Last weekend the Ferris State AIGA group took a trip to Chicago. Friday was our first day in the windy city. we woke up bright and early and carpooled to Dune Park. From there we took the train into Chicago. Once we were off the train we stepped out of the station on Michigan Avenue and into the rain. Umbrellas in hand we quickly traveled to our hotel on Illinois Avenue and dropped off our bags. From there we split into three groups, one group to visit Liska & Associates, one to visit IDEO, and one to visit VSA Partners. We went to grab a quick lunch and then were on our way.

We made the short trek to 600 West Chicago Avenue. A little early we took our time enjoying the view of the river and looking around the immense building. We eventually found our way to the main lobby and got our name tags and walked through to the elevators. Here our guide, David Ritter, was there to greet us.

After a quick “hello”, we rode to the second floor, followed him around the corner and walked into the massive, modern office space. The brick walls were painted white, shiny silver pips and air ducts ran across the ceiling, and there was designer furniture sitting around the waiting area in the lobby. From there we walked into the meeting room and each took a seat around the long wooden conference table.

The tour began with an in depth history of what works the people at VSA Partners have done in the past and the type of work they are doing now. Starting as a mainly print based company, VSA Partners worked a lot with annual reports. The first client VSA Partners had was Harley Davidson, who is still a client of theirs. The agency has now grown to about 150 employees with 7 partners and is still all about combining strategy and business and using design to do it.

After getting a better idea of the history of VSA Partners and seeing some of the work they’ve done for the likes of GE, Converse, Muzak, and Caterpillar, we were taken around the office to see what it’s like for the people who work there. The entire space was wide open. There were no cubicles, only desks strategically placed around the space. The only enclosed rooms were for meetings and conference calls and those the offices of the partners. This allows everyone to feel open to communicating with others, and in my opinion really helped keep the space look as open and free as it was. There were also wall sized magnetic boards hanging on most of the walls, this enabled the designers to put work up and allow everyone to collaborate and give feedback on the ideas.

Once we’d made it around the different wings of the office, we walked back to the conference room, amazed and in awe. The last portion of our tour was utilized by our group asking questions and talking with Mr. Ritter about the design industry and what’s in store for us in the future.

During the tour, Mr. Ritter gave a lot of great tips on interviewing and what to do when looking for a job out of college, they include:

Job Searching

Think of what YOU want to do.
Research what the company does.
Look at the clients the company has.
Talk to young designers at the firm to see what it will really be like for you to work there.
Make sure what the company wants you to do fits what you want to do.
Go where opportunities are, you can always go back home.

Interviewing

Have good writing and communication skills.
When sending a resumé, PDFs are wonderful. It’s important for the employer to see your work right away, don’t wait for an in person interview.
Typography is critical!
Know your color, composition, form, etc.
Be able to show emotion purely with typography.
Keep portfolio sites simple and too the point. Clean with exquisite craft.
Don’t show everything, keep it between 5 to 10 pieces.
Portfolio sites are good!
The interview is nothing but icing. Don’t be nervous in an interview.

One final piece of advice from Mr. Ritter:

“If you don’t know something, have friends that do know”.

In the end, the tour of VSA Partners was an eye opening experience and I’m now ready to get out into the world of design and excited to see how far I can go!

Our group after touring VSA Partners. (Photo taken by Alison Popp)