Which ways can you use interactive "self Promotion" in obtaining job opportunities?

Interactive self promotion is something that has become standard for graphic designers and artists to promote their work in the hope that it will lead to a job oppertunity. Interactive promotion includes; websites, blogs, digital booklets, posters, videos, games, powerpoints.

For example, a company called "Launchfire" create interactive self promotions for companies, and display case studies to show hwo successful they were. Upon looking at it I can see that using something interactive increases the chance that the user will be interested in what you have to offer and thus will greatly help to promote you and your work.
Launchfire

What other skills do you need to aquire? And what steps will you take in obtaining these skills?

Due to the experience within graphic design already, I have learnt a lot of the skills that will be required of me. However, as I have only been in one type of graphic design, I feel that there is a lot more that I could learn but am unsure of where and what it is that I need to learn. Upon my initial thoughts I think I have more within Adobe Illustrator to learn, more about creating logos, and I've always wanted to learn how to digital paint with my tablet, but just never had enough spare time since purchasing it to do so.

So how will I obtain these skills?;

• Adobe Illustrator - Use the sessions with Andy Way to gain a better understanding so that I can then research anything I then which to learn afterwards and know what I need to look for.
• Digital painting - Do some research into tutorials and how it's done, and find some time to practise some digital paintings.
• Creating logos - I have an upcoming oppertunity from a friend who I created a logo for a family member of their's business. They will be creating websites and I have been asked to create graphics and the logos for them, should the business work out.

What skills do you have already?

About 4-5 years ago I had a very boring summer and decided to teach myself photoshop, from the influence of computer gaming and the community around it. I began learning how to create cool forum signatures for members when they post, which I then later moved onto experimenting with different types of imagery and effects which I could create. Within the community there were weekly SoTW competitions (signature of the week), where you would be given a brief with a specific theme and you had to create a signature for this. It was an excellent way for me to test what I learnt each week in that summer and onwards, to be restricted to what you can create and to make the most of it.

In November 2008, I was asked from a family friend to join them in a new business, as they wanted to start doing clothing printing instead of just selling fashionwear. I took up this chance and began learning other software such as SignGo, Versaworks and Adobe Illustrator. From this I learnt about vectorising images, how to prepare them for this (converting the image to black and white, vectorising, then separating for different colour prints of vinyl). As the years went on we then gained new machinery and were able to create multicoloured transfers, where I was then confident enough to see how people who had been using it for a few years were doing it, to then propose a new idea to them for preparing the images and for it to be more accurate and simpler to do.

During my time at the course in Plymouth University, I learnt the basics of Adobe Dreamweaver and Flash to create; my own website and a small game. Though I may not use Flash again it was good to see how it's done, and the difference in coding compared to Dreamweaver. I did learn alot from learning Adobe Dreamweaver, but it was mostly because I wanted to know more and did the research to satisfy myself for this.

We are now getting an embroidery machine in which I am now learning how to "Digitize" an image, so that the images can be created to be embroidered onto clothing. Due to the previous programs that I have learnt from the beginning and the techniques that I have picked up along the way, I was able to easily interpret the program and understand what needs doing without much support.

To put it in a list, the skills I have already aquired are;

•  Knowledge within programs: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop. Adobe Dreamweaver, Adobe Flash, SignGo, Versaworks, Design Studio, Amaya, Windows & Mac OSX operating systems and software.
• Competant with machines: Summa cutter, Roland VersaCamm, Amaya XT embroidery machine, Heatpress/Cappress, Scanner.
• Creating designs for: Car wraps/designs, Stickers, Advertising boards, Clothing, Posters, Logos, Website layouts, Profile pictures/signatures for websites.

Who are the top five design companies within the UK?

According to a blog post by "Design Intellect" the top 5 'award winning' design agencies are;

1. 1HQ
2. Wolff Olins
3. Why not associates
4. Williams Murray Hamm
5. Venture Three

Design Intellect 

However, here are the top 5 'award winning' advertising marketing agencies;

1. Wieden & Kennedy
2. We Are Social
3. Vallance Carruthers Coleman Priest
4. Universal McCann
5. Tullo Marshall Warren

 Design Intellect

These results may be inaccurate however due to the blog posts being for the "top 50" for their category, however the bottom 5 are agencies which have worked for many well-known companies therefore I presume they are some of the top companies out there.  For example, "1HQ" has worked for: Coca Cola, Cadbury, Nestle, Marks & Spencer, Tesco and more. Wieden and Kennedy has worked for: Nokia, Nike, Honda, The Guardian, The Kaiser Chiefs and more. Given the businesses that they have worked with, even though the blog posts are somewhat inaccurate in the order of "top 50" I feel that these companies are somewhere near the top 5 design companies. I feel that the website is reliable as the creator of it has 15 years freelance experience within website and graphic design, meaning he has done a lot of research prior to the posts; it's what a freelance graphic designer does, so that they can know what's happening in the industry and keep up to date.

What skill set's are needed by a Graphic Designer?

As a graphic designer you will need some passive skills to be able to have a basic understanding of the area of work and the programs/materials that you will encounter. There will be specific skills however that you will need to know for a chosen job within the Graphic Design area. For example;

• Logo design - Knowledge of Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator, basic understanding of colours, understanding of copyright, layout and how images are conveyed.
• Clothing printing - Knowledge of Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator, Sign cutting software, Embroidery software, ability to vectorise images, understanding of copyright, previous experience within t-shirt printing or willing to learn the process to produce a design onto garment.
• Website design - Knowledge of Adobe Dreamweaver, Photoshop/Illustrator, Flash, understanding of copyright, competant with HTML, JAVASCRIPT, CSS.

So you can see, three very different jobs within graphic design, that have many specific skills/knowledge required, but also common skills which are generic within this area of work. Knowing your colours, layout, copyright, representations of images and competant to learn digital programs quickly are vital to being a successful graphic designer in this generation. Most jobs will require you to be competant within a program for the creation, whilst others will also require you to learn the machines and how they work (setting up correctly, what to do when it has finished, what to do next etc).