An interview with Sara Tack was recently featured on the AIGA Upstate New York web site. Tack discusses challenges faced by women designers, and offers advice to young people entering the graphic design business. Below is part two – the full interview can be found here.
UPSTNY Member Interview
Sara Tack – Senior Vice President of Image & Identity for Wanderlust and Principal Artist for Smith & Jones
(continued)
AIGA: What challenges do you feel female designers face in this field? As a designer, how do you address these challenges?
TACK: I am a feminist at heart, so I don’t believe female designers should shy away from opening their own firms or going for the top creative jobs. We are still competing with the old-boy network. A 2009 survey, found that 82 out of 101 art directors were male and 19 were female. View Presentation>>
Many women are forced to place their design career in competition with raising children. You could say this about any career I suppose. But design is a deadline driven business, not known for its 9-5 punch the clock hours. We work long days and late into the evening to make deadlines. It’s not easy to nurse a baby for six months to a year and work 10-12 hour days, no matter how supportive our partners are. Art directing a three day photoshoot, on location out of town, might be impossible for a young mother. We make decisions about taking on clients or projects hoping that the workload or deadline won’t interfere with our child’s school play or soccer tournament.
As a female designer, I address these challenges by giving back and supporting organizations that support women of all ages, races and economic backgrounds. For many years I’ve offered my design services to Planned Parenthood and most recently to GirlCare, either gratis or at reduced rates.
AIGA: What would your top piece of advice be for a designer who is just getting started in the industry?
TACK: There are seven words you need to remove from your vocabulary:
just | simple | basic | like | you know | made
I spend a lot of time teaching my students how to present. Too often I hear the following statements:
“This is a ‘just’ a ‘simple’ brochure.”
Well if it’s ‘just’ then why should I care? If it is ‘simple’ then why did I pay you so much to design it?
“This is a ‘basic’ logo.”
If it is ‘basic’ then I’m not going to believe it is great.
“I ‘made’ this piece ‘like’ ‘you know’ one of those brochures you see in ‘like’ a rack.”
Why use the word made when you can use the word design. Are you a maker or are you a designer? If you need to substitute a word for ‘design’ use ‘create’. It is the root for creativity.
‘Like you know’ - no I don’t know, and what does ‘like you know’ mean? ‘Like a rack’ implies that it is something else other than a rack.
Listening to someone speak who inserts the word ‘like’ after every other word is grating. The presentation would sound more intelligent and convincing if your response was, “I chose to design the size of this brochure so it would fit into a standardized rack.”
Write one paragraph about your design rationale before you present. Writing will help you omit the seven deadly sin words from the presentation.
AIGA: In what way does being a part of AIGA enhance your career being a designer?
TACK: While I love living ‘Upstate’, I’m too caught up in my own daily bubble and 18 minute commute. Getting any farther south than Poughkeepsie is a rarity. AIGA helps keep me informed and feeling connected to the design community at large, while providing a forum to connect with designers on the local level. It’s one of our best, all inclusive resources for design education, history, current debates and relevant issues surrounding our profession.
Posted by newyorkupstate in Member Interview | April 5, 2010
If you're interested in reading the full interview, go to Sara Tack's AIGA Member Interview
