Laudenslager- Worst Job Essay

My Worst Job Ever projects include three designs in digital format during September and October of 2013.

            The medium of this project is a digital projection. The subject was to portray my worst job experience through three design paradigms, which included Geometric, Deconstructive and Integrative. I worked with the job I had at a shoe store where I was a sales associate. For the geometric approach I used a picture of shoes that I took, and included text that reflected how I felt about the job. I had to sell shoes on a daily sales goal, which meant that I wanted to sell as many as possible. So even when people tried on the ugliest shoes, I had to tell them they looked great. Using that idea I put the text into the shell grid formation, which fit the geometric approach. For the integrative design I compared what the store looked like before and after a shift at work; one side is pristine and clean while the other side is a huge pile of shoes, cleaning equipment and a mess. The last design was deconstructive and for that I illustrated a room that had a pile of shoeboxes with me underneath. I included text that was jumbled and hard to read that reflected what customers would say throughout the day to sales reps.

            These designs are personal because they reflect how I felt about a job that I had. I used humor, frustration and truth within the designs because it allowed me to come across as more honest within the designs. There is a certain dialogue within all of my work but I feel that these works in particular were different because they were based off of my own experiences. For comparison based on the design paradigms I used examples from previous classmate’s work. I think that in some cases it translated into my own work, especially the geometric one.

            The purpose of this project was to translate how I felt about a job that I had in the past. The job was a negative experience, so in the design I tried to incorporate the negative aspects such as dealing with customers, the amount of work I had to do and what was expected of me. The effect I want from the audience is for them to be able to understand how I felt about the job personally, or for them to relate to the experience themselves.

I feel that for the most part these designs were successful. They fit the design paradigms, and had the feeling that I wanted them to portray. I think that the strengths came from the emotion, and design idea. The execution on the geometric design however is the one I struggled with. I had the most trouble with this design because I didn’t know how to begin the design without it becoming too complicated or distracting from the text that I wanted included. I am pleased with the final effect however but I think that I could have pushed it further. The other two designs I am pleased with, especially the integrative approach. I feel that this design is simple, clean but effective and shows how I felt about the job perfectly.