process

All nighters, chugging the coffee, busting out the work until 3 o’clock in the morning. No, I’m not talking about our studio week. But Portfolio Center provides students with the environment that gives us the “process” skills. I’m actually talking about the professional field. You know, that place that we will head after we are done with our two year initiation here at Portfolio Center. To get a grasp of web design, I decided to interview Dan Lynch.
My first meeting with Dan Lynch was at Avenue A Razorfish where Jessica, Jackie, and I sat in their lounge with coffee. Dan enthusiastically took all of us on a tour of the office, where we got to meet several other members of the Razorfish team. Running into him at the Octane party, Jackie and I got the chance to really know Dan, and I could feel the passion and excitement that he has for the design field, which lead me to want to interview him for Mason’s class.
Meeting at 97 Estoria, I knew right away that Dan was a relaxed and comfortable type of person. The type of person that can makes others feel relaxed. His approachable and enthusiastic attitude about design makes me enjoy afternoons where I can sit and have a conversation like this.
Maybe it’s the fact that we are in the middle of studio week, but our conversation went directly to the process of design. Now that I am in the completion of the execution phase, I can clearly understand what Dan means when he says “busting ass” to get things done.
Having several different jobs and a lot of freelance experience, Dan has definitely learned the web design world from both the small firm dialogue, as well as the large. But he seemed to enjoy his time doing freelance. Having the freedom to go anywhere, do great work, and take time off if you need to would definitely be a great way to keep loose and not get tied down into doing the same thing over and over again. From my past design experiences, I have seen designers get into these comfort levels and don’t strike out of that. Freelance is a great way to stay out of that.
Although, I have to say that Dan seems to love Razorfish. “The creative director that I am working under now is very understanding. If there doesn’t seem to be a lot of work because your projects are waiting for management and client relations, he’s like, ‘Sure. Get out of here.’ And when it’s time to bust ass, then you’ll be putting in your hours. I’ve had creative directors in the past that weren’t understanding of that.”
Dan also gave a lot of insight into the web design world. I’ve often pondered how the whole scheme worked, and I’m sure that it can be different at many firms. I know that I was scared when I started to jump into the DreamWeaver/Flash/CSS world. Of course, I want to learn more about all of these programs and be ready to build my own website. But Dan put my mind at ease for the fact that when he completes his design he takes it to the ‘technology’ department. Of course, there is still a strong communication of what needs to happen with the design, and knowing this technology and what it can do is crucially important. The knowledge will definitely serve us well in the future, but it is always nice to know that you have a backup system of some sort to help make things flow.
In a previous meeting, Dan had mentioned that he was an instructor at Portfolio Center. With every meeting I have had with him, I could see him as a great teacher, and I hope he considers coming back to us.
There is so much more I could say about Dan Lynch, but I wanted to keep this simple. And I hope that you all can take something away from this interview. I want to add more, so look for another blog later.