Core77

In the latest article at Coroflot's Creative Seeds blog, Carl Alviani provides a great argument why young designers might want to stay away from the design poles. It's kind of impossible to pick the best part here (it's all great), but try this on for size:

What finally inspired me to look beyond New York was a pair of realizations that hit in rapid succession. The first was that many freelance clients were remote, or might as well have been. Some were in other time zones, found through digital word of mouth; others were just a few subway stops away, yet we met in person perhaps once or twice in a year, exchanging files electronically and conferencing over the phone. "If it doesn't matter where I am physically," went the reasoning, "why am I living in the most expensive city in North America?" The second realization was that all of the Senior Designers I knew in New York--not just most, but every single one of them--had gotten their start somewhere else. Usually somewhere less sexy: Pittsburgh, San Diego, rural Connecticut.

These days, the reason seems obvious: in a tightly packed market, it's nearly impossible for anyone but a bona fide prodigy to get meaningful experience in a creative studio. Wages are low and turnover high, so inexperienced interns and juniors are handed small pieces of pick-up work, not major projects that they see through from beginning to end. In order to develop the sorts of solid, concept-to-market pieces that make a portfolio shine, a young designer needs to work somewhere that needs them, not one eyeing them dubiously until the next hungry grad takes their seat.

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