Want to design for Mattel
Rita McCormick
was already considering this. I make my own clothes. But I was just
reading an article at barbiecollectibles.com on two of the designers who
come up with ways to produce lace up sandals that have to made in the
thousands and hand painted Indian print saris and all these crystals and
beads, and it was so exciting to think of working in that scale and for a
company so dedicated to detail. And in the collectibles line, that seems
to be the whole point. So I'm going to consider school again, and I just
wanted to know what kind of degree was best for landing a position as a
designer at Mattel. Has anyone worked for them?
M.R. Daniels
Rita McCormick wrote:
I had a friend who worked for Mattel. She had a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree
in painting, but lots of people had a BFA in sculpture or graphic design.
However, most things were done by a "design team", which meant you might get
to fiddle with clay for a few months, or do the casting or fine tune
somebody else's design. My friend made a tree house for some little dolls
using a head of broccoli for the mold. Job didn't pay very well and she got
bored and moved on.
MR
Ron Anderson
I did just a quick look over on the Mattel web site and they seem to be a
fairly employee friendly company. Perhaps a letter of interest with a sample
design might just land you a contract.
--
Ron Anderson
A1 Sewing Machine
PO Box 60
Sand Lake, NY 12153
518-674-8491
http://www.a1sewingmachine.com
Rita McCormick <Aurgonne@ivill*a*g*e.com> wrote in message
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" "
(think about it, degrees have to be academic i.e. art history etc., which is
irrelevant) they just want to know you can do the work. Show them your
portfolio, thats all they want to see. If that is good enough you will get
the job.
Steve
"Rita McCormick" <Aurgonne@ivill*a*g*e.com> wrote in message
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M.R. Daniels
\" \" wrote:
> in my experience these type of employers are not interested in art degrees,
> (think about it, degrees have to be academic i.e. art history etc., which is
> irrelevant) they just want to know you can do the work. Show them your
> portfolio, thats all they want to see. If that is good enough you will get
> the job.
>
> Steve
Not to start a big deal on this, but that is not neccessarily true. Lots of
people have associate degrees which are non-academic. Pa. Academy of Fine Arts
offers one which is highly respected, as does Pratt and some others. A degree
often gets you in the door, where a portfolio will only do that if you have
references that are known or a name to drop. I don't think this is an ideal
way for it to work, but that's the way it often is. For someone who is just
getting started and has not apprenticed or done some serious work for serious
names, art school is still a good way to build a portfolio and make
connections. Even not completing a degree, but having on a resume some training
at certain schools or with certain people will be a plus.
Other than that, art schools today are not worth much. When I was hiring, I
first asked "where have you worked" then "where did you train?" and I put more
weight on training as an apprentice than at a school. People without either
were usually wasting my time, sorry to say. I have also seen some smashing
portfolios, but after finding out for whom they had worked and how long, I
would not hire them.
MR
Cathy Morgan
M.R. Daniels wrote in message
<3A4B6BCD...@epix.net>...
danilester
I can see the appeal, especially considering
the quality of that new class of collectible
dolls. I wasn't much of a Barbie person until
about this time last year when I saw some of
these pieces at a show.
But I always think it's a good idea to tell
your chosen company that you want to work
there and then ask them what road to take.
They're busy, but often you can find someone
who has a spare minute to advise you.
Especially if you're ready to start school
just to work specifically for them. Maybe
they'd even have an internship available if
not a job.
Wish you luck - Dani
M.R. Daniels
Cathy Morgan wrote:
I knew all the scene shops on the east coast. I knew what kind of work
they turned out, and if someone came to me from a bad shop where they
had worked a long time, or a good shop where they had not worked for
very long, it told me something about them.
Besides, really good people are usually pretty well networked and will
come on a referral. If they just walked in cold it often meant either A:
they were late, sloppy, lazy, slow, or B: the work looks better in
pictures than in reality or C: the work in the portfolio was not truly
theirs. (Oh yes, I saw many counterfeited portfolios! In fact, I had
several calls regarding people who had put me down as a reference but
had never really worked for me! How stupid is that?)
There were two kinds of job-seekers that often worked out well for me:
one would be a recent art school graduate who could draw well and whom I
could train to do everything else, and the other was a scene shop worker
who had never been given the opportunity to paint and I could train them
myself, but they already knew scene shop methods and materials. Most of
my painters started with me as "paint boys", meaning they did base
painting, washed buckets, did the grunt work, and worked their way up to
painters and charge painters.
