Design Agency Visits

Not having much luck with emailing agencies asking them for portfolio visits, myself and another student, Stacey Weldon, decided to go on a trip round Manchester city centre, visiting agencies, without actually contacting them first. This was a worrying idea, we didn't want to appear too cheeky or unprofessional and was worried about the reaction of designers, but we decided that we needed a different approach than sending emails to designers who were probably receiving vast amounts of the same email by different students.

We discussed the agencies we each wanted to visit, checking their websites for their views about people visiting their studio without prior arrangement, and planned a route around the city centre, we decided to go on Thursday 18th November. We were both nervous on the day but knew that it was a good way of conquering our fear of approaching agencies, and a great way of making new contacts within the industry.

We began our tour by visiting an agency which we both admired, Creative Spark. After practicing what we were going to say (about twenty times) we took the plunge and pushed the buzzer, after announcing who we were and asking if we could possibly have a few minutes with a designer if they wasn't too busy, we were invited upstairs to the studio. We couldn't believe it when we were greeted by Neil Marra, the Director. He was really helpful, looking through both our portfolios and giving us some fantastic advice about not only our work but how to enter the industry. (Detailed in Portfolio visit, Creative Spark)

Following the amazing success of the unannounced visit to creative spark, we continued our route heading to Pixel 8, who are also based in the Northern Quarter area of Manchester, they were very busy but kindly let us go upstairs to the studio, where we were given contact details to send an email to arrange a more suitable time to visit. 

We had further success with four more agencies, gaining 3 contacts from the agencies which were busy and a chat from Phil Leaman who is an account executive from Dinosaur. Phil had a chat with us about our work and gave us the contact details of Linsey Hales who is the art Director, he spoke to us about the possibility of placements and advice about contacting agencies.

The day proved to be successful and the advice and information we gained was invaluable, what was initially one of the most nerve wracking things I have done, it was definitely worth it as it not only gave us an insight into different agencies but also gave us more confidence when contacting agencies in the future.

The experience was totally changed my attitude towards contacting agencies as it made me realise that sometimes you have to be a bit forward if you are to enter the industry, and that the worries I had about my portfolio can only be changed by gaining advice from designers within the industry, which proves the importance of having good contacts within the industry and gaining relationships with designers who can give you realistic advice.

We plan to try this method again in the new year, visiting the agencies we chose but didn't get to visit, I have to also make sure that I continue to send emails to the contacts we made, not so much for portfolio visits but about general design issues or their current work.