D&AD Blog

Create your way to a job

This time last year, Kingston University graduates Tom Wrigglesworth and Matt Robinson were spending a lot of time in the company of printers.

With the D&AD Student Awards deadline looming, they had hit on an idea to promote HP Workstations’ ability to bring to life ‘anything the creative mind can conceive’.

‘Our tutors always taught us to come up with a great idea, then work out the right channels to use,’ said Tom.  They made a film that turned the otherwise mundane experience of everyday printing into a brilliantly choreographed audiovisual orchestra. They spent days holed up in a studio coaxing a stack of printers to perform.

The team ended up with a double win – second prize at the Student Awards and Best New Blood – racked up thousands of views on YouTube with their film, and even ended up on the BBC News. Most important though, they got themselves jobs and while their D&AD wins helped to open doors, it was still up to them to step on through.

‘We had been exhibiting at New Blood for a couple of days and although people from the industry had visited our stand, we felt a bit nervous about approaching anyone,’ said Matt.  ‘We knew that time was running out though, so when we saw Mark Waites from Mother walk past, we decided to go for it.’

Tom hit play on their Student Awards film and Matt flagged down Waites to have a look at their work.  They went for it after that, and approached as many people they could to introduce themselves and show off their work.  ‘We probably spoke to about 20-30 people by the end of the exhibition,’ said Tom. ‘If someone was having a look, we’d catch their eye and tell them the story behind our projects.’  Eventually, they’d just walk up to people and introduce themselves, ‘because you never know who you’re going to meet’.

In the coming weeks, Matt & Tom followed up with everyone they met at New Blood.  They picked up a bit of freelance animation work along the way, and met with production companies, advertising agencies and design studios. 

In September, they got in contact with Mother and were offered them a work placement starting in December – all thanks to grabbing that opportunity at New Blood. Mother Creative Stuart Outhwaite also recommended the team get in touch with Work Club in the meantime as the agency had placements starting that month.

 ...and they’ve been there ever since. Tom & Matt landed a placement at Work Club and spent 3 months working on all kinds of pitches. ‘It’s been great to be involved in project from the beginning,’ said Matt. In December, the agency offered to extend the placement and the team was presented with a choice – stay at Work Club or take up the earlier offer from Mother.

‘We thought about it long and hard,’ said Tom.  ‘We’d really enjoyed our time at Work Club and felt part of the team, but we knew that Mother would also be a great experience’ In the end, they decided to stay on at Work Club to continue with the projects that they had been involved with. They contacted Stu at Mother to explain the reason behind their choice, ‘Stuart was really supportive of our decision’ said Matt. 

 Just last week, the team were offered permanent jobs at Work Club.

 So now that the job hunt is officially over, what advice to they have for this year’s graduates?

 Keep an open mind – ‘We met with so many different people across advertising, design and production that we got a good understanding of what our options were.’

Create your own opportunities – ‘We didn’t win first prize at the Student Awards, and I think that just made us work harder.’

D&AD Student Awards deadline is this Friday, 19 March

New Blood 2010

As part of the Free Range season, this year's New Blood exhibition is being held between Thursday 24 June and Monday 28 June at the Truman Brewery. We are programming a festival of fringe events around its location in Shoreditch and the theme of these events will centre on networking.

Exhibitors and guests at New Blood 2009

If you would like to exhibit at New Blood this year, your course needs to register as a member of D&AD's University Network and then apply for stands. Please contact either laura.woodroffe@dandad.co.uk or rhiannon.james@dandad.co.uk for more information and an application form. All stands need to be booked by the end of this month.

If you would like to get more of a feel for the event, please have a look at this Video of New Blood

One of last year's graduates wrote about their experience exhibiting at New Blood. Please see below link for tips and things they wish they'd known before!

http://aspire2enquire.typepad.com/aspire_to_enquire/2009/07/dad-new-blood-2009.html

To specialise or not to specialise......

Thanks to Steve Price for this week's University Network article. Steve is founder of Plan-B Studio and writer of the www.designweak.com blog. We are pleased to invite him to contribute again to the University Network blog, posing a question about whether your students should be specialising or looking to do a bit of everything. It is something often discussed but how should graduates be advised on this matter and what are your experiences? We'd like to hear!

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Do you consider yourself an Interactive Designer? was a question I was asked recently. My response was ‘No. I’m an art director and designer.’ Arrogant git, maybe. But I’ve always seen my skill as a designer as my specialism because I firmly believe in two things 1) constantly challenge yourself and b) variety is the spice of life.

