Chaos Love: love, life, design and more.

It's true! The work front has been good recently and has just got a whole lot better.

I've been working at a fantastic design studio called Downstream for the last few weeks and it's been a lot of fun. They mainly do large scale environmental design for universities and financial institutions, which is something I haven't done a lot of to this point in my career. I came in to help out on one specific job, a series of big informational screens for an enormous financial advisor. The screens show a ridiculous amount of stock exchange, commodities and currency information, all in real time and I had to take the general design and apply it across every screen, while still making sure that it was technically possible to produce! I spent the entire first full day researching actual stock market data to use in the mock ups to present to the client... my brain still hurts three weeks later.

While I was working there, 52 Ltd let me know that Wacom were interested in getting me back for a couple of weeks, but that there was also a long-term contract job designing and producing a huge Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for a multi-national infrastructure development company downtown. This is the first time I've actually had to choose between two jobs since I've been in the US. While I loved working at Wacom the first time around, the lure of long term employment meant I had to at least enquire about it.

I interviewed for the position on Tuesday and was accepted by Thursday. The job will see me gainfully employed all the way through until January, although the hours will vary quite dramatically from month to month as the EIS goes through approval and revision cycles. During August, I'll probably be working 50-60 hour weeks, while September may drop down to less than 20 hours a week. We'll see! I just love getting my teeth stuck into large projects; I see them as huge puzzles that have to be solved... and they don't come much bigger than this! Multiple authors, huge rounds of internal and client changes, diagrams, charts, maps... and I have to make it look attractive and easy to read! I start July 21st – wish me luck!

Posted in: chaosboy, employment, portland on July 11, 2008 at at 10:53:00 PM 0 comments    

When I was first arrived in the US, I quickly threw together a web portfolio of my design work to make applying for jobs easier. No need to send a huge PDF of samples with my cover letter and resume; rather, I can just send a link to the site. However, it was very hurriedly done and probably didn't show my work off in the best way.

So I've spent a little while over the last few weeks redoing it, and I couldn't be happier! It looks very slick now, with a neat three column layout that works really well across the entire site. I think I now have a better portfolio site than some of the agencies I've worked at, but then, it always seems hard for agencies to find the time to sit down and do some proper self-promotion!

So head on over to take a look. Let me know what you think!

Posted in: chaosboy, employment, internet on May 22, 2008 at at 3:40:00 PM 0 comments    

Sometimes we all question our job. Are we getting enough out of it? Are we getting paid enough? Are we advancing ourselves? These are the questions that have been going through my head for quite sometime. However, last week, my boss Dan made it clear that something was going down on Friday and I had to be there in order not to miss it.

Now, life on my front has not been so interesting in order to blog about lately although I had been on repelling excursions and jazz shows... although this definitely was. I tend to blog when a train of thought has been altered. And I can say now that my renewed faith in the company which I currently serve has been preserved.

A business division of our company called Irisink ran a contest starting 3 months ago allowing individual salespersons to refer customers to their services therefore getting the lead transfered into tickets for a raffle. Irisink received many leads from all 7 Mac Stores and transferred them all into the pot. We were all told about this back in February. Apparently May was the the month of the drawing and Yours Truly was in for a surprise.


Those crazy guys had me in suspense all week that I was either going to get a promotion, get fired or get transferred but instead they gave me a giant check accompanied by a surprise party complete with an adorable cake. I was put on the spot and hugely shocked how above and beyond they went just to tell me I'd won. It was gorgeous. I might stick around just awhile longer with the Mac Store. :)

Posted in: chaosgurl, employment, portland on May 13, 2008 at at 8:21:00 PM 1 comments    

This last Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, I got a gig from 52 Ltd to temp as a production artist at a downtown advertising agency called Leopold Ketel & Partners. They have about 30 staff and have some great accounts, including a lot of not-for-profit organisations like Planned Parenthood, Oregon Public Broadcasting, the Oregon Humane Society and more. It's always nice to see an agency with heart, rather than one that's just interested in making money.

The work there was pretty simple stuff - presentation and pitch boards and books and some finished artwork. However, I handled it all with my typical ruthless efficiency and so wasn't particularly surprised when my supervisor came to me early on Thursday morning and asked whether I was interested in a full-time position. We had a brief discussion about it and I told her I'd get back to her next week with a decision.

