Colleen Fitzgerald, Designer at New Balance, talks design failure and trusting the creative process
How did you become interested in design work and what was your path getting to where you are now?
I first became interested in design when I was in middle school, I loved reading magazines, and was fascinated by how you can create a digital collage of basic text, illustrations, and photographs without getting messy with scissors and glue. I was also OBSESSED with shoes, and I would be sketching sneakers in between classes… I had this idea in the back of my mind that I wanted to be a shoe designer. I also got into photography when I was 16 and wanted to be a filmmaker. My ideas about what I wanted to do switched everyday, and they still do!
So throughout high school I immersed myself in any art class I could, worked to build a solid portfolio to get into art school, and I kept that creative momentum going throughout college. I discovered the digital media design program at George Washington University and I was drawn to that because it was the perfect mesh between everything I was interested in… Design, Photo, Illustration and Video which are all elements that build into Motion Graphics.
Senior year of college I was freaking out about finding a job and I paused, thought okay, what kinds of brands/products do I like to buy. What am I passionate about outside of digital media design? So I made a list of my favorite brands related to my outside passions, and started looking at the career sections on the website of my favorite brands. I fortunately stumbled upon a post grad production job with New Balance, which tied my love for running and digital media!
What is your personal design inspiration?
I find myself most influenced by emotional responses, especially now in quarantine, I feel like it’s easy to fall into a creative roadblock being stuck at home. I like to surround myself with bits of lively inspiration around my house such as fresh flowers, a new candle, exercise to clear my thoughts and unlock new ideas.
What is your process? From research, design iterations, feedback, to the final product. Do you begin with sketching your ideas?
From the get-go if I am given a design project, I like to think about 5 questions related to the project:
WHO am I designing for.
WHAT am I designing.
WHERE will this design be displayed.
WHEN will this design be utilized.
WHY am I designing this piece in the first place…
This is the easiest template for any creative project I work on, because if you think of it like a web, those answers will connect and spread to bigger ideas
Once I am done creating a list of ideas related to the design topic, I create a mood board, which are colors, images, trends, and words to describe the style of work I plan to achieve. If it’s an animation, I create a storyboard which shows the sequences of what will be shown in a video.
With that foundation it is easy to dive in and get right to designing when you know what message and style you want to convey.
Finally! I find this the most important key that I reflect on throughout each stage of my design process… I go through what I call “2 passes of creativity”. That means any time I come up with an idea, or design something, I think to myself, okay, that’s a good start, but how can I make it even better, more creative, more revolutionary than that.
How have you overcome design failures? How has this helped you grow as a designer?
I love this question because I have failed many times trying new things. I legit failed my Motion Graphics 1 class because it was a completely new concept to me and I was struggling to grasp it. My teacher blasted me in front of the whole class about how horrible my work was at the end….
I was at rock bottom for a while after that. I seriously considered dropping out of school and figuring out another path to take but my mom said no Colleen, you can’t let this class destroy you, let’s brainstorm an action plan to help you rise above for next year. So I took a summer course at my local college back home and that really helped me break past that barrier of fear I had for learning motion graphics… and to this day motion graphics is my favorite medium.
Do you have any recommendations for high school students interested in getting involved with design? Any cool or interesting people to follow on social or websites that you like?
I love to follow this animation company called Already Been Chewed. Their work is incredible, I also like to follow @ladieswhodesign, @schoolofmotion, @motion.by.nick.
I think self-reflection is so important for all of you guys! Write down your dreams, your aspirations, and think about your own action plans to achieve them so you never ever give up. There’s this cool website called futureme.org which allows you to write a message to your future self. You can have it delivered to your email in say 1, 3, or 5 years. It’s pretty neat to look back on and reflect how you were doing and what you’ve achieved since you sent the letter.