Interview With Marlene Cole

Did you do internships or jobs while you were in school?

Yes, so at first when I was more so a sophomore and junior I took part time jobs, and I was very clear with those part time jobs. I would tell them I’m at MassArt, and I would tell them I am a part of the communication design department so I have a lot of homework, so I can only give this much time. Some people could give 20 hours, some people could give less, I think it is just about being clear with the people you want to hire with. I worked at a 3D printing shop, and then I worked at Paper Source because they had paper and I loved printing. And then it wasn’t until the summer before senior year that I had my first internship, and it happened to be one that was in New York. So it wasn’t even in my hometown, it wasn’t in Boston, and that was really interesting. That was full time because it was summertime, and then they invited me back for the school year, for fall, in their Boston office, which at the time was their headquarters. So that was a little bit difficult to juggle, but it was interesting to go from having them during the summertime and then moving on into the school year so I was already used to the rhythm. It is a little bit difficult if this is your first internship and you’re at school too, so I would definitely say if you are trying to get your first internship definitely see if you can make it a summertime one that way you understand the dynamics and how it works and how you feel being in an office, and your not trying to struggle with that and starting school over again. And then I had my third internship the spring semester of senior year, which was my last semester before I graduated. So I kind of crunched them all in the last year of being at MassArt. 

What was your experience at the internships?

So I would say I had two different experiences in two different ways. So one was my experience of being in New York vs. Boston, and then the other experience was being at an agency vs. a small studio. So my first internship which was the dynamic between New York and Boston, that was at an agency, that was at Mullen Lowe. It was very interesting to see how they thought about designers, it was a very big company, a very fast company, they were working with really great clients, some of them were Mount Gay, Harley Davidson, Paper Source, even funnier because I had worked for paper source at that point, and it was more of a big machine, where you had a place and you needed to keep up with the pace of the environment. Now that’s not to be super negative, it’s just how agencies work, because that’s how they were set up to be, especially back in the 50s and 60s. But it was really cool, things came in, came out, you knew what your job sort of was so you could get a really good rhythm. But mind you, you were kind of doing the same things here and there and it didn’t really matter who your client was. If you were really good at photoshopping for instance, you were going to be constantly photoshopping. There was one woman, who was one of my mentors, who was really great at putting websites together – she constantly put websites together. So you know that was something to keep in mind, knowing that there are other people in the pyramid who are above you, copywriters and art directors I guess traditionally they work together hand in hand, and I thought that was a really interesting dynamic because how we were taught at MassArt, was different than how these copywriters and art directors were taught at this job. So it was really great, just not really what I was looking for, but the clients were really cool. And then the Boston one was very similar, but because Boston is different than New York, the pace is very different and some of the clients were pretty different in their expectations too. But again, I loved working for them, I just figured in my head I don’t think I really want to work for an agency, and that’s when I decided to work at Stoltz design.

They are a much smaller studio. I loved Stoltz, I loved the ability of knowing everybody that is at the company, we are all one big team, nobody is above anybody, of course there are people who have been there longer and who have more knowledge, but they never made you feel like “you are below me”, which is very important. Because if you constantly feel like you are under somebody and you can’t work your way up, what kind of creative are you creating? But who knows, that’s how I felt and some people feel other ways, but I really really enjoyed working at a studio. So by the time all three of these internships had gone by, I knew that I wanted to work with a small team, or a close-knit team and I would prefer to work in a studio. Good learning experiences.

What was the application process like?

