So happy for Kimi Antonelli. Youngest F1 Champion ever. It’s been a weird season with the rules changes, but he’s excelled consistently. So impressive.

After I finish an intense cycle of writing or research, I always end up working on typeface designs as a kind of detox. So now that I’ve got a short break after comps, I’ve started working on some older font designs that I never finished.

Sorry to hear about the passing of Dr. Henrie Monteith Treadwell. Of all the people I’ve met while at the University of South Carolina, she was one of my favorites. Here’s a mini-documentary about the statue in honor of the desegregation of USC.

Do I still need an online portfolio?

Today, someone asked to see some samples of my design work and I remembered that I currently don’t have an online portfolio. I’ve always maintained a portfolio page on my personal site and kept it updated.1 But my career path has changed… My primary creative outlets are my type designs and my random Cotton Bureau merch and I have links with samples of those sites. When I migrated Sketchbook B to Micro.Blog last summer, I chose not to rebuild my “work samples” page with my branding work. This was an intentional choice — I’m not looking for design work and I figured I didn’t need it — but now I’m second guessing my choice. I’ve obviously still got all of my portfolio images. I’m going to think through what work I want to include, and I’ll probably pull something together on this site at some point. You just never know when someone will ask to see it.

Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been a designer since 1997 and a blogger since 2008.

  1. Everything in this post about resumes is relevant to portfolios, too. ↩︎

Comps are finished. Everything went well. I’ve still got to do an oral defense, but I’m happy about how things went.

Wow. Great win for my Gamecocks over No. 11 Tennessee!

Massive trunk-or-treat at my wife’s school. 🎃

A crowd of people is walking and mingling among white tents set up on a grassy field at sunset.

Day one of comps done. Sitting on the Horseshoe for a little bit before I head home and get a little rest.

I start comps for my Ph.D. on Thursday next week. Four days. Four questions. Four hours per question. I’ve been reading and re-reading academic articles to get ready. Last night, I kept waking up with dreams about processing fluency. Going to be a long Friday. I need a nap.

Good advice: Keeping your resume up-to-date

Earlier today, I saw a post on Threads about a woman who was afraid she was about to be laid off at a meeting tomorrow. Everyone commenting on her post encouraged her to quickly gather anything on her computer that she would need for future interviews. It reminded me of some of the best advice I’ve been given. When I was a undergrad, one of my PR professors told us to “Always keep your resume and portfolio up to date.”1 Her rationale:

  1. You never know when you will get an opportunity for an interview. Sometimes, even when you are not looking for a job, an unexpected opportunity might present itself. Be ready.
  2. You never know when you will get laid off. PR firms and ad agencies have a tendency to reduce staff when they lose clients. Be prepared.
  3. You will forget important details. Will you remember what projects you worked on? Volunteer work that you did? Don’t trust your memory.
  4. It’s incredibly awkward to reach out to an old job to get samples for your portfolio. And if you didn’t leave on good terms, it may be impossible to get samples. Think ahead.

This advice has stuck with me for decades. When I was a designer and creative director, I updated my InDesign resume document, physical portfolio and online portfolio frequently, even though I changed jobs rarely. I was always ready, just in case the right opportunity came along.

Now that I’m mostly an academic, I keep my Curriculum Vitae (CV) up to date here on my personal website. In fact, I updated it last week after I presented at an academic conference. I like having my CV2 on my personal website. It’s basically the master document summarizing my career and experience, and it is easy for me to share a link with people immediately. I also try to keep a subset of my experience updated on my LinkedIn profile, even though I don’t spend a lot of time over there.

Anyway, I think it’s good advice for anyone to keep a resume or CV up-to-date, preferably on your own website. You just never know when you will need it. And I hope that women on Threads doesn’t get laid off.

Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.

  1. I swear I’ve written about this before, but I can’t find it anywhere. ↩︎

  2. A resume tends to be a short 1-2 page summary of work experience, while a CV includes pretty much everything and can be as long as it needs to be. My CV is a hybrid of a traditional CV and a resume. ↩︎

I got to attend a panel discussion today with four of my favorite former classmates who’ve all finished their doctorates and are all doing amazing things as professors. It was so good to see them all together. Felt just like being around the seminar table with them again.

I saw a Ferrari SUV at Publix the other day and went to Ferrari’s website to see what it was. (It was a Purosangue.)

Now I’m getting ads on social media for Ferrari of Charlotte. They may want to add some income parameters to that ad retargeting. 🤣

I asked the barista which one of the new Fall special drinks she liked.

After a long pause, she replied “Well, my dad likes the Jack-O-Latern.”

I feel so old. Also, the drink is great…

Landed the best table at the local coffee shop. A window seat plus outlets for charging.

At a football game in rural South Carolina and the band’s halftime show is Dungeon and Dragons themed.

“When you are losing money, you can’t make it up in volume.”

A seasoned insurance executive told me this once, explaining why we were abandoning a project we had spent significant time and money on. I think about this sometimes when I see financials for some of these AI companies.

I like Snickers. I like Banana Nut Bread. I like limited edition candy. We’ll see if I like this.

A Snickers Banana Nut Bread flavored candy bar with 190 calories is placed on a wooden surface.

Sometimes, I wonder how people would feel about AI if the initial LLM hype was framed as “This is going to make a 30-hour work week possible.” Instead they went with “This is going to cause massive unemployment and maybe destroy the world.”

I always love when the backup quaterback comes in and kicks ass. Case Keenum has had quite the game for da Bears tonight.

Gamecock Women’s Basketball preseason starts tomorrow.