Somewhat Silent

As an illustrator, I asked a local graphic designer, who just moved to Montreal recently, about any advice for me relating to the field and she suggested the book “How to be a graphic designer, without selling your soul” by Adrian Shaughnessy.

An excellent book, although it is geared towards graphic designers and their desire to run a studio and deal with clients. However, a few thoughts came across my mind and I thought I’d ask some of you here.

1) He mentions that communication is important and that making a pitch helps create a rapport and saleability of our work. How would a deaf designer or creative professional deal with that?

2) Should deaf creative professionals run a studio business with other hearing people, or are we better off freelancing alone in our home office? In other words, the author says that those who run a studio have a more open system of sharing resources, feedback and solving problems with pressure from clients as the only thing to deal with…while working alone has a huge benefit of doing your own thing but discipline is very difficult to maintain.

3) Should deaf creative professionals get an agent or rep for their work? Or should we go at it ourselves dealing with clientele at the risk of getting BS-ed by them? What happens if we cannot find a local rep or agent and are forced to do this ourselves?

Right now, I have one local art show next month to exhibit my illustrations and then another one next March in a popular nightclub. This way, I can market myself through the ‘underground’ and hope the use of word of mouth would be an effective viral campaign for me.
Although, I still continue to do my other freelance work and am almost done with the book cover illustration that’s been in the works for some time.

I emailed the author and got his response:

“Hi Adam

Thanks for your email. And thanks for your kind words about my book, I
really appreciate it.

Funnily enough, I once employed a deaf designer. I was asked by her
university to give her employment for a few weeks after she had graduated.
I interviewed her and found her to be a bright and engaging person. I sensed
she had plenty of inner strength. Her name was Sue.

Her work was ordinary; neither bad nor good, merely average. Nevertheless, I
was happy to take her on for a month. She lip read, and although her spoken
English was hard to understand at first, it soon became easy to grasp what
she was saying. There were no problems with her failing to understand what
was said to her.

At that time I also employed someone who had a profoundly deaf brother, and
I noticed that she was much better at dealing with Sue than the rest of us,
who were over cautious in our approach to her. As the only one of us with
experience of dealing with a deaf person, she dealt with Sue in an entirely
natural and unpatronising way.

So I think there is a lesson here: people have to learn to adjust to working
with deaf people, and I think many of us do it badly.

I wonder if it might help if you confronted this head on and said to
employers - look, I suppose you think it’s going to be difficult dealing
with me, but it’s not. I can be treated just like anyone else. I don’t need
special treatment.

This may sound simplistic - but I learned a lot by employing Sue. I learned
that people change when they have to deal with people with physical
disabilities - and they don’t need to.

My final thought is that if your work is good enough you will succeed. I’m
sure the barriers you encounter must be discouraging, but they are not
insurmountable. I also know one or two illustrators who conduct all their
business via email. I know this goes against my advice to build up good
communication with clients - but email can be an effective way of
communicating too.

I will continue to think about the issues your email raised, and if anything
else springs to mind, I’ll let you know.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards

Adrian”

Has anyone had those experiences?

And so I write once again today on a rainy October day, sipping the organic coffee and wondering what is the next thing to rant about. Lette’s post reminded me of another situation that I’m trying to figure out.

As I’ve mentioned in the past threads that I’m born deaf with congenital damage but function as HoH which could lead to clashes of self-identity in being the Great Neo debating whether he is for the Machines or the Humans.

Currently, I am living in a college town that is an hour south from where I used to reside in and once a week or so, I’d drive up northbound to get away from the mundanity of things. How I got here is a long story since a year ago. My social life is not bad but given the fact that I get around in the ‘hearing’ world when I can and deal with the deaf community time to time for services needed, even though I work for one of their agences now on a part-time basis.

Socially, I don’t hang with deaf people much around here except crossing paths with them a few times a month while with the hearing world, I do bump into familiar faces and network as much for my creative endeavors.

There are less than about 10 HoHs around here in Vermont…at least from what I’m told but the figures could be inaccurate. And my method to communicate is by lip-reading, using Relay calls (only for business or emergencies) and text/email by the Blackberry to which I have unlimited use for. And have a Sorenson video phone that allows me to talk to local deaf people on the tv screen and have not tested the web cam to video phone experiment yet.

The video phone requires high speed internet access and to which I have DSL attached to it and my computer. Unfortunately, I despise land phones due to bad experiences in the past with telemarketers and have to struggle to understand what the person is saying. Although, there is the CapTel tech letting the captions go across the screen on the phone ‘live’ as you are seeing what the person says and in the meantime, allow you to use your natural voice.

