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.

Freelance

During the summer I wanted to continue doing some form of design work and after looking at David Aireys Blog and reading various books, the phrase Pro Bona kept popping up, the thought of working on a design project for a charity or organisation really appealed to me as I thought it would not only be good practice but also an experience of working on a 'real' project.

After searching various charity websites I came across a local charity The Cheshire Academy who were looking for someone to help them with the designing of a new logo, promotional materials and ideas for promotional activity. 

After applying with the charity I was invited to go along to the centre to see what they do and have a look at their current branding. I arranged to begin working on the logo and put some ideas together which I emailed to the organiser, they had a discussion about it, then got back to me to discuss the ideas they liked and asked me to work on a promotional booklet and flyer,advertising upcoming events.

Sadly I have not had a chance to work on much for them over the last couple of months due to college workload but plan to continue working with them to complete the rebranding. The experience has been really good, to see how things can change quickly, for example details on promotional material may need to be altered which doesn't necessarily fit in with the original design or differing views within the organisation may cause conflict with ideas. 

The main thing I have learnt is that the main thing a client wants on their material, especially a charity is the information they are trying to promote, they are not always worried about the design, it is important to listen to what they actually want and not to do your own thing. This was something which Neil Marra from Creative Spark also spoke about when he was looking at my work for the Together Trust, he said that sometimes we may think we know what the client wants but they may not agree, which is something which I have come to realise whilst working with 'real' clients.

Collaberating

This year has been really interesting for me as I have worked on most of the briefs as a pair with Juliette Brooks. We each began the first brief individually, then when we chose the second brief we found we had chose the same one so decided to work together. We chose to rebrand ProPlus, then went on to work on another two briefs together, repackaging Body Shop and an Integrated campaign for Ted Baker.

The experience has been interesting as myself and Jules both work very similarly, we love the ideas process and found we bounced off each other, sometimes coming up with really elaborate ideas which had to be reigned in a bit, but we both were motivated and exited by this process.

We both found that when it came to producing the final product for the exhibition though we lost slight interest, there was a week where we just couldn't move it forward, the idea was there, we knew what we wanted to do, but because we couldn't make it look as good as we wanted we became slightly frustrated.

After a discussion and kicking each other to get going again, we worked really hard to get some final pieces, which although wasn't up to a standard which we had hoped for, they did portray the idea.

I have learnt so much in this process, about how I work as an individual and also how different it is working as part of a team. I had not had particularly good experiences when previously collaborating, mainly on the cross pathway project, so had usually opted to work individually, but the experience of working with Jules has opened my mind as to how if working with the right person it can be a good experience.

I have picked up new ways of thinking during this process and I think it has been more motivating to work harder if working as part of a team because the pressure is on and you have a responsibility to other people not just to yourself, I would definitely work with Jules again and I think the lessons we have learned about time management will be beneficial for the future, and has been a good insight into our own strengths and weaknesses which we can work on.

Ritta Ikonen

The guest lecture by the London based artist Ritta Ikonen was an interesting insight into an artist I would not of probably looked into before I saw her lecture. Originally from Finland, Ritta's work is original and quirky, she describes some of her projects as 'performed photography' and her work involves putting materials or subjects into situations which wouldn't naturally belong there, creating an almost surreal angle to her work.

She originally studied illustration and then communication at The Royal College in London, then began freelances and promoting her own exhibitions. She talked about how her projects progress and how she prefers to get a 'real' image rather than using too much Photoshop, which is interesting as you are even more surprised by her images when you know they are taken in real situations.

The Bird and Leaf project is particularly interesting as she collaborated with the photographer Anna Schaffner and placed herself in leaf and bird costumes in natural environments but appears surreal as it is obviously a person, the images were attempting to reflect on the artists sentimental yearning to 'get back to nature'.

A lot of Ritta's work involves placing herself in the character of something else, into situations which would be natural to the chosen subject but totally unnatural as a human being, which makes you think about to understand something you must put yourself into that situation - although not literally, but this does compare to design as to understand a brief you have to get into them mindset of the brand or client you are representing. 

Brand Orienteering Workshop

I was looking forward to the Brand Orienteering workshop which was hosted by Owen Stevens as I was working on A D&AD brief for the Body Shop, and although it was based around packaging design I felt that the workshop would help me to understand the Body Shop brand better.

