Making the Transition from Design Student to Working Professional: Leta Sobierajski, Designer
This is episode three of a series of edited conversations between David Karlins and accomplished communication designers on the theme of making the transition from being a student to becoming a working professional. The conversations explore the challenges of making that transition, the insights of people who have made that transition decades, years, or even months ago, and observations of the relationship between one’s passions and talents, making a living, and changing the world.
In this installment, David speaks with Leta Sobierajski, who co-runs the Brooklyn-based design studio, Wade and Leta. She has worked as an independent designer with clients such as Adobe, Bloomberg Businessweek, Google, Gucci, IBM, The New York Times, Refinery 29, Renault, Target, and UNIQLO among many others. She can be followed on her individual Instagram account, or on Wade and Leta’s. In this interview, she spoke with us on self-promoting as an independent designer, the importance of writing skills, and what she gained from art classes at college.
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DK: So, the theme of these interviews, as I told you, is kind of helping people who are on the precipice of making the leap from Communication Design student to working professional, and to get a chance to get vicariously connected with the life of a professional designer, like you. And then to get your insights looking back on what you appreciate that you learned in school, and what problems you had with what you learned in school. And finally, if we can talk about how you handle the relationship between your passions as a designer and making a living, assuming that’s an issue. So, let’s start with what you do.
LS: My name is Leta Sobierajski, and one-half of the studio Wade and Leta, which I run with my husband/partner. We’re a studio based in Brooklyn, New York, where we do a lot of different types of work ranging from graphic design and branding, to art direction, photography, sculpture installation, product design, wearable accessory design, spacial design, and the list goes on. We’re working on a lot of different things right now that we’ve never done before, and we like it that way.
DK: That’s really interesting. Can you talk a little bit about the business side of all that? How do you get clients with these different types of projects?
LS: What helps us put our name out there are two things. One is making our work visible, such as having a proper website, showing our work, showing different projects, writing about them, and having multiple images to portray what we’ve done. The other thing is having a social media presence. I think that’s also extremely important, as well as conveying the type of work that you’re passionate about. So these are the two key things that have been really important for us in terms of getting work.
In terms of getting work, it’s really about having a solid portfolio: imagery that is striking and conveys what the project is. Not necessarily just showcasing a logo and a vector image, but really showing application, usage, and showing multiple uses. All of that is extremely important. When I was in school, which was about eleven years ago at this point, I was showcasing my portfolio and it was flat rendered images. Nothing realistic, and over time, I realized that just wasn’t very successful. So in terms of getting work, I found that having really vibrant imagery, showing things in context has been far more successful. Even if it has to be a mockup.
In terms of getting work, it’s really about having a solid portfolio: imagery that is striking and conveys what the project is. Not necessarily just showcasing a logo and a vector image, but really showing application, usage, and showing multiple uses.
DK: What about the role of sharing your process?
LS: In terms of sharing the process, I think it depends on the person. For the work that we do, a lot of it is very physical. There’s a lot of installation work, a lot of building. and painting. We like showing that process because it makes everything feel a little more human. I don’t necessarily think if someone’s designing a logo, they need to show all of the geometry, every possible curve, and all of those construction lines. I think that can be a bit repetitive. But I do think that if there are physical solutions, whether through photography or sketch to final results, I think that showing those things are really important.
DK: Well, I also think because of the nature of your work, the process is a little more transparent. As opposed to someone who took a contract to do a job, they sort of had to start from scratch, do the investigation, and work it through.
LS: Do you mean, specifically, taking on a new client and researching that client? I mean for us, we don’t see the merit in showing that process. But truthfully, even though we do have this forward, public-facing website, we have tons of different internal presentations that we’ve prepared to show to different clients based on their needs. And so, I think that in situations like that, when there’s a really specific client looking for something, then we have something prepared to show them. “Here is an example of the process.” That’s also where proposals are extremely important. Primarily in writing. Just to outline what that process may potentially be, and prepare people to understand how you’re using your time.
DK: Yeah, I think that’s really interesting. How big an element is writing in your whole workflow and process?
LS: I put a lot of emphasis on it. Simply because my mother is an ESL teacher, and from a very young age, taught me very strict grammar and has always been very regiment about how I write. So that trickled down to me. But I do think it’s extremely important to be able to articulate the project that you’ve done, and articulate the process in which it’s been done. But also, you’re not necessarily going to be able to always just have a conversation with the person you’re presenting to or the people who are going to be viewing your work. Which is why it’s really important to properly write how this was done, what the intention was, where the inspiration came from, and what the main goals were. I think it’s more being concise and articulate is extremely important. Whether that’s some long, arduous document that needs to be read, or something short and sweet, it doesn’t matter.
