If I can draw this…
Colette patterns is looking for a technical illustrator to do contract work. I want this job. If I can illustrate Carboniferous lizard pancakes, I can totally illustrate sewing instructions, right?
Of course, they’re looking for someone experienced. Y’know, someone who’s an expert with Illustrator and InDesign. I’m almost passable with Illustrator. I’ve never even looked at InDesign (although now I’m curious). The extent of my experience readying illustrations for print is making sure my DPI is within the journal’s recommended range.
Who prides themselves on meeting deadlines. Um, well, as long as I don’t put my supervisor as a reference…
Who answers email quickly. Um. See above.
Can easily translate complex sewing tasks into clear visual instructions. Hmm. I’d like to be such a person. I haven’t tried yet. Although having tried to write up instructions for a couple of patterns at this point, I gotta say, that’s the hardest part. And not nearly as fun as drafting up the pattern itself.
And there’s that whole thesis thing I’m supposed to be working on. Y’know, that little detail.
So basically, they’re not actually looking for me, and I couldn’t really jump on it if they were. /Sigh.
But if that description is you, go for it, and know that at least one person out there will be green with envy…
Tanit-Isis Sews 
I know, me too! I’ve worked with Illustrator and InDesign, but I don’t have the portfolio to back that up. And I used them more to work with maps and illustrated reports. Such a shame. It’d be so fun!
Oh weird. The comment thing logged my name as my blog name 🙂
I feel your pain. In my case, I truly enjoy taking a complex task and translating it into lay-person’s terms. And I love learning new software.
So that means I have never touched Illustrator, and I have never even heard of InDesign.
So I guess my IRL day job is still the place where I belong. I know how to the do tricky stuff they need and they seem happy to give me a paycheck.
sigh.
Very cool Carboniferous lizard pancakes, btw 🙂
Ah, I took scientific illustration courses back in grad school (in the late ’90s….now I feel old) and loved them. I really liked the pen & ink work, so I know how long that must have taken you! I had a Chinese instructor who was always telling us, “One, two, three, that is the trick”, and I still hear him saying that in my mind whenever I’m doing little triangles of dots on illustrations 🙂
I wish I’d made time to take an actual scientific illustration course! I’ve read as much on it as I could and I have other art training, but I feel like quite the one-trick pony with my stippling. I’m a bit addicted to working digitally, too—I love being able to erase dots at will and zoom in really close to position them precisely.
I was interested in passing too. But I’m a PC person (read: CorelDraw) and while I have a general knowledge of Illustrator, I’m much better in Draw and well, that 3 years of experience thing is a no-go too.
Hey Debbie! I’m a CorelDRAW fan too 🙂
Oddly, CorelDraw is one I’ve never used, despite being shanghaied away from my Mac homeland sometime around 2001. Though really, I’m just not that into vector graphics. They’re great for what they do, it just hasn’t usually been what I’ve been doing.
I draw charts and schematics for knitting patterns, which is practically the same thing, but I’ve never touched InDesign either. Oh well.
What is your field of study?
I think you actually would be good at a job like that. Your certainly talented at drawing and you certainly know your way around a pattern and sewing!
I’m studying vertebrate paleontology (hence the Carboniferous lizard…).
I probably could do it… but I probably couldn’t do it as efficiently, elegantly, or as well as someone with real experience in the field. And then there’s all those other time commitments I have… 😛
I feel you hun! I sooooo had a personal little day-dream moment when I saw their job-advert post… “Hmmm fun job, but oh dear… tight deadlines = not me LOL! “:)
I think that tech writing is ridiculously challenging, and it takes a certain sort of brain. And that brain is not necessarily a creative brain. It goes along with one of the challenges of being a successful artist – you need to have a left-brain partner to help your right brain survive in society.
IMHO, of course.
And yeah, very cool lizard pancakes!
Apply! What’s the worst that can happen??? You’ll get a no and then what??? Nothing! In best case scenario you’ll get a Go! Or they might consider you for a job in future – or give you another job you don’t even know they have an opening for! Not applying because you don’t have the excat skills they’re aksing for is just typical ‘femal’ish’ a man would never say: I can’t do that, that and that! He would say: HI! I’m the guy you’re looking for (eventhough he’d only meet one out 4 demands) and then tell them ALL the things he can do that they didn’t know they needed (in this case the tech. illustrator) to be able to do. 🙂 I say GO FOR IT!!!
Honestly, if I wasn’t fully committed with school (and then some), I probably would. I’ve certainly done it before (applying for a job less than fully qualified for), and while I can’t say it’s gotten me a job, it has netted interviews, at least. I can barely justify the time I spend sewing right now—taking on other commitments would be a bad idea, all around.
Now if they’re asking again this time next year… 😉
Apply. And then worry when they offer you the job.
I can’t draw a straight line and my technical skills are laughable, so I didn’t even consider the job in passing.
What I really want to do is draft. And now I think I need to make sewing t-shirts that say that, like the actors who want to direct.
Your drawing is beautiful, but I thought at first it was a carnivore skull. Guess that makes me paleo-impaired.
I can just imagine little Tanit Isis faces with cute noses on Colette Pattern envelopes now ….
This looks so impressive! How do you get to be someone who makes paleontological drawings? I’d love to be able to draw. I can’t even draw ideas for clothing, it looks like a right-handed person drew it with their left hand. How long does it take to draw something like this?
Well, I got to do palaeontological drawings because I decided I wanted to be a palaeontologist, and I’ve always been someone who draws, so it was natural thing to want to draw my own specimens. Also these pancake ones are pretty much impossible to photograph, and drawing is a great way to REALLY study your specimen in-depth.
These drawings take a LONG time. The stippling takes forever…
I want you to have that job too! You know that your body of work speaks for itself. Don’t be crazy – apply and see what happens. We never need to know if you don’t get a call back 🙂 But something tells me that you will…
I think Shelley of New Vintage Lady should do it. She is a fabulous seamstress, she is an illustrator by trade, and she is out of work right now. I sent her two e-mails. I hope she opened them. I told Sarai about her and she said she was interested. I can only draw with my hands. I am pretty computer illiterate.
You are very talented, that drawing is just amazing!! Do you have any pieces you have framed, and hanging on your wall? Your artistry is so very inspiring!
I think the carboniferous lizard would make a GREAT blouse design.
Go for it! Don’t let InDesign be the deciding factor! InDesign is really simple to pick up and in the context of this job is probably used to lay out the pages of the pattern instructions. InDesign is in essence similar to Quark Express and Microsoft Publisher, basically a tool for page layout and output for .pdf or the printer, ect. I have worked with both Illustrator and InDesign – Illustrator is the most challenging of the two. I say go for it!
That lizard pancake would be an awesome print for a t-shirt!
Hey, why not apply for the position and see where it leads? Your interest and the fact that you posted about it is a sign of something. Of course, I only know of you through your sewing blog, I don’t know how committed you are to your scientific pursuits.