DES 236

Name: Katarina Countiss

1. What is your ideal job? My ideal job depends on who I am. I am planning on a series of career “upgrades” and explorations. One is “art director” at a design or advertising agency. Another is a designer in a tech incubator type situation. And another is User Interface designer.
2. How will you judge your success in one year? Five years? Ten years? One year from now, success looks like a long-term relationship (like five years) with an advertising or design agency. Five years from now, success looks like being a team leader, having opportunities to art direct and hire freelancers for special projects. Ten years from now, success looks like giving talks at conferences and lecture halls about something I am passionate about.
3. Write your own “bio”? I am Katarina Countiss, a graphic designer. I am passionate about creativity. I believe in finding your strengths and being able to summon them for projects you want to complete. I am interested in finding new and interesting design solutions to make a product more memorable, beautiful and relevant.
4. As a visual problem solver what are your strengths? I’m a very curious person and I want to explore lots of options and find something novel and meaningful.
5. As a graphic designer what are your weaknesses? Typography. My background in fine art has led me to emphasize the image in a project. So, I am working on getting type to the same level of awesome. (Feedback from Teachers | Katablog.)
6. How do you define success? “Practical and innovative efforts resulting in appreciated and tangible results.”
7. What kind of work do you enjoy, but feel lacking in skills? I really like video, but my camerawork is shoddy at times.
8. If you could re-do one project here at SCCA what would it be and why? The one project that I feel like I could have redone was the boxed tee-shirt project where I was in charge of production and I was a terrible project manager and I produced a lousy (structurally speaking) box.
9. What was the hardest part of the last two years doing the design program? That same project where I felt I let my team down.
10. What was the most rewarding part of the last two years during the design program? I tell this story to my friends all the time. So, it was New Media class last year when we presented our BeeHive Blender Video Projects to the class after having only a week to make the video and we play the video on the projector in the lecture hall with the publishing arts, photography and the two sections of graphic design students. After the two minute video ended, there was a brief silence before someone whispers loudly “That  was awesome!” and the audience applauses.
11. Do you plan to find work in the Seattle area? Yes
12. Are you or have you done an internship? If so, with whom? Yes, Pivot and Levy.
13. How would you describe your internship experience? I learned a lot.
14. Other than graphic design, what other professional skills do you have? I’m interested in public speaking, though I’m not actually skilled at it, I would argue that interest can sometimes make up the difference.
15. Do you want to have your own design business? If so what is your timeline. No
16. How much do you expect to make next year as a graphic designer? Expect and hope are two different things. I hope to make around $50K yearly salary and I expect to make 60-120% of that amount.

Marc really likes questionnaires. Here’s the one I made in Fall for the special topics project.