Rick Griffith is easily one of the most unique people I have ever met in my life from the aesthetics to the few passing conversations that we have had in the past. Today was the first time meeting as a class on Microsoft teams and getting used to not meeting people in person and having class discussion with people messing with their mics and even someone using the bathroom in the middle of our call with Rick Griffith. I think that this speaker was one of my favorite for the previously mentioned reasons and also how straightforward and uncut he was in responding to our questions. His creative process seems to be highly conceptual with using collage work as a kind of creative exercise and his own thought process and the way that he interprets the way around him and applies it into his own work. I mean the guy reads doctorate level thesis abstracts to sharpen his mind in this time in order to cope with this crazy corona virus situation that has us all quarantined and isolated, along with him closing up his bookstore but still creating work and being present in his studio. My one regret about this interaction is that I would have relished the opportunity to go forth and explore his work space and give us a tour of the studio itself and get some glimpses of some of the work that he is focused on that is not his own process journal. Overall he was very forthcoming about how to differentiate ourselves from the saturated market of designers looking to secure good jobs like myself and the my classmates. His advice about focusing on my own niche that makes me stand out from my peers and not worrying about being a good designer especially if I can be trained to be better was something I felt that I could be working on in order to get myself a job and let my own uniqueness shine out to my peers and employers. Given this time I am now in quarantine I feel that focusing on my calligraphy practice is both easier to do now and would be a nice addition to my portolio and differentiate myself from the crowd of designers vying for the same position. Also his advice about the current economic situation and working as a designer was a hard truth but not one that I was not expecting. My mentality is that I may not be working as a designer after school or maybe far down the line but if an opportunity comes I won’t be waiting around for it, I’ll be working my job to pay the bills waiting for the moment where I can use my work and get a job doing what I ultimately want to do, be a designer.