MR
" "
"Cathy Morgan" <cjmo...@hemc.net> wrote in message
news:_KL26.177085$DG3.3...@news2.giganews.com...
AGAINST THEM. SOME MIGHT THINK OF YOU THAT WAY TOO.
M.R. Daniels
\" \" wrote:
You've missed the point. If the portfolio looked "smashing", but they worked
for the worst set house in town for two years, I KNOW that the work represented
either wasn't theirs or took them way too much time. (Lots of artists can do
good stuff given lots of time; in show biz you don't have lots of time.) If
they are really good, they wouldn't want to work for some shops, so I'd wonder
why they stayed with so-and-so for that long. Maybe the work looks great, but
in scenery it's all about reproducing someone else's work, and some painters
couldn't do that...everything they did looked like their own, not the
designer's. That's useless to a scene shop. So they bring in great
paintings...doesn't mean they can paint backdrops.
I was not alone in this method of evaluating. The scenery business is cut
throat. Shops fought over good people, literally, and there was a code of
ethics about using someone who was known to be a regular for another shop:
mainly, you were glad to get them now and then but knew they would go back to
the home shop as soon as they were needed. My painters stayed with me until
they either moved away or changed careers. I have had production managers tell
me that they gauged the excellence of a scene painter by how long they had
worked in my shop. I gauged the quality of a painter---or carpenter's--work by
whom they had worked for, knowing the standards of those hiring, and for how
long.
Not "STUPID" at all. Just the way the business works.
MR
" "
what if their circumstances did not allow for change? and what if they
struggled to change the attitudes of the shop without success and this was
the main reason for seeking change? and what if.........do you see my point?
and finally,
what if only "good" shops such as your own were the only shops in town?
where would we all work then? Judge a man by his talents, not by his
circumstance.
"M.R. Daniels" <mr...@epix.net> wrote in message
news:3A50D8E3...@epix.net...
M.R. Daniels
\" \" wrote:
> and what if that person could only get work in that disreputable shop? and
> what if their circumstances did not allow for change? and what if they
> struggled to change the attitudes of the shop without success and this was
> the main reason for seeking change? and what if.........do you see my point?
>
> and finally,
>
> what if only "good" shops such as your own were the only shops in town?
> where would we all work then? Judge a man by his talents, not by his
> circumstance.
Oh for heavensssake. I DO understand your point, and it's very altruistic and
god I wish all workplaces in the world could operate that way, truly I do.
However, this is about business. It's about profit, making money, reputation,
time, quality. It is NOT a school, I did not have time to teach people. When I
taught school, I was paid to do that. If the person was so damn good they would
not waste their time in a shop that does not appreciate them or utilize their
assets. Ever. That would be plain dumb, at least masochistic. If they were
good, they WOULD be able to get work somewhere else, trust me, unless there was
something else wrong with them, like they could never get to work on time.
Struggling to change attitudes is a useless goal in business. No business would
appreciate that, to begin with. There are things called the Peace Corps or
humane shelters or environmental groups if you want to fight Big Wars.
It would be impossible to have only the "good" shops in town. Everything is in
layers. If the four worst shops folded, the three good shops would then become
rated against each other and two of them would be the worst shops, get it?
I don't CARE where you all work, as long as you do the BEST work for ME at the
price I can afford to pay. THAT is BUSINESS.
I am NOT judging anyone by anything----in BUSINESS you judge by the one who can
do the most for you, if you are to succeed. Choose your friends however you
please, but hiring people because you like them or they are in tough
circumstances is stupid. STUPID. Yes, I sometimes hired people with low skills
and trained them, and they left in a better place than when they came if I
decided I no longer needed them. But I did it because it cost me less and gave
me more, not because I was being charitable. That's BUSINESS. And I have hired
people who worked at bad shops if I had no other choice--tentatively, on a
trial basis, and almost always let them go in a very short time. What the hell
do I care where that person could get work? In business you separate charity
from your decisions unless you are General Motors and even then there are
advertising benfits. You don't run a business as a half way house, you run it
to earn a living for yourself and ten other employees, or you fail. You weigh
the loss to you (training time, efficiency, risk of failure) against the gain
(better quality work, faster, higher profit) when you hire someone.
I've noticed you cross post to other groups, one of them being art colleges. So
for anyone who is reading who expects to get out of school and get a job, read
carefully:
*Businesses want to hire people who will earn them money. * That's how it
works. If they can afford to hire you and train you up, you will start at low
pay and they will expect to get their investment back by your rapid improvement
or you are toast, out of there. If they see ten applicants and can get the one
with the most experience for the same money, guess which one they'll choose?
