I managed to score an interview at Bibliothèque yesterday which was awesome. But the interview didn't go so well, the guy who was interviewing me was Mason Wells i think. This blog isn't any kind of get back at him, or argument or anything it's just supposed to help me clarify my thoughts- he gave me a lot to think about and i felt like it required or deserved some sort of response. He was this incredibly rigorous and pretty intense graphics guy and he wasn't really into some of the projects in my portfolio, mostly the goldsmiths stuff- he didn't like the lack of a clear logic and seemed to want everything to be graphics- i.e. he couldn't see why for a wayfinding project i hadn't designed a graphical system of signs. Which i guess is his thing but from my point of view Goldsmiths would have probably kicked my ass for designing 'just' a graphic system- it's just not quite what they're about. Another thing seemed to be the lack of application or clear problem solving nature of some of the projects which i would argue was partly to do with the briefs set. He pulled me up on some of my typography too which i hadn't even seen- he had a mad graphics eye- and i mentioned that it was hard to get better when i didn't really have that kind of tutoring- (i.e. please give me a placement and I'll learn!!!) but he suggested that maybe i might want to change courses- which seemed at the crux of the difference between his way of doing things and my portfolio- i like being at goldsmiths and i like doing loads of things which aren't graphics, as Victor Papanek points out- the best way to survive change and also be the most rounded designer you can is to be a generalist. I'm not saying I'm a jack of all trades master of none but i think i might not be specialist enough for the Bibliothèque school of design. The whole interview made me really be self critical and i think I've come up with some responses to Mason's criticism: my work needs to be more clear and logical- i realised that my projects get way too complicated and the ones which are the best i can describe fully and succinctly in a paragraph- i need to have more projects in this vain. I want to keep being a 'generalist' especially for now when I'm learning all the things that are going to keep me afloat for the next few years or so, but i do want to get better at typography and do more graphic design that's relevant and logical and ... I want to have better conclusions to my work- research is great but conclude it somehow- and if a project has an outcome go all the way with it- to work through a problem more thoroughly and to not have to finish half way because of time- work simpler and faster- get less concept heavy where i don't need to be and to know when to stop thinking, and i guess to know when to stop doing and take a look at how i might progress a project.
All in all it was a good experience and i don't think i embarrassed myself at all, and meeting with Mason and seeing how clear and passionate he was has made me want to work for them all the more. We'll see how the summer and next year turn out i guess.