Full-time work would be great, that's for sure - it would bring a lot of security that we currently don't have. Struggling for enough part-time work to meet the rent each month sucks. But this position is only as a production artist with no guarantee of any creative work whatsoever. We didn't really discuss pay at this early negotiation stage, but you can bet it would be substantially less than what I was earning in Australia. On the other hand, LK&P seems to be a truly creative agency (with no egos!) and I feel I could learn a lot there. Who knows, if I keep blowing them away with the quality of my work, there could be plenty of opportunity for advancement.

So I feel that the best course of action is to let LK&P know that I'm interested and see what pay they are offering. If it's below a certain level (I do have standards!) then I'll pass and keep on with 52 Ltd, maybe asking them to start looking for full-time creative work for me instead of just part-time. But if LK&P's offer is good enough...

Posted in: chaosboy, employment, portland on April 26, 2008 at at 9:31:00 AM 0 comments    

I took my camera with me to work today to give you all a little look at where I'm at and what it's like... nothing amazing, but at least you can visualise things a bit better.

First off is the commute. Piotr is in Ottowa for Easter, so I'm having to make my own way to work at the moment... what is a rapid 20 minute drive in the car becomes a one hour-plus saga on public transport. I have to walk half a mile to the MAX station, as seen here:

I have to catch this three stops to the north, where I transfer from Portland's Tri-Met system to Vancouver's C-Tran. The number 4 bus takes me over the Columbia River to Vancouver's town centre, where I transfer again to another bus, the 37, which takes me all the way out to far South-East Vancouver, an area known as Mill Plain. Fortunately, tickets purchased on either system are valid on the other, so the transfer is quite easy.

I should mention here that Vancouver's "CBD" (such as it is) is incredibly dull and empty at 8:30 in the morning. Vancouver really is a satellite suburb of Portland, and almost everyone has already headed down the I-5 to their jobs in PDX by this time. So there's just a handful of people waiting at the bus stop for the long trip east with me.

The bus travels along a main east-west thoroughfare called Mill Plain Boulevard, which is basically a giant strip mall, with shopping centre after shopping centre lining it all the way. Occasionally a hospital or car yard will break the monotony, but otherwise it's wall to wall consumerism for a 10 mile stretch.

Finally, I arrive at my stop and it's another half-mile stroll to Wacom's office, in the middle of a stereotypical industrial park, pretty much the same as anywhere else in the world. You know, the ones with street names like "Innovation Drive" and "Technology Blvd"... we've all seen them. Their building isn't exactly awe-inspiring:

Once inside, I have to grab a visitor's pass from the front desk each and every day and sign in. Then it's off to the studio, a dimly lit room with no windows. Here's my workstation:

They've given me a MacBook Pro just like mine and a big monitor as a second screen. I've also got an Intuos 3 tablet hidden behind the laptop and I also have access to a Cintiq 12 – a tablet with an integrated screen, possibly the coolest thing ever invented – if needed. The mouse is mine, an old favourite that I love to death. Of course, working for a company that makes products that are meant to replace computer mice, I've been given a lot of grief about my choice of equipment. What can I say? I'm still faster at certain things with my clunky old mouse!

Work is still a lot of fun and I've worked on heaps of different projects, which keeps things fresh each day. And having money in my pocket doesn't hurt, either!

Posted in: chaosboy, employment, portland, technology on March 25, 2008 at at 9:43:00 PM 0 comments    

So I've been working out at Wacom for a couple of days now and I just have to say... God, I've missed doing this! Designing is what I do, and I have just realised how much I need it to get my brain in gear: solving problems, dealing with technical issues, getting things done.

The teams is small, but a lot of fun to work with. They produce a lot of material, both internal and external, so there's plenty to do. I seem to have come on board just as they've hit a busy patch, so my initial three day stint looks like it may be extended into next week. Who knows? Piotr, another freelance designer who also came in through 52 Ltd, was originally signed up for a three month contract. He's still there a year later.

The commute to far south-east Vancouver (by both MAX and bus) was pretty simple, although it takes a long time: almost an hour and a half. Fortunately, I've only had to do it once, as Piotr lives fairly nearby and has a car... makes things a lot easier and lets me sleep in a bit in the mornings...

Posted in: chaosboy, employment on March 6, 2008 at at 7:35:00 PM 2 comments    

I'm so excited!