There are more art graduates coming out of MFA programs each year than there
was the entire population of Europe during the Renaissance. The MAJORITY of
them are super talented. In New York City alone there are over 50,000 qualified
artists, and 5,000 jobs open. Figure it out.
If you owned a business, with employees and their families as well as your own
family dependent upon you as a source of livelihood, your decisions about who
you hire are paramount. If you hire based on portfolio alone you will be
carrying a lot of dead weight. Be prepared for it. Check out references, ask
previous employers---even if they list Burger King---about the attitude,
tardiness, absenteeism, motivation and tenacity of the person you are hiring,
and if they worked for a known loser of a company for a long time you can
suspect strongly that they are not going to be a tremendous asset to you. Don't
be wowed by a strong portfolio unless it can be backed up with work performance
because ultimately that will earn you more.
MR
Steve & Susie Wright
In "art" the profit loss may be measured a different way by some but those
who expect to survive learn your message. If a certain paint, clay or
whatever medium didn't work as expected and produce results as expected the
artist would dump the stuff. If a manufacturer of said product consistently
put out poor paint, clay etc. then that artist wouldn't keep buying other
products put out buy that manufacturer. Then why would you as an employer
knowing that a certain shop, school, etc. put out a poor worker hire one.
If the "poor worker" can't get with it and make it then let Darwin takeover.
The real world is a true example of survival as long as you keep government
out of the equation to a large extent.
Susan
"M.R. Daniels" <mr...@epix.net> wrote in message
news:3A53139F...@epix.net...
sewingb...@webtv.net
he is right on the money, educational and informative for those
contemplating running their own business; and the post was very well
written.
From my own experience, It is worse than useless to hire friends to
work for you; an exercise in futility to try to train a non-sewing
person to assist you in your business; (unless you are in the business
of teaching sewing); and, if you sew for "free", then you are running a
charity, and should set yourself up as such.
At one point, I was sewing for 11 people, non-family, at no charge.
It has been my experience that the folks I don't charge are
hyper-critical, ungrateful, and, generally obnoxious. So, I learned the
hard way to separate business from charity work. One should never
confuse the two. Unless, as MRD noted, you are going to reap good
reviews and publicity from it. This may sound cynical, but it is the way
things work, when you are working right.
I can certainly understand wanting to hire the 'cream of the crop'.
As a business person, I hope that is why my clients come to me.
Cea
Steven Lidster
is designed to be the explosive, next big advance, in table-top games.
"ChessMage, Elemental Chess (tm)"
A revolutionary new advance in tradable and collectible games featuring:
Completely Unique Collectible Figurines and Unique collectible Figurine Stat
Trading Cards, Magic Item Cards, Weapon Cards, Terrain-modifying cards.
"ChessMage, Elemental Chess (tm)" is a completely object-oriented 'upgrade'
to the game of chess. Inherent in its design is the ability to expand and
extend the game infinitely. Unique serialized and bar-coded game cards
ensure authenticity at a level unheard of in the collectible/tradable game
industry. Inherent internal balance in the game system ensures a
level-playing field across the widest ranges of powers desired by the
players of the game. Plans for seamless integration with the internet for
trading and game-playing are also implicit in the games design.
The bold concept behind this startup companies game design will afford the
opportunity for talented fantasy graphic artists to receive credit and
royalties for the monochromatic fantasy watermarks which will comprise the
backgrounds for the Figure/Item/Spell/Land/Game Component Trading Cards.
We are currently in the pre-alpha play-testing and rules refinement stage of
this project. Ideally we would like a minimum of 2500 pieces of unique
fantasy background art in 5 different fantasy milieus each representing 5 of
the major classic chess pieces: Rook, Knight, Bishop, Queen, and King, for
use in the first 'Alpha-Release' of "ChessMage, Elemental Chess (tm)"
Graphic Artists interested in collaborating on this project should contact
Elemental Game Designs, located in Portland, Oregon, at:
ar...@inetarena.com
"ChessMage, Elemental Chess (tm), Chess for the New Millenium"
(C) Copyright 2001 by Steven D. Lidster, Elemental Game Designs (dba)
I'm dropping this off on this thread as well, as it seems to concern people
who want to do art for project like my group has in the works... (Steven D.
Lidster, Game Designer.)
Rita McCormick <Aurgonne@ivill*a*g*e.com> wrote in message
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