Some people are jerks

Wow. I knew that things were harsher, faster, go go go in Toronto....but what happened Friday was a rude-awakening. For the past week, I've been developing a resume/dvd kit to hand out to design firms here. By Friday I was confident enough to start hitting the streets again. I set out with 5 places in mind. By 2:30, with the 4th kit delivered, I made my way up to Dupont and Bathurst to go to the last stop. Well, I get to the office on this insanely cold day and find this very nice girl there (she's not the bad part of this story). I ask mention I heard that there was a design position open. She responded saying, "no, I'm afraid not, there is a production manager position open". Now, on this I was mistaken, but a bit confused I asked her if I could check my iBook to verify the job opening. She said fine, and went on to her work. I then sat down and begain opening the email with the job postings. It was indeed a production manager position. While looking I heard some conversation in the open office area involving the girl and another guy that was sitting there. It sounded like concern and later I clued in that it was him asking her "what was up?" 1 second more ladies and gentelmen. 1 second more and I would have closed my iBook and left to go meet up with my friend. But instead what happened was that this guy bolted over to me and curtly asked "may I help you?" Well.....I had already established any help I needed with the woman before. And I was concerned about this guy's attitude. To say that he was about to throw me out the window wouldn't be an understatement. I then mentioned that I was just checking my email to verify the job opening. He then said "I don't appreciate some guy off the street coming in and opening up his iBook". Well...at that point, I was thinking.....this guy was way too paranoid. I then started walking out noticing that this guy had his back up and was furious. I said "that's alright, I don't want to work here anyway, you seem very rude" Annnnnd that's my story. Now my friend Rod and I were going over why he may have been such a dick. We both agreed in the end that he was just that.....a dick. Now granted, he may have been concerned about "hacking" into his system...which I doubt because if he was so concerned with that he would have had the wireless password protected. No....I was simply taking a second to verify my facts before heading out, and he was incredibly rude. Luckily the first 4 weren't like that. They were all very nice and one place even sat down with me and went over my DVD. He seemed very interested and I'll email him thanking for taking the time. As Rod said, it's too bad that the last one had to be met with such an asshole.

wake-up call

oh my god......i've become stagnant. My design has become ubelievably boring and predictable. What awoke me to this realization? Where do I go from here? These are all questions going through my head. I received some advice from an art director friend of mine from back east who is now working here early this morning. Normally I would get my back up at such criticism....but in this particular case I respect this guy and know for a fact that he is a fucking good designer. Also...his advice was true. I sent him a letter and my resume asking if he knew of any jobs open around the city. He wrote back giving me a few job postings and some advice. The advice was concerning my resume. Now....I've had this resume for some time and I didn't put much stock in redesigning it. Since then I've added more stuff...but it's also become cluttered and busy. There was a time I'd look at something like that and say....what the hell am I doing? I can do better than this. I looked at my resume and agreed. It's reeally bad. And i've been sending this out for the last 6 months. Now....really...only one thing doesn't lead to being stagnant....but as I was walkinng along Queen Street and began thinking about my design in the last year. I'm repeating myself! I'm safe in my design! My god.....my website forms haven't changed in a couple of years! It's funny....before I knew the methodology of buidling a website, my design (although raw) wasn't so rectangular. I was actually able to design outside of a box. Everything is so structured now. Really...since I've been out of the design loop, and unemployed, my interest for tryinng has dropped. I used to nitpick and criticize my work. it's gotten to the point that I just want to do it and get it done. I really need to step back and look at stuff around me.....try to get inspired again. I need to get out of this creative rut. Starting with my website. I had done a version some time ago with the notion i was going to redesign verge.ca . I've now come to the conclusion that I'm throwing that out. I'm going to make the most imaginative design i've done in a long time. Here's hoping it works.