Many of us grew up with the notion that if we earned a diploma, we’d be guaranteed a career in the field in which we studied. But with the United States’ unemployment rate at 10.2 percent, people these days are looking outside their career paths for jobs – something that is not their No. 1 choice but at least might pay the bills. But is it possible to be satisfied that way?

A lot of the members of Generation X and Y have been programmed to have a sense of entitlement – if we work hard enough, we’ll achieve our career goals. But the recession has been quite a blow, and many of us have been forced to learn to expand our job search. How many former colleagues do you know who are now working in grocery stores? As administrative assistants? At temp jobs? Is it such a bad thing to accept a job instead of a career? Can you afford to wait around for a satisfying career opportunity, or is it time to branch out and take on a job?

Matt Cheuvront on the Brazen Careerist declares that loving your job is overrated – love is a word that shouldn’t even be used for work.

Attitude is an extremely powerful thing – some would say it’s everything. If you keep telling yourself that you’re stuck in a rut with no way out, you’ll ultimately always hold yourself back. But if your attitude is that you aren’t putting anything off – that you’re working your way toward achieving your goals and dreams, then you WILL get there.

I’ve come to believe that theory, too. The present is not the be-all, end-all of your career. Also, as long as you find fulfillment in other places – yourself, your family, your friends, your hobbies – then you don’t need to place as much emphasis on your career.

When I’ve gone through a spurt of unemployment, I’ve always marveled at the beaming attitude of the clerks at Trader Joe’s – the people who get to wear Hawaiian shirts and interact with people all day. Hmmm … maybe it’s me who chose the wrong career path! Just maybe there’s something to be said for taking on a job for a while rather than a career – especially one that offers a discount on groceries.

©2009 PsPrint Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Get your work in the official Best Designs of 2009 book put out by Design and Design

Young Talent Award via I.D. Mag – worth a cool $10,000

A really cool contest by HUGO that has few rules and a lot of potential

A chance to create art for laptops and get paid for it … sweet!

This contest awards the best use of stock imagery in design

Do you design posters? Enter the poster of the year competition

Image use CC License via Flickr.

©2009 PsPrint Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Coloring skin and body in Photoshop and how to mimic the natural play of light upon the body.

How to create a professional Twitter background – a quick-and-easy tutorial for customizing your Twitter page.

Remember how fun watercolors used to be?  You can recreate a watercolor effect with Photoshop!

Pop art a la Lichtenstein – really cool stuff for the poppy designer!

Very, very cool Photoshop tutorial on how to transform a woman’s photograph into an eerie doll face and more.

How to design a website using the 960 Grid System, an oft-employed web design technique that looks great. This tutorial includes a free 960 GS download so you can quickly deploy an original 960 design.

A tutorial that covers how to make a DVD cover with Photoshop.  The techniques used here could also be applied to movie posters.

Dioramas are cool, especially when you combine several images and blur/focus PS techniques to highlight your subject.

Want to master the Photoshop warp tool?  This tutorial shows you the way…

Paint splashed over the face of a photographic subject – nice. What’s really neat is that this liquid Photoshop technique can be used in many, many design applications.

Yet another awesome website design tutorial.  This has a clean Web 2.0 feel that many designers like to emulate.

A very unique and creative – yet clean and easy-to-follow – website design.  The techniques employed here are invaluable.

Learn how to use the Photoshop mask tool to create this model effect from a photo.

When the outer glow blending option doesn’t quite cut it – use these tips to achieve an outstanding glow emanating from your subjects.

Super cool fallen angel tutorial that shows you how to blend a woman and a bird on a textured background.

What are your favorite Photoshop techniques?

©2009 PsPrint Blog. All Rights Reserved.

I wanted to find out what the best graphic design jobs would be during the next 10 years, so I conducted a bit of research and then tossed it all aside to reflect on reality.

The way I see it, you have three options:

1.Work your way up through a design firm, striving to become a design director or partner and cash in at around $100K to $120K.

2.Work for a firm and settle at a position somewhere between $30K and $80K.

3.Go freelance, be the wild card, and work your tail off and land somewhere between $30K and $120K.  Bonus – start your own firm and potentially make millions.

To me, the decision is easy.  I choose to be the wild card, because I value career and creative freedom.  However, I don’t get the support, camaraderie and recognition afforded to employees of firms and agencies.  I don’t miss them, either, but if you crave attention you might find options one or two more appealing.

A lot of people talk about the benefits of being with a firm, but we can toss those out the window.  In today’s tumultuous economic climate, nothing is guaranteed.  Freelancers can save for retirement and purchase health insurance on their own.  When you look at the economics of the firm/agency environment, the employees are also purchasing these things on their own – these things are worked into employee salaries “off-paper” and then stripped from the final “salary offer” figure. An employee who makes $20 an hour really makes $32 an hour, but the additional $12 goes toward benefit expenses.  A freelancer making $40 or $60 an hour can do twice as well.

I’m not saying you should go freelance, but I am saying that for many people (myself included) the life and the economics of being a freelancer are rather appealing.  I can make my own hours and take on the projects I enjoy.  The BLS says that 25 percent of all graphic designers in the United States are freelancers. I doubt there are many other jobs where one in every four workers is self employed, and I suspect that the number of employed graphic designers who wish they freelanced is much higher.

In the next 10 years, I won’t be surprised if as many as half of all American designers are self employed. Maybe more. For my part, I’ll find it interesting to see if there are any correlations between the upcoming health care vote and the number of freelancers across all industries nationwide.

Image usage via Creative Commons license from Flickr.

©2009 PsPrint Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Social networking.

If you haven’t engaged in social networking for your portfolio, you’re in for a treat (assuming you’re good at what you do. You are good, right?). There are many, many ways to socially network your skills online.

Why spread your portfolio into the vastness of the web when you can update it on a central server? Exposure, traffic, sales; in that order.

Do you get a quarter million visitors a month like behance.net does? It might be worth your while to post your portfolio there. Here are a few other graphic design portfolio websites your work should be listed on:

Designer’s Toolbox
Carbon Made
BeHance
Deviant Art
CPU Luv
Coroflot
Flickr
MySpace
Facebook
Elance
Guru

©2009 PsPrint Blog. All Rights Reserved.

A proposal is just that — a proposal and not a contract. With so many prospective clients “playing the field,” it does not behoove you to spend a ridiculous amount of time preparing proposals. This is what you need in your proposals — and this is ALL you need. If your proposal requester needs you to research specifics, then they should pay a down payment and formally hire you. Proposal-seekers are one thing; clients are another thing entirely. Here’s the scoop:

1. Contact information
2. Client’s contact information
3. Date
4. Goals to be achieved
5. Summary of work to be performed
6. List of deliverables
7. Fees estimate (Note: this is an estimate, and not a set-in-stone flat price. Charge hourly)
8. Payment terms — when payments are due, and how they are to be submitted
9. Legal terms — A quick summary of copyright retentions/transfers, NDAs, dispute resolutions, and other legal agreements that will be required in the contract. Again, this is a summary; the contract will spell these out specifically
10. Mini-portfolio, including past work, clients and testimonials

What else could you really need? Sounding formal sounds stuffy. It’s a new age of enterprise, where being cool and concise is a business. There’s no reason why a proposal has to extend beyond two pages for most projects.

For smaller projects, include your legal information and turn your proposal into a work order, actionable as a contract upon signing. This streamlines the process even more.

This one’s open for debate: How do you write your proposals?

©2009 PsPrint Blog. All Rights Reserved.