Posts from the ‘Fauxspring’ Category
Why do most podcasts suck?? — Scott Roche
How badly a podcast sucks is highly subjective, and subject mostly to how close you are to either the subject or the producer. This means that if, say, you have a buddy who does a podcast on flight sim games, and you’re also a flight sim nut, your opinion of the show will be way more forgiving on it than mine will be.
And not everyone has good taste.
And almost no podcasters are professionals or have pro training or experience in their field or medium.
And almost no podcasters have a budget to procure the right tools.
Lets just assume that all of this is granted, ok? Accepting that podcasting is an amateur, enthusiast genre with very small audiences per show mostly made up of personal friends of the podcaster, we can start trying to judge podcasts a little more impersonally. Even if you try to judge podcasts on their own terms, there are still a lot of genuinely wretched podcasts on the net.
Oh no! Gasp! Content criticism is rude! If you don’t like it, don’t listen! Suck it, internet. It’s not personal. I have right here 5 Reasons Meredith Thinks Your Podcast Sucks, grown out of years of intensive podcast consumption.
1. Your audio blows.
It takes a lot to have audio that’s so bad, a listener will turn off your show, but it happen all the time. Having cheap equipment isn’t an excuse, because if you can get the audio into the computer, there are free tools available that can work miracles in post-production. There’s no excuse for excessive noise, blatant screwups, low volume, and all-around crappy production if you just take the time to make a nice show.
At the same time, you don’t need to put out professional-quality stuff, either. It’s a podcast, and you’re probably not a professional, so don’t feel bad if it doesn’t sound perfect. Some podcasters actually advocate for leaving your edges a little rough because it’s an integral part of the DIY aesthetic. How polished your production will be is a decision you’ll have to make for yourself, but if you don’t bother to at minimum run your track through Levelator and give it a full listen through from beginning to end, I’m not going to bother listening to it.
2. Your show lies.
There are approximately 80 bazillion podcasts that should be titled The Me Show, or My Friends And I Podcast As An Excuse To Hang Around And Chat, and there are lots of shows that are exactly that and make no bones about it. That’s perfectly fine. What frosts my ass is when a podcast is supposed to be topical, and the shows never bother with the topic, instead just bullshitting around individually or in groups. For some reason, video game podcasts seem to be particularly guilty of this. Again, I’m not against blathercasts, personal journals or buddy bull sessions, but if that’s what you’re going to publish, don’t pretend you’re doing a podcast on computer flight simulators.
3. You’re a douche.
A podcast is a fantastic foundation on which to build a cult of personality. It starts with cheap production and ends with me being a disembodied voice in your head. If you’re going to take this route, and many do, try to actually have a personality to build a cult around, ok? Queercasters seem to be most guilty of this, where the podcaster’s goal is to portray himself or herself as the most awesome thing ever, and only succeeds in insulting other people, being insulted by other people, and portraying a remarkable lack of redeeming qualities. Your show sucks because YOU suck, and that’s one thing Levelator can’t fix.
4. You’re inflexible.
Long ago and far away, in 2005 or so, someone somewhere decided that podcasting (audio podcasting, anyway) is at its best when shows are 20-30 minutes long and released once weekly, and somehow this became gospel*. This led directly to people establishing their podcast “format” and sticking to it religiously, cramming otherwise perfectly good shows into these artificial boxes because they thought they had to. With this basic assumption comes a whole host of other standard moves that far too many podcasters try to impose on themselves because “that’s how it’s done”. For instance, promo breaks, which are really commercial breaks but without any money involved; a common structure that mimics television, theme-intro-housekeeping-break-primary topic-break-secondary topic-credits-outro-more credits; releasing podcasts under Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivates licenses. None of these things are bad in and of themselves, but over and over again podcasters do things like this to their podcast without sparing a moments thought to whether or not it’s a good idea.
I blame this type of behavior as the primary reason why podcasters stumble and fade. When a show is full of stuff because it has to be, instead of stuff you want, it becomes work and it stops being fun and the show goes away. Make the show you want to make. Release the show when it’s done, make it only as long as it needs to be, and only include in it the stuff you love. Don’t try to mash your podcast into some sort of shape you think other people will like, just make the show you would want to listen to. You won’t make any money doing this, so keep it fun. If fun for you is fulfilling a production schedule or promoting other podcasts, that’s awesome, but don’t do anything because you think you have to. Don’t be afraid to just do the fun part and ignore the rest.