I sadly missed the beginning of the workshop because my train mission from Crewe to Stockport was delayed by a cow on the line! On arriving late I explained the reason for my lateness to Owen, who was very helpful and gave me the information I had missed and a quick catchup on what he had been talking about.

Owen Stevens is the founder of Brand Orienteering Ltd and works with companies to understand branding and to create strong branding solutions. His workshop was interesting as it made you look at the brand as a personality, a character and to make associations as to how the character would behave and what their beliefs and thoughts would be. 

Working in groups we discussed a brand (Body Shop) and spoke about which character traits we believe the brand would have, choosing from 5 main categories, Trusted, Exciting, Leading, Sophisticated and Rugged, we chose sub words within these categories which we felt described the brand. This exercise made us look at the brand differently, allowing us to think inside the brand. After choosing the words which best described The Body Shop we were asked to think about their core values and compared these to the words we had chosen scoring them to find the strongest character category.

I found the workshop very helpful and I found that sometimes you become to involved in the details of the brief and lose the personality of the brand, whereas the workshop brought this to the forefront. We were each given a work sheet called the Brand Journey Planner which I will definitely use when working on future briefs to try and get inside the brand before I work on the details of the brief.

Jonathan Barnbrook

The guest lecture by Jonathan Barnbrook was really interesting as he talked about a different viewpoint of design rather than the comercial aspects. Talking about his work for Adbusters and their philosiphies was interesting to me as this is an area which I had been studying as part of my dissertation, it was good to hear the view point on these issues from a talking designer instead of views taken from books and essays.

Founder of Barnbrook Studios, his work is unusual and original, Jonathan talked about how he made a decision quite early in his career to not work for clients where he didn't agree with their ethical values, which means he doesn't really work for many corporate companies, his work is mainly books, typography and charity design.

He talked about how his career began and advised that although it can be a risk, setting up on your own, can work quite well when you graduate as you have new ideas and are still learning so are not as prohibited in your designs. He spoke about how he became interested in Adbusters and how he believes in having a social responsibility as a designer, He showed images which he had worked on for Adbuster campaigns and explained the thought processes behind them.

He was honest about the problems he faced on various projects, including the collaberation with Damien Hirst to create his Monograph book, and the problems with a typeface they designed originally called Manson which had to be changed to Mason.

His work varies and he also works on short films and collaborations, mainly involving typography and pictogram's, the film Klint was released as a promotional film for Monotype imaging.

He talked about how you didn't have to just work for corporate clients to make money and said he was funded mainly by galleries, occasional grants, commissioned work and typography design.

The lecture was interesting and it was good to hear about another type of design which is not often promoted, speaking about his association with the First Things First manifesto, he explained his motivations for choosing not to have associations with unethical promotions, but also explained that to follow this route was something personal and was not a decision to be taken lightly as this predicted your career and you could not just suddenly change your mind and start working for consumer led projects.

Dinosaur

Dinosaur was one of the agencies which we visited when calling on agencies in Manchester, Both myself and Stacey admire their work and was really pleased when we was invited up to the studio when we arrived unannounced last month.

Phil Leaman was helpful and friendly and had a chat with us about our work and the course, he explained that the person who normally deals with portfolio visits and placements was currently out of the office and gave us her contact details.

He showed us the studio which was interesting and creative, he spoke to us about placements and what you can achieve by applying for placements and how they can be great experience and also the best route to employment.

He advised us to contact Linsey Hales, the Art Director to arrange an appointment for portfolio advice and to speak about the possibility and availability of placements in the studio, we are looking forward to further contact.

Can We Do It

Beginning the year with discussions about my Hopes, Fears and Opportunities really hit home to me about how important having relationships within the industry is. The panic began to set in quite early about contacting agencies and already I was worrying about their reaction before I had even attempted to contact them. 

The HFO form helped me to realise that this was my biggest downfall, whereas I knew I had to advance in my technical skills and gain more experience of varied briefs, this was something which I knew I could learn whereas the personal development side of the course was something which was more about my personality and not technical ability.

Strangely I am quite a confident person in general, I am OK at meeting new people and will scour the earth to find a job, so I couldn't really understand why I froze when it came to contacting agencies.

Then it hit me, it was because I was so afraid of sounding stupid, as ridiculous as it may sound when you are on the other end of a computer, this was my biggest fear and I knew that if I didn't conquer this fear now I had no chance of getting into the industry when I graduated, I had spent two years believing that as I advanced with my practical abilities, the confidence would just come, but this wasn't the case.

