In this week's Made by Many blog post, Justin McMurray discusses the thought process behind lean start-ups. Although none of us are working on project management, one of the things that really struck me about this post was the emphasis on talking to people who aren't objective. They talked about taking to friends of friends instead of friends. Walking the street instead of emailing your mom. I think this is great advice for anyone, not just startups.
And on another advice-giving blog-post, Juan Velasco, the graphics editor at National Geographic, gave an interview to newspaperdesign.ning.com. His advice to visual journalists is to make sure you're reading the paper everyday so that you can converse about what's going on with other editors. If you can smell a visual story and suggest it, you'll have a lot more respect than if you just wait for assignments.
I also appreciated his description of the information graphics reporting process: "Graphics are journalism, and the process is the same used by a writer or a photographer in a newspaper: first, gather all the information you need by doing research (in the field, online, with phone interviews), etc. Then, you need to be able to select the most relevant information and sketch out a visual narrative that is clear and engaging." Sometimes I think that people forget that visual journalists are still journalists, we just tell a story a different way.
Well said, Sarah. I think a lot of times visual journalists aren't given enough credit for their reporting or research skills. Just because we are amazing designers (=)) doesn't mean we aren't as good at finding and researching stories.
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