5. You’re just filling time.
The other day, I downloaded a podcast for freelancers. The show is just a series of book authors who write books that are of interest to freelancers, everything from business theory to motivational self-help dreck. The interviews are usually interesting and informative, and I enjoy listening to them, but I never listen to a whole episode. Why? The host always plays a podsafe song at the end of the show. The song isn’t related to any topics of the episode. It isn’t to my taste. It’s been bitcrushed in the editing process. The only thing this song enhances is the length and size of the podcast. When a podcaster does this, I skip the song.
Another podcast I’ve listened to in the past would regularly go through the following rigamarole: “Hi! Welcome to my show! It’s time for feedback! Or it would be if there was any feedback. Now it’s time for the rest of my show.” Utterly pointless waste of my time. He didn’t ask for feedback, he didn’t make a joke about being lonely, he didn’t do anything but stick to the script like a moron. If you’re going to podcast and you want other people to listen, respect the time your listeners are taking with your show and don’t waste it. Make the minutes count. Get to the fucking interesting part already, and don’t pad your show with useless boring crap. Podcaster, edit thyself.
~~
If you want to subject yourself to this abuse, go fill out the Fauxspring for yourself. It’s anonymous!
* This is based on the presumption that a podcaster isn’t going to want to spend more time on a podcast than it takes to make a weekly show, and the rule of thumb that the average commute is between 20 and 40 minutes. In my personal experience, listeners like shorter and more frequent podcasts, and more is better. The most popular podcasts I’ve ever produced were a series of daily shows that were 45 seconds long, each. Wacky, ain’t it?
Before I get started, I need to say this:
I’ve tried it both ways(… shut up), this blogging crap is one hell of a lot easier with twitter and facebook and all that other well-developed social networking stuff than not.
Moving on.
You’ve heard of formspring.me, right? I’m not going to link to it directly because formspring accounts directly lead to spammy twittering, but you can go find it if you like. Formsprings fascinate me. They’re little doodads that run a little blog-type-things, and they function somewhere between advice columns and blog comments. Formspring is… a very specific sort of interaction that’s common on the internet, but has never really been distilled down in this manner before.
In the past, I’ve aspired to be an advice columnist. For a very short time, I actually was an advice columnist. Formspring is a perfect cocktail for getting me completely obsessed. I found the actual Formspring website a little… extraneous, so I built my own.
Let me introduce a new toy on the blog, my Fauxspring. Go there, ask questions, get blogged, and if you want to keep an eye on questions and answers as they happen, click here for past questions.
And, since all this social networking is so efficient, I posted a link to twitter and got the first question in precisely 9 minutes. Here we go!
When will something good happen for me? -The Wizard of Gosz
Good things happen all the time. I’m a bit of a Pollyanna, sure, but going through life being easily delighted makes life kind of delightful. Even when the rest of the world is shitting on your head, there are lots of little insignificant good things happening to you all the time. Pay attention and enjoy making the green light or spotting a wacky customized car or pulling a comically huge potato chip out of the bag. I’m not going to say it’ll cascade through the rest of your life and improve everything, but it’ll make the moments between the momentous a little less insufferable.
Not so long ago, I spent a short time writing an advice column for the now-defunct magazine Lucy. This has festered in my draft folder long enough, so for the hell of it, I’m republishing the columns here, with the comments that readers left the first time (and the advantage of a little more editing than the original versions). Enjoy!
Dear Meredith,
Among other things (for instance, things that pay), I run a popular mommyblog. I get hit with a bunch of products to review practically every day because of it, and it’s totally fun. When there’s something I love, I’ll hype it up and promote it, because it really doesn’t take that much time out of my day, but I I’ll usually be rewarded with more free products. When I don’t like something I’m sent, I just ignore it.
This time, though, I have a problem. For a bunch of complicated and stupid reasons, I’m kind of compelled to review a particular book. Normally, this sort of thing isn’t that big of a deal, but this book is truly dreadful. I hate to say it’s awful, but it’s awful. I’m really not sure what to do with it. I need to say something, but I don’t want to put the bad PR out there for the book or the bad karma for myself either. Suggestions?
