Chris Conlan,Managing Director of the Manchester Design agency, Love, gave a talk alongside one of Love's designers Ed Hall as part of the Design Symposium held at Liverpool JMU on 25/11/2010. Love have a vast client base including Umbro, Dr Martins and Christian Aid. They position themselves as Brand Activation and use great ideas and creativity to promote the personality of the clients brand, creating unique campaigns.
Chris began the talk by talking about Love's work and how the processes they take within their work can be adapted to promote yourself within the industry, he spoke about how they help brands to say the most interesting things in the most interesting way. He raised a valid point about the idea being at the heart of everything, which made me think about my own work as I have noticed the main idea sometimes gets lost when it comes to the final stages of the design, when aesthetics can sometimes take over and the idea can change losing the main point of the design. This point has also influenced me in understanding the importance of having a strong idea, initially before any design ideas can be put in place, which I have realised working on my current briefs, the temptation is always there to run away with something which does not necessarily answer the problem intended to be solved, I have learned how important it is to develop the idea but not take away the original concept.
Chris also talked about the same idea as Ann Rimmer of branding yourself, he gave some great advice on presenting your portfolio and how 5 core, good pieces can be more interesting to a designer than having lots of mediocre pieces, even if they show various skills. He also spoke about the importance of showing yourself in a unique position and how it is important to possibly have a specialism which is evident within your portfolio. This has made me think seriously about how to change my portfolio, and to create more depth to the pieces I have, rather than just having various individual pieces.
Ed Hall gave an interesting talk and spoke about ways to get yourself noticed by agencies, he stressed the importance of being creative when approaching agencies and to have consideration for how busy they will be and to make sure that if you do manage to get a portfolio visit to ensure that you have researched the agency and that you know how much time you will have and to adjust your portfolio to suit that timescale.
He also talked about the importance of staying in touch after the visit, to send a thank you email and to keep a relationship going with the designer. This is something which has proved to be of great importance this year when I have tried to approach designers about different subjects, other than just asking for visits.
The talk was relevant to students about to enter the industry, and has given me a perspective from an established designer receiving emails from students and points of view and advice from a designer whom has recently entered the industry, giving me an insight into both sides and how you approach the agency can make a big difference on whether you will be successful or not.
No comments:
Post a Comment