EXP

Stuff I shouldn’t have in my portfolio

I worked at the dorms and then Kinkos while doin the full-time student gig back at Ohio State. It was taxing. Right after graduation, a freelance gig fell into place working for EXPRESS.

I slaved alongside a few classmates and we were given old french bits of design to rip off, tweak and turn into t-shirts for young girls at malls. I think they call t-shirts casual tops now and that style of design is called stealing.

As gigs go, this one paid well and when the whistle blew, it was easy to walk away and turn off the gears.

That nice paycheck didn’t make us feel any less dirty though.

It was 1994. I was still working at Kinkos, doing some other freelance work for CD-ROMs and I was feeling spread out. My only goal: to have just one job. Not a lifetime career mind you, just the ability to focus on one thing and make it really good.

There is no one job I’ve found. Even under the auspices of a design firm—jumping from client to client, there is always selling in-between, always the balancing of multiple projects. This I can accept. Stealing designs to make t-shirts for uninspired art directors? Notsomuch.

2 responses to “EXP”

  1. Aaron Avatar

    Hmm, yeah- that sounds terrible.

  2. Long Tran Avatar

    Haha, when I worked for BCBG, it was the same thing. I also worked at Kinko’s. I now have a violent reaction whenever someone says, “GLUE POSITION.”