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WHAT
IS PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE IN GRAPHIC DESIGN?
Terry
Stone
Building a successful career requires not only creative talent and a great portfolio, but an under-standing of best practices and the standards governing the ever-evolving business of graphic design. So how do we teach the business of graphic design? What is Professional Practice? Graphic Design is a hybrid of Art + Commerce. There are 3 components of a graphic design business: Creative, Client Relationships and Operations. Professionalism is defined as the qualities or typical features of a profession, especially competence and skill. While Practice is an established method or procedure. Our goal in studying Professional Practice is to be able to interact in the real world of design with confidence, enjoyment and success. Some aspects of Professional Practice to consider: Advocacy: Championing your belief system and values. Collaboration: Working successfully with others and having fun doing so. Graphic Design is rarely a solo activity, though many believe they can practice in that manner. Communication: Effectively presenting yourself and your ideas. The daily transfer of information. Compromise: Achieving mutually satisfying outcomes, "win/win" scenarios. Picking your battles. Craft: Striving to be an even better designer, expanding your horizons. Also, carefully crafted work. Credibility: Developing an maintaining an excellent reputation. Being believable. Ego: Managing your own needs and sense of individuality along with those of the project/team. Understanding that design mostly requires team playing. Ethics: Honoring a personal and professional moral code of conduct. Flexibility: Being prepared for changeŃ always. Health: Staying alert and energetic, conscious of your own (and others') well-being. Integrity: Doing what you say you will. Completing your work on time and on budget. Participation: Showing up and being involved. Negotiation: Focusing on realistic goals. Learning the language of agreement. Personal Style: Expressing yourself, and awareness of the consequences of this. Process: Acting in accordance with an agreed upon course of action ("best practices") that work for yourself, your employer, your suppliers, and your clients. Responsibility: Designing on behalf of many: self, employer, client, end-user. Technology: Keeping up with our complex field. Continuing education is important. An exploration of creative business process, marketing and self-promotion, negotiation, pricing, ethics, and various professional relationships in design are all practical topics to teach in a Professional Practice course. Getting to an agreement of the central behaviors and attitudes which constitute professional practice is of great interest to me. This would result in creating graphic designers who are professional people, not just people "acting professional."