Karenkavet- How Can I Become a Graphic Designer

Karen Kavett, YouTuber

Born in New Jersey and now living in Los Angeles, internet personality and graphic designer Karen does videos about design, typography, and do-it-yourself crafting projects which are directly published on her YouTube Channel. She also creates original content for the HGTV Handmade Channel. We've known each other since her days at Google where she worked on the UI of YouTube. She agreed to give us an exclusive interview about her experience and how she became the Karen we know today.

So you've had a YouTube channel since 2008 and your audience has been growing quite a lot since. You focus mostly on crafting and design. How did you get there?

I started making videos in early 2008 when I was a freshman in college at RISD (Rhode Island School of Design). I started because I was a part of the online Harry Potter community, and I saw a lot of my online friends starting to vlog which was totally new to me. I also found John and Hank Green's channel Vlogbrothers at the same time and watched their entire first year of videos in about 2 weeks. So, I started vlogging using my point and shoot camera that had the quality of a potato, eventually moving on to a camcorder and posting more regularly about a year later when I took a video editing class in college.

My first few years of videos were vlogs about my life and my (terrible) attempt at sketch comedy. Eventually, I started making DIY tutorials and really enjoyed that since I've always loved crafting. I also took the advice to "talk about what you know" and I started making videos about the graphic design topics I was learning about in school, such as typography basics or how to design a logo. Those videos have become some of my most viewed since the topics are highly searchable.

After graduating college, I got a job as a visual designer at YouTube, where I worked on creator tools like the upload page and the annotations tool. I left that job after about a year, for reasons that I explain in this video. About six months later I was approached by HGTV to be a part of the new HGTV Handmade channel they were launching, which is a collab channel dedicated to DIY videos. HGTV have been one of my favorite brands for ages, and this opportunity came about at the perfect time. I'm now going into my third year working with them, and I split my time between videos for my personal channel, and videos and extra editing work for HGTV Handmade.

Doing something new is always exciting. What was your first impression when you uploaded your first video? And when you started to see hundred of people following your channel?

Very few people watched my first video when I first put it up. I pretty much just shared it with my friends I knew through Harry Potter, which was probably about 20 people. It took me over a year to get my first 100 subscribers, and my channel has just had a steady growth since then — there were no one viral videos that got me a large majority of my subscribers.

I've always found the numbers exciting to follow. I'm obsessed with checking the stats on vidstatsx.com for not just my channel but plenty of others. But at the same time, I try to stay grounded and remember that each one of those numbers is a person, and that it's just as important to connect with existing fans as it is to be continually trying to gain new ones.

Making videos isn't easy and YouTube's audience is really picky. What was the biggest surprise? YouTube often changes, so how did you stay on top of what's new?

The biggest surprise is probably just which videos do well and which don't. I might spend a full week putting together a complex DIY video, but often the videos where I'm just sitting and talking for 5 minutes get more views, sometimes because it's a more searchable topic. I'm the worst at predicting what people are going to click on, so I just try to make videos that I'm excited about and that I would want to watch if I wasn't the one making them.

You attended the Rhode Island School of Design before joining YouTube. What have you learned there that's still applicable in your life today?

I started college when I was 16 and graduated when I was 20, so I definitely grew up a lot during those years. Since I majored in graphic design, I of course grew as a designer, and I still use my graphic design skills in my thumbnails and branding, and in the graphic design work I do for HGTV. But beyond schoolwork, I also learned how to live on my own, how to network with other people in the industry, and through internships I learned that I really hate working in offices and prefer to be my own boss.

Back in 2011, you accepted an offer to join YouTube. That's where we met for the first time. What motivated you to join Google and help out YouTube to move forward? What did you gained through this unique experience?

YouTube first became aware of me when I designed the So You Want to Watch YouTube flowchart in 2010. One of the visual designers who I would later end up working with contacted me so they could print it out and hang it at the YouTube offices. Then I assume the team saw my graphic design videos as well and learned I was graduating, so they contacted me about applying for a visual design position at the company. Before that, I had always assumed I would move to New York after college since I had grown up on the east coast, but I ended up applying for and getting the job. I packed my bags, moved out to San Francisco and started working at YouTube about two months after graduation.

I definitely learned a lot while I was there, and the first few months were basically a crash course in web design, since my education at RISD had been mostly focused on print design. I learned from some amazing designers that I worked alongside, I learned how to set up documents in order for webdevs to code your exact vision, and I learned a lot about how large companies are run (and I ate a ton of free food). However, I knew from the beginning that this job wouldn't be a long-term thing since I don't do well in corporate environments, even if Google is the most un-corporate corporation there is.

Now, you're working with HGTV and doing some freelance work on the side. It's a lot of work! What keeps you inspired and motivated?

I actually do very little freelance work these days. My time is taken up with about 40% making videos for my own channel, 40% making videos for HGTV Handmade, and 20% doing extra editing and design work for HGTV. The HGTV gig is about as ideal a job as I could hope for, since I get to work from home on my own all day and get paid to make DIY YouTube videos, which is what I was doing for years beforehand as a hobby.

HGTV have been really open to experimenting with online media and trying to appeal to the younger crowd, so I haven't had to change up my video style much. I've also made some great friends with the other girls on the channel and am constantly inspired by the craft projects they come up with and motivated to keep pushing myself to make better and better videos. It's great to have collaborators, and while I do have a boss who could veto ideas if she wanted to, it's a much more casual and collaborative relationship than any jobs or internships I've had in the past. At the same time, it's nice to have a little more structure to my days than I did when I was just making videos on my own and doing freelance design projects. It's nice to get a steady paycheck from HGTV rather than the freelance life where a ton of work would come in at once and then I would feel like I needed to take on projects I wasn't excited about to fill in the gaps where not a lot was coming in.

With all your experience, what would be your advice to anyone who would want to be on YouTube today?

Honestly, I have no idea how you would get noticed on YouTube these days. When I started, if someone searched for "graphic design" tons of my videos would come up and only a few others. But these days, the market is incredibly saturated, and it seems like somebody has already made every type of video there is. Plus, now online video is expanding off of YouTube and onto Facebook, Vine, Instagram, and all the other social networks the kids are on. It can quickly get very overwhelming especially if you're just starting out.

If you just want to make videos as a hobby and aren't worried about making it a career, I would say to just make the type of videos you want to watch and don't worry about all the "optimization tips" out there. If you want to eventually turn it into a job and build a large audience though, figure out what niche you can fill or what your strongest suit is. Maybe you have an engaging on-screen personality like Grace Helbig, or maybe you're great at editing like Mitchell Davis. Maybe you want to make special effects videos like Freddie Wong or are knowledgable about makeup like Fleur DeForce. Whatever it is, focus on that and make the best videos you can using the equipment you have. Brand yourself well with clear, consistent graphics, and have a name or username that's easy for people to look up and remember. Attend conferences like VidCon and events at the YouTube Spaces to network and meet others that you could collaborate with.

Who should we interview next?

At VidCon last year I met CharliMarieTV who also makes videos about graphic design. Her videos are similar to what I was making years ago before I veered more into the crafting genre, except that she has a way better accent than I do.

I've also been really into Ashley Mardell's videos lately. She focuses on LGBT topics, and every single one of her videos features beautiful graphics and just have so much thought put into them.

Any parting words?

Thanks so much for choosing me to interview!

Karenkavet- How Can I Become a Graphic Designer

Source: https://medium.com/creativelist/karen-kavett-youtuber-cfe95fc19720

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