Ten years after graduating from an MA at Central Saint Martins and working for myself, I still constantly ponder whether my own portfolio is too broad. Am I a jack of all trades instead of a specialist, and if so is this a good or a bad thing?

This is not uncommon. I’ve spoke to two other designers about this recently who have both shared exactly the same sentiments, but equally question whether they have a clear message. So what if you find yourself in the same position, do you specialise or become a jack-of-all-trades or, to put it better, an ‘all-rounder’?

I protested at the time but the first two years of my BA was spent doing lots of life drawing, months spent hand-rendering pages and pages of 8.4pt/12.6pt Times New Roman. Why? Because for the first two years we were banned from using computers. When we started our third and final year on BA it was suggested that we choose an area of design to focus our work on; print, editorial, identity, advertising, etc. I refused and argued on the grounds that briefing ninetysix design students with three, usually quite dull, briefs was pointless. Plus, there’s only so many of ways you can ‘polish a turd’, not ninety-six. Plus, if a design degree is your time to carve your own path, why follow a huge crowd? You need to ask your own questions, and try, try and try again. As Sir Ken Robinson said, ‘If you’re not prepared to fail, how will you ever create anything original?’

In the build up to the millennium Steve designed a range of new cans celebrating advances in technology, exploration, communication and Pepsi.

Think about it – there is your final degree show, perhaps the chance to show at New Designers, or even the D&AD’s New Blood. How are you going to set yourself apart from the thousands of other design graduates?

‘The problem I feel with this kind of event is the sheer volume of design graduates who exhibit. Thousands upon thousands of ‘us’, all in University themed cubicles, stand in line, waiting to be spotted.’ Dave Cuvelot, recent graduate and exhibitor at New Blood.

I remember walking in to Islington’s Business Centre to set up was like walking in to a clone factory.
Thousands of very similar hopefuls adorning their four square foot of space in order to try and grab someone, anyone’s attention. It was, to put it mildly, fucking depressing.

I worried whether I’d fucked-up royally in my determination to try and experiment. But as I walked around I noticed similar briefs with similar executions appearing from different Universities/colleges. The Paul Smith one, the editorial one, the iSTD one… I didn’t worry for long.

Re-Union was a magazine that Steve produced, co-ordinated and designed himself in the final four weeks of university, focusing on new talent in design, fashion, music and writing

So to specialise or not to specialise? There is no right or wrong answer. If you choose to specialise or not doesn’t matter; that’s the point. It is how you communicate your strengths, your passions, your interests to the people that are going to pay you to work with/for them. In my professional career, as in my university route, I’ve experimented, tried new medias to work with and collaborated with lots of talented individuals. I’ve made mistakes, I learned lessons, but I have never, ever been bored.

Glenn Tutssel (Executive Creative Director at Brand Union) recently put forward a very interesting idea... ‘Our three-year specialist degree courses needs to become a three-year foundation course, allowing students to flourish, experimenting and making mistakes, to find new avenues of creativity.’ Glenn Tutssel, ‘Creative Weaving’, DW Creative Survey, Nov 2009

Special Note: I have recently realised that the very thing I try to improve for clients is the one thing my own message and web site has been lacking; clear communication. Needless to say I am currently redesigning everything about Plan-B Studio! E-V-E-R-YTHING.

New Blood: Graduate festival moves to east London

New Blood will be undergoing radical transformation and moving to Shoreditch in east London next summer.

2009 New Blood Exhibition at Olympia. Photo Credit: Christine Donnier-Valentin

The exhibition element will take up one week of graduate show Free Range from 24-29 June. We'll fill the Truman Brewery with the best advertising and design courses from our University Network membership.  The exhibition will be complemented by a range of events and activities arranged in partnership with creative organisations and companies in the area.

 

Laura Woodroffe, Director of Education & Professional Development says “New Blood will centre around networking – a crucial skill for students to learn. Where better to learn that than in the middle of one of London’s creative hubs?  We’re going to take over Shoreditch and are calling on all our industry friends in the area to work with us to participate in creative ways.  We will run a series of industry events, along with workshops and training for students and tutors.  Additional content will be provided by our education partners Shellsuitzombie, who will run activities within the exhibition itself.”

