Jessica Walsh is one of the most badass designers there is! She is creative, a launcher of quirky ideas and thoughts, and a woman with well-fertilized imagination.
A designer & art director working as a partner at NYC based design firm Sagmeister & Walsh, Jessica Walsh has worked for clients such as Jay-Z, Barneys, The New York Times, Levi’s, and The Museum of Modern Art, among many others. Her work has won most major design awards and has been featured in numerous books, galleries, museums and magazines worldwide. She has received numerous distinctions such as Forbes Magazine “30 under 30 top creatives designing the future”. Her book “40 Days of Dating” is being turned into a movie.
In a recent Instagram post where she talked about starting AMAs so people can ask her questions, she gave a very important piece of advice to budding designers on something that is part of her process that she thinks everyone ought to adopt.
Jessica Walsh who teaches design & typography at The School of Visual Arts in NYC has seen her fair share of budding designers definitely hit the nail on the head with this one. Here’s what she shared:
“Question: I’d like to hear a piece of wisdom for budding designers out there. What’s been an important part of your process you think others should know? Any secret tips?
📍 Answer: There are so many ways to answer this. One great piece of advice given to me when I was young was “fake it ’till you make it”. The way I’ve applied this throughout my life is that when an opportunity came my way that excited me, I just said yes, and figured out how to do it later. When I was younger and working at my first jobs out of school, I didn’t really know photography but a few projects came my way that required those skills. All I knew was that the jobs were exciting and I wanted to work on the projects so I rented cameras and lenses and taught myself all the techniques and lighting and just figured it out on the floor of my tiny bedroom. When the opportunity came to produce and art direct larger shoots I did the same thing, I figured it out. I emailed people, I googled things, I watched tutorial videos. Nothing is too difficult if you are determined! Using common sense and google you can figure out how to do almost anything on your own. Working this way taught me to be scrappy and resourceful, which is a useful skill for business/ life. Remember, no one knows 100% knows what they are doing, everyone is figuring out things as we go. So my advice is to not be timid, figure things out and create your own opportunities. If you land yourself an awesome job opportunity, give it your heart and passion, give it your all. I’ve always tried to go the extra mile on everything I did ( even when I was working for other people ) and that pays off big time in terms of future opportunities and relationships.”
Featured image on the Homepage is via Designerd Website.