I began contacting agency's with the same trepidation as last year, perhaps taking a slightly different angle by commenting on their work, which I did genuinely believe but then I had the same old panic when it came to asking for a portfolio visit, I just couldn't do it, and if I did and didn't receive a reply, this would set me back ten paces.

When the rest of the class were planning their trip to Berlin and appeared to be having more luck with agencies there than we was in Manchester, myself and Stacey Weldon who wasn't going to Berlin decided to have a think about how we was going to get over this hurdle of contacting agencies. Stacey mentioned just knocking on their door and initially I froze, the idea of visiting them in person filled us with fear, but we knew we had to do something to move ourselves forward and gain some confidence as well as contacts.

We discussed it for days, each of us secretly hoping that we wouldn't have to do it but both wanting to do it as well, we knew we had to! Gearing ourselves up all week by emailing each other ideas and agencies we could visit, we were excited and nervous as we met in Manchester bright and early on the Thursday morning. It was cold and raining, a typical Manchester day and as we had both had a restless night, a few coffees later we headed down from the station into the city centre, not knowing what to expect.

We had planned our route meticulously and both headed for the agency which we both wanted to visit, Creative Spark, we hung about trying to get the nerve to buzz the buzzer, planning what to say for what must of been fifteen minutes, then we just took a deep breath and pressed it.

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.

DAB Education Seminar - Love

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.

DBA Education Seminar - Ann Rimmer

The DBA  Education Seminar was part of the programme for the Design Symposium North at the JMU Art and Design Academy held on Thursday 25th November. The Design Symposium is a full day and evening of workshops and lectures run by the DAB and D&AD, it hosted lectures by James Bull (Director and co founder of Moving Brands), Adrian Shaugnessey (Graphic Designer and writer), Jonathan Kirk (Consultant Up To The Light), Ann Rimmer (Founder of Clock Creative and Chris Conlan (Managing Director, Love). 

To attend the education seminar, I registered for tickets with  the Design Symposium and received an email with confirmation and details. 

The seminar was introduced by Ann Rimmer who is the director of strategy at Clock Creative. Based in Ramsbottom in Lancashire, Clock creative are an award winning creative communications agency, they have recently won The Design Consultancy of the year 2010 Award for demonstrating to the judges continuous strong business growth, carving out a strong reputation for strategic and creative excellence and industry leading client retention. (http://www.clockcreative.co.uk/news/index.php?qsNewsId=20)

Ann Rimmer's talk was about an interesting concept of positioning yourself as a brand within the design industry, she began by outlining the key terms of branding and how these can be transferred, to personally promote yourself as a brand to integrate yourself into the industry. The four main points were impact, clear proposition, personality and key differentiators, giving industry examples of how design agencies have understood the brand and delivered good design solutions (eg: Clipper Tea). She explained how the process taken to effectively promote a brand, can be altered to effectively promote yourself as a designer within the industry.

The points Ann made, and the alternative way of thinking about yourself as a brand was an interesting idea. To use the same process with your personal development as you would with the development of a design project, is something which I hadn't thought about until I attended the seminar, but is definitely a process which I will use in the future. She raised important points about discovering and promoting a unique selling point about yourself, and attempting to have a unique proposition which will differentiate yourself from others. I found this thought provoking as it is sometimes tempting to attempt to promote a wide range of skills, and other designers have advised the importance of having a broad range of skills and to promote these through your Portfolio. I suppose this mainly depends on the agency in which you are promoting yourself to, which was another point which Ann made, she discussed the importance of ensuring that the agencies you apply to, do actually suit you, personally and professionally. 

The idea of actually picking which agencies you want to work at, was initially not something I was comfortable with especially last year, when first arranging Portfolio visits, as I just wanted the experience of gaining advice on my work and didn't really have the confidence to approach agencies which I really admired, but this attitude has changed since I have had the experience of visiting more agencies, as I now have a better idea of what interests me and the kind of atmosphere I would be comfortable working in. 

Ann advised that when approaching an agency to make sure you have done your research, to understand what the agency wants from their designers and how you can deliver this, which I think is a really important thing to think about, and also ties in the need to choose agencies where your work or strengths are suited to the agency.

 

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.