I had previously designed a business card as part of my self promotion pack, however I wasn't happy with the outcome and wanted better quality. I was given the recommendation to check out Moo.com who produce slick and high quality business cards.
The cards will arrive in plenty of time before the end of year show. The main purpose for these are for me to have when I move back to London and am reaching out to professionals and visiting studios.
My Design:
The quality has been compromised slightly when uploading to my blog, but this is the simple design I chose for my cards.
PDF Version:
Confirmation that they have been ordered:
I have ordered 50 'Luxe' Cards with a 'Tiger Orange Seem'
I received an email back from a woman called LinYee at MOLD magazine. She was very friendly in her response and has said that if I ever find myself In New York, I am more than welcome to visit their studio. She also said that they would be more than happy to organise a Skype call between myself and the team. This is a good opportunity to find out more about their work and hopefully build a stronger relationship.
This experience has once again given me a boost in confidence and has motivated me to reach out to anyone I come across that interests me.
Reaching Out to Bruce Usher...
When speaking to a designer at Wieden + Kennedy, they told me that I should get in touch with a designer who recently left W+K and has since started a couple of independent magazines. As I am still interested in editorial design and as I have work experience at Wired magazine in June, I thought I would reach out to Bruce to see if I could start a conversation with him.
I am still waiting on a response, I was warned that he isn't great at replying to emails however I am glad I contacted him anyway as a boost of confidence to keep doing the same. After all, persistence pays off!
During my week at W+K, I spoke to a designer called Kelly. She ended up being someone I spent a lot of time with that week and have since been emailing her.
When we were chatting, she asked if I had any work for her to see... I had a website but I really didn't want to show her as it hadn't been fully updated and I was not at all confident with the content. However, I explained that I have work that is yet to be uploaded and I will make sure to do that ASAP.
She told me that when I got round to it, she would love to see the rest of my work. I have since updated my website and I am a lot more confident with sending it out. This is why I have since contacted Kelly, among others, letting her know that the site is updated and that she should check it out.
It is a nice feeling to finally be proud of my website. It is also an amazing opportunity to have contacts at such a global company who are interested in what I am up to. I am going to use this to my advantage as much as possible.
I am still in conversation with the Account department which will hopefully result in more work at W+K. Fingers Crossed
I was deep into research for my last extended practice brief. I was researching into the future of food when I came across a magazine called MOLD, a magazine that specifically looks at the future of food. This was perfect research for the brief, however I didn't stop there.
As I am now very interested in the topic, and MOLD have seemed to cover a huge amount of it through their website articles and magazines, I decided I would find an email to contact and go from there. I started to write an email just to say that I love the magazine and content, I then decided that I would introduce myself and then go for it and ask whether it would be possible to visit their studio to see how they work ( I worded it a lot more sucky than that). I then realised before sending that I hadn't found out where their studio actually is.... it turns out its in New York. For a moment I started to think that this was a stupid idea, but then realised I am about to graduate and so if the opportunity to go to New York was every a possibility, I am now in the position where I can take it!
This only happened a few days ago and so I am eagerly awaiting their response...
As I was leaving the office last Friday to complete my work experience, I was having a conversation with an employee I had met earlier in the week. She recommended that I emailed everyone that I had met that week to say thank you. This would hopefully result in them remembering me and could potentially result in me being invited back.
One person I emailed was Matt, the Accounts Manager I met in the week. He was the one who inspired me to aim for a job similar to his. I have asked if it would be possible for me to return, focusing more on what he does in the company. I recieved a response the same day that said he would talk with the head of his department to see what he can arrange. I will be persistently emailing him until something is arranged for later this year.
I also emailed someone called Dan, who was involved in the brief I was set to complete throughout the week. I emailed him a png of some developments I had made after our meeting. I am going to try to stay involved in the brief, despite me not being there.
Examples of logo development as part of the brief:
Gaining Valuable Insight into The Creative Advertising Industry
with Wieden + Kennedy
Monday the 30th last week marked the start of my one week placement at the global advertising agency Wieden + Kennedy. After being treated to breakfast around the corner of the office, the morning started by sitting in on an editing suite where I met some of the members of the team. They were reviewing highlights sent to them by Formula 1, one of if not THE biggest client they have at them moment. I sat in and watched them go over the footage and decide on the most important events of the most recent race to be used in the promo vid for the up coming race in Spain. Within the first our of my time there, I was blown away by what they produce for their clients as well as the sheer scale of what they do on a day to day basis.
