Design in the Open
Channel: e/merge Africa
Date: 2018-05-18

Presenters: Dr. Jennifer Maddrell, Designers for Learning (US) & Dr. Tonia Dousay, University of Idaho (US)

What are you doing to cultivate your professional presence in your chosen field? Landing a job (or even just “getting your foot in the door” with an employer) involves far more than taking the right coursework and knowing the latest tools and technologies. It’s also necessary to openly engage in the field to share your work process. By working in the open, you develop your professional presence by giving others the opportunity to know your work product and how you work.

In this webinar, we’ll discuss and showcase examples of an open reflexive process to help you establish your professional presence that is inspired by a book titled Show your Work: 10 ways to share your creativity and get discovered by Austin Kleon. In the book’s introduction, Kleon writes that his readers are those trying to break into a new creative field. He is often asked, “How do I get myself out there? How do I get noticed? How do I find an audience?” Kleon’s response is one we applaud and try to emulate in our work:

“In order to be found, you have to be findable. I think there’s an easy way of putting your work out there and making it discoverable while you’re focused on getting really good at what you do.”

From Kleon’s perspective, those who are successful don’t hoard their work in secrecy, but instead gain an audience by sharing what you are doing as you are doing it. This philosophy of openly sharing is the foundation of the presenters approach to work, as well as the central emphasis of this webinar.