So last weekend I pulled together a mini book of some of my better design work and submitted it to the local studio, Unboundary, for possible internship. Roughly ten other PC students have also been asked to apply but I am feeling hopeful about my prospects. Unboundary offers an internship to two PC students twice a year. The job would last for two quarters and would be in addition to my schooling. Daunting, though it may be, I think an internship would be a welcome addition to my graduate studies. I think some real life experiences may help me to be more observant to the areas of my design that need more work. I’ve been doing some reading into Unboundary and from what little I’ve been able to gather it seems like a really cool place with deep, strong ties to Portfolio Center. Their website has little…well actually next to nothing… to show when it comes to examples of their work, which at first was rather startling. In school, we are taught that, above all, our most important work is our final book. It’s all about the book. The book shows the world what we as designers have to offer. It is insight into how our brains work and how well we can get good ideas out of our heads and on to paper for others to see and understand. It was this mentality that had me confusedly searching the Unboundary Web site for the portfolio page. Then I read an article from STEP magazine about Unboundary’s recent rebranding and things began to make more sense. My old, Intro to Media Architecture instructor, Wade Thompson (consequently the old creative director at Unboundary, introduced me to a new way…the future perhaps (or perhaps it has always been this way)…to think about the purpose of design. Design isn’t about pretty pictures. It’s not, as my uncle put it, selling people a bunch of crap they don’t need. It’s not just posters, it’s not just brochures or glossy magazines or colorful packaging. The ideal definition of design is seeing the world in new ways in order to solve old problems. The designer’s potential is to rethink communication strategies that make business and life more fulfilling, efficient and effective. I could go on and on or I could just let the article say what it says best.
Design thinking adds the human element that matters at the point of contact (customers’ eyes). Designers are more apt to see patterns and possibilities. They’re more apt to be comfortable with the messiness of intuition. They’re far more open to change. And designers actually make things instead of just talking. Add their outsider perspective and cross-industry experience with corporate cultures, and you can see that clients can get a lot more out of design firms than just handsome collateral. They can get new ways of seeing their businesses, new processes and approaches, new ways of reaching out to customers and staff.
by Nancy Bernard, Thinking Wrong About Design: Unboundary, May/June 2006, STEP magazine
I think that it was ballsy of Unboundary to brazenly go sans portfolio, but I also think it is wise. The whole concept behind the name Unboundary is that the company seeks to tear down barriers with in systems and to establish better means of communications both within the company and between the company and the consumer. The physical work is inconsequential to perspective clients because every company brings problems that have to be looked at in different ways. The solutions for a company like Coca Cola would be vastly different then what the Islands of the Bahamas would need.
I’ll keep you posted as to whether or not I get called in for an interview or selected for the internship. Exciting times.
