Contacting Agencies

This year I was on a mission to try and engage with the industry more as this was something I really struggled with last year. I worried about sounding inexperienced when commenting on their work or appearing forward when asking for portfolio visits, so I decided to begin contacting agencies quite early in the year, to attempt to form relationships, not just to ask about portfolio visits but to try and gain advice and contacts.

I contacted quite a few agencies and didn't receive any replies, which is disappointing but it did also push me to plan the walk in visits with stacey, I think agency's just get so inundated with emails from students, all asking for the same thing that they probably just don't have time to email them all back. When Chris Conlan from Love gave his talk at The Design Symposium, he proved this fact by showing an image of his inbox, the page was full within the hour, not just from students but clients as well. I suppose whereas I used to take it personally if a designer didn't reply to my emails I know realise that they have priorities and busy schedules and they basically just don't always have time to email back every single student who emails them.

I did receive  replies from a couple of agencies, one which was Reform, based in Manchester. I had emailed them with a genuine comment about a piece of their work which sparked an idea on a brief I was doing for ProPlus. It is so confidence boosting when you receive a reply from a designer, but I have now come to realise that instead of getting disheartened when I don't receive a reply, to think of a different more creative way of contacting the agency instead of just contacting a different one and hoping for the best.

This proved to be the case as when I had previously contacted Creative Spark by email, I had not had any response but when visiting them in person, they couldn't of been more helpful. I think the main thing I have learnt is to keep trying.