Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Gina Sterling. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Gina, thanks for joining us today. What do you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry?
Right now, it’s harder than ever to find a job doing design in Corporate America, and here’s why: unicorns don’t exist. Just like leprechauns, fairies, and dragons don’t exist, unicorns don’t either, especially in this day and age. For top execs at design and advertisement agencies, their number one priority is maximizing profits and churning out top-notch campaigns as quickly as possible. This often means finding a way to have the most amount of talent in the smallest amount of people. Wouldn’t it be perfect for them if a someone existed, a graphic designer who was well-regarded, award-winning, knowing the ins-and-outs of print, web, app, UX/UI, animation, video editing, 3D, AI, and illustration? And wouldn’t it be even better if you could pay them entry level wages? This ideation in Corporate America design is what I call unicorn hunting. Your future bosses are hunting for someone who can do it all. In reality, people who have all of these skills are usually maximizing their own profits by working freelance for themselves. I mean, they get to choose their own schedule, their own budget, their own clients, their own boss? Why would they put themselves through the burnout and mud to re-enter Corporate America design? These questions have not been once asked by the top level execs though, and those entering the job world looking for design positions are being put the washing machine cycle of interview after interview just for final rounds to end in “we need someone with x skills” or “we loved you but we need someone with x amount of experience.” They are turning away the future of design because they’re too busy putting profits above potential. We need top level execs who care about the investment young designers can bring into their business. A designer might come in only knowing how to use photoshop and illustrator, but young minds are the quickest ones to learn, and with the right team leader and mentor, I guarantee they learn how to use the programs your company needs while also bringing in their own knowledge of new programs, new inspiration, and new ideas.
Gina, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Hi! I’m Gina! In January of 2020, life looked a lot different for me than it does now. I had just graduated with my dual degrees in German and Communication Arts, and I was slated to begin my M.A. and eventual PhD in German at the University of Connecticut in the Fall. I had a few months before I had to pack up and move to Connecticut, so I moved back home with my mom before I would spend my summer in Portland, ME like I always did. The pandemic hit and I started to have doubts creep in about whether it was the right time to be in school (like… teaching a foreign language while wearing a mask was next-level impossible). So, I gave up the dream I had had since middle school and I just decided to stick out the rest of the year in Maine, working as a server and social media manager for a small brewery in the city. In the mean time, I was super into music as a way to cope with the crazy times, so I started a small music blog to keep my mind off of things. I had been playing around in Photoshop and Illustrator since I was a kid, and I knew I wanted to make my own images to go along with the blog. I posted a few things on instagram, but never gained any traction, and eventually shifted my instagram page away from music and more towards all the fun things that I could do with graphic design. I started making posters and fake merch as a hobby and to make some friends. I would comment on all the big design account’s posts to try and make friends and get as much insight about the industry as I could because certainly, I couldn’t be a server forever. Eventually, I made a great circle of friends and we would all support each other with our new posts and share new info or tips/trick we got about the industry and the programs we were using. I eventually started to get a few clients here and there for t-shirts and small brands, and it felt so crazy that my work was actually getting published onto real things. I quit server and worked at a law firm for a while, but realized quickly how soul sucking and awful the legal world is, so I knew I had to do anything and everything I could to get out of there. I needed to get more traction online, so I decided to make a challenge called March Mock-Up, where I encouraged designers young and old to design around a specific mock-up every week. It was a super successful challenge, I gained a whole lot of clients, and quit the law firm to freelance for the Summer. Since then, I picked up a web design job at an agency out of Chicago, and I work with clients both big and small to create websites, branding, merch, and a whole bunch of other things! I am so blessed to be able to design every single day, have a wonderful community of other designers looking to learn and share their talent, and learn as much as I can.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding part of being a creative is being able to help. I always wanted to be in a teaching role or in a job where I felt like I was genuinely making a difference in someone’s life. Now, as a designer who has a community, I feel so grateful when students reach out to me and ask me to help with their school project or want to interview me for an assignment. Maybe COVID times stunted my mindset, but even though I’m 25, I feel like it was just yesterday that I was in college trying to figure out what I actually wanted to do with my life. So when someone who is genuinely interested in design for a future asks me for advice or knowledge, I feel the most excited to share with them and help in whatever way I can. I think it’s incredibly important and also a responsibility for all designers to help remove barriers to entry in graphic design, so whatever way I can do that, great.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I really never thought of myself as a “yes-man,” but when it came to graphic design, I definitely was one with clients. I had to learn quickly that you have to be just as confident in your “no” as you are in your “yes,” otherwise, people are going to take every single inch they can get out of you. I found myself in a rough spot this winter where I had taken on what I thought was a decent client load, but when everyone started asking for things at once, it got really overwhelming, and I had to take a step back and think about why I really wanted to do design. I knew I had to overcome my fear of saying “no” in order to get myself out of this hole, so I did…and no one died, no one was hurt, everyone was fine.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.stxrlingstxdio.com
- Instagram: @stxrling.stxdio
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sterlinggina/
- Twitter: @stxrlingstxdio
- Tiktok: @stxrling.stxdio