In conversation with Jaime Holland
Recently I had the chance to talk with Jaime Holland, Parsons Paris alumna about her major, life after graduating, and what she’s up to now.
<Aditi> To start off…Where are you from? How come you are in Paris, why did you choose Parsons?
<Jaime> I’m Jaime, originally from Arkansas, US, and I’ve lived in Paris for about seven and half years now. I came to Paris to do the Parsons program which I found through a mutual friend. I had already been interested in coming to France and I had spent some time abroad the year before when I was doing another master’s. I heard about the Design and Technology Masters program when it was going to start and I thought it was really interesting because I had also studied design. I was also interested in living in France, living in Europe, and doing an art or design diploma. So when my friend told me about this, it just seemed kind of serendipitous. So, we went to Chicago to do one of the information sessions and we ended up applying and I got in. This was the first year they were doing the DT program and when I left the US, I think I had the intention to stay abroad indefinitely. I think when I arrived in Paris, I wasn’t so sure about what was going to happen. I ended up staying for the rest of the program and after too. That was the beginning.
<Aditi> Why were you interested in the DT Masters?
<Jaime> Well, I had studied Design as an undergraduate and I had another Masters’s in a more Anthropology related discipline I wanted to get a Master’s in Design but honestly, I wasn’t so sure about what exactly we would be doing in DT Masters. It was explained to us but it was also pretty much made clear that this was going to be an experimental program, it was the first year so I really didn’t know at the time, now, I do have a pretty decent understanding of the whole spectrum but I didn’t know at the time what I was doing and what I was getting myself into. It just seemed really open and new and I was pretty excited and I’m glad I went with that impulse to go. I’m still interested in everything I learned in this program. I work in Paris now thanks to what I learned in the program but I’m also doing more interdisciplinary things on the side and it’s just all been because of the program. This was a chance to go abroad while still being in an American school, where I knew they would speak English.
<Aditi> Yeah, I kind of feel the same way, coming into AMT, I didn’t know what to expect but now I’m happy that it was that broad and I learned so many things.
<Jaime> During the program there were a lot of moments where I felt unsure if I had made the right choice, like you said, it is broad, as a student it is hard to know what path to take and so when you’re finishing, especially if you’re wanting to get into work, I found myself having to make a choice and go with it for a little while, even though now I have deviated back. I just needed to focus on one thing and get a job.
<Aditi> What are some of the specific things that you learned during your program that are still relevant to your work today?>
<Jaime>There was more of an emphasis on tech in the DT program and I wouldn’t say that I’m a developer or an expert in coding but I did get a lot of knowledge on programming and DIY style methods to create. It was also creating a network of artists and designers that was really influential and I still have connections with those people. Other skills were more tech-oriented. Now, I’m a designer, but I work in tech, and having that knowledge is still beneficial even though I don’t work directly for tech, I design for it.
I work for Publicis Sapient, it is an agency, that works with a lot of brands to transform their business into something more digitally adaptable. As a designer, I work on their website or I help to create their website, but it goes a lot deeper than just helping them create their digital representation of their market or brand, we also try to transform their ways of working to be adaptable to the best practices for working in a digital environment. My title is User Interface Designer but before, I did User Experience Design or Full Stack Product Design because I did virtually everything related to the user and how they experience a digital product, researching user behaviors and designing the experience for them, how it should behave, how they should interact with it. Now, I’m an interface designer and I focus on the visual representation of the website or the app and making sure that the experience is good visually so that the user can understand it. I work a lot with developers, we have to communicate whatever we are designing with developers so we have to find common ground with how we share our work and how they interpret it on the web. This is why it is good that I have a background in code because I can code a website so I can communicate in the same language with them and make a truth between the designer and the developer. That’s been really fun.
<Aditi> Did you start working there right after graduating?
<Jaime> No, it was really hard. In hindsight, I would’ve really loved to make art, be an artist but at the time I was also pregnant. I intended on staying in Paris so I preferred to go in the direction where I knew I could find a job that can pay a decent salary where I could support myself. It is hard when you live in a foreign country and you don’t know where your income is going to come from and how to stay after graduating. So, I decided to make that choice and go in the direction of User Experience Design first, and then, after finding stability, I could do art or whatever I really wanted to do. It was hard, and I spent the summer after graduating trying to find jobs and I didn’t have that much experience. I found a job through an advertisement on the DT mailing list, where somebody was looking for a product designer. I contacted him and got a little experience working for him but still at a very junior level. And then I spent about 10 months looking for jobs, I did a lot of test projects, and interviews, and during that time, I just focused on the discipline I was working in and also on developing my own website. I had a job interview where a good knowledge of HTML/CSS was required so I took that as a challenge. Each interview gave me an opportunity to learn stuff and challenge myself. Finally, I built a website for my portfolio. I was getting better at what I was doing, and I had been looking for a while. I felt as if something was going to come soon. I had also made a freelance business during this time. In France, it’s pretty easy and I had help. So I had a freelance business and was searching for jobs as well. I got a phone call one day from a recruitment company, through LinkedIn. They told me that Sapient was looking for a lot of people for this one project in France and if I was interested and I was so it worked out. I stayed with this project for a while and then I was at a point where I could stay in France as a freelancer but it would’ve been really complicated so I asked Sapient to hire me because they were hiring some freelancers. I was honest about my visa situation and that it would be really helpful if they hired me because then I wouldn’t have to worry about that. And they did hire me and I’ve been there for almost three years now. I like it a lot. It gave me the stability that I needed to mellow out and enjoy my life in Paris and not work so much about what is the next step.
Since then, I’ve been playing a lot when I can. I’ve been getting into making generative art. I contacted Parsons Paris a while back because I wanted to start trying other things other than the work I do as a UI designer and I said I could be open to teaching. And then Bridget O’Rourke contacted me to do a coding workshop which I thought was cool. I wanted to brush up on my knowledge of code and also get back into making stuff with code. This gave me a push to get back into making generative art and I’m really happy about it and it is nice to be back in the community.
<Aditi> What is generative art?
<Jaime> Generative art is art created with an algorithmic base but the base itself is random so you can kind of have an idea of what you would like to do but there needs to be some randomness added to how the art is produced. You don’t always know what kind of outcome you’ll get. For me, it is really fun because it’s algorithmic, normally made with code, so it can better generate that randomness but also it is an autonomous piece of art, which is why I think it is interesting to so many people because it is representative of how algorithms are in nature and things like that.
<Aditi> My junior year project was very much about algorithms in nature and technology being a natural progression of patterns in nature. So, it is really interesting. Finally, what are some of your art and design inspirations/influences?
<Jaime> I wouldn’t say I get so influenced, there is this one person who also worked at Sapient and also did the computational design. His name is John Meida. I found him pretty influential. He has a lot of books too on how to speak machine language. He used to be the head of experience design or chief experience officer and then he left. He was one of those all over the place people like author, speaker, artist and he is quite good. And honestly, I find a lot of inspiration through Twitter. If I search for generative art stuff, it will put in my feed a lot of stuff I find interesting and I keep track of that. There is a lot of good stuff on Twitter. Addy Wagonette, she is an Austrian Artist who I spoke to a couple of times when I was a student at Parsons. Now I’ve known her for so long and I understand her better so that is where that influence comes from. I’m really curious so I’m pretty much open to going and hearing about anything. So if I find someone interesting, I’ll put them in my phone or follow them on social media for later.
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