vacation week
I spent the entire week showing my portfolio to art directors in different news magazines while packing my family up to go on vacation to the sunny vacation hot-spot: Tehran. It was a good exercise for me to get a fresh look at my own stuff using their news-oriented eyes. I must say that I was pleased at their reactions and actually expect to get work eventually. YIPPEE. (Note to self: keep them updated!)
The worst of the worst was not the interview where I rubbed up against a freshly painted RED exiting the elevator door and unwittingly painted myself all red. (In more ways than one.) No, it had to be the art director who flipped through my book in 1 minute flat and shook my hand before sending me out the door. Why did he even bother to open my book?
I blame it on his age and position. He was at a top magazine and would probably be retiring in a couple years and has nothing left to prove. (He was only about mid-50’s.) I think, he has no more ambitions to challenge himself creatively. He is lazy. Warning art directors: the older you are the more comfortable you seem to get using the same talent again and again. It is similar in any profession really. Imagine an architect trained in the 1970s who still insists on using American Gigolo black ash and laquer white walls. (Hmmm. Actually that sounds rather nice…)
What I learned? Challenge yourself, renew your vision or become old and simply efficient while counting the days to your retirement. You cheat yourself of a potentially stimulating creative dialogue when you dismiss other visual people too quickly. All proven experts in any field risk the same danger of acting old and dusty. He was exactly the same skin tone as his stacks of unfiled papers strewn about the tiny office.
Most interviewers offered me a quite place to show my work. Some even offered me a coffee which was very thoughtful. The most organized art directors took the time for real conversation about page design and illustration at an alarmingly leisurely pace. I got to see their past page designs and learned about their recent challenges. It was extremely informative.
I really hope that I will get the chance to prove myself one day. I don’t think I am that far off. They loved my Nabokov drawings. Thanks Lila!