Almost a year after I left my last job in Australia, I have paid employment! It's just a short term assignment through 52 Ltd, but it's a start!

At the moment, it's just a three day stint at Wacom (purveyors of fine graphics tablets) in a production-only role, but it could be a little longer as well, maybe a week or so. Everything I do there will be Top Secret; I have to sign a confidentiality agreement when I start. Getting there will be interesting, as they're way out in the far south-east of Vancouver on the other side of the Columbia River. There is public transport there, but it's going to be a long trip at each end of the day. At the moment, I don't really care - I'm going to make some money!!!

52 Ltd have also given my name to Nike for a 6-month contract doing design on-site with them, which would be very exciting. Could be a while before I hear back on that job, however.

Have I mentioned that I'm excited??

Posted in: chaosboy, employment, portland on March 1, 2008 at at 4:20:00 PM 0 comments    

After promising results for their "W+K Seeking" competition by February 15, Wieden + Kennedy finally got back to me today. I didn't get in.

I have actually suspected as much for a while, as another entrant in Belgium received his "golden ticket" by FedEx on the 18th. So it was a pretty safe bet that if I hadn't got anything by FedEx within a couple of days of the magic date, I wasn't going to make it. Part of me was still believing that they weren't in any hurry to notify me that I had won because I lived here in Portland... it's a very silly part of me and shouldn't be listened to in the future!

I like my entry, I really do. But looking at the few winning entries I have seen (there's links to a few in the blog above), it's obvious that W+K are after something more "left field" and "out there" than what I submitted. They're after people who can provide them with that tangential solution to a problem that hasn't occurred to 99.9% of the population, and my entry didn't present that.

On the bright side, now I can concentrate my efforts on other ways to get employed without the distraction of W+K's carrot hanging over my head.

In closing, I also have to say I'm a bit disappointed in the way that W+K lets you know you haven't been selected. It was simply a postcard-sized sticker on card that says "Wieden + Kennedy gave me this sticker" on the front, while the back is simply a rubber stamped (literally!) message that reads:

SEEKING haiku

you shared your story
one in forty made the cut
not this time for you

Ouch! Not only does the front suggest the old "My parents went to Maui and all I got was this lousy t-shirt" joke (or in this case, "The guy from Belgium is going to W+K and all I got was this lousy sticker"), but the back is brutally to the point. I understand they have thousands of rejections to send out, but surely it could be done a little less harshly than this? People have poured their heart and soul into these entries, hoping for a way into one of the best agencies in the world, and this is what they get back?

Posted in: chaosboy, employment, portland on February 22, 2008 at at 2:32:00 PM 4 comments    

So I finally had my interview with 52 Ltd - the main graphic design recruitment agency here in Portland - today. It all went really well, the Talent Manager who interviewed me was very impressed with my skill set and experience and later told me in an email that my interview was the best of the day. Nice! I told her all about my Wieden + Kennedy prospects and that I'm still waiting to hear about that, so I'm more interested in part-time/freelance work at present. To be honest, I'll probably want to freelance for quite a while, just to get a feel for what's available here in Portland, rather than tying myself down to the first job that comes my way. So hopefully, some work will be coming my way soon! Huzzah!

Posted in: chaosboy, employment, portland on February 7, 2008 at at 6:48:00 PM 0 comments    

In short: still looking!

I had lunch with my cousin Meg (I finally determined that she's my first cousin, once removed!) last week, who – by a pure coincidence – works in the design industry as well. She looked at my book and gave me the names of some people to contact, as well as adding my résumé to her list of freelancers to use in peak periods, saying, "Looking at your book and understanding your experience and skills make me feel quite comfortable about adding your name to that pool as a production artist, designer, and senior designer. This wide range of skills will be helpful when a variety of needs come at us." Quite a vote of confidence, I must say!

Like many other people in town, she uses 52 Ltd to fill a lot of positions, but also pointed me towards Jackie Mathys Creative Staffing, who mainly fill production (rather than creative) positions. After emailing my portfolio through yesterday, I had a long talk on the phone with Jackie herself today. I could sense that she was a little reluctant to consider a senior designer like me for production only positions, but after talking about my experience and reviewing my portfolio, she could see that I'm not a "prima donna, no gruntwork for me" type of designer. I love getting my hands dirty, working as part of a team and finishing what I started. So, I'm on her books now, although she's a bit short of clients to place designers with at the moment.