Signed,
Mommyblogger and More
Dear Purveyor of Poop Stories,
Ahh, the internet, where all traffic is fundamentally amoral because it’s all monetizable, where the worst possible condition is to be ignored, and even to be loathed is a legitimate and proven business strategy. The internet is also a place where electronic douchebags (known colloquially as “trolls”) wander around giving wet, incoherent raspberries at whatever they can reach with their stubby, sticky fingers. These two forces have combined to create what I consider one of the stranger manifestations of internet culture: the taboo of criticism.
See, the internet would like to make everyone feel special and reinforce your short attention span at the same time. If you don’t like something, just move on. Don’t whine about it. Don’t bitch. There’s the rest of the internet you will find pleasing. It doesn’t matter if your criticism is constructive or, god, forbid, justified, it’s just plain impolite to make negative statements about people, places or things. Don’t be a hater, right?
You know this, since you’re concerned about your “karma.” Now once you’re done kindly explaining how you became irresistibly compelled to review a book for free on your own time, do tell me how you’re irresistibly compelled to write a good review for this book, for free, on your own time.
Look, if you have to write it, write it. Since you’ve been compelled to write this review, I can presume you’ve also been compelled to read this horrible book, too. Give an honest review. If you work yourself up into some sort of positive reaction, your readers are either going to think you haven’t read the book, or you’re an idiot. As a blogger, those are much more dangerous possibilities than whatever reaction might come from your review.
Think of it at revenge. Think of it as a posted warning. Think of it as a reminder of why you shouldn’t get yourself in situations where you’re compelled to work for free. Just get over it, take a nice, hot shower, and move on.
Love,
Meredith
Steven Klassen on December 1, 2008 4:33 pm
I’m having the same problem, actually. We get a lot of stuff for free to review on GeekFit and a few things have been really bad.
I don’t try to bullshit our listeners. I’ll find 1 or 2 things that are positive and then load up on the negatives. It’s a review, not paid advertising.
Stacy Nyikos on December 2, 2008 8:35 am
I’ll out myself as a children’s writer up front. However, I was also a professor at the university level for many years, which means I got to write a lot of academic pieces. And I have to say, constructive criticism is a good thing. Not all reviews or opinions can or should be stellar. We need some balance. But balance it well. I don’t think any bad karma will come your way for speaking your mind constructively. I’ve been reviewed for academic pieces where I was ripped to shreds. Painful. Not very helpful. Perplexing. However, the reviews I received that sent a little praise for the things I did well, and some serious critique in a construtive way about what the reader did not agree with or found weak really helped me in my writing. Constructive criticism is the way to help a writer become a better writer. My two cents.
Not so long ago, I spent a short time writing an advice column for the now-defunct magazine Lucy. This has festered in my draft folder long enough, so for the hell of it, I’m republishing the columns here, with the comments that readers left the first time (and the advantage of a little more editing than the original versions). Enjoy!
Dear Lucy Advice,
My husband has a nephew who’s started coming to family functions this year. He’s in his 20s and has a history of theft, hard drug use, job loss and long periods without working. My husband usually gets along with everyone on the planet, but considers his nephew “scum” and is very bitter that he has stolen from his grandparents (my husband’s parents) repeatedly over the years. What I need to know is, how am I supposed to treat this nephew when he shows up for Christmas? It feels like he comes around for handouts and might well be ripping things off while he uses the bathroom. But I’m not used to being so hard-hearted. What attitude should I strive for here?
Thanks.
–There’s family and then there’s family
Dear Family,
I must speak first in defense of 20-somethings everywhere. For this tribe of underemployed, over-aged adolescents, the holidays are indeed a time to look for handouts for even the most solvent and responsible of young adults. The goods, cash and leftovers gathered from family holiday shindigs can sustain both recent college graduates with excellent prospects and notorious felons for months. Please feel free to remember that you’ve done this too, and to get over yourself at your earliest convenience.
Point the second: let’s say a man broke into your house in the middle of the night to steal your stuff. Would you be concerned that he would think you’re a big meanie if you yelled at him to leave while you dialed 911?
