The Beautiful Meme: Day Seven & Eight

My last two days at TBM studios were as eventful as the rest. Day seven saw me doing a bit more artworking and prepping for the According to McGee exhibition which was on Friday. I artworked some price tags, as well as getting the business card changes done. The price tags are printed and mounted on to foam board within the studio, and then a representative from the gallery comes down on Friday to trim the cards to size.

I also got to work on a piece of motion graphics, so I used the experience of flash and after effects I had to sketch out a four second introductory piece for the Peter Blukert website. Peter is a business coach who has had all his branding and website designed by TBM. It was exciting to get a chance to work on a piece that was According to McGee, not that I didn't enjoy that, it just showed me how involved rolling projects like this can be.

There is no doubt I enjoyed my time at The Beautiful Meme. Ben, and Rhianne helped me greatly. There were really pleasant to be around as were the rest of the team. I'm glad a went on the internship and I am grateful of the experience I got. It has made me think twice about commuting further afield than Leeds and also what kind of a studio I want to be in.

The Beautiful Meme: Day Three

I had a really good day today. I am happy with how I am contributing but I still need to try to complete tasks quicker.

I started off by dropping in the extra copy for the 'According to McGee' stuff, which was a quick change that should only take five minutes. After that I was working on some information graphics. Ben had seen my football stats publication and thought this would be appropriate. I felt more comfortable working with something like that, but I still feel type and layout to be the thing I enjoy most.

I had to map out the locations of universities. After doing a couple of variations Ben took it and made it more appropriate for the audience. He mentioned whilst I was working that the client would find fault with pretty much everything, which is something I hadn't really experienced before (a client which is so fussy).

All in all I was happy that they were still happy with my efforts. I want to impress and build a reputation for being hard working and reliable.

The Beautiful Meme: Day Two

Today I checked in with my admin stuff, emails, etc. Then Rhianne got me straight into more 'According To McGee' stuff, which I was quite happy about because they seem to be the type of client and theme I like designing for. It's something where typography is important because the focus should be not taken away from the work of the artist.

Today, I was working on a exhibition poster, come flyer which the client was coming in to look at midday. This was my first test to see if I could deliver something on time. The front of the poster had to continue the underlying theme of the previous exhibition poster, but the client, Greg, wanted something different for the back, and had some copy for me to work with. I started mocking up his manifesto on the back, looking at a few colour variations along the way, and liaised with Rhianne to check my development, which is something I've never had before. Usually, I would get on with things to please myself but if Rhianne wasn't sure about something, I knew she would tell me, which obviously helped. By lunch I had pretty much exhausted the type, by splitting it, scaling, changing case, multi column, one column, fonts, orientation.

Greg came in and was happy with what I had, and even thanked me for helping. I spent the rest of the afternoon making minor changes once Ben had seen what I had. By the end of the day I had my stuff pinned up and ready for critting on Monday. In the end I incorporated the copy into the fold which hadn't been done on previous versions. Ben was convinced by my colour choice of gold that a metallic ink would really suit the poster, but it remains to be seen if the client will go with that, usually they are digitally printed.

All in all, a good day, and I seemed more productive. I appreciate that for some things, I am going to be a bit of hindrance when the guys are busy but I took confidence from what I did. I also got to see a load of print samples a new printer brought in from Evolution print, who have done stuff for TDR and Music. I got a few pictures of the stocks and print finishes which I will post later.

Stone Soup meeting

Not a lot to report on my meeting with Ben at Stone Soup, but I was happy to be invited. The brief chat was really positive and we should be able to work out a schedule which means I can do some much needed work experience.

Leeds Guide

Telephoned Leeds Guide to see what was happening after hearing nothing after my original email a week ago. I asked to speak the design department and had a short conversation with them regarding placements. They said they were not taking anyone in until further notice but I would be added to the list with "a lot of other people who had expressed an interest".

I never expected to walk into the industry but the lack of options is getting to be a real pain.

Still no luck

Steve Smith contacted me regarding work placements and provided me with details for Yorkshire Sculpture park. I needed to act quickly as the position should have been filled by now and the placement was for 8 weeks which would have to be done as part time during the start of the 3rd year.

I emailed Nina my updated portfolio and made her aware of my work screen yorkshire too. I waited 2 days and got nothing back. I decided to ring and still got no reply. At the minute I'm still trying but not getting ver far.

