Competition briefs

Since the competition briefs came out, I had chosen 4 to complete, 2 as collaborations and 2 by myself. I wanted to push myself and see if I was able to complete all 4 straight after my dissertation submission.

From going from intense academic writing to planning, developing, creating, researching and getting feedback - it was extreme. Even though the competition briefs were released late 2017/early 2018, I had only really begun the competition briefs after the dissertation submission which gave me around 2 months to complete 4 briefs which I was working daily at. I had done some initial ideas but it felt like I was just starting out on all the briefs.

The first brief I completed was the RSA Fair Play brief where I made a physical board game. This brief was bigger than I expected and more challenging as I hadn't considered how much time and elements it needed to make something work properly. As it is a new board game, I had to think of the rules, the concept, the design, the sustainability and I also created an app. I didn't expect that I would have to do product design as part of this brief but in considering the sustainability of the game, I decided to create the board game from wood which meant I had to go to the wood workshop to get completed.

The second competition brief was in collaboration with Stephen where we created tea tins for the Starpack awards. We both decided that Stephen should do ideas for tea tins and I would do some ideas for coffee and decide which direction we wanted to go from there. We decided to create tea tins as we both rarely are coffee drinkers ourselves so we form that perspective, we felt we had a better understanding of teas as we are more aware of tea. As Stephen had already researched into teas, we discussed the idea and he would create the tin shape and I would create the pattern. This brief was quite straight forward as easy enough to do so I did not feel too stressed whilst doing the Starpack brief.

The third completion was the Ohh Deer Papergang brief. This is the brief that I was able to complete the quickest. The brief was to create a design for their subscription box for the month of October. They did not specify what they wanted so it was a broad brief and allowed me to create whatever I wanted so I looked into trends, into the month of October and created a simple pattern design.

The final brief was another collaboration with Karolina, a 3rd year Graphic Designer at Northumbria University. We had chosen to do the YCN The Grown Up Chocolate Company brief. This brief was more difficult to do as Karolina had her own deadlines and work going on and it was difficult to communicate with her and find free time. We went back and fourth with ideas as we felt we couldn't really fully understand each other's ideas as we only used text as a way to communicate as we did not have the same sleeping habits. In the end, we did finally understand where we wanted to go with the brief and we both did some illustrations and she created the digital mock ups and website design whilst I created the layout and design of the chocolate bar itself.

Doing the 4 briefs in a few months was definitely the most stressful thing I have done in my entire few years on the course. It was very intense and at (many) time, I felt I was going to burn out and give up because it was making my anxiety worse. When everything was submitted and completed, I relaxed a little more but was also very conscious of the other briefs I had to do. Overall, I'm glad that I experienced the turn-over time of each brief and how I pushed myself to submit all the work on time.

Self branding ideas

Since I am going to be developing my self-branding this year, I've had to think of things that reflect me as a designer and as a person so that I can put it into my self branding box.

Glug vs. Ladies Wine and Design

Marlin Persson is the Glug HQ coordinator. She is originally from Sweden and graduated there. In 2010, Malin in 2010, she attended Billy Blue College of Design in Sydney and studied Communication Design as a foundation degree.

After she was done with her foundation degree, she attended London Ravensbourne, studying Graphic design

After she finished her degree, she didn't know what to do. She saw on Facebook that a friend of hers had spoken about a Glug event. Malin attended the Glug event and liked the content, speakers and the concept of Glug which had then led her to work at Glug and has been there for 2.5 years.

In the design industry she gave us some advice which were to dare to ask about business, money, projects that you aren’t involved in and extra curricular opportunities. She believes that context leads to confidence and that you should be your own cheerleader. Change routine - say yes more than no. Go to events.

Cari Kirby is a marketing manager at Team Cooper in Sheffield. She studied Media and Politics at university. 

Cari got into her current job at Team Cooper after having her child, she wanted flexibility - a balance between work life and being a mum. 

She went back to work for 4 days a week as account executive - after 11 months after having child but she no longer felt that she liked the job she was doing and as it didn't allow her to be as flexible as she wanted so she handed in notice and did freelancing. 

Whilst Cari was freelancing, she saw an advertisement aimed at women who were on maternity and wanted to get back into work. Team Cooper is a place where it has allowed Cari to be flexible in her work and she enjoys what she does.  Her advice was to surround yourself with people in the same position and speak about it so that way, you don't feel alone.

