Quick and Dirty No. 3
Quick and Dirty is a (semi-)weekly dump of interesting links that recently caught my attention and may or may not be related to design and business.
1. Entreprecariat, Everyone Is An Entrepreneur. Nobody Is Safe by Silvio Lorusso Link
The title Entreprecariat, while difficult to pronounce, is an apt one for workers in today’s gig economy. As a trained graphic designer, the description feels eerily familiar. During my studies at the Hochschule der Künste in Bern, there was a penchant for design for projects in the cultural sector. Commercial graphic design was always looked at with a sniff. This created an unrealistic ideal of the graphic designer as author and superstar. Many graduates start their small design studios either alone or in pairs and try to keep their heads above water with more or less poorly paid jobs. This may work for the first few years, but by the mid-thirties at the latest, many realize that financial success will not materialize and that if they continue like this, they will remain part of the precariat.
In his book, Silvio Lorusso describes how society, the media, and especially influential authors of management literature promote and idealize the idea of the entrepreneur. Be like Elon is the title of the first chapter of the book, and the title sums up pretty well how we elevate individuals like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg et al. onto a pedestal in the hope of learning from their careers and becoming as successful as they are.
In the other chapter, Unboxing Precarity, he bridges the gap from successful entrepreneurs to gig economy workers who are just barely keeping their heads above water financially through projects and short-term jobs. While this form of work may not be considered entrepreneurial, all of these workers are entrepreneurs on their own behalf.
I believe that entrepreneurship in the context of the art school curriculum and working as a graphic designer needs to occupy a larger space in education and training in the future to better prepare aspiring and practicing professionals for the realities of today’s job market. It is a book worth reading to reflect on one’s own situation in the creative job market.
You can purchase the book through Onomatopee
2. The tweet of the Week
Here’s another #dalle2 variant stream of consciousness animation.
— Alan Resnick (@alanresnicks) June 20, 2022
Every image, except for the first frame, is an AI generated variant of the previous frame. All I did was select my favorite variants.@OpenAI pic.twitter.com/xbWD6noTaN