Didn’t think so. So, when there is someone strolling in the front door at cocktail hour and you think he’s stealing your stuff, why are you concerned about what other people think of you then? When there is a dude that you feel is compromising the security of your house, you don’t let them in your house. Period. I don’t care if you’re related to him or not; it’s not like you had any control over that. It’s your house. Get in touch with your inner Nancy Reagan and Just Say No.
Then go grab your camcorder. If this nephew is as much of a hot steaming mess as you say he is, he might retaliate against your property. (Since you apparently keep stuff worth stealing in your bathroom, I’m going to assume that you and yours have enough insurance to make this inconvenient and not disastrous.) If he does, call the cops. He probably won’t stick around long enough to get caught, but you’ll have the evidence for the police and plenty of witnesses.
Then, after all this drama is settled out, you can relax with confidence that he’s not going to show up any more. And when that nagging sense of guilt and ambivalence returns, you’ll do well to remind yourself that it’s only because you’re related to that little jerk.
Of course, the really easy solution is to simply avoid the problem entirely and convince some other part of the family to host Christmas, or go out for the holiday and take everyone with you. I really can’t recommend this course of action more highly. If the rest of your family balks at this suggestion, start remodeling your kitchen. A lot of angsty family drama can be squelched if you take it to neutral territory, which is a definite plus of going out for the evening, but even if you just take the party over to Aunt Mildred’s this year, you have the distinct advantage of being able to leave if it all gets to be too much.
And you know what would be really awesome? If you declare that you’re not doing Christmas this year, and come to discover nobody else wants to do it because they don’t want to deal with this little lost lamb, either. Maybe a family conversation will spring up about what to do with this nephew, because your husband’s solution of sitting around be angry all the time might feel satisfying, but it doesn’t seem to be helping much.
Love,
Meredith
Not so long ago, I spent a short time writing an advice column for the now-defunct magazine Lucy. This has festered in my draft folder long enough, so for the hell of it, I’m republishing the columns here, with the comments that readers left the first time (and the advantage of a little more editing than the original versions). Enjoy!
Dear Meredith-
OK, I admit it: I HATE my best friend’s new boyfriend! I’ve been trying to give him a chance, but seriously, he sucks. I thought maybe it was just because I was jealous she was spending time with someone else, but after we all hung out with some friends recently, they also hated him (I did not give them a heads up ahead of time of how I felt). The problem is that he’s rude, inconsiderate, self-centered, and difficult to talk to, and although he’s not physically/verbally abusive, I just don’t think he treats her right.
I’ve kept my mouth shut so far, but now she’s thinking about moving in with him. I don’t want to not be supportive, but I am NOT supportive of this relationship! What should I do?
Worried in Western PA.
Dear Worry-Wart,
Congratulations! Because you’ve put off confronting your BFF about her boyfriend until she’s considering making a contractual commitment with him, no matter what you decide to do, you’re going to come off as a bitch in the end. Since it’s obviously all about you.
Not convinced? Here’s how it can play out: Let’s say that you invite your friend over for martinis and Star Trek, and you decide to tell her that you think her boyfriend is a douche during one of those interminable Shatnerian Pauses. She could…
… have spent more time with him than you have in low pressure environments where he’s not on trial by some cheap Sex and the City cast knock-off, and realized that he’s actually painfully shy around other people. On the Bitch Scale, where 10 is Paris Hilton and 1 is Lassie (… rimshot), this makes you a 6, by being totally judgmental, impatient, and possibly conspiring and talking shit with the girls behind the happy couple’s back.
… still be in that first blush of romantic lurve, and so completely swept away by the mountains of brain-melting crazy monkey sex she’s still having with this guy that she hasn’t had a chance yet to realize he’s a douche. Bitch Scale: 3. As her best friend, it is one of your responsibilities to make sure she doesn’t make any important decisions while she’s suffering the temporary insanity of a new relationship. Unfortunately, because she’s completely bonkers on her own hormones, she won’t hear a word you say, and probably be mad at you for being totally judgmental and not supportive until her condition wears off.
… actually like douchey guys, and be personally responsible for upholding Nice Guy Syndrome. She might actually be quite happy to be moving in with such a difficult jerk. Bitch Scale: 5. If this is the case, it’s not something brand new that just popped up. She’s fallen for guys like this before, and if she’s really your BFF, you should know this already. So why are you telling her now?
