About
“To run the gauntlet means to take part in a form of corporal punishment in which the party judged guilty is forced to run between two rows of
soldiers, who strike out and attack them with sticks or other weapons meanwhile metaphorically, this expression is also used to convey a public trial that one must overcome.”
As a graphic design student at university I’m told many things: To always academically reference, to do deep visual research, to experiment creatively. What I’m not told is how to exist after I leave education.
Run the Gauntlet is the vessel for this inquiry. Not chosen out of spite for my time in education. It’s a major privledge to be enabled to study anything remotely creative, to have been gifted the room to do all of the things I mentioned. But again, as of the end of June 2024, I’ll be transitioning from curious explorative arts student to unemployed. A tale as old as time. But a terrifying prospect. One I have virtually no advice on living out. So it felt more than relevant now whilst I’m still a student to approach head on as my final independent project for my BA.
To cut a long story short. There is no definitive successful approach that one can take. If there was, all of the professionals I’ve spoken to over the course of this project would surely all have responded with the same answer. But they don’t. Yet of course all of them people that from my perspective as a student, that I consider to be, well, professionals.
Most of us are in many ways forced to run the gauntlet. Relative to the world of a graphic designer, anyway. Operating at a place between sheer delusion and endurance, with that promise of that fabled secure job as an eventual result of our efforts. While said job demand broader and broader skill sets for less and less pay. The gauntlet is less than ideal. But what other choice do we have?
Here’s my idealistic solution. It’s not exactly historically accurate, but bare with me... as an industry let’s armor ourselves, and maybe bring a good shield with us. Industry wide change is only feasible if we, as a collective, stand up for it. Don’t settle for unpaid internships, don’t work for exposure, don’t let people walk all over you. And if you do, make certain that the value you bring to the table is equivalent to whatever you’re getting out of it.