Future studio visit

The other week, I went to visit Future — a design studio in my home town of Warrington after emailing them a few weeks back. Future work primarily with branding, publication design and digital which is what appealed me to the studio. I also found out that Rob from the year who just graduated from Leeds Art is working there full time which was great.

Nick had a look through my online portfolio and gave me some really insightful advice. He said the diversity of my work was great and particularly liked the 'design a day' project. He suggested having more designs photographed in context to give the sense they were tangible designs and to expand my portfolio, he suggested looking at type heavy projects, such as producing an annual report, to show I can work with type and layout effectively — he said these are rarely seen in portfolios yet are interesting to see.

We talked about coming in for a placement sometime which was ace to hear — and he said to email him with dates when I'm available over the next year or so which I plan to do so once I know when we are in uni.

B&W Studio Placement

Before leaving for the summer, I arranged a visit to B&W studio where we organised a placement for mid-June, just after finishing.  Lee suggested coming in for a month or two — I was honestly just expecting a week or two but this was great.

I had to go home towards the end of June so we organised going in for a couple of weeks, having a week off and going back in for another couple of weeks. As soon as I got in, Lee gave me a tour around the studio, on the second floor of a renovated mill. The studio itself was brill, plenty of space, relaxed environment, meeting rooms and a lot of storage space (as they occupied a full floor). There's 2 creative directors, Lee & Steve, along with two other designers, Matt and Graham.

Projects

B&W have worked with the British Heart Foundation for a while and have been chosen to create a multitude of advertisements and campaigns for the charity. Initially, they required a cover design for an annual report so I initially began sourcing stock imagery within their database. I was also required to devise concepts and design ideas for the cover itself along with the other designers which Lee pitched to the client.

I worked on some other BHF projects over the 4 weeks including a bus advertisement, a campaign for a new set of furniture & electrical stores and another campaign to increase awareness of defibrillators. Due to the nature of the projects, they each had their own strict deadlines so idea generation needed to be efficient. Most projects had at least a couple of others working on different concepts so Lee could propose several ideas to the clients which I was told was fairly unusual due to time and cost restrictions.

I had to quickly adapt to the way of working but through the process I gained a lot of much needed skills. What I learnt though, is that I need to learn to voice my opinion and not be afraid of what I have to say. I need to develop my presentation and pitching skills within the 3rd year so this will be one of my main aims — particularly as I aim to develop a collaborative practice in a years time.