Every place is different. Some places do want a formal application, and some of them you can’t really avoid being “boring” because of what they ask for. So my first internship, I never applied. I met them at our internship fair when we still had that. I just met with somebody at Mullen Lowe and we had a really great conversation, we were literally just vibing off each other. Some of it was about work, some of it was about life. I was on a school sponsored trip, and I just got an email out of the blue saying – hey we want to offer you an internship – that’s how that went. And then that moved to – hey you want to work for us again in Boston – and I was like yeah! Now for Stoltze, one of our teachers works at Stoltze and I didn’t ask her if it was okay for me to reach out, but I reached out through an email, a nicely crafted email, something that stated who I am, where I was going to school, what my interests were, and why those interests aligned with the studio. And I probably linked a couple of things, if I had a website I would have linked a website. And just left it at that. And then said teacher came up to me and was like – I didn’t know you were interested in working –  and I was like I am! And that was just the other part of the conversation. So that was my experience applying technically, what I would say to you guys is that, this is going to sound horrible but, no one is truly genuinely unique. So don’t feel like you have to be the most unique person out there to get the job. Just literally be yourself, we are all different sorts of combinations of all these different things that are out here in the universe and just be you. Be really casual, conversational, get to the point, don’t meander. And put out your best work, don’t feel like you have to have 30 pictures of all this different stuff. Your top three pieces, and the top 3 or 4 photos of each piece at most. And a couple cool things about you, and generally why you would be a really good team member for them. Because they want somebody who is going to mesh really well, who they are going to be able to work with and like just have a fun time. And also just be careful about where you work, make sure you research and know that these are the kind of people you want to work with. That would be my general information on that!

What happened after you graduated?

So before graduation, we at MassArt used to have a portfolio night for Graphic Design and that’s when people around Boston can send their people to go look at your portfolio, and that’s what they did for us. I met a bunch of great people and then after graduation I was exhausted so I like slept for three days straight, and then started to reach out. Just reached out to places that sounded really interesting, in terms of exploring past what I already knew I liked, and of course I applied to places that I knew I liked based off of what I liked doing at school. And some people reach out to you and some people don’t and that’s totally fine. I started setting up meetings and bringing my portfolio with me, and one of the people I actually met on portfolio night was the one who ended up hiring me. And mind you it does take a little bit of time for the hiring process to go through because sometimes they are in the middle of a project while hiring you and that’s what happened with me. It wasn’t until 3 or 4 weeks after graduation that I was officially hired and working for them. But yeah, that is sort of how that happened right after graduation. I know for other people they didn’t get hired full time until a year later. They decided that they still wanted to go out and do an internship. Once you graduate, you have that summer to do like one last internship and then you know you’re out into the workforce. So if you still want to explore, you have time to explore, don’t feel like you have to get a job right out of college.

So you took that job – what was that for?

So I ended up being hired as an associate designer at, it was technically an agency, we are now a studio, but the agency called Proper Villains. I was being hired to be directly under the designer there at the time, her name is Beth – she’s still there, and it held all the things we were doing at school, nothing was out of the question. We could be doing a magazine, we could be doing a book, a video, an experience. It is a really small company which was exactly what I was looking for, so I was able to do all the things I have always wanted to, so my role was not pigeon holed to like one or two things. It was anything and everything that came in through the studio that needed creative. 

You are now teaching and still working at the design studio – how has this come to be?

So after I had graduated and had been working at proper villains for a year and a half, maybe even two or three, I forget, MassArt – so some of the teachers – they reached out and wanted to know if I had wanted to teach a class. And mind you they had asked me even after graduating, would you ever want to think about teaching a class, and I was like “no I don’t think I would be a really good teacher, I’m bad at telling people what to do”. I’m good at criticizing work and helping to develop work to its next and final stages, but eventually they got me. They were like “what about GD1” and I was like “ya let’s just try it and see how it goes”. So I had to ask my boss because it’s a half day outside of work. And it was pretty freaking awesome honestly. It’s hard because some people are like “no I could never teach”, and I definitely was that person, but there’s something really cool about being at your alma mater and helping the next generation because not only are they learning from you, but I am learning from the students too. You can’t stay up to date with what things are if you’re not actually integrating yourself with the people who are creating the next generation of design. So I don’t see it as like a power thing in terms of like “I am all knowing and powerful”, it’s more like “hey these are some of the things that really helped me to become successful, these are some of my thoughts that might help you get past this barrier”. I love having conversations with my students because they’ll be like “oh did you see this really cool poster or this really cool designer” and i’ll be like “oh my god I hadn’t seen that but I need to know this artist” so that I can stay up to date with new and upcoming artists too. It was a very clean combination of my job and MassArt. They gave me a very easy class to start with, but now it’s just something that I really enjoy and really love. I feel like I have really great relationships with my students, and I think they are very special and precious to me.