Tamsin O'Hanlon, Free Range Director said “Free Range and D&AD New Blood are quite simply stronger by working together. Through this partnership we will be better able to support tomorrows' creative talent and their tutors.”

Chris Waite, the Course Leader at University College Falmouth says “New Blood has always been a motivating and inspiring occasion for our Graphic Design, Illustration and Advertising students."

"It’s a great opportunity for them to show off their talents to a genuinely influential audience.  The move of venue to Shoreditch – smack in the middle of London’s communications industry – promises not only a great show, but also a whole series of satellite workshop and training events, to be run in collaboration with the kind of organisations where our graduates aspire to work.  The potential for networking – students, employers, tutors, media – is without equal.  We’re looking forward to it immensely.”

“This is a prime opportunity for the industry,’ said Greg Quinton, D&AD Education Chairman and Creative Partner at The Partners.  “Not only will it be incredibly convenient for many to be able to simply drop in to the exhibition, the savvy within the industry should also be getting in touch with D&AD to organise events that get those graduates into their agencies and studios.  Agencies and graduates both learn so much about ’agency fit’ by simply sharing a bit of time in their own space/habitat/turf/caravan/etc.”  

We are - ShellsuitZombie - your friends.

Give a design grad a job and he'll be employed for two years. Give him the means to get one himself and he'll be moderately wealthy with a detached home in SE18 by the time he's forty - Ancient Proverb

Hi readers, we're ShellsuitZombie, a small graduate organisation whose aim is to cut through the crap and help you get yourself into the creative industry. Since we graduated just over a year ago we've collectively been hired eight times, lost two jobs, worked in London and Paris, freelanced for some great and awful people and for some and no money, lived in A LOT of different houses, bought six bicycles and baked a cake. Using this experience (mainly the baking) we set up SSZ to encourage both graduates and the creative industry to fall in love again.

We try to do this in three ways.

1. Forget 'Mother', think brothers.

Through our website we put graduates and their work on a level playing field with the work that inspires them. After all, what x Art-Director did with £12 million shoot is of limited relevance to a poor student whose budget is second hand baked beans tins. At our stage you can't just throw money at stuff, the idea has to be good, and a lot of yours beat the pros hands down.

2. Let's get boozed

Don't take that title too literally, but booze (and socials in general) work wonders for smashing some of the employer-employee (or industry-graduate) barriers that might taint more formal events (dare I say, such as New Blood). When the whiff of desperation has passed, we can all have a larf. Our events try to make that happen. In addition graduates sharing advice and stories with each other is invaluable - A room full of them can only be a good thing.

3. REVOLUTION

We proudly (and angrily at times) act as a voice against those who would have everyone believe there isn't a hope for graduates, the nay-sayers who sit on their thrones and spout condescending and patronising garble about the number of grads per job, the state of education and the inevitability of our collective fate in Broken Britain. We really hate those guys.

So there you have it. We are all working graduate creatives from backgrounds in design and advertising who have a passion for making this whole process easier, less stressful and most importantly more fun for you guys. No-one chooses a creative career as a fallback, it's a way of life. We've had tough times over the last 18 months but there isn't one of us who would swap them for a management recruitment salary and an easy time. Sod that, we make shit look good.

ShellSuitZombie at D&AD New Blood 2009

Please come and visit us at www.shellsuitzombie.co.uk where you can sign up to our mailing list to find out about future events/competitions, submit your work, subscribe to our RSS feed and have a closer look at what we do. We also like twitter (@shellsuitzombie) very much, so hit us up on that bad boy.

Peace, Love and Cakes Galore

Jonny Burch

ShellsuitZombie

TALK TALK – A postscript to the Thoughtful Six Project

Last year D&AD showcased four inspirational education projects at our Student Awards. They looked at new ways of working and profiled examples of great collaboration between industry and education. You can watch the first film about the Thoughtful Six here.

Six months on, we asked them to talk about their experiences. One of the lead tutors and D&AD University Network member James Corazzo from Stockport College talks about it:

The Thoughtful Six Project, in simple terms, turned the idea of the work placement on its head – rather than the students trying to find a work placement in lots of different design agencies, Thoughtful design agency did a placement in Stockport College.

The genesis of the project came from thinking about how little design educators and design professionals actually talk to each other and how when we do, we often fail to get beyond the same old clichés and finger pointing. This has to change. The design industry desperately needs a better understanding of design education and design education desperately needs a better understanding of the design industry.

We can’t claim to have nailed the whole understanding thing but by moving a