Vennela Manmohan

Reorganising

[Vennela Manmohan @ManmohanVennela]

@rentomojo Sure, please DM me

[Vennela Manmohan @ManmohanVennela]

@GnosisSavant No, I haven't taken any of their courses but I read their case studies and they're very insightful

[Vennela Manmohan @ManmohanVennela]

Found this cool website of an infinite zoom art project called The Zoomquilt
https://t.co/MuaEFwHH6h

[Vennela Manmohan @ManmohanVennela]

@PaneerKaTukda @Krita_Painting Damn, that is so cool 😍
Good to see you getting back to digital art

[James Clear @JamesClear]

Clarity isn't about knowing what you want to do with your life, it's about knowing what you want to do this week.

You don't need to have it all figured out. You just need to know your next step.

[Vennela Manmohan @ManmohanVennela]

@PaneerKaTukda @sliceit_ Wohh! Who dis?

[Vennela Manmohan @ManmohanVennela]

@PaneerKaTukda @framer Finally! The text animation is so damn amazing 🤌🏼✨

[Vennela Manmohan @ManmohanVennela]

@Ash_uxi @CreatieAI This looks like its gonna help design faster. Have got to try it out!

[Vennela Manmohan @ManmohanVennela]

@PaneerKaTukda @splinetool Damn! That's good progress! Keep em coming 🚀

[Vennela Manmohan @ManmohanVennela]

@PaneerKaTukda @webflow Thanks man 🙌 . The font I used for the logo is Kufam

[Vennela Manmohan @ManmohanVennela]

Building this landing page on Webflow this week. Tryna figure out the style guide game right for this one. #WIP

[Vennela Manmohan @ManmohanVennela]

@PaneerKaTukda Yes, grids make sense of various layout so well. I just started understanding grids much better since I started building on Webflow

[Vennela Manmohan @ManmohanVennela]

@DmitryKurash @ryanmr That’s a really cool design! Time-lapses are a great way to stay focused

[Vennela Manmohan @ManmohanVennela]

@PaneerKaTukda @gareth_david ⚡️

[Vennela Manmohan @ManmohanVennela]

@PaneerKaTukda @adriankuleszo Thanks 🙌🏼✨

[Vennela Manmohan @ManmohanVennela]

@PaneerKaTukda Indeed! This looks like an interesting concept 👀. Love the minimalistic clean design ✨

[Vennela Manmohan @ManmohanVennela]

@dimitroweb Improve ✨

[Chris Do @theChrisDo]

It will suck. For a period of time. But you will get bettter. Little by little. Almost imperceptible stretching and growing.

Until…

One day, someone compliments you at your skill. Then you will notice how far you’ve come.

The journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step. —Lao Tzu

[abhinav @abnux]

🚩 companies asking designers to do an assignment before even getting on a first call – red flag?

My thoughts on this, purely based on personal observations from 10+ years of industry experience (as designer, freelancer, head of design, design educator)

As a company

⛳️ is it the right thing to do?
as the screener round without even a first call, absolutely not. maybe as a pre final round of the process if you want to assess a gap that the portfolio and interview didn’t already cover.

⛳️ why do companies do this?
typically because non designers manage the process so they don’t know how to assess. standardised tests mindset. the evil version is because they don’t value designers time & that’s reflected in asking possibly 10-20 designers to do free work

⛳️ what do they miss out on?
high quality designers with stand-out portfolios. these designers have a lot of options, actively interviewing, typically in interview at multiple places. why should designers do free work for you if they don’t even know if it’s a good fit?

⛳️ what are they optimising for?
they are assuming designers need this job more than they need a designer. maybe goal is to get someone who is the obedient type ie will follow instructions. someone who is low to medium skill and prob not in high demand. why should designers invest effort in you if you haven’t done the same for them?

⛳️ what does it say about design as a function in their company?
design is likely seen as a cost rather than value. ie we just need someone to churn out whatever is told coz we don’t expect them to be able to contribute in any other way. only execution work, no divergent creative thinking needed.

As a designer

☀️ are assignment rounds common?
yes, but usually as a pre final round and not the very first one. if design team leads hiring, they typically give non-company related product statements and are 1-3 days submission deadline ie few hours of work

☀️ should you do the assignment?
if you want some practice, sure. if the company is worth it, sure. otherwise probably not worth it – it signals a lack of design maturity or worse, lack of value given to design

☀️ will the company steal my work?
probably. but indirectly by using what you do as “inspiration” for whoever they hire.

☀️ what’s a good assignment?
one that is not a screener round, doesn’t take up more than one or two sittings of your time, maybe is on-call as a whiteboard round itself.

☀️ how should I politely refuse?
let them know that you unfortunately don’t have the time, maybe are actively interviewing, and unless you’re sure about the company you cannot invest. you can also go the high agency route & DM the founder pitching yourself & sharing your portfolio as a way of skipping the line.

maybe even share this thread with them or paste this into GPT4 and let them know why it’s a bad practice.

—
🫴 to summarise: imo it is a red flag, but what’s red to some might be orange to others.

the ideal position is to be in abundance, have high skill, have highest possible confidence in your skill, present yourself well in a differentiated way & have lots of inbound and outbound leads.

🫴🕶️ post work online regularly & book discovery calls as your primary CTA. so you increase your surface area of luck, improve your articulation skills via practice, build positive network effects & don’t have to be trapped in scarcity mindset