Sara Lenzi, from the italian blog SounDesign has published an interesting interview with Andrew Spitz, the man behind projects such as Social Sound Design and {sound+design}.
Sara: What would you suggest to young people wishing to become a sound designer? Which one is the never-without tool?
Andrew: This is a question that I can personally relate to as I recently have reached a point in my career where I am working on projects that I find personally and professionally fulfilling.
Things I have learned: Always have a sound design project to work on; try get it out there and seek feedback; share your knowledge; call yourself a sound designer; charge for your sound design (even just a bit); the web can be your mentor.
- The best way to learn is by doing. By participating in projects, you will learn new techniques and develop skills for future projects. If you work in a team, you also can build working relationships.
- Sharing knowledge forces you to absorb and apply what you have learned and encourages other people to share their knowledge with you.
- If you call yourself a sound designer, people will treat you as a sound designer.
- Don’t be shy to charge for your skills as a sound designer. People will try to get you to work for free, but you are offering a valuable service. Once you start charging for your skills, you are considered a professional sound designer. Initially it’s difficult to get away from the free work. It took me a long time to get over the I have no value and I should work for free attitude.
- Mentors are sadly hard to find, but we are lucky to have the web. There is a huge online community that is eager to help. There is a huge amount of knowledge that is distributed for free, it is up to you to find and make something out of it.
Great tips, there is too much work to do and share knowledge.
Excellent post!!.