… know perfectly well that he treats her and everyone else like garbage, and be such an emotional basketcase that she thinks she somehow deserves it. Bitch Scale: 8. Dude! Your friend has serious problems! Quit bitching about her boyfriend and get over there with some brownies and tequila and help her. Did you accidentally toss in your priorities when you went to ceremonially burn your compassion at the ritual Bitch initiation bonfire? Get your head out of your butt, realize the boyfriend is a symptom and get your friend to a shrink or a doctor or a bar or something. Do it now, and shut up.
… thank you for your kindness and concern for her well-being, and seriously reconsider her relationship with Assy McGee. Bitch Scale: Pi (an irrational number, get it?). Because then you’ll both hop on your unicorns and fly to the land Marshmallow-Rainbow-istan and dance among the happy Bob Ross trees and eat nothing but chocolate that has no calories while world peace and fairy dust sprinkle down from the puffy pink clouds like a refreshing early-spring snow made entirely of ice cream.
Do you get it? You missed your chance to tell her how you feel about her guy, by going and telling your other friends how you feel about this guy and then sitting on it and being all broody and emo. You blew it. You are on a one-way train to Bitchtown, population you and your bitchy coterie, you bitch. The only reason you should say anything at this point is that you think your friendship with her is strong enough to survive you not being liked for a little while. It’s up to you. It’s probably worth mentioning that you do find her boyfriend to be a loser, because it’ll probably get in the way of your friendship later otherwise. You just need to double check that your friendship is strong enough to make it that far. Good luck with that.
Love,
Meredith
Grizzly Smith on October 13, 2008 9:13 pm
Now, Mer, stop holding back, tell us what you -really- think. 
All of those ideas are valid, and beside the point. Whether or not you’re doing the right thing at the moment, whether or not you’re Way Too Late, you still gotta take a bullet for a friend sometimes. And yeah, maybe you gain all sorts of catchy categorical nicknames.
But for friends, sometimes you gotta do that. If it was easy, everybody’d have friends.
Griz
So where in life did I read that “friends” were allowed to “dis” relationships of others? Oh, yah… soap operas! Frankly I would think that your friend would want you to keep your nose out of what she is doing in the relationship “ring”. First of all most men are simply looking for one thing. Apparently he is giving her what she is lacking in her life or heart. This may blind her until she learns for herself… A real friend would be there to pick up the pieces! Just like a bird being kicked out of its nest so is the relationship department in a woman’s life. Sometimes you have to learn on your own even if it means failure.
Oh my God I LOVE you, Meredith. I was reading Susan’s book blog and wandered over here to check out what kind of “advice” Lucy was endorsing…and stumbled upon your lovely blog. Holy crap, how I would love to have you shrunken and living inside my purse, to whisper out to me all the zingy comebacks my little heart could desire. I love your acerbic attitude and “tell it like it is-ness.” Please please please write more often! I know I will be checking back here soon to see what you’ll come up with next.
Hey Pernell, I don’t know if you’ll come back for more conversation here in the comments, but I’ve just put up another post and I’d just love your thoughts on it.
Not so long ago, I spent a short time writing an advice column for the now-defunct magazine Lucy. This has festered in my draft folder long enough, so for the hell of it, I’m republishing the columns here, with the comments that readers left the first time. Enjoy!
Dear Meredith,
I recently discovered that one of my co-workers who works right outside my office consistently watches porn during his lunch break. He has NO IDEA I can see his computer screen and mutes the volume, but nonetheless, it’s pretty disturbing. I’m not really sure how I should handle the situation, or if I should even “handle” it at all… help?
Confused in my Cube
Dear Cube Monkey,
Were it me, I’d pull up a chair and offer the guy some of my goobers and popcorn and enjoy the matinee. Then I’d follow it up by turning the entire office network into my own personal bit torrent client and finally complete my Facts of Life episode collection because, hey! Your IT department apparently spends it’s days locked in the server closet sucking down bong hits and blowing sales reps for free donuts or something instead of actually doing their jobs.
