Dwayne Grech - Momentum

Name: Dwayne Grech
Company: Momentum
dwayne.grech@momentum.com

This week's guest speaker was Dwayne Grech, a designer at Momentum. He also owns his own design company, Sultan of Beard. He graduated from the Seneca Graphic Design program in 2004, and our Sheridan Web Design program in 2009. Some passions Dwayne has outside of interactive design include travelling (he backpacked in Australia for a year) and cold-water surfing. Aside from working at Momentum, Dwayne teaches User Interface Design at Sheridan's Brampton campus.

After leaving Sheridan, he started working at Organic Online Media. There, some of the clients he worked for included Jeep and Chrysler. After Organic relocated from Toronto, he went to work as a Flash designer at Young and Rubicam. Unfortunately, he was laid off during the recession and spent some time doing short-term contract work.

In his current position at Momentum, Dwayne continues to work on digital content for automotive brands such as Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Fiat, Mercedes and Mazda. Some of the types of work he does includes Flash ads and microsites. He is even working on rebranding Momentum's website into an "elevator" website - using new HTML5 capabilities.

As someone who recently graduated from our program, Dwayne had a lot of advice for us.

It won't be easy. There are a lot of graduates from different schools, and not every agency can hire people. Keep in mind that junior designers end up doing all the things that senior designers don't want to do.

A lack of sleep. There are many last-minute projects that will need to be completed. It is not a 9 - 5 industry, and you'll need to put in the time to earn respect.

An ultra-competitive market. How will you stand out against 8 or 9 other schools' graduates? Remember that art is subjective, and your design style may not appeal to everyone.

It's a small industry. Everybody knows everybody else, including the good and bad things about you. First impressions will affect the rest of your career.

Crazy office politics. Creative people tend to have their hearts on their sleeves - they are invested in their work. The process for choosing designs can be cut-throat, but it's always important to stand by your fellow creatives.

Dwayne also went on to explain that despite these realities, Toronto has heaps of agency choices. From large, multinational agencies to small, privately-owned agencies there are different work environments out there. He urged us to attend industry parties to network with future employers (and friends!), and told us to keep an eye out on Twitter and LinkedIn for information about events that may have spaces available for students.

Lastly, Dwayne left us with some of his own life lessons to keep in mind:

1. Burning bridges is employment suicide.
2. Networking events are your easiest way into an interview.
3. You are never too old to stop learning.
4. theFWA.com is the Bible - look to it for inspiration.
5. Sometimes you'll have to sacrifice a weekend, or six.
6. Red Bull doesn't give you wings, but it does make you the saviour of the "last-minute, all-nighter" request.
7. Pay it foward - find juniors when you're a senior and help them out.
8. If you're not enjoying what you're doing or where you are, it's time for a change. You can make changes without burning bridges (#1), by not letting your ego get in the way and not leaving in the middle of a project.
9. Booze is your friend.
10. SOCIAL MEDIA. Get a Twitter account and get LinkedIn.