At the same time I got in touch with Shackleton Rollin in Wakefield who do the majority of their work in website designs and identities and I felt this was an area I needed to get to grips with based on the experiences I had with Creative Squeeze.

Here are some examples of their work.








































I am still holding hope out for something from the Leeds Guide.

Creative Squeeze Placement

For the past few days I have been working alongside Richard at Creative Squeeze in York. They had recently moved into new premises and everything was still boxed up and as a result I was called in to help on some briefs to help manage the workload that had amounted since the move.

I started off with a branding task which I didn't expect I would enjoy and immediately get a pen and paper before doing some super quick research. I had to come up with a new identity for 'Nimbus Energy' who were a new business involved in solar photovoltaic cells. I was expected to take a day on this and a day to mock up a website. After getting to work on the logo and having some quick success I managed to get the whole thing done including the website to Richards expectations in half a day.

I then was set on to jobs for Mazda and York Marina which I finished over the next day and half.

Overall, I was pleased with the work I did, even though it didn't fall exactly under what I want to do full time, however, Creative Squeeze expressed an interest to keep supplying me with freelance paid work over the summer and during my third year.

I enjoyed my time and preferred this experience to the ones of bigger agencies. I can't post the work I did as it hasn't been cleared by the client and it's Creative Squeeze's property but I took a few photos of the studio even though its not ready as such.

First placement

My first placement with Creative Squeeze is going well. I firstly had a discussion with the Creative Director, Richard to discuss where I was at and what I hoped to gain from being there. I explained that I simply wanted to see the workings of the studio in terms of the practice, theory and speed in which they operate.

During our discussion I was asked what I wanted to do and my portfolio was commented on as being excellent. I explained that my focus was moving towards print and in particular type and layout across various media, and although I had two packaging briefs within my portfolio, I didn't see packaging as I route I wanted to take further, and that it was there to show diversity in my work. He agreed that I did have a lot of different influences and the reaction to that would differ from agency to agency. He also confessed that the print market looked to shrinking year on year and how ever much he loved print, the 80% of his work was web based. He had even bought an iPad to replace his printed portfolio was seemed like a good idea hence his portfolio is practically all websites and branding.

He assured me I would be working on projects over the few days I was there, and that he was happy for me to take on some of the smaller projects that he had put aside since I was in touch.

I realise that the technologies are going to change and the future seems to be with the digital market, however as we have more and more flexibility in terms of web content, there is no reason designers like me can work with e-books and pdf magazines, etc.

Leeds Guide placement

I see typography and layout as my main area of interest going into the third year and I thought about possible local magazines publishers I could contact to see about a visit or work placement to get a free for what it is like. I envisage it as being different to a regular studio as their is no variety in the work.

I contacted Matt at the Leeds guide design studio and asked the question. He got back to my pretty quickly too.


my email

Hi,

I've just finished my second year of the BA graphic Design degree at
Leeds college of Art and I am looking for industry experience,
freelance work and studio visits. I noticed your website and I have
had the pleasure of reading the Leeds guide in my university a number
of times.

I have attached my portfolio, which I welcome you to browse through. I
enjoy working with typography and layout which will be my focus for
the third year.

I look forward to hearing from you, and thanks for reading.

Adam Townend

reply

Hi Adam,

At the moment the Design department is undergoing a bit of a shakeup as
both myself and another member of staff are leaving before the end of
August. With that in mind I can't really guarantee you anything until
new staff have been hired. Your best bet is to email this address
(design@leedsguide.co.uk) at the end of August and arrange something
with my replacement.

Thanks,
Matt

Matt Andrews
Head of Design
Design Studio

Obviously, not the response I hoped for but I can get back onto them later, and use matt as a reference.

With this in mind I am going to put together some magazine layouts to create portfolio for this opportunity.

Creative Squeeze

I always had a back up plan on the placement and freelance position that I could exercise should I find getting placements, or even visits, difficult. After being messed around by a couple of agencies and having no luck with others I decided to get on with contacting my design partner from Wobble Design, who now is an MD and senior designer at Creative Squeeze in York.


We had a chat on the phone and via email and I have been invited to go across to York for a couple of days. They are moving into bigger studios so everything looks bright for them. They don't do the exact work that I do, and it seems they focus much more on web delivery but also offer other services.

Hopefully having the right contact with them will benefit me and possibly help me to gain other contacts too. I have yet to confirm the dates but I will be looking to impress as much as possible in the hope I am offered more work.