And while we’re on the subject, before you do anything else, take an afternoon to back up all your important work documents and projects onto DVD-roms. If this guy hasn’t been beaten to death by his own supervisors, had his bloody corpse promptly ejected from the building and then set on fire in the parking lot with all the red flags he should by all rights be sending up, I wouldn’t trust your company to protect your information from a little tiny thing like a malicious computer virus. And when, not if, your network crashes mightily, won’t you look like a hero?
Until then, let’s break this down a little. You obviously don’t have any other major complaints about this person, or else you would have gone and squealed like John McCain at the Hanoi Hilton to the nearest authority figure. This guy has obviously forgotten where he is, and that there’s life outside of his little cubicle universe. You’ve forgotten that, while it’s important to respect or ignore what people do in private, when someone decides to do something that should be private in public, it then becomes fair game.
Which brings me to my point: why are you worried about being nice? Because that’s what all this knee-jerk ambivalence you’re feeling is about. Remind this idiot that he is not the only person in the building and is, in point of fact, grossing you the hell out.
You’re at a huge advantage over him right now. He probably thinks he’s getting away with something, or at least it’s his little pornorific secret, and chances are, if he suddenly realizes you know what he’s up to, he’ll get enormously embarrassed and either stop or at least move his monitor. I’m guessing you probably don’t want to get HR involved and make this some big hairy deal if you don’t have to (since you’re at a company big enough to have cubicles, it’s totally understandable), so try this: do exactly what I would do. Grab yourself some snackies, approach him, and play a little gotcha game. Until they find the dead hookers in his trunk, you’re probably going to have to keep working with him, so see if using a little humor can’t fix the situation as well as maintain some sort of working relationship, weird and creepy as it will be from now on.
And if that doesn’t work, you shouldn’t have any trouble convincing HR that this is sexual harassment. Sure, it’ll ruin his career and possibly the rest of his life, but nobody should be forced to watch someone elses porn, ever. Think about it.
Love,
Meredith
I don’t know that I’ve ever heard as an acerbic description of the benevolent gods ‘o technology as that one before, but I don’t remember bongs or blowjobs being part of the job description.
Either the IT folks aren’t charged with snooping on the users and/or blocking websites or this one knows how basic SSH tunnels work:
Why so angry? =)
Heh! This had me chuckling out loud. I like the theory of pulling up a seat & offering snacks.
Course I’d probably wimp out and just stick an annon. sticky note (heh, sticky) on their computer montior with a I CAN SEE YOUR PORN. (or Outside yer cubicle watchin yer porns a’la cat macros).
Fun advice to read 
And i agree, what the hell is up with the IT dept. hellloooo??
Oh my. I’m a cube monkey, too. It’s dreadful. But porn? NOT ok! Can’t he wait til post-5? And I thought burning microwave popcorn was bad! Thanks for laying down the law, Meredith! (and, it’s nice to meet you, btw! I’m Susan, over on Lucy’s Book blog!)
Steve: Thank you for stopping by and for your dedicated work with the IT Anti-Defamation League, as well as that astonishingly useful tip. Gunna have to try that.
Poly Jen: Oooh, lolcats. A completely unexplored vetor for office communication. I like it. You should write a book!
Susan: Hi there! Glad to help, and it’s good to meet you too. It’s nice to meet some of the other staff here before the truth gets out that I’m a rotten gargoyle made entirely of evil and mean (even though it would so drive traffic).
Wow! I’m not sure what is more upsetting… Was it the kind of work trouble, which I thought was already outlawed by all large companies or was it the answer of the advice giver? Being the man that I am, I would have been more worried about losing my job over “sexual harassment” than about some woman offering to have a “snack” at a movie. My advice would be to do what most woman do in a work place that is concerned about their image and working conditions! Most companies find it easier to replace employees and would grab at a chance to fire a long time employee to avoid paying for retirement than to have a lawsuit in their hands. Then again some companies also pay for some kind of treatment if the employee asks for it. Being a man I would speak up to my boss about this person simply because it is unprofessional and it leaves a bad image for the company if it comes out in the news later about this person or the company. If you are worried about your job then I would suggest that you get one of those free e-mail accounts and send an anonymous e-mail about the issue and don’t give any particulars about where you sit etc. I would put in about the company image and the problems that could later arise in the media if this is not corrected quickly…
Oh! And I did that without any “colorful” language…
This popped up in my email.