Wieden + Kennedy promo video to launch their campaign:
I was lucky enough to be shadowing the Creative Director who worked very hard to allow me to gain insight into as many aspects of the company as possible. My first day also included sitting on on their review of progression for the new Money Supermarket ad campaign. From this, I learned how they presented their ideas and process; using something called 'the wall'. It was very interesting to see how they operated as well as how they gave and received feedback.
Every meeting or review I sat in on over the course of the week involved an eclectic team of employees ranging from designers to account managers to creative directors. I was able to see how each job role, of which there were A LOT, worked together in making an otherwise daunting challenge much more manageable through team work and communication.
Throughout the week, I was also given the opportunity to begin research for a new project that the Creative Director I was shadowing wanted to explore. The brief included research into the amazing work of the White Helmets over in Syria. The idea in a nutshell was to champion their work whilst at the same time get people who may have lost interest or turned a blind eye to the conflict in the middle east to start talking about it more. I don't think explaining the brief in anymore detail would be a good idea for confidentiality reasons.
Documentary following the work and lives of The White Helmets that I referred to for research, available on Netflix:
Wednesday, I was taken offsite to an external editing suit with a free-lance motion graphic designer. In the afternoon, I met with a designer and had a chat with her about what she does. I am unsure whether I want to carry on being a designer and so this insight was very valuable in knowing more about what they are responsible for in the process. In the same afternoon, I met with Matt who is an Account Manager. Before this week, I had never heard of such a job role and this meeting ended up being one of the most valuable aspects of the experience. He explained to me what his job involved as well as what attributed you ned in order to do his job successfully. When he explained it all to me, it made me realise that I would be very well suited to a job that nature.
What I have realised this week is that I am not interested in the production side of design and have now learned that there is such a huge variety of job roles within the creative industry, and ones that are much more strongly suited to my interests, ambitions and skills. The meeting has given me something more specific to aim for as well as reconsider my MA option. This has confirmed that I will be looking for MAs that are more business focused. Every meeting I had, I made sure to ask their opinion on if an MA is necessary or beneficial.
Each person gave a slightly different opinion, however a majority said that it would be more beneficial to get stuck into the industry. The decision I made from these meetings and insights was that I am going to continue to research and eventually apply for an MA, however I am going keep all options open.
I aim to gather as much work experience this Summer as I can and get a wider scope of the creative industry as this week as extremely beneficial for me and so gaining more will only add to this. The rest of the week I carried on with my own brief, sat in on more reviews and met mine of the team.
I tried my best to get noticed, however this was a hard ask considering there are nearly 200 people working their. I managed to gather a few contacts which I will be emailing as well as some studios to get in touch with. I will be emailing each person I met at the office to say thank you and hopefully start up conversations with. I will try my hardest to get invited back to W+K through persistent emailing. They also offer an internship through a programme over Summer which I will try to get involved in.
The Rewarding Experience of Hosting a Show of my Work
One of the most rewarding experiences of this year has been contextualising my work through hosting an exhibition of work produced by myself and two other designers. It's one thing to design something 'nice' on a screen and maybe do a couple of mock ups with it, but its another to actually present the work to the public and spark genuine interest.
This is definitely something I will be doing more of, it was extremely enjoyable, rewarding and it taught me a lot more than my other briefs did. The most rewarding aspect of the experience was seeing people look at my work and talk about it, pointing and commenting. Whether they were admiring or critiquing, it was a great thing to experience and I am very glad that we decided to go through with it.
As well as our work, there was also live music and free drinks flowing which made it feel like more of an event than an exhibition which really worked, especially for our young target audience. Combining a music event with work is an amazing idea and something that I hope to develop.
I have been to an event similar where there was music, crowds, drink and creative work. It was on a much larger scale than ours but it has inspired me to do something similar. With the number of creatives, musicians etc that I now know, it is definitely possible to throw large events of this nature. This is something I will be looking into over the Summer period in London as there there is even more opportunity for this kind of project.
An Email from Previous Work
I recently received an email from a design studio I worked with a couple of years ago. They reached out to me as they caught wind of the fact that I asm finishing Uni very soon. I have never been reached out to like this and so it was a very rewarding feeling to think that they chose me personally to ask whether I would be interested in doing some more work with them.
I have replied saying that I am unfortunately very busy with other work experience and trips away but that I will stay in touch and if they still need me later on int he Summer period that I would be more than happy to come in.
Admittedly I didn't love my time there, however I had only just come out of first year and so I wasn't very able to do many tasks. Whereas if I were to revisit, they would have a lot more faith in my abilities and hopefully give me more rewarding work.
One of their new clients is Chelsea Football Club, and as I am a fan of this club I am very interested to be involved. It would be a great project to add to my portfolio.