I also finally got an actual interview with 52 Ltd organised today! I see 52 Ltd as more of a long term solution to my employment prospects, as they will place creative positions, but they've taken a long time to get back to me. Apart from assuring me that I was on their "yes list" – meaning my portfolio impressed them – I hadn't really heard from them before today. So I'm meeting with their Talent Manager on Thursday week... can't wait!

Posted in: chaosboy, employment, portland on January 29, 2008 at at 8:57:00 PM 0 comments    

Okay, entries for Wieden + Kennedy's "Seeking" have officially closed for the year - the page on their website now just thanks everyone for their entry and then lists all 6000-odd names, complete with the exact date and time they were submitted. I feel sorry for those who enrolled on the 14th of January... one day to come up with something exciting and creative couldn't have been easy!

So, as promised, here's my entry (PDF, 2.8MB). Thanks to my web stats, I know that I have had heaps of visitors to this blog who have searched for "wk seeking" or some variant thereof over the last month... looking for inspiration, perhaps?

Anyway, I'm really happy with mine. I set myself the challenge of telling my story and showing my creativity without showing one single piece of design work that I've done for any previous client or agency. The drawings were all done in pencil on tracing paper, scanned into the computer, cleaned up and converted to bitmap. This allowed me freedom to experiment with colours and placement and had the added bonus of keeping my file size small... my 2.8MB file easily beat the 6MB limit set by W+K. All the photographs (with the exception of the wedding shots) were taken by me.

If you do come here and look at my PDF, I'd love to hear what you think of it in the comments section.

But I haven't been resting on my laurels: I sent my résumé and portfolio out to four Portland agencies yesterday, and I've also teed up a lunch meeting with my cousin who works in the industry here in Portland... it's time to get to work!

Posted in: chaosboy, employment, portland on January 18, 2008 at at 9:40:00 AM 5 comments    

Well, I've put a lot of hard work and thought into my application and I finally sent it off last night – two days before deadline! I'm really pleased with the way it turned out: it looks great, tells a good story and also puts forward the way I see the world through my "designer's eyes".

I've already got a receipt email back from W+K saying that the review process will take 2-4 weeks, so here's hoping! I really don't think I could have done any better. Once final submissions to W+K have closed, I'll post the PDF for people to look at, but until then, everyone will have to fend for themselves!

On another note, 52 Ltd still haven't got back to me on my résumé submission, which is a little disappointing. I'll get in touch with them soon to see what's up... maybe it got lost in the pre-Christmas rush.

Posted in: chaosboy, design, employment, portland on January 14, 2008 at at 9:28:00 PM 0 comments    

As soon as I got my employment authorisation, I started to set the wheels in motion to find a job ASAP.

Even before I had left Sydney for Portland, I had singled out 52 Ltd as a company that could help me: a graphic design recruitment agency that works solely in Portland, helping designers find full-time, part-time or contract work. So I sent them my résumé and portfolio just before Christmas and am now waiting to hear back from them. They did tell me on the phone that they normally review portfolios on a Monday but that due to the holidays, there may be a bit of a delay to their normal schedule.

The other application I have in the pipeline is to the enormous independent ad agency, Wieden + Kennedy. This agency was founded in Portland and now has offices scattered all across the globe: New York, London, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Shanghai and Delhi. There are 337 people employed in Portland alone, and they boast clients like Nike, Coke and Starbucks. Basically, I'd kick myself if I didn't at least try to work for an agency of this calibre.

So I went to their website where I had to fill in a curious little questionnaire, ticking off personality traits and skills that matched me. Then I just hit a button and my answers were "photocopied" – complete with green light buzzing across the screen – and sent on their way.

A few days later, I received this email:

Hi Cameron,

You sound like an interesting person. We want to know more. We want to see what you can do. Send us something before January 15 and maybe win a prize.

The content is up to you, but here's our guideline for format: a pdf document, 20 pages or less, formatted 11x17 inches landscape, no larger than 6MB. It will be viewed on screen and not printed, so design with this in mind. To be eligible for prizes and adventure, please send to seeking@wk.com before January 15.

Thanks, we're looking forward to learning more about you.

Wow! So I'm guessing from this that they don't want to see my everyday portfolio here... what they're after definitely seems to be an exercise in creativity and communication: a single chance to impress them with my skills. My thoughts were confirmed by another email a couple of days later:

Dan Wieden and David Kennedy created W+K as a place for people to express their voice and create the best work of their lives. This place depends on those people.

