Ageism in graphics

[YellowPeril]

Although people daren't admit it (because it's illegal) and use other excuses, I believe that ageism is rife in the graphics profession and wonder if anyone else has experience of this.

Despite having over thirty years of experience in graphics - much at high levels, I cannot even get an interview. I'm more than competent at most of the required programmes and those that I know I'm a bit weak at, I'm brushing up on.

I live in between two excellent commuting stations and I make it clear, that if that's not good enough, I'll live in town for the week.

Not that it should make any difference, I'm 59, but I still have a passion for the job and am, I think, a better designer than I've ever been.

I've started a blog on this as well, so if you'd like to take part on that too, it can be found on my temporary site.

Home

[linziloop]

Hi there - not wanting to offend in any way, but looking at the design of the website you have linked to, your design style seems very much so out of date, and of a poor standard, and I wonder if that's the problem, not your age.

[YellowPeril]

Is it the standard of the site or the work that it contains that you think is poor?

I'm not offended and am prepared to take constructive criticism.

I must point out that the site is temporary and is only really a testing page, while I learn the nuts and bolts.

[pcbranding]

I've just had a look at the portfolio on your site and would disagree that the quality is poor. It is a little out of date in terms of it's presentation (styles of photography etc.) but I think this could be addressed if you still have any of the original work to re-photograph/present.
The disadvantage of having a lot of work to choose from over the years is that naturally a project created 20+ years ago WILL look out of date compared to something created last week...styles/attitudes/skills change.

I have seen some shocking work on here on a daily basis from so-called 'designers' who only have a year's worth of work to present and so there is no 'style gap' between their projects and everything sits together more comfortably.

Having been designing for 19+ years myself I am now noticing how my design style and the way I presented my work back then has changed. But I do try whenever I can (in between projects) to polish the strongest of these older projects and bring the presentation up to date.

I'd recommend really looking at updating the photography (simpler backgrounds, NO flowers(!)) and reducing the amount of work you have so that you can create a simpler, cleaner look.
A stationery set and logo can be just a nice Illustrator visual with small drop shadow onto a white ground. It doesn't have to be shot on slate/wooden floor/floating etc.

I know your homepage is temporary and the photo-montage feels a little 'signage company'/'look at all of my work' but it's a bit messy. Have a look at other design folio sites and see what kind of style takes your eye. There's bound to be a Wordpress theme which suits you that would be easier to set up. (Won't go into what Wordpress is etc. but there's a lot of info on this forum anyway if you search.)

We are unfortunately all getting on, but talent IS talent and as much as knowing how to use the latest software is one thing, but doing something good with it (or with a pencil and layout pad) is absolutely another.

Hope that is helpful :)

[YellowPeril]

Thanks for your comments Paul and useful advice. It is as you know, very difficult appraising your own work and more difficult these days, to get the budgets that I was used to.

My other problems include the fact that the photography that I have, is the only reference to some of my work, as a lot what spoiled in storage. Also that my wife has suffered a serious illness which required me to work from home for nearly three years and during that time I worked on a massive catalogue project and little else. This means that I've not got a lot of recent work to show.

Fortunately my wife has made a full recovery - hence my keeness to get back into the loop and away from my hermit like existence.

One.com. who I'm signed up with, supply 'ready made' sites which I shall probably use in the end, however I wanted to discover a little bit about the nuts and bolts end first. Also I didn't want to waste time on building the site only to get advice and comments such as I'm receiving now.

A London based headhunter advised me to include success stories, however old, to illustrate that I've been able to look beyond the aesthetics and provide tactical solutions.

Because my technical knowledge is poor, I rely on advice from people such as yourself and I was told to keep it simple and avoid the use of Flash etc. to enable the site to be seen on a variety of browsers and iPads etc. Also I wanted it to load quite quickly, which the current one does. I'm not a great lover of whistles and bells and to me, if a site is difficult to navigate, it's missed the point.

So, anybody is welcome to comment, but bear in mind my technical knowledge is poor but improving daily.

Thanks all

Terry

[pcbranding]

Terry, I wouldn't wait for more comments on this thread before you decide what to do. Most of the 'helpful' regulars on here will probably agree with freshening up what you have.

I'd now look at your strongest projects and streamline your folio and make it clear what you can do with case studies. I'm not suggesting removing older looking work, just because it looks old. (I could have re-designed the IBM logo back then and would certainly still be featuring it now!)

I think the site itself should be really simple. I don't like fussiness either, so Google around for other design websites and see what you do like. I'm not sure if you have any budget or willingness to get a professional web company on board to help you, but there are a few reliable guys on here who I'm sure could help you set up a Wordpress site with a nice looking theme which would 'house' your work. This would probably only be £200-£300 (web guys correct me if wrong.) if you're uncomfortable doing it yourself.
(Wordpress is a kind of 'online scrapbook' also know as a content management system, that you put your text and images into and the 'theme' then styles and places this info into pre-defined boxes/spaces.)

Don't dwell on the age thing, get your site up. No-one knows the age of who's behind it and the site may generate enough work without you needing to go full time at a design company.

Get stuck in offering advice and feedback on the younger designers' work and feel 'experienced' and able to offer advice. Don't feel like the newbie!

Paul

[Boss Hog]

Did you see this thread?

FREE Website for Designers, Interested?

Which we had no response to might I add

Is this something you would be interested in?

[linziloop]

Is it the standard of the site or the work that it contains that you think is poor?

I'm not offended and am prepared to take constructive criticism.

I must point out that the site is temporary and is only really a testing page, while I learn the nuts and bolts.

Apologies for not being so clear, it was the website itself I thought looked of poor quality, and the work, not so much poor quality, but dated. But obviously this happens to all work eventually so I'm thinking perhaps you could do some self-initiated projects/online briefs to freshen it up a bit and bring your portfolio up to date.

Regarding the website - just as an example of the kind of thing I mean, the white text on a yellow background, it's barely legible. I remember doing a media course as an elective in uni, where most of the students taking it were either I.T students or design students. One of the I.T students made a design with white text on a yellow background - it was slated and ripped to shreds, and forever became a bit of a joke - the "whatever you do, don't put white text n a yellow background when the designers are about, they'll kill you!". It's a really basic thing that as a designer you should know not to do. The colours are shocking choices, and aren't doing anything to suggest "professional graphic designer"

The links down the side there are all different sizes, and you have used a combination of both uppercase and lower case letters.

One of the first things I would expect to see when visiting a designers site is their portfolio, and it took me a while to figure out where yours was. Once in there I can see you have worked with some great clients and have some great work to show, I really think your website needs a lot more work to show what a good designer you are, something more sophisticated and simple, and far less garishly coloured

[Paul Murray]

For a simple, clean portfolio layout, you could consider Welcome :: Indexhibit

It requires PHP and a MySQL database though, so if I was paying extra for those, I'd just use wordpress and have a portfolio/blog theme installed.

[YellowPeril]

My original website was in muted colours that I quite liked, but after asking opinions, the general consensus was that virtually everyone thought the colours were dreary and hated them.

I think that perhaps I have overdone the yellow content and think it works better on the downloadable items that have more blacks and greys to help tone down the whole effect.

As to the white type, although it was on the original background the I uploaded, it doesn't appear on my screen, so I (stupidly) assumed that it wouldn't on others, and as it was only a throwaway line, on a temporary site I wasn't too bothered.

All these comments are constructive and are being taken on board and incidently at the moment I have absolutely no budget.