Poster - Irene Pereyra worked with Tom Klinkowstien to create the internationally acclaimed poster "A day in the life of a designer in 2030”

Pratt: You have a website (www.irenepereyra.com) and a blog
(www.irenepereyra.blogspot.com). How Important is having a presence on the web for you as a designer?

Irene Pereyra: Extremely. For example, last year Tom Klinkowstein and I created a large diagrammatic poster about “a day in the life of a designer in 2030” for the Singapore International Design Festival, which was also shown at Pratt. Design festivals are the traditional way (traditional meaning, pre Web 2.0) to get some sort of exposure outside of your family and friends for design work.

However, I posted some of the process, as well as the link to the actual pdf on my blog, and within a week Boing Boing (www.boingboing.net) picked it up and highlighted the entire project on their site. Very quickly other people started putting it up on their blogs, commenting on it, and linking to the pdf. From there it spread like wildfire. All of a sudden people I had never met started emailing me, asking me for copies of the poster. Then a design firm in Belgium contacted us and asked if they could do an interview about it. Through there we got exposure on Core77 (www.core77.com), and we didn’t have to do anything for it! I just had it up on my blog, and that was it. So why not just put stuff on the web? You never know who might see it.

Pratt: How has your online behavior changed in the past couple of years?

Irene Pereyra: Well for me, my routine in the morning when I get to work is that I grab some coffee, open up my Pageflakes account (like iGoogle), read the latest interesting articles, and then I read my emails. My feed-reader comes before my emails now. Then I might comment on an interesting article, or write a quick post myself.

Three years ago I would go online and go to nytimes.com, nrc.nl (a Dutch newspaper), and maybe I’d browse some other sites. I would be hopping from site to site to get my information. But now, with my RSS feed I have all the sites and blog stories I want on one page. I can quickly browse through the titles and then read what I want.

Some people are still a bit confused as to what RSS can do for you, so for those of you who’ve never used RSS, I suggest going to commoncraft.com and look at some of the videos posted. It demystifies the process.

Pratt: What feeds do you subscribe to?

Irene Pereyra: I still read news sites, like nytimes.com, and nrc.nl, but also more specific feeds that I’m interested in like the technology section of the BBC, or David Byrne’s (Talking Heads) blog (http://journal.davidbyrne.com/). I also subscribe to specific design blogs like Core77, Logic+Emotion (http://darmano.typepad.com/), Seth Godin’s Blog and (http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/) Nussbaum on Design (www.businessweek.com/innovate/NussbaumOnDesign/) amongst others.

Pratt: How do you think reading those blogs helps you as a designer, how does it effect your process?

Irene Pereyra: I don’t think it really affects my process, but I do think that for you to be successful in any field you need to be knowledgeable about it, and actively participate in it. Being in the creative “work-force” you don’t always get all the stimulation you need from your job, so it’s up to you to stay up to date on all the latest developments and keep a finger on the pulse.

Pratt: Do you comment on those blogs or are you involved in any design forums that you find helpful?

Irene Pereyra: If I read something that I’m interested in, or feel I can add something to, then I’ll definitely comment.

Pratt: You wrote a blog for the entire time you were working on your thesis. Can you talk a little about what you specifically did for your project?

Irene Pereyra: That is a long story… My thesis was all about how the design field, and what it means to be a designer is changing. Being a graphic designer used to be a very specific skill. There were superstar designers like Milton Glaser and Paul Rand who basically invented the idea of branding, and most clients were not quite sure how the process exactly worked. Not many people were able to do what they did.

Nowadays there are hundreds of designers graduating each year, and services that used to be done in house are now being outsourced to places like India and China. Photoshop and other applications have leveled the playing field and starting salary for your average adobe-computer-monkey job coming out of design school is 30-40k.

So I started to wonder what other tools and abilities designers have in their arsenal in order to remain competitive, and if there was more to design than putting a final face on a product or service.

I realized that designers have a certain skill set. Good designers are extremely meticulous and organized people. Designers not only enhance visual aesthetics, they approach problems with a fresh perspective and discover radical dimensions of improvement. This leads to countless innovations that shouldn’t be limited to design, since everything has the potential to benefit from this method of thinking.