Olivia Downing is a copywriter for a advertising agency. She created 'Chicks in Advertising' which is all about female empowerment in the design industry and is a space that allows women to support one another. She helps to advertise for other people. 

Olivia said that it’s important to adapt and have empathy to a lot of different people and relate to people from a small frame of time and the more places that you go on your own, the more opportunities you will have.

Ellen Ling grew up in Harrow on the Hill and used to work at D&AD New Blood but now is a creative copywriter at LOVE Manchester. She has worked on the designs for Simply B and Peri A. which she and Tess collaborated on to create the branding.

She originally went to Drama school as wanted to be an actress - she did performance art for 4 years. 

After doing unpaid internships for sometime, she got a job as an admin for Damian Hurst which she said she was working with hipsters for 4 months but then was been made redundant.

She later got a job at D&AD New Blood as an admin worker but it inspired her to want to be a copywriter instead so after a while, she got a job at LOVE Manchester as a copywriter.

She said she was inspired by Alec's (Intern) quote “If you’re not hearing different points of view, then it’s alarm bells you should be hearing instead".

The advice that she had given us was: 

• when you are given a brief, solve it, figure it out - be a detective. 
• Work out who you are. Be that. 
• Don’t hope. Do.
• Be the dumbest person in the room.
• You learn nothing when you try to know everything.

Career Track Tuesday - Recruiting Creative Graduates

Asda Home and George
Clare Gillen  is the design manager of Asda Home and George. She graduated with a 3D design degree and went on to do freelance in textiles in places such as Next and  Marks & Spencer.

For Asda Home and George, the design team does four trend presentations from all four seasons each year.

It is important to do research on competitors as the retail sector is a hard sell and you most make sure that the idea will sell and therefore you will have to sell them to senior team.

The design team usually have to sign off samples and give feedback of the item to then present it to the senior team.

There are 9 designers on the design team and is fast paced and there is a lot that is expected of you.

There is usually 4 stage recruitment process at Asda.

A design graduate would to apply for the design assistant role. Asda Home and George designers usually go to design exhibitions to find new recruiters or if they know of you and your work or if you have interned there before, they are more likely to give you a job.

Zeal
Ross is the Head of Development in Zeal and had graduated 15 years ago with a New Media Production Degree.

It's not a bad thing to say that you are still learning.

Clients can be wrong but so can you -  you sometimes have to be resilient and diplomat.

Portfolio -  quality over quantity - submit your best work and don't try to fill it up with work that you don't particularly like.

You will be Googled by employers.

Career Track Tuesday: Professional Awareness

Cliff Sewell
He has been in the recruitment industry for 20 years and at 27 years old, he had started his own business and more recently, had founded '15ten15' which is a recruitment agency.

Recruitment application process

• Ring them
• Find more about the recruiter 
• Ask Receptionists name and/or email and ask to send a message to the employer
• Practice speaking to employer
• Plan yes/no answers to prepare for potential outcomes
• Write a follow up email to everybody to thank them and to ask more questions to show interest

Question examples

• "As an art director, what are you looking for in an intern?"
• " What is your key client base?"
• "What are your sector goals?"

Interview prep

• Go and look at the place and people that work there
• Check the weather
• Make sure that you turn up early and prepared - at least an hour before it starts
• Research the recruiter and the business

Take notes -  show them that you are interested and want to learn. Have questions.

Learn the account side of business -  shows interest.

Dress smart.

Employers ask receptionists on how you act/appear walking into the building -  have good manners.  

Say/reiterate their name -  shows that you have acknowledged them.

People like nice people.

If you do not know an answer, don't pretend to know the answer - just say you don't know.

Recruit agencies -  ask confirm salary but do not ask employer.

Ask questions all the way through as if it was like a business meeting

• "Tell me a bit about you"
• "What is great about the business?" 
• "What are your goals for the business?" 
• "What I expected to do on day one/what does the first day look like?"
• "Why is this job position open?"

 Find out about the customers and competitors of the business.

The end of the interview process

Be relaxed when leaving the interview, take your time. Don't rush. Ask for contact details - make sure you do a follow-up.

Say something such as "Thank you very much. You offer me the job, I'll take it."

As you leave the building, remember to say bye to the receptionist.

Think, act and look like a professional.