One of the biggest challenges of starting any new enterprise revolves around the most basic and essential factor of business--the name of your company. It requires you to know your own ideas and goals, as well as your target audience and customer, far ahead of time.

It can be tricky in the beginning, because not only do you have to take into account everything that you want to accomplish with your company, but you also factor in how people might possibly react to your brand, and maybe more importantly, how you'll be able to process said reactions. If you present your brand and aren't solid on what it is or what it means, you're going to have a hard time defending it or having to explain it on a regular basis, so it's best to choose something that you believe in and can stand behind.

I've had these for a little while now, but thought I'd take a minute to show them off now that we've put down our first issue. Seeing this thing take off from a nebulous idea into a reality has definitely been an adventure, and this is just the beginning.

It's like a wise man once said, "Shit just got real." I think it was Martin Lawrence.

A few weeks ago, I received an e-mail from a student at Georgia State University requesting an interview to be used in an assignment regarding careers in design and the design industry itself. My first thought was that this should have occurred to me (or rather my school should've required it) when I was in school. Then again, I didn't have classes even remotely named anything like "Critical Issues In Contemporary Art" but more like "Editorial Layout II". How's that for cookie-cutter curriculum?

One thing I've discovered is that school doesn't prepare you for the real world. It prepares you for how to use tools and exercise your creativity, but it doesn't necessarily show you how the business end works. I mean, you'll have classes that might appear to simulate a client/designer relationship or scenario, but there's no money on the line and there are no businesses' reputation/marketshare at stake.

My advice would be to not give up. There are many ways you could take that and all of them would probably be right.

Not to mention that each studio/agency usually has its own process or way of working through projects. Sometimes, it's all a matter of common sense, and anyone can adapt easily to it. Other times, especially if your company is part of a larger company, there are politics and channels that every project has to go through. That's something that you can't possibly learn in school.

That said, I thought this would be a good chance to spread some sage advice to an aspiring designer/artist. Hopefully, I would be able to not only help someone with their assignment, but actually provide some insight about what it means to be a professional designer.

Without further ado, read the interview after the jump...

Last week, I received an e-mail asking what I would suggest for a child who shows a clear interest in art and how one would go about making a career out of it:

What ideas might you have to encourage a 9 year old to become a graphics art designer some day? We want to harness his talent and allow him to expand in the right direction.

That's not exactly an easy question to answer, but it had me thinking about my own son and his future. Now, he's only two, but it's something that I've already wondered about. What will he want to do? What will he show an interest in? Should I try to guide him down the path I took? Now that someone else was asking me about this, I had to think about it even more.

One of the greatest things about our country is the philosophy of free enterprise, or as the French say, "laissez faire". And a great thing about graphic design as an industry is that it's wide open, full of possibilities, if you're creative and bold enough to make it worthwhile.

And with so many variables and constantly shifting business practices throughout the graphic design industry, many forego the norm and take it upon themselves to create their own workplace. It's great because you can be large and do great work and make plenty of cash, or you can have limited numbers and do great work and make plenty of cash. Either way, the work is what makes your business successful.