Hello Mrs Matthews,
My name is Redacted for the Purpose of this Blog Post. I came across your email address and I figured I would take an opportunity to contact you and ask you for some advice.First off, let me tell you a little bit about myself. I am a senior in high school and living in a Midwestern State. I am in the process of researching colleges for a future career in graphic design. I’m looking at schools in California because I would love to go to school in an environment rich of art and culture. I am passionate about design and advertisement because I love that the career allows creativity, imagination, competition, recreation of products or images, etc.
The more I research, the more questions I have.
What does it take to be successful in design and advertisement? What are the best ways to go about it?
What is the most beneficial education for the field? What type of degree, education, location etc.?
If you were given the ability to go back and change previous decisions, what would you have done differently?I understand you must be very busy, but I am in great need of a mentor. I don’t have anyone in my family who can relate to the type of career I want to enter. It is my dream to one day own my own business in a career that I am passionate about.
If you have any feed back or anything you could share with me, I would really appreciate that.Have a great day,
Me
Surprised the heck out of me, let me tell you. I think this may be an example of the Great Wild Adolescent Hail Mary, and the result of some book or school assignment. We emailed back and forth a little, and after deciding that, if she’s a spammer of some sort, i’d be damned if I could figure out what she’s after. So I answered her questions, as I could. And I figured I’d share it.
Let’s see… first, don’t fall into the trap of convincing yourself that any particular place has a monopoly on “art and culture”. Any city bigger than about a quarter of a million people will have more than you’ll be able to handle, as will any large university campus in the country. Art, and culture, is everywhere.
What does it take to be successful in design and advertisement? Beats me. Of course, I’m a college drop out, so my view is a little jaundiced.
You go to a fancy prep school, so if you can get into an ivy-league, elite school, do it. You’re not looking at a technical or scientific degree, and your goal isn’t to be an educator, so most of the education you’ll receive will be largely superfluous. An elite degree will open doors for you, and you’ll have a ready-built network of successful, powerful people (or at the very least, their children).
If you can’t get into a world-class school, save your money and attend a community college for your associates and finish your bachelors at a well-regarded Wisconsin state university. A Harvard education is frighteningly expensive but it will pay for itself eventually, but the bang for your educational buck drops precipitously the farther down the list you go. You want to start your own business, and I would suggest you focus on graduating without being crippled by personal and student loan debt. It makes getting business loans more difficult, and it makes you more dependant on some job, working for someone else to pay your bills.
I’m very down on the value of college educations, but it’s still easier to have one than to not.
That said, what should you know? Take some accounting classes. As a business owner, it’s critical to know where your money comes from, where it goes, and what you need to do with it for that short time that it’s yours.
Take a business-writing class. Being able to communicate in email and on paper effectively will put you far ahead of most of the competition right out of the gate. (It’s worth mentioning that you have a good start already.)
Take lots of art history classes, they will give you artistic context, and that’s critical if you’re going to be a designer and try to communicate to the world with art for a living. Art history from about 1900 forward is especially important.
Learn how to code websites with Dreamweaver, and also know how to code the same websites by hand from scratch. A designer who can code is rare and competitive, and Dreamweaver is the industry standard, but I keep finding time and again that if you don’t understand the code that the program produces, you can’t effectively implement that code.
If at all possible, take a typography class and a creative writing class, with a focus in poetry if it’s available. This will teach you how to use words.
What would I have done differently? I would have finished my education in communications and music and gone on as a public radio producer.
A final note: be careful with your passion. Defend it and keep it precious. It doesn’t matter whether you’re working for yourself or for someone else, you’re going to spend most of your time doing work that you’re not passionate about. And even then, when you’re doing the art and design that motivates you, you’ll be making your money creating someone else’s vision. There will be opportunities for you to flex your creative power, but they’re farther down the road than you’d expect.
I don’t know if any of this helps you at all, but at least it’s honest. I’m sure your teachers and parents will find things in here to object to, and that’s fine. I’m cynical and bitter and largely an outsider in most things, as well as contrary by nature. I’m a lousy role model. Feel free to drop me a line anytime, anyway.
Go. Learn. Be flexible. Remember that we’re all making it up as we go along, and anyone who tries to convince you otherwise is foolish or lying.
Sincerely,
–
Meredith Matthews
I do believe that, you know.