I think one of the most important applications for writing is something that I was never taught when I was in university, and that’s writing and understanding the structure of a proposal. And honestly, I don’t think that the school I went to, taught artists or designers how to do that. I think that it’s the same as when I was in high school. We learned how to write checks, but not about stocks or managing money. Even when your entire life, you’re going to be writing proposals for branding projects. I just had to do one today for an art installation that requires a letter of intent. And those are extremely important, because you’re not just standing behind the work that you’re doing, but also behind the words that you’re writing. If you do plan on running an independent practice, or trying to be freelance for a little while, understanding how to write a proposal is extremely important. It’s about specifying what the deliverables are, specifying the time in which it is going to take, specifying all absolute boundaries, and how minute they might be. You have to understand how to write to protect yourself. Which I’m saying from experience.
[Proposals] are extremely important, because you’re not just standing behind the work that you’re doing, but also behind the words that you’re writing.
DK: On another track, when you look back at your school years, what are some things that you didn’t fully appreciate the significance of at the time, and maybe with 10 or 11 years of hindsight you kind of do now?
LS: I went to Purchase College at the State University of New York. One thing that I valued about going to school there, was that in your first year, it wasn’t just about getting on a computer, setting type, and designing page spreads. I didn’t even touch a computer until my second year. But we were required to take classes in painting, sculpture, printmaking, and drawing. Before making a significant decision to major in whichever department of art and design we wanted, we were required to build on these foundational skills first. I had never done most of those things before. I knew that when I was in school, I wanted to focus on design. I enrolled, knowing that I wanted to focus on design. But I’m so grateful that I was exposed to all of those other things. I appreciated being forced to work with my hands, and mingling with other people that I probably wouldn’t have had the chance to otherwise.
It’s important to understand that those people are your comrades too. Whether or not they are doing something a little bit different, they’re going to be able to help you in the future. Collaboration is important, and even though I had classes with people who eventually went on to be wood majors and metal majors, they helped me out with my senior project and thesis. I’m so grateful that they were able to teach me something that I could use for my benefit, and hopefully vice versa.
Collaboration is important, and even though I had classes with people who eventually went on to be wood majors and metal majors, they helped me out with my senior project and thesis.
DK: So I’ve talked to an art director who works on typography in his spare time, even though it doesn’t fit into his career path. I’ve also talked to another person who does branding for big corporations as his primary job but also does volunteer work for a Holocaust museum. How do you find outlets for things that you like to do that aren’t necessarily profitable but are a creative passion?
LS: It sounds cheesy, but my passion is the work that I do, and the work that I do is the life that I have. I go to sleep thinking about it; I can’t fall asleep because I’m always thinking about it. And some people can turn it off after 6 PM or 7 PM, and move on to something else and have a band, or do volunteer work, or paint, or something entirely different. So, I think that I’m only portraying one perspective of an infinite amount of these, but for me, I always want to just keep on refining.
In terms of getting paid for what you do, I think that the work that you do is the work that you get. So, taking on projects that you find passion in, and completing those projects and being proud of them, and showcasing them is just going to continue to lead to more and more of those things. And as you gain more experience, you can charge more for your work and get more recognition for it.
That’s our philosophy; the work that you do is something that other people are going to see and are going to ask you for. The other thing we do in our off-hours is that we try experiments and other things that we haven’t gotten hired for yet. And we do experiments with certain mediums like painting and woodwork. We’ve done it with inflatables as well because we want to eventually get hired for doing those types of things. We invest in those experiments, in the hope that we can refine them to a point where potential clients can see them. That’s something that will get them to say: “I’ve seen this. I like this. Can you do it for me?” But if it hasn’t been done before, and if you don’t show it, even in a hypothetical situation, people aren’t going to know that you can do it.
DK: What would your last words of advice be to a student in your situation 11 years ago?
LS: The first thing you do after you graduate, isn’t going to dictate what you’re doing for the rest of your life. So don’t treat it so preciously; it’s a stepping stone. I treated my first occupation very preciously and I felt like I took a few wrong turns right after I graduated. But they helped me make some really big realizations that brought me to where I am today.
DK: That’s very valuable advice. Thank you for your time.
David Karlins is an adjunct professor of design and digital and written communication at NYU and CUNY, and author of 40 books on digital design technology and culture. His courses are distributed through LinkedIn Learning and other channels.
The following links to the rest of the episodes in this series are here:
