustration can be in watercolor, acrylic, felt-tip pen or pencil (or a combination of the two). No collage, Photoshop images, or any computer generated artwork will be accepted.

Awards
According to the contest sponsors the awards will consist of various free courses held at the Barcelona, Spain workshop locations. In addition to the free courses, the first place winner will also receive free accommodations for the duration of the sessions. Those who do not take up their prizes will forfeit all rights.

1st place
100% grant for 2010 summer course on Illustration - Idea, Concept and Image* or Introduction to Fashion Design* (this grant also includes accommodation).

2nd place
100% grant for course on Illustration - Idea, Concept and Image* or Introduction to Fashion Design* (course only).

3rd place
50% grant for course on Illustration - Idea, Concept and Image* or Introduction to Fashion Design*

Dates for summer courses: from 5 July 2010 to 30 July 2010
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*The choice of course will depend on the places available, and Istituto Europeo di Design management reserves the right to change or substitute the course if the minimum number of students is not reached. The course may not be exchanged for money; if winners do not attend the course, they lose the right to the prize.

*Illustration - Idea, Concept and Image: this course is given in English

Other Information
To send in your entry click here. The contest deadline is May 1, 2010. If you have further questions about the contest send an email to concursomarieclaire (at) bcn.ied.es

Clothes Make the World Go ‘Round
You may be wearing a simple t-shirt with a graphic design on the front or you may be wearing the latest fashion produced by Dior but you are making a statement about who you are by the clothes you wear.

Retail sales of clothing reached an astonishing $150 billion for 2009 in the United States. If you want to pursue a career in fashion design here are some tips and guidelines on how to do this.

What Does a Fashion Designer Do?
Fashion designers are responsible for creating the wide variety of dresses, suits, shoes, and other clothing articles that consumers purchase at retail outlets and exclusive fashion design houses.

The concept of a retail clothing design to the production of the clothing line takes about 18 to 24 months. Fashion designers must have a sharp eye for future trends in clothing styles and must be able to produce fashions that will be in vogue at the time of their release.

What Are the Qualifications for a Fashion Designer?
Fashion designers should be proficient in using computer assisted design software and have a bachelor’s degree in fashion design.

Internships with clothing manufacturing companies or design houses provide important career training experience for aspiring fashion designers.

Fashion designers must have a good eye for aesthetics related to color, proportion, spatial relations, creativity, and an intuitive sense for what looks fashionable. Although computer design software is useful for creating art for fashions, the importance of being able to hand sketch fashion ideas and designs cannot be overemphasized.

The Employment Outlook for Fashion Designers
Job openings in fashion design positions will increase by 1 percent from 2008-2018. The competition for these jobs will be extremely competitive.  A solid portfolio of design sketches is crucial for job interviews.

Receiving the proper education at a graphic design school or fashion design college is important in qualifying for positions in the fashion industry. In some cases brilliant talent in combination with the right contacts in the industry may open opportunities in fashion design.

Fashion designers make a mean annual wage of $71,400 according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (May 2008).

More Survival Tactics for Graphic Design Students
In our last article we pinpointed two important things to help you survive graphic design school — time management and not to constantly compare yourself with your fellow classmates. This time around, we’ll delve into some pro-active issues for you to try.

Find a Buddy or Two
Graphic design majors have quite a bit on their plates — they must learn and assimilate a variety of design methods, hone their graphic design skills, work on class projects, and tackle the academics related to art history, trends, and design. All of this can become overwhelming if you don’t have a few friends to support you.

Graphic design majors encounter unique challenges and situations that non-liberal arts majors do not normally come across. Graphic design students must constantly rely on their creativity, artistic talents, and design skills to be successful in their classes. This heavy reliance on imagination and originality can sometimes be quite draining.

Establishing a few close friendships in graphic design school can bolster morale and self-confidence through the sharing of common experiences, to bounce ideas off one another, and to generate a support system that all can benefit from in your group.

The creative process can sometimes be a lonely one, but if you support others, they’ll also support you as well.

Get Involved in Classwork
It is easy to become passive in class. Most of our past educational experiences have placed us in situations where we listen quietly while the teacher presents the material. But in graphic design school, the situation changes because the things you learn are creative in nature and cannot be passively internalized. In other words, you must do and not just listen.

The art projects and assignments that are given to you help form the basis of what you need to learn in order to qualify for jobs in graphic design, media, or other related fields.

Some students just do enough to get by but in doing so they miss out on the crucial elements of discipline and process of producing professional quality work. Try not to look at your art projects as busy work, but see them as building blocks for your artistic and design skills.

Ask Questions in Class
Your professor is there to teach you, but also take advantage of the process of asking questions in class to clarify or expand upon a particular topic.

If something is not clear to you, chances are that you are not the only one in class that doesn’t’ understand.

Try to schedule an appointment with your instructor in topics that you need extra help in. You are paying for your education and getting the help you need is not outside the boundaries of school protocol.

Next Time…
As your graduation from your graphic design school approaches, your thoughts will be centered on looking for a job in graphic design, web design, illustration, photography, or one of the other media arts. In the next article we’ll look into the typical work environment and qualifications that a typical job in graphic design requires.

The List Goes On
We continue our list of Top Characteristics of Creative Designers according to the opinions of those within the industry.

Not everyone has all of these traits, but we can all learn from the list to understand what design companies look for in their staff.

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Here are the rest of the traits that design firms would like to see in potential hires:

• Care about clients. If a design job is nothing more than a product to the graphic artist, it takes on an impersonal feeling and disconnect from the client. A recognition and understanding that the final creation is for people helps to provide added impetus to do a better job.

• Be able to multitask & juggle projects. In the perfect world, a graphic designer should be able to concentrate on one job without distractions or additional duties not directly related to project at hand. But this rarely, if ever, happens. Being able to intently focus is a good thing, but the ability to multitask is virtually indispensable for successful designers.

• Be deadline oriented. Imagine a graphic design firm where everyone could turn in their work whenever they felt like it. This would not only be a formula for instant failure for the business, it communicates a lack of professionalism. Design firms are driven by deadlines, and so should you.

• Find ways to “break through the clutter. In a design job, there are lots of things to do, but not everything has to be done. The ability to sift through the unnecessary or less important tasks is often the difference between meeting deadlines and missing them. A good designer knows what needs to be done and what needs to be put on the back burner.

• Keep an open mind about things. If the art world maintained that realism was the only way to paint, Picasso, Monet, Dali and many other artists could not have created their unique styles of work. Design is also like this–there is more than one way to approach a solution.

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Desirable Traits and the Real Job World
The attributes that professional designers feel should be inherent in people who work in the industry is varied but can be broken down into these categories: teamwork, professionalism, communication, and work ethics.

Graphic design schools educate graphic arts students on how to design, create, compose, and use various tools for illustration, graphic design, or other fields in design work. But the traits that set a successful graphic designer from a mediocre one sometimes boils down to the personal characteristics of the individual.

Design firms need to hire qualified people for their art departments, but as was stated in the Top Characteristics of Creative Designers articles, employers are looking beyond talent and towards potential hires that have many of the traits that make a designer truly successful.

The Basics So Far
In our last few articles we’ve covered topics related to properly preparing for graphic design job interviews and ideas for designing creative resumes.

In this new series we’ll explore what sorts of traits successful professionals in design or creative positions commonly possess. . .
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What the Employers Say They Want
The original information was researched by Preston Lee, an award winning graphic designer, who queried design professionals from different firms.

He asked them what sort of traits they believed are inherent in people who work in jobs that required creativity.

The following list of attributes isn’t exhaustive by any means but may be useful in determining whether you have “the right stuff” to work for a design or media firm.

The List
What is interesting to note is that of all the traits that were mentioned as valuable for a career in design, very little was said about actual talent.

The responses were generally about personal character, good attitude, and good communication skills.

Of course talent is a factor, but this seems to be a given and employers are looking for that extra “something” from potential hires in addition to talent alone. We’ll list the top responses here with a short comment for each trait.

• Be motivated and eager to learn. Design methods and software are constantly changing, so a graphic designer who continues to learn becomes a valuable team member to the company.

