In 2026, I was given the call to go back to my university to talk to BFA students new to UNG's program. Here are some excerpts of my speech in blog form. This is view is available in Substack. https://pattyartt.substack.com
If you’re not proud of the work on the wall
What a furious typography professor taught me about the most underrated room in design school.
It was a crisp spring morning on the University of North Georgia’s Dahlonega campus. Crews were cutting the grass, birds were chirping, and I was there mostly because I couldn’t get a seat at the Gainesville campus. It was the start of a new semester, I was a sophomore, and it was critique day in typography class.
The room filled with sophomores and juniors. I was exhausted from staying up the night before, and so was everyone else. No one wanted to be there. Critique started, and it was the most bland, awkward room I’ve ever sat in. The only sound came from the birds outside.
Then my professor lost it. He started pacing, shaking his leg and tapping his feet. He looked almost cartoonishly angry. He stopped, turned to face us and said something I’ll never forget:
“If you are not proud of your work on the wall, you are wasting your time and your peers’ time.”
My peers’ time? I had never thought about it that way.
In that moment, everything shifted for me. The part of art class I thought was the most boring was actually the most important part of my college career.
Think about it. You’re in a room with 30 other creatives. That’s 30 projects from the same assignment, and you get to watch each one develop from start to finish. Everyone’s version of the same idea hangs on one wall.
You almost never get that after college. In the working world, you rarely see 30 solutions to one problem side by side, with time set aside to discuss every one.
Engagement is the skill
If I had to name the most important thing I learned at UNG, it’s this: Show up to critique. Engage with your professor and your classmates. Fall in love with your project.
The deeper your connection to your work, the better you can talk about it. That matters more than it seems, because every project you make ends up in your portfolio, and anything in your portfolio is something you’ll eventually present in an interview.
Say it with your chest
I know it’s cheesy, but you have to love your work, whatever it is.
Few things break my heart more than hearing a student say, “Oh, this is my Capstone. I just threw it together.” When you say that, you’re telling the people in the room their time didn’t matter. You’re devaluing your peers’ effort, your own work and your portfolio.
Even if you did throw it together, keep that to yourself. It works the same way on the job. You wouldn’t tell your boss you phoned it in.
When you present your work with confidence, people respect it more, and confidence starts with caring.
The takeaway
Critique isn’t something to get through. It’s practice for every interview, client meeting and presentation you’ll ever give. Be proud of the work on the wall. If you’re not proud yet, keep working until you are.
Designers are marketers
Why you go blank when you present, and how to fix it
In the last post, I wrote about how critique taught me to engage with my work. When you’re engaged in your work, something else happens too: You present better.
A while back, I took a LinkedIn Learning course on public speaking, and it changed how I think about presenting design. If you think you’re bad at presenting, start there. Watch videos on how to be a better presenter, or read books on the psychology of communication. Presenting is a skill, and the good news is that skills can be learned.
How you say it matters
One idea from that course stuck with me: Body language and tone carry far more weight than most people realize. Your posture, a friendly smile and a nod tell people you’re listening. How fast you talk, where you put emphasis and how loud or quiet you speak all shape how your message lands.
The words still matter. But if your body language and tone don’t match what you’re saying, people will believe the body language.
That’s worth keeping in mind as you present your portfolio in class and, eventually, to employers. It helps to learn what makes people tick and what makes people like you.
Why you go blank
If you believe you’re bad at presenting, hear me out: Most people present poorly when they aren’t fully informed.
Picture it. You’re at the podium presenting your project. Someone asks a question, and your mind goes blank. Usually, that happens because you don’t know the answer.
You can’t present well if you don’t know the ins and outs of your own project. For a designer, that means being able to answer questions like these:
• Who is the target audience?
• Why did you choose that typeface?
• Why that color palette?
• What is the overall mission of the project?
When you can answer those, you have a complete picture of your work. When you have a complete picture, the nerves ease up, because you’re not guessing anymore.
You’re selling the idea
Once you can present your work well, you can sell the idea behind it. That’s the part a lot of design students miss.
Designers are marketers. We market visual communication, and in every interview, critique and client meeting, we’re also marketing our own work. Don’t get it twisted.
The takeaway
Your design skills and your presentation skills are tied together. Know your project well enough that no question can throw you, and practice presenting like any other skill. The better you can talk about your work, the more people will believe in it.
Make your non-design job a portfolio piece
What a print shop taught me about practical design and taking initiative
During my senior year of undergrad, I got a job at a brand-new UPS Store. My title was print technician. I found it the most ordinary way possible: I applied on Indeed, and a few days later, I got a call for an interview.
After graduating, I stayed at the UPS Store for another year.
Why a print shop is worth it
I recommend print shop work to any design student. When I later landed a design job at my local government, both of my design supervisors there had print shop experience. I think my own print background was one of my selling points in that interview.
At a print shop, you learn practical knowledge, hands-on production skills and project management.
You know the printers in the back of the classroom? You design a project, email it to yourself and print it, and you usually have to print it again because you forgot the bleed or crop marks. That happened to me many, many times.
Now imagine printing 15 or 20 orders on a printer that size in one day. Or printing 300 pages and binding every one with a coil machine. You learn fast.
Make something you can show
Working at a UPS Store, I knew the job had a ceiling. The store was franchise owned, so the most I could hope for was maybe a store manager position. I wasn’t going to stay forever, so I looked for ways to make the job work for my future.
Because the store was brand new, it didn’t come with a print technician manual. So I made one. I recruited the other designer, and together we created a set of how-to guides for running the machines. Those guides became a strong addition to my portfolio.
Ideas you can try at your job
I know quitting your current job to find a print job isn’t realistic for everyone. Here are things you can create in almost any position:
• How-to guides, ideally with a co-worker
• Team meeting announcements
• Team spirit messaging
• A campaign for the company’s anniversary
My coworker and I did all of these at the UPS Store. We took the initiative, and we came away with work we could show.
Your path will look different
Your career path won’t look like mine. It probably won’t even be close. There are so many different avenues into visual communication.
What matters is that you make the most of whatever job you have, in a way you can put in a portfolio. For me, that meant making the most of a print shop job. For you, it might be a restaurant, an office or a retail floor. Every job has something that needs designing.
The takeaway
Don’t wait for a design title to start doing design work. Look around your current job for problems you can solve visually, solve them and keep the results. That’s portfolio material.
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