We created wk.com/seeking to meet more talented and interesting people. Specifically, people who could work in our creative department - people who can tell a story well in all sorts of media, people who solve problems with ideas. We seek designers, writers and art directors, but expect to find a few artists, product designers, editors, people who create all kinds of things and who don’t fit into a neat basket. People with experience, people who’ve never created an ad in their life. You maybe.

We are on track to receive 6000 profiles by January 1. We will fly 50 of those people to Portland in late March for an adventure. We’ll put you up for a couple of days, you can check out Portland, we’ll meet each other, no strings attached. It ought to be pretty incredible.

Next step, if you haven’t already, is to submit a PDF to seeking@wk.com by January 15. Please follow the specs that Robin sent.

The content of the PDF is open. Tell us your story, show us what you can do. Surprise us, delight us, amaze us.

We can’t wait to see what everyone sends. This is going to be fun.

Even more wow! 6,000 applicants??? It's kind of daunting, but hey, I got into Randwick TAFE's Graphic Design course all those years ago by beating out 3,000 other prospective students! So I've been working away on my document since we got back from Idaho Falls and I'm pretty happy with the way it's turning out so far. There's still a lot of work to do, but at least I have the advantage of a really interesting story to tell! Here's a tiny glimpse of a page that I'm working on:

Posted in: chaosboy, design, employment, portland on January 1, 2008 at at 3:21:00 PM 3 comments    

It's been a weird couple of days. From being elated after finally receiving the last piece of required information for my visa application, I've now experienced the other end of the emotional spectrum as I find myself without a job.

Vein hasn't been doing well for some time now - slow business for months and a lack of new prospects - and management finally decided that things had to be cut back. Unfortunately, I was the easy target as I'm pretty much leaving anyway to go to the US. But I'm not too stressed about things although it's certainly not an ideal situation - there's some severance and holiday pay owing that should see me through.

In a way, the other staff are in a worse situation as they have to decide whether they want to help Vein get out of this rut or look after number one and look for new jobs. Things certainly didn't sound too positive when they were outlined to us today - huge tax debts and worse. It happens to so many small businesses, I just didn't expect it to happen to a company I worked for.

So this is the crew out for drinks on my last afternoon: Kristen (account exec), Clare (most awesome studio manager), Katherine (designer), me and Paul (designer and Flash guru). Missing is Luisa, the art director, who unfortunately had to be at a design conference today. A great bunch of people who loved working with, who I will miss terribly and for who I truly hope for the best.

Posted in: chaosboy, employment, Sydney on March 30, 2007 at at 3:15:00 AM 0 comments    

Like sand running from my fingers, I felt Laika fall out of my prospects. This has me down for a couple of reasons.
One being that I have had my eye on this company for awhile and I only have heard great things about it and the wonderful work they do and I only wanted to live here in Portland to be a part of it. However, today I have been told that I don't fit in. And I'm at a loss of how to convince them otherwise.

I'm also down because of the nonchalant way that I was let down. I had all my hope out on the table and Roland came into the store. I worked the courage up to say hello to him and he seemed relieved he finally had a good chance to tell me that there was nothing he could find that I could do within his animation dept. I kept a smiling face and he said he would "pass along" my stuff. Meanwhile, my heart had fallen onto the carpet.

It's not that the Mac Store is a bad fit for me in general, but idea that I have to look at it as being a more permanent workplace for me is almost too much to bear. When will my time come? How can someone like Roland come in and talk about CHANCES and then just brush me off? My self-being is down today.

Posted in: chaosgurl, employment, portland on February 24, 2007 at at 5:44:00 PM 0 comments    

So, recently this week I have been promoted from a customer service rep to an assistant store manager at the Apple Reseller store in which I work. I am happy with this new position because I get more money but on the other hand it has had me a bit down. There are a lot of benefits to working with this company and there is even room to move up but I never had intentions to be working in retail as a career. No offence to retailers, but it just isn't my calling in life. Right now, I have all my bets put down on one company who I know will hire me someday even though it might not be tomorrow or the day after...and I know the first "real" design job is the hardest but these people are why I came to Portland in the first place!

Posted in: chaosgurl, employment, portland on February 18, 2007 at at 9:34:00 AM 0 comments