More About Me
RIA Fox works with a local high school called Meridian Technical Charter High School, providing internship opportunities for the students. We’ve had interns from two of the technology pathways available at the school: Media Arts and Programming. I am, of course, the Internship Coordinator for the Media Arts students.
Recently, I was invited to speak at the Girls in Tech lunch at the school, which is a monthly event for the young women at the school. I was very excited about this opportunity! It was great to meet all the girls and share some of my experience.
While I was preparing for my talk, I started to realize how wild and amazing my career journey has been so far! I feel like I talked a LOT while I was at the school, but there was still more I would have liked to say! I thought I’d post here, supplementing my talk and providing some resources as well.
I am one of those lucky people who knew what career path I wanted to follow very early on. I have always been interested in art, and I have always been interested in computers. In 10th grade, I took a Communication Arts class, and I realized that I could combine art and computers! I knew that was the type of career I’d like to pursue, and so far it has been very fulfilling for me.
I attended Albertson College of Idaho (now College of Idaho) and received a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts with a concentration in Graphic Design. Because this was back in the days when web design was still in its beginning stages, we mainly focused on print design principles (many of which can be used on the web as well). For our independent studies we could choose something based on our own interests, and I spent most of my time learning about Adobe Flash.
My junior and senior years I participated in Yearbook Club, which was a huge learning experience. Getting pages done on time (and pestering the photographers to get their pictures to me) and working with a large group to put together this huge project were some of the best skills I’ve gained, ones that are hard to get in a classroom environment. I also discovered an intense dislike of the publishing program called Quark!
I did a short internship building a website for a counselor for domestic violence on my campus. And one summer I worked for a company that made website templates. Looking back on both of these jobs, I remember the type of designs we produced and am glad I have improved, and glad the general quality of web designs has improved.
During my career I’ve gone back and forth between print work, web design and user interface design for applications. I’ve worked a little with Flash Actionscript programming as well, but it’s not my strongest skill.
My first job out of college was at a real estate company, building the weekly ads that ran in the paper. This process took most of the week, and I didn’t have much time to work on more challenging and fulfilling projects. Eventually we contracted with a programmer named Ben Whitaker, one of my current coworkers, and built a web application that improved the process significantly. After that, I was able to branch out more into designing logos, subdivision ads and improving the look of our weekly ads.
Soon after, I decided to take a offer to work with Ben at a web development company he started called Flat Planet. It allowed me to get back to web design, the type of work I really enjoyed. Here I found myself the lone woman among a group of pretty geeky guys! We did end up hiring another woman designer, and that was a lot of fun.
Flat Planet eventually merged with a marketing company, and as that company already had a designer, both of us were laid off. I went to work with another real estate company in town, doing just about the same thing I did at the previous real estate company. We did publish a magazine while I was working there, and that was a great experience. Print projects to me are a lot of work, and not always enjoyable, though the tangible end product is awesome to have.
Finally I was starting to get pretty burnt out at this company, and left to work with my coworkers from Flat Planet. We started another company, called RIA Fox, and that’s where we are today. I mainly do web designs, including some templates, and applications. Sometimes I work on print projects, including brochures and other advertising.
At RIA Fox, we have a few projects that we really focus on. One is Agent Identity, which is a real estate management tool for agents. We are partners with yet another real estate company, and they help us develop the features on the site.
Our other project is one of my favorite sites we’ve ever done. It’s called TweetStyle, and it provides background images for Twitter profiles. I’ve done quite a few free designs, but we also offer custom design services.
I enjoy working in a small company compared to the larger companies I’ve been employed at. I feel more free to express myself creatively, and expand my horizons. A student at the high school asked me why I’ve stayed here in Boise instead of going to a bigger city to work in a design studio or something similar. I answered that mainly its a comfort-zone thing; I’ve lived here most of my life and like living here. However, I thought about the question more, and I realized its more than that. I really like the creative community here. I’ve participated in the Adobe Graphic Design Group and the Adobe Developer Group for a few years, and have met some amazing people. I feel like Boise is really up-and-coming as a technology oriented city, and I’d rather be here on the ground floor, so to speak, than go to a city that is more established.
One of the most important things for a woman in the tech field is personal connections. Get out and meet people, as well as networking online. Keep in touch with those people. They are the ones that will have the great ideas and if they remember you, you might be part of the next big thing.
Design as a whole is a constantly changing field. A college education can only get you so far, after that you will have to keep up on all the trends, design applications, and skills yourself! At times it is an overwhelming task. My advice is to try different things, keep practicing, and find a niche for yourself if possible.
Good luck!
I have a list of articles and sites I’ve found helpful here: http://delicious.com/megsutton
