Reddit mentions of Damn Good Advice (For People with Talent!): How To Unleash Your Creative Potential by America's Master Communicator, George Lois

• Get an internship. Now. If you can, get a part-time design job. In short, just get EXPERIENCE.
  
  
• Network. Meet people. Talk to people. Don't be stupid and rely on the internet to do the networking for you. I used to network very well, I'd talk to people about what I do all the time, then I fell into this weird introvert state where I relied solely on the internet to bring me work. Dont do that. Remember, it truly is about "who you know".
  
  
• Never stop learning. A lot of students come out of design school and think that they know everything there is to know. Get books on design theory, go to courses, watch video tutorials and do NOT fall into the trap of learning from cheesy Photoshop effects tutorial sites like PSDTuts and crap. That stuff is all bloat and doesn't teach you to become a better designer, just better at the software.
  
  
• Buy "Damn Good Advice" by George Lois. Thank me later.
  
  
• Work the hell out of LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media. It works. Trust me. But refer to the first tip...

The Bringhurst Bible

James Victore's book is amazing. It's a quick read but is packed with inspiration.

Envisioning Information is great for info design.

Megg's History of Graphic Design


The rest of these I haven't read yet, but here is a list of things I currently have on my amazon wish list:

Some People Can't Surf by Art Chantry

Saul Bass: A Life in Film and Design by Jennifer Bass

Seventy-Nine Short Essays on Design by Michael Bierut

Damn Good Advice by George Lois

How To Be A Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul by Adrian Shaughnessy

How To Think Like A Great Graphic Designer by Debbie Millman

The Design of Dissent by Milton Glaser and Mirko Ilic

Iron Fists: Branding the 20th Century Totalitarian State by Steven Heller

One of the best things I heard when going to college for advertising was to think "What is the one thing that will get the audience you want to buy your product? Make that the focus." You're not going to come to that conclusion without researching. Find out the purpose of the product, the objective of the ad, the benefits the product has, the point of difference it has against competitors, the tone of the brand, the target audience, the target concern of that audience and then use all of that to solve a barrier that the audience or brand has. And if you really want to get creative read some of the many amazing advertising books out there when you are out of ideas. Good luck!

Damn Good Advice (For People with Talent!)

If you really want to work with your hands and have more of a physical connection with your work, have you ever thought about screen printing? There's both a digital and a physical stage to this process, and the end result of what you produce is both a visual and tactile experience. Some kids I went to college with screen printed a lot of band posters for local artists and started a business from the ground up. They're now a pretty big deal and have a national audience: http://aestheticapparatus.com/

Getting there however isn't done easily or cheaply, and there isn't a guaranteed formula that will assure your success. That's part of the risk you take in starting your own business but in it you get to be the boss and decide what kind of work you want to do.

Don't worry so much about feeling like a laborer right now - your college experience gives you valuable skills that translate well to the field - what needs to be trained afterwards is the knowledge of how to think about a design problem and how to communicate an effective strategy to your client, and then get them to buy it.

There's a good read out there for you - it's called Damn Good Advice for People With Talent. It's written by George Lois. Name ring a bell? No? Ever heard of Don Draper? George Lois is the guy they modeled the character after (but of course decided to cut out all the unappealing bits, like hard work).

Design is 5% ability, 5% creativity, and 90% knowledge and salesmanship.

I'm trying to think of a book that really stands out on overall marketing and nothing is coming to mind at the moment, but of the textbooks I used in my marketing program one of the easiest to read and most helpful was "The Public Relations Writer's Handbook": https://www.amazon.com/Public-Relations-Writers-Handbook-Digital/dp/0787986313/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486581186&sr=8-1&keywords=public+relations+handbook

An interesting fun one that's a quick read is "Damn Good Advice (For People with Talent!)" by George Lois: https://www.amazon.com/Damn-Good-Advice-People-Talent/dp/0714863483/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486581296&sr=1-1&keywords=damn+good+advice

I'll add more if I think of anything.

Paul Arden, also, was one of the loveliest, nicest creative directors I ever had the pleasure to meet. He was so nice :)

Oh, if you want a slightly longer book in the same vein

http://www.amazon.com/Damn-Good-Advice-People-Talent/dp/0714863483

George Lois. Genius!

Damn Good Advice

I feel that a lot of people will have mixed feelings about it, but George Lois is an advertising legend and his book is full of tons of to the point, no nonsense advice.

Please let me stop you.

As I did the same because of Mega64...5 years ago. Flash forward to this past spring where I graduated from broadcasting school, moved to LA, interned, got fucked over, moved back to my original state got a last minute offer and moved back to LA within a month. It is not easy. College will not make it any easier. Film and TV really only exist in LA or NYC. It's extremely hard to find work anywhere else. Mega64 is a group of guys who got lucky by finding an audience online that comes back every week to give them love and views. Going to school for broadcasting only threw me into a already over saturated market. What I learned most in LA is: a friend who went to NYU told me this as I was an assistant editor for him for a month, "any dummy can edit, it's the motion graphics where the money is." so with that I say go to school for graphic design with a focus in motion graphics. Not only will you get a degree from a place that values you, you can work at an agency in any city...anywhere. The people I interned over the summer were all self taught by youtube and books. That's all it takes in filmmaking is experience; going to broadcasting school did nothing in that category for me. I had to research, network and go out of my way to keep up with NYU/Florida State film school big leagues HOWEVER unlike them my college debt will only take 5-10 years to pay off. NYU(not Florida State, holy shit their tuition is cheap and their program is amazing so if you're in florida GO THERE! Otherwise read the rest of this)'s tuition will follow you past your death. Editing/filmmaking is much like painting or any other creative outlet, it takes time and the more you do it the better you get; the more you work with people who are better than you; the better you get; the more hungry you are for opportunity the better you get.

Some books I recommend for pursuing your interest in anything creative further:

In The Blink of An Eye

It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be.

Damn Good Advice (For People with Talent!): How To Unleash Your Creative Potential

And some helpful links in what it's going to take. You can't learn everything in college, it's only a gate to your journey that opens the day you graduate and enter the real world.

Ash Thorp - Steps On A Creative Path

Say No To Spec

Fuck You, Pay Me

Here's what film school taught me: How to order my own DSLR, tripod, memory cards, case and a second lens. How to download the creative cloud and pay for it using a student license. How to play with Avid but not really learn how to edit in avid. How to make shitty short films so you get that out of your system and never try to make some deep bullshit story ever again, you're 21 years old you have no life experience stop throwing 20 minute films about pills down other peoples throats. How to understand 3 point lighting. How to waste money on courses for information I could of gotten off research. Now for the good stuff I got out of going to college: friends, mentors, experiences, memories, and chances to work(without pay). I was able to learn how to get burned but I was also more driven than the other students in my program. It's all about drive, and Mega64 has an unstoppable drive that's why they've been successful for the last 10+ years in keeping interest alive. You gotta take that inspiration that drive to want and keep moving forward with you to the future. Let mega64 be your inspiration but for the love of god don't waste your money, talent or time on broadcasting school.