Cindy Li

On Thursday we spent an entire day with Cindy Li, a freelance graphic designer based in San Francisco. We began the day at Green Spaces, where Cindy talked to us about networking online.

For many careers, it is known that people must be aware that employers are watching them online. It has become common for employers to look up potential employees’ Facebook accounts to see what type of people they’re hiring. So everyone must be careful of how they portray themselves online.

Designers have to take it a step further. Not only do we need to maintain professionalism online, but we also need to develop an online presence. We need to create an identity, and keep that identity consistent. One simple way Cindy suggested doing this was to keep a consistent avatar. This means that on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, or whatever other online network you’re part of, your avatar needs to be the same so that people can recognize you across the web.

Most of all, it is important to have an online voice. I recently Googled myself for the first time in about a year, and I was very happy to find that for the first time ever I can find myself. This blog is the first thing that comes up on a Google search for “Megan Humble.” So it appears that I have a decent start with developing an online voice.

After we left Green Spaces, Cindy came to our Process and Materials class to answer our questions and watch Leslie eat a cinnamon roll.

After that, we all were invited to the Easy Bistro for lunch sponsored by Medium, formerly Coptix. I officially love Medium.

Finally, we all met again that evening for one more talk on networking at CreateHere. It seemed like everyone enjoyed themselves and learned a lot from the experience.