Issues > Summer 2011 > Essentials > Testimonial > Testimonial

Testimonial

Jonathan Girton
Communication Design Alumni
Harrington College of Design

Currently, I am working as a Junior Designer at 50,000feet in Chicago. I can honestly say that being featured in ARTISTIK Magazine contributed to helping me land this incredible position. That is how the chapter ends, but the following is how the story began. Working and supporting myself while attending design school was an absolute necessity and I had the opportunity to work as a Junior Designer at Harrington College of Design. During those two years, I was able to work with the Communication Design Department Chair, Brad Kisner.

In 2009, I won the grand prize for the National Redesign Clean contest hosted by Clorox. After that exciting achievement, Brad introduced me to ARTISTIK Magazine. He came to me with the chance to be featured and asked me to write about my design process and what it was like to win the Clorox contest. Being published for the first time was a very flattering experience for me and was followed by two more features in ARTISTIK.

After sharing my process in the Clorox contest, I decided that I wanted others to see what else I had to offer as a designer, so I submitted a handful of my best design pieces for the EXPOSED section. A few weeks passed and I received confirmation that my work was selected. I couldn’t believe that I made it through to be published again. When this happened, I started to think about how many people would actually see this magazine, so I contacted the Editor. As it turns out, roughly 16,000 copies of the magazine are distributed to campuses nationwide and the opportunity to have your work seen by students, instructors, and career professionals is there for you to take advantage of. To make it even more enticing, let’s assume that each person has a Facebook account with an average of 85-135 friends. If all 16,000 individuals liked ARTISTIK, those featured in the magazine would have the potential of being seen by 1,360,000-2,160,000 people. How is that for being exposed?

Finally, I was in the thick of my last few semesters at Harrington when I heard that ARTISTIK was having a call for submissions for the upcoming Regional Design Showcase and I would be featured once again. When I interviewed with 50,000feet, I was proud to hand them a copy of this issue with a smile and confidently explain the process of how I got there. Whether you have just started out or you’re about to graduate, you should submit your work to be published. The process is really simple and you never know what opportunities await your future. Being featured in ARTISTIK has helped me in my job search and in landing an awesome design position that I absolutely love.