Design Mementos Ep1: Self-promotion [future]
Hosts Eszter & Elsa take on the #selfinpromotion challenge and encourage the listeners to take part.
With this scripted version of our podcast, you can see how we discuss design through human problems with links and photo references.
Self-inpromotion challenge discussion
elsa
To tackle this idea of future self-promotion we laid out a challenge for ourselves in three forms. There is the digital and indirect promotion, meaning putting your work online, on Instagram, LinkedIn, or any other platform YouTube. And there's also analog and direct promotion, talking to someone in conversation about the work that you do in the past, your projects and lastly there is promoting someone else, giving them a hand and sharing their work.
So Eszter and I have taken this challenge, and we both have very different experiences havnt we? Maybe it's good to know a little bit about what type of designers we are to sort of understand how we went about it. So can you give us a little introduction into your design discipline Eszter?
eszter
Yeah, so for me, I'm a designer of tools for knowledge and empowerment. I use so many different mediums this is the best way for me to define what I do. And what kind of designer are you Elsa?
elsa
I'm a designer of objects, and things have moved mostly. In my work I really try to make invisible things visible...
eszter
We tackled this digital kind of indirect self-promotion first and we both did these Instagram lives over Dutch Design Week, through the Design Academy Eindhoven, Instagram. We did like a takeover and we each got like 30 minutes to talk about our projects and interact with people. For me, it was interesting, I really feel comfortable with digital self motion because I feel kind of anonymous and like people don't really know me and I don't get people's straightaway reactions. But when going into this Instagram Live I really really wanted to get people's interactions I wanted to know what they thought about my project as I was talking about my research into unconscious gender biases. I really wanted to get reactions on people's thoughts on pushing gender biases on children. But all I got was like these love hearts and likes and smiley faces and well that's great, like they liked it, I just I wanted something more from it. So, I just didn't feel like it was something that I really got a lot out of.
For me one of the things I had to define in my in my digital self promotion was what are my values? For me, inclusivity is a strong value, on a personal level, I just hate to feel left out... I have some trauma with this or something. I just don't want to leave people out of the work that I do like on Instagram now I always make sure that I write image descriptions so that it's accessible for people who are blind. And, yeah, in this in this live stream, I was happy that I didn't offend anyone, but I also I just wanted some reaction like some something out of it!
elsa
But also what you did well is not just doing the Instagram live but also posting your work and process. To me this digital self promotion is absolutely terrifying. Like I didn't want to do it at all, this Instagram Live, but luckily you encouraged me to do it. Otherwise I wouldn't have done it at all, because I am so I am scared of being judged, and I am really afraid of talking about my work in such an in such like anonymous way that you don't really see people's responses, but the live that I did was, was fun but I also didn't really get a lot out of it, after eight minutes I was like that's it signing off. To me showing my work on Instagram it doesn't come natural to me like it's really a muscle that I need to flex and stretch in order to, to promote myself. The thing with self promotion which is great, is it's in your own hands, like you are actually the designer of your own content. Whereas, if other platforms, start taking your content, it's kind of out of your control and it becomes a different story.
eszter
Yeah, and you had this experience or?
elsa
I did have this experience. Yes, my work was picked up by Mashable and they wrote an article about me, they made a little video and I was really happy. And then later on I found out that they posted the article on Twitter, and then people started replying to it so I did get the interaction, but I just, it was, it was kind of hurtful. Should I read some of the responses that I got? So, the router that I made the Wi Fi router expands, depending on how many people are connected. So that's kind of good to know, to get the comments so one person is saying "that's creepy as in I don't want to say they stole my idea. I've always said that I wanted a pregnant pulsating sock statue that also provides Internet I've always said this", and then someone else is like, "I've always wanted my wifi router to slowly develop a load in its diaper" it's funny, but I think people don't realize that I actually made it, You know, and I came up with it. I'm anonymous.
eszter
Yeah, theres a human behind this. And how did they title the article because sometimes with Mashable, it's a bit of a place for trolling isn't it?
elsa
Yeah, so the way that they titled it was "this lifelike Wi Fi router sure is interesting to look at". So they already created sort of an incentive for people to, to start having these types of responses as well.
eszter
So, your experience digitally, isn't that great, it's something you engage sometimes with but it's not what you want to do all the time. How is it for you in like an analog self-promotion and direct promotion, how do you do that?
elsa
So analog self promotion is something that I enjoy way more. I can easily in a conversation with someone talk about my project, like, oh I did a project about fermentation for example and show people maybe the work or maybe tell them to check out my website if they are interested, and in a conversation that is more easy for me to, to talk about, and I'm quite happy to share. So, to get that one on one response from someone being like, Oh, all right oh maybe check it out or maybe not. It's just something quicker, something that I enjoy more. And how is that for you to bring your work up in a conversation?
eszter
Yeah, for me, it depends who I'm talking to because if I'm talking to someone in the design field I find it really hard because I have so much anxiety around like the fact that, especially in our study we didn't specialize in something, we can't come out saying I'm an architect, I'm a graphic designer, and well I love to do graphics and I do it in a lot of my projects I would never say to graphic designer, I do graphic design because, I don't know all these proper ways and the rules and stuff so I feel insecurity now when I'm talking about it.
When I'm talking about it with someone who's not in the design field i'm totally happy to talk about my work and explain it to people also because I do a lot of research and for me like I make design not for other designers. And while I love criticisms from the design community the reaction I want is more from people not from a design background because if they don't understand my work and my design then I've failed.
I have tried to talk about my design practice at work, I do part time work as a technician and I do like welding and stuff, when I speak about my work to people there it's so nice and I get opportunities where they're like, Oh, I've always wanted to make a children's book maybe we can work together or maybe you can help implement some different design solutions in how we're working here and so those opportunities I find it easier.
elsa
I think it's also something in the design community that happens that if you talk like you said to a graphic designer for me it's maybe with 3d models, and 3d modeling that if someone asked me to do that I will immediately say, I'm not good at it, but I can do it just to lower their expectations and that is something that we should probably stop doing.
eszter
Yeah, definitely now from what I heard in interviews one way to look at self-promotion is to bring it away from yourself and to bring it away from this idea of bragging, to look at it more that you're stating facts and you're showing your value through your work. So I can say I feel insecure about saying that I'm a graphic designer, but I can also just put my graphic designs on social media, wherever, and it's a fact, I've made this graphic, so I am able to do it! Whether it's good or not is up to someone else. But yeah, it's not about boasting it's just showing facts like I can do this. Hey, I enjoyed it.
elsa
Another thing that we did is promoting other people, and we did it together, which was through a radio show are during the Dutch Design Week In collaboration with RaRaRadio called (G)Radio, you can check out the Instagram as well to see the interviews to listen to them. And that was something really easy and fun to do I think for both of us.
eszter
Yeah, to just talk about other people's work and ask them questions and to learn things it's such a fun thing to do. Self promoting others comes a lot easier. It's a nice position to be in to also support other people and be like you are great, love your work.
I mean, if you guys feel inspired to work on your own self promotion techniques to find out what is working best for you. We really welcome you to take on this challenge as well. If you're a student, recent graduate, or an established practitioner, we want to encourage you to try out these steps, whether it's digital, analog, or of course promoting others.
elsa
We're really excited to learn more about you guys sharing with the community so we can all learn together.
Thanks so much for joining us on the Design Mementos podcast, we will be back next month with a new angle to explore the gender discrimination in design. Don't miss it!
Comments