Meet Sara Halgrimson

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sara Halgrimson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sara below.

Sara, thank you so much for making time for us today. We can’t wait to dive into your story and the lessons you’ve learned along the way, but maybe we can start with something foundational to your success. How have you gone about developing your ability to communicate effectively?

When I first started out, I usually was the only woman in an all male small agency at a couple of different places. It was pretty intimidating and so right away, I realized that I needed to be very buttoned-up, clear and direct, with not only my ideas, but my presentations and anything else work related; in order to feel like I fit in and was doing a good job. While I did feel a little hypervigilant in the beginning. It served me later on to continue that level of detail, passion, and organization that others appreciate now and help set me up for success.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I have been lucky enough to be an art director and graphic designer for over 25 years.

The best part of my job is working on site at a photo shoot, helping bring my ideas to life and collaborating with others.

For the past 15 years, I’ve worked at Target. It has been a wild ride to say the least! Always changing and keeping me on my toes in the work. In how we do it, how we work together and stay current with industry trends, while making things beautiful, helpful, and unique.

In the past year, I became passionate about helping young people find their way into the creative industry.

The two areas that I’m focusing the most on are the time before people even decide for sure what they want to do in the creative industry-helping them find their way in researching what they could become.

And then once they get out of college with portfolio in hand, how would they go about actually finding work in the real world.

I feel like design school does a great job of setting you up with a portfolio and the skills needed to do a job in the creative industry, but doesn’t do a good job of helping you find those jobs, mentally prepare for them or even know how to begin.

It was very hard for me to break into this industry, and I want to try to make it easier for others.

I want to shine a light on what jobs are even available and helping people connect to places where they could potentially work in the future. So I’m calling that design education.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I have so many thoughts on this as this is something I’m focusing on right now with the design education work, I’m doing.

The three most important things you can do that will help you be more prepared, that also helped me when I first started out is:

Number one to research research research. If you can find out more about the place you want to work at or even the job type that you want to have, it will only help you prepare for an interview, more mentally prepare yourself for the job or even understand what’s entailed in that work.

The second thing I would say is, once you are out looking for a job to be ready. And what I mean by that is to, have a portfolio link and be actively talking to people and going on informational interviews. And once you start talking to people, they might want you to come in and talk right away, So you need to have your portfolio ready figure out what you’re gonna say in advance and have yourself mentally prepared for that moment because it can happen quicker than you think.

And third, I would say think spherically. Sometimes we get hyper focused on one thing and we forget about some other passions that we may have in the background. Even though it feels non intuitive, go ahead and keep focusing in on those passions and things that you’re working on. Whether it’s just in your free time or as a side hustle.

Because, they can either give you inspiration that you may need in doing your regular job; or you could be preparing for something that isn’t clear yet, in your future. Having a rich, diverse background with multiple interests, can help you in so many ways in your career that you may not even understand from the beginning.

What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?

My dad helped me realize that business plus art equals advertising. I wanted to pursue art, but didn’t think I could make money at it, and he helped me realize that if I went into advertising, I could have a real career using my artistic skills. From there, I discovered the world of graphic design in college. So without his direction, I probably would’ve ended up in a sad business school, not really loving my career.

The other thing that both my parents did was, they supported me even though they didn’t really understand what my career was all about.

They didn’t really know what it meant to be a graphic designer, and yet they still believed in me and they knew that I was motivated and determined to find my way. Their support gave me confidence and was super helpful.

What I like to tell young people starting out is that it’s important for you to have a good support system when you are looking for work or trying out a new career. Part of that is doing the research to help explain to your parents that you don’t have to be a starving artist and that you can have a job in the creative industry with thousands of jobs that are available using the skills that you have.

I think once parents understand that their college students and young adults will find good jobs, and they will be able to support themselves, they will be much more likely to support them instead of thinking that it’s a fantasy job.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://saradesignart.com
• Instagram: halgris
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/sarahalgrimson/

Image Credits