• Be curious about the industry. This could also be rephrased, “Be interested in your work.” A fresh perspective of where the industry is heading shows employers that you are involved and engaged in your work.

• Get a good education. Preparing yourself for a career in graphic design, illustration, or one of the many related fields in the arts means getting the best education that is available to you. Graphic design schools and graphic design colleges can help you to receive the graphic design education you need to qualify for jobs in the industry. Most entry level jobs require a minimum of a bachelor’s degree.

• Be authentic. It is sometimes hard to admit a lack of knowledge when searching for a solution to a design problem. But pretending to know everything isn’t the way to go either. Just be yourself. Employers want people that can fit into their organizations.

• Network constantly. Or in other words, communicate! Errors in design concepts can sometimes be attributable to nothing more than just a misunderstanding of project guidelines or the assumption that the other party knows what is expected. Design companies need people who can effectively communicate.

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Next Time…
We’ll list some more traits that graphic design employers seek in their new hires.

We’ll also discuss some of the things that you can do to increase your chances of becoming hired with a design company, or other firm dealing with the visual arts.

Targeted Resumes
In Graphic Design Resumes: Plain or Different - Part II, we’ll show examples of resumes that are specifically created to draw the interest of a particular type of employer in graphic design, illustration, or other connected field.

These resumes are targeted towards the potential hirer much like how advertising is aimed at a specific demographic group.

The following resumes are truly unique and attention getting. After we go over each one we’ll discuss when, if ever, it is appropriated to submit resumes of this nature.

In creating these resumes, the individuals truly must have used what they learned at their graphic design schools to create these interesting documents.
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A Video Game Resume
If you have ever played an RPG (role playing game) or a shooter, you’ll recognize the resume format immediately. This industrious job seeker has taken on the motif of a video game status screen.

He included his various talents and skills and rated them according to a video game format that indicates the strengths and weaknesses of a game character.

But in this case, he has substituted the game attributes for his design and animation skills. Why did he do this? He’s applying for a job as a video game animator.

The resume shows style, creativity, and a sense of humor. To see the resume, click on the image.
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A True Graphic Artist Resume
In this example, the resume writer has elected to format his document in the form of a business graphics report. Pretty cute, eh? It serves to show off his design skills while also adding a little humor to his resume as well.

He pie-charts and graphs his skills and shows his daily routine through the use of a 3D graph. He even registers how much coffee intake he has during the day.

A time-line shows his work experience and time worked at various locations.

The resume is colorful and attention getting. To see the resume, click on the image.

A Horror Filled Multimedia Resume
I couldn’t stop reading and smiling at this particular resume.

The creator of this document is seeking employment as a multimedia specialist. And what better way to sell yourself than to create a movie poster of your abilities, skills, and talents?

The resume reflects a creative, if not slightly off-beat, mind behind the document. It is certainly entertaining, and shows a person who has a sharp wit.

Definitely worth a second look by the human resources department or hiring manager. To see the resume, click on the image.
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Professional Artistic Resume
Perhaps you’d feel a little more comfortable submitting a creative resume that is a little more subdued.

The following example is what you are looking for. This resume lists all the qualifications that are normally found on a standard resume - work experience, education, graphic arts skills, and computer software abilities, but in a creative way.

In this case, the resume artist has included the logos for all the popular graphics software that is used in graphic design. By incorporating these elements into his resume, he creates a nice piece of eye-candy for the viewer while also informing the employer of his abilities.

To see the resume, click on the image.
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Should You or Shouldn’t You?
A resume should give a clear summary of your skills, education, work experience, and your goals. How you package this information is a judgment call. You have to consider what type of firm you are seeking employment from. If it is a firm known for being creative and cutting edge, a creative resume may work.

If the firm is more traditional in nature, you may want to take the approach of an artistic, but more subdued resume to catch the eye of the hiring personnel.

Regardless of which route you choose–traditional or creative, it never hurts to add a little color or design to your resume. This makes sense since your career training in a graphic design college has prepared you for projects like this. After all, you are in the creative arts.