The problem is that it requires a phone service and that adds up the bill. Plus, it makes having a 2nd phone redundant when my Blackberry can do the job when I’m out of the house. The catch-22 is that my Blackberry does not have a voice plan and I rarely make calls that if I added a voice plan, it would not be worth it.

Now…when I’m out to other places and meet people, I carry my business cards just in case. The cards mention my name, email address and cell phone #. That’s it. My web url is already obviously printed for folks to look up.

I’ve seen guys talk to women (yes, I know..I’m treading this territory again), they’re conditioned to ask for her phone # if she’s interested. I did’nt realize up to until this point that this might backfire on me due to my lack of voice plan on the Blackberry and landphones. I’ve noticed that women love to gab on the phone for hours on their cellphones and text. Clearly, texting is good for making plans ‘on the go’ but not for lengthy conversations.

I’ve been careful to try not to get into a dark area in bars/clubs when talking to someone so I can see their lips and understand what they’re saying. I’m not involved with anyone yet, but I have a growing concern that if she starts to like me and wants to have a conversation, how am I supposed to convince her that I use the Blackberry/email/Instant Messaging to communicate besides one on one in person as the best method?

If I used Relay calls, it’s going to make the woman very uncomfortable and awkward and wonder why I would use that when I was able to talk to her with my voice. This option will never be used by me unless for extreme emergencies. I don’t like the idea of forking out $40 bucks for a second phone service that I will almost never use, just so the woman (whoever she is) and I would have a conversation.

She would not have access to video phone technology because it is clearly for the deaf and we use them for free. The only way to use that is if she has a web cam. So, how many women out there would have that?

Texting…is free for me…but if I continue using that method, it will cost the person on the other end. E-mail and web browsing is free as well. If I used the phone feature, it will cost me .20 cents a minute, plus long distance if applicable.

When I go out and I see someone interesting, I always ask for an email address AFTER the conversation. Because if I asked for a phone #, the girl would probably think twice, maybe after seeing my hearing-aid. I’ve asked the local deaf people on advice….

They had no clue how to advise me on this.

The only thing is that if she had a computer and uses Instant Messaging, it would be the closest thing to having a phone conversation and I have 2 IM programs on my Blackberry. One of the best tools for the phone.

So really…how in hell do I convince women not to shy away from the fact that I use methods a bit different than a phone call to converse and not ‘write me off’ just because I look harmless. I’ve heard stories that women would look at certain men and write off some of them that appear ‘harmless’ and un-exciting to the point of being unworthy of a conversation. I can’t date deaf women here because there’s not a lot of them my age in this state or even too far spread apart in areas I don’t even know and some of them are very self-absorbed in their world.

For instance, I walked to a wine bar last Friday night….saw a HoH/deaf girl that I remembered being acquainted with from the deaf community and she saw me, then waved but was busy talking to an older man (she’s about early to mid 20s). I went to a table and ordered a drink while watching a ballgame.
A while later, she leaves with this guy without even bothering to say hello to me. And this was the only time I saw her again in more than a year or so.

What am I supposed to do then? How am I supposed to tear the wall down? Maybe I should ask Pink Floyd?

Just recently, I got a new headphone from SkullCandy…namely the Skull Crusher. And I’ll tell you this..with a sub-woofer amplifier attached…this thing makes my ears bleed….and RATTLE! Just like being in a live concert…and for $29.99 which is a major steal at FYE stores…originally retailing for $80 bucks.

I know some of you can’t hear much, but for those who enjoy the bass…………….grab it. Skull Candy..is wicked…and is on par with Sennheiser. Goodbye Sony..I hardly knew ye. You tried to be too cool but it backfired.

Just when I have been using my Sprint Blackberry to communicate with deaf people here in Vermont, I just got a Sorenson VP (videophone) for VRS (video relaying services) and/or face to face communications to a deaf person.

Deaf/Hoh people get the Sorenson VP-200 for free…the technology is sick (I mean that in a good way). It requires high speed internet access via DSL or cable.

And still enjoying my new apartment situated among the mountains….so…does anyone here have a VP or such?

Recently, I have relocated to a small college town, with some culture to which the gods should be thanked, and am in a new apartment. Not with a roommate but all to myself. And it’s in Middlebury, VT, home to Middlebury College, a respected liberal arts school.

Anyway, I now have an inner sanctum to run wild with my creativity, but on the one hand, there’s no internet access yet which has to be worked out. And will continue to check my posts by Blackberry or using the local wifi at the library a few blocks away.

Now that I’m out of the Starbucks work system, there’s a new job waiting for me as a community specialist for a deaf client in the area so it’s part-time and something to do in order to hold my place down.