The last time we spoke with grad Mark Miller, we were touching base with the members of DD01, the very first Digital Design graduating class. Mark had landed a job in New York City with Firstborn Multimedia, designing user interfaces, and all was good.

But Mark had very specific plans for what he wanted to do in the design industry post-VFS. “After leaving school, I had hope to find a position that would allow me to do some brand development and print design with a focus on interactive design,” he says.

So he signed on with aptly-named thehappycorp global in SoHo, to work in an office so cool the site This Ain’t No Disco ran a profile. His work with the agency allows him to do what he wanted – branding, and design for both screen and print – but thehappycorp also throws regular parties to bring creatives of all stripes together under the name LVHRD.

“I lead a small group of designers,” Mark says, “and while we do work some incredibly long hours, we’re always learning from each other, exploring and growing our minds, and we have fun while doing it.”

Like most designers, Mark’s also got his own pans in the fire. He’s kept up his daily design experiment stretchdaily, and his work was featured last year in the prestigious journal Web Design Index.

His advice to design students everywhere is to keep everything in perspective. “Our business is very competitive, and when you work long hours for very long spans of time, it’s easy to forget about the big picture or where you are trying to go with it all. We were taught to break down our goals into small pieces that could be accomplished by working once a day, once a week, once a month.”

“I’ve seen the benefits of establishing personal goals and an overall brand or vision for oneself be their own reward.”