Do you have any advice for students currently in the program as they go through their time here?

Be true to who you are and try to understand yourself as a person. I say that only because of who you are now, you will be an evolved version of yourself when you get to my point. Still you, but you have learned a couple of new things. I would also say that you are your own unique artist. Nothing is really unique anymore, but you yourself as a human are unique. No human is technically the same. We have interests that we might share with other people and sometimes we find people who we share way too many interests with and we are like “how are we the same person!”. But even still, in the minute details you are different. And understand that you know some people’s art gets really recognized, and maybe they didn’t do a whole bunch. Or maybe they did do a whole bunch. And there’s you, who maybe did a whole bunch but you didn’t get a bunch of recognition. It’s totally fine, it’s just luck, and exposure, and maybe you’re not into that or maybe you are, but figure out who you are. And if you’re the kind of person who wants exposure, you’ve got to put yourself out there, and if you’re not putting yourself out there, then don’t worry about getting exposure, it’s totally fine. Make things that you are proud of. Make things that you put effort into. And try to see the silver lining in everything, try to see the happiness in everything. It’s really easy to put ourselves down. I think really good designers, we see so much of the world that needs help, and it can be very overwhelming for us, and understand that you are doing as much as you can as a designer. You can’t figure out everything for everybody. You’ve chosen this path of being a designer which is about informing people and making sure information can be given to them in really beautiful ways, very clearly. Make sure you are doing that, make sure you are thinking of the audience. Especially when you are working with a client. If you are making your own artwork, make shit that you are proud of. Weird colors, black and white, 3D, whatever it is. Make something and make sure you are happy with it. Just be you. Don’t worry about other people, seriously.

Is there anything else that you want to tell students
at MassArt?

A lot of people ask about inspiration, like how do you find inspiration? Just to be extremely clear about that, I find inspiration in many different ways but I realized that not everybody does which is frustrating, in the sense that I wish that there were open areas for people to say “this is where you go”. And it’s not, so what I have to say is learn to find design books. They are so helpful. I found a series of design books where they go through materials like wood, metal, paper, and they show you projects from all over the world that are about those materials, or about certain themes. I have books like that. You can find them on Counter print and Victionary are the two main places that I go to. I would definitely say get on design Instagram. I made a separate Instagram account for my design page, do I post anything, absolutely not, but it’s a way for me to center where all my design instagrams filter into. Only because you know when you look for something specific on Instagram it feeds off of what you’re looking for. And if I’m just being a dodo and looking at fashion, I’m not getting all the design stuff that I want, that’s why I made my own separate account. And I hoard a bunch of stuff on there, anything like tips and tricks on illustrator, to a new design building, all the way to a new branding system. I send all of that stuff to myself on Instagram, and that has been so helpful, like ridiculously. I find new typefaces from independent type designers all the time. I love type. So learn how to manipulate social media so that it’s working hard for you. And then lastly I would say, safely travel. Like you need to travel, even if it’s within the United States. Just get out of your head, get out of this area that you are in and go to museums over there, look at street art over there. Look at the artists that are coming out of different places. That’s why I feel like a lot of people like to go to New York, but New York is a different kind of beast than like San Francisco, LA, Austin, Seattle, Boston – we are all very different. And then when you get outside of the country, oh there is so much beautiful design in the world. And then draw inspiration from the things that are not design related, please. Don’t just let design rule your entire world because you’ll start filtering the same things and it is going to become boring. Literally I went to the grocery store, and a new carton of eggs was out there and I was like – what the hell is this? That was the most beautifully designed carton of eggs, the printing, the material that they used, how they presented the eggs to you. I literally looked at this thing like – who did that! I would not have found that on my instagram if I was just looking for what I look for which is like type and stuff like that. Get outside of your own head and you’ll find stuff out there.