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What happened after graduating? Upon graduating, I immediately started free- lancing. I had a variety of jobs at small studios, agencies, and in-house design departments. I picked up a lot of skills freelancing—most importantly, how to ne- gotiate my rate. My first freelance job was in-house at an underwear company, which gave me insight about working for a brand.
Later, I worked for a small studio focused on art and design clients. For the first month, the position was an internship that paid a small stipend. In the beginning, I was offered an unreasonably low stipend for a city as expensive as NYC—which wouldn’t even cover rent. But I negotiated, and the second offer was about $1,400 a month, which was still low, and I ended up working forty-plus hours a week. If I did the math,
I was getting about $3 an hour. I figured I’d stay, however, for the experience and because it’s the expectation to work for low wages when you’re just starting out.
Honestly, this wasn’t the best environ- ment for me personally, but I did learn a lot. I got to work on projects from brainstorm- ing to research to the final product. Plus, I gained a mentor from working closely with the senior designer. To this day, she still answers my questions about negotiating rates for freelance projects. After a few months at this studio, I decided to look
for something that better suited my goals. The year before, I had interviewed about
a freelance position at the Museum of
Arts and Design (MAD) and, coincidentally, when I started looking for a job again, MAD was looking for an in-house designer. The creative director reached out to me and suggested I apply for the job—and I got it!
Tell us about working at the museum.
As an in-house designer, I had to follow brand guidelines, but I still got to work on a range of projects—from animations and
branding exhibitions to redesigning the en- tire website. The job provided an amazing work-life balance, which was very import- ant to me after my previous job, and it also allowed me to take on freelance projects after hours. Being the only designer at MAD pushed me to learn new skills outside of my comfort zone, furthering my career in ways I would not have imagined.
Eventually, though, I reached my fullest potential there, and I decided it was time
to move on. I am currently exploring other sectors, meeting new people, and con- tinuing to grow. I still reflect on what a good mentor my creative director at MAD was, especially given that he was a man. Because I’d had such sour experiences with male professors at Pratt, I had thought that the best mentors were going to be
the people who shared my identity. But the reality is that gender is just a construct and every situation is different. I’ve learned that not all women are going to support you. Society often pits women—and marginal- ized people in general—against each other. But the truth is, there is power in numbers, and uplifting and empowering each other is the best way to begin to dismantle this extremely flawed system.
Why did you like your museum job better than working in a small studio? A work- life balance is important for staying sane. Some people are completely fine with studios and agencies that expect you to stay until 9:00 p.m. or later every day, but personally, I don’t think I can be the best version of myself as a designer/creative if I’m not in the right headspace. I also don’t want to eat and breathe work all the time. I think there needs to be a balance in life to be able to keep being creative.
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