Designer stresses passion is important
“We want to be chased down the street with CVs, we want to see your love and passion – that it is all you want to do, every second of the day,’ says Heyday founder Luke Pierson
Video by David Nicoll and Alyson Eberle
Luke Pierson flew in from Melbourne last night to address a crowd full of hopeful designers on Thursday morning for Spark week.
Pierson, the founder of digital design firm Heyday, spoke to an audience of students and faculty about the ups and downs of the digital design world.
Founded in 2000, Heyday was a “clever idea” that Pierson had. It now works with clients ranging from ANZ to Ecoya.
After 14 years in the business, Heyday has a staff of 35 designers and developers.
But success took time to build and it wasn’t until 2010 when Heyday decided to re-launch that the firm received validation that it was on top of its game.
“It’s not common today to rebrand,” said Pierson to the Wintec crowd. “But we decided that we would re-launch on our 10th birthday and combined our birthday with the internet’s 21st birthday.”
The company decided to make ‘Down to the Wire,” a love letter to the internet. The project was fully funded in house, with no actual budget or allocated work time.
The entire project was self-funded by Heyday staff who produced the interactive website with videos and interviews, all created on the staff’s spare time.
The website dedicated to the internet has over 500,000 views.
And not only was an interactive website dedicated to the internet in New Zealand born, but Heyday also developed a new design technique.
“We created geared scrolling, the ability to have three section of text next to each other but all with their own scrolling system.”
Pierson talked to the crowds about what he thinks the biggest problems students face entering the industry today.
“The number one problem with the industry is talent,” said Pierson. “It is an ever expanding market; the industry is constantly growing so we need more and more talented designers and developers.”
The main message Pierson stressed to students was the importance of passion and love for the craft and this was apparent in the story he told about two employees currently working at Heyday.
“Cam Spiers and Pieter Vanderwerff both came to work at Heyday as new graduates. They were so passionate about their work, they would spend their weekend coding and developing. Not too long ago they got an invite from Facebook to come over to California and tour the company. Because of their talent the two are heading over in October to work for Facebook.
“The market is opened for everyone now and everyone is looking for talent, and we are competing with big name firms. If you’re passionate about something then you can do great things globally.”
Pierson also addressed another problem facing students: experience. “Getting a qualification is not the same as getting a job,” said Pierson. “Regardless of your dream role in the industry, you have to love what you are doing now. As employers we can tell if you don’t love it.We want to be chased down the street with CVs, we want to see your love and passion – that it is all you want to do, every second of the day.”
Pierson said the best advice he can give to developers, designers, and students is that they must love what they are doing. “If you don’t love it then what is the point of doing it?”