For my thesis I thought it would be interesting to see what those skill sets are, and if those skill sets could be applied to other professions outside of traditional design environments. Like I said, long story! J

Pratt: How do you think this “Democratization of Design” pertains to designers on the web?

Irene Pereyra: Five years ago if I wanted any sort of presence on the web, I would either have to pay someone a lot of money to make me a site or I would have to learn how to build a site. Nowadays, with sites like blogspot, facebook or Myspace, you can have a large presence on the web pretty much for free, and without having to know anything about coding.

The tools that used to be reserved for the select few are now available to everyone. Why would I pay for a developer when I can just create my own site on blogspot, or through a content management program like Drupal? Sure, most likely the outcome is not going to be as professional looking as it could be if a designer creates it, but it’s sufficient for most people. These tools have brought the web down to a level where it’s available for everyone, and not just mega-companies with thousands of dollars to spend.

Nowadays the web is more about allowing users some control over content. Web designers are not going to be out of work anytime soon, but the rules of the game have changed, and I personally think it’s a very positive movement.

Pratt: Do you think it’s important that PRATT COMM D has a virtual community like you see on other schools like SVA? Do you think as an alumna you would use a site like this?

Irene Pereyra: The question is whether you want to use a specialized virtual community like the CC Web-working site, or a more general one like facebook. It’s a matter of personal choice. I’m not on facebook or Myspace for example, because I have a blog and a website so I don’t feel like I need it. I personally don’t like the casual themes and nonsense messages on facebook, it doesn’t really appeal to me, but it does to a lot of other people. There are many choices now, and that’s great.

Pratt: In that way specified sites like the CC Webworking may more effective in connecting designers?

Irene Pereyra: Exactly. I use LinkedIn for example because it’s more professional and you’re connecting to people on a professional level, and not just to your friends on a personal level. I would much rather be a part of a group like Pratt’s viral community then Myspace for example.

Pratt: How did being Web Educated help your career?

Irene Pereyra: We are in a profession that is changing all the time, and I think that right now we’re at this point that if you understand web 2.0 and social-networking tools, you really have an edge over other designers out there still living in 1998 (and trust me, there are a lot of those). I think a lot of people don’t realize how fast print is disappearing, and how few design places are left that solely focus on print, I think it’s up to the student to educate themselves and get involved with the web as much as possible. Knowing how to use Photoshop just isn’t enough anymore if you want to get ahead in your career.

Pratt: What is your roll as a professional designer now?

Irene Pereyra: I’m an Interactive Media Designer for a web company in Manhattan. Our company mostly deals with corporate clients like AT&T.com, DiscoverCard.com, and HBO.com. We also do some work for Lego and Sesame Street.

Our company functions in a pretty traditional advertising company sort of way. There are teams for each client, and projects are broken down into chunks and handed off to the different wheels of the production cycle like marketing, creative direction, copywriting, information architecture, design, and development (coding). So it’s a very multi-disciplinary process. My job is basically to visualize the front-end side of these sites.

Pratt: Do you think that being “web-educated” helped fast track your career?

Irene Pereyra: When I first started my blog I was like “Who the hell is going to read this?” But after a while I realized that people were interested in what I had to say. The comments I received were very positive, and from all over the world. It gave me a lot of confidence in what I was doing, especially during thesis, at a time where you can feel very overwhelmed with trying to come up with an interesting topic.

Having a design specific blog also makes it easier to network. I’ve had people in our industry wanting to add me to their LinkedIn network after seeing my blog. It’s weird but in a strange way you have a more personal relationship with someone if they’ve ever commented on your blog or if you’re connected through LinkedIn. These platforms allow you to have interactions with CEOs of companies or designers you admire, and this wouldn’t have been possible before. It levels the playing field for you as a young startup designer a bit.

I think there are a lot of positive things that can come out of having your own blog if you take it seriously. I mean blogs aren’t for everyone. You need to post something at least once a month. There’s nothing worse then a blog that’s not updated for months. People expect new content.

Pratt: But everyone can webwork, you don’t need a blog to web-work.

Irene Pereyra: Definitely… That’s the beauty of these platforms, you can tailor it to whatever you want.

Pratt: And that’s what we’re trying to do with Web-working, give people a free space where they can show they’re work and connect with other students and Alumni. Giving kids a first step to get involved.

Irene Pereyra: It’s great. It’s a step in the right direction