Come Design With Me

The evening event Come Design With Me offered the graphic design 3rd year students the opportunity to speak to previous graduates about their personal experiences after leaving education. The graduates were all students from Stockport College who had graduated at various times, they kindly took the time to offer advice and answer questions which had been previously put forward by the group. The room was set up informally, with food and drinks, organised by various students, the graduates were split into two groups and the questions were selected and answered by the graduates. Although some of the questions were quite personal, what do you earn? etc, they were answered honestly by the group, giving us, as students a great insight into the 'real' world of entering the design industry. Although not all the responses were positive, they were very honest and realistic, which is what I think we needed to hear when being so close to graduating ourselves and being in the same situation which they had already experienced. When a question was chosen, the graduates gave their own personal answers which varied drastically, some had had positive experiences whilst attempting one route, whilst this had not worked for others, they talked about barriers which had held them back, how they had got placements and how some eventually led to employment. Their experiences depended on the individual and some had taken different routes to enter the industry, changing areas or styles of agency, they had all tried things which hadn't worked and gave us this invaluable advice to learn from their mistakes. They brought forward the importance of engaging with the industry before you actually leave college instead of just relying on contact following graduation, which made me realise how important portfolio visits are and why we are always encouraged by the tutors to have contact and communication which designers and agencies.

The second half of the evening was more informal and students and graduates chatted in general and had a look through portfolio's which they had brought along, this was really interesting to see the different types of work in their portfolios, depending on the agencies they worked for and their own personal interests. They gave advice on what employers look for within a portfolio and how important it was to be able to explain your work and be genuinely interested in the briefs which are in your portfolio. Some showed the agencies they worked for and the work they were currently involved in which was also good to see how their role worked within the agency as a designer.

The evening was an excellent way to gain a realistic idea of how things are going to be when I graduate, although at first the thought of graduating became even more daunting after talking to the ex students, their honest recollections gave me a jolt to recognise the importance of contacting agencies and becoming generally more involved with the industry, I have always had a great worry of embarrassing myself when contacting agencies and not having a confidence in the work in my portfolio but after speaking with the graduates it made me realise that if I want to get a placement and eventually employment, I have to have the confidence to not only contact them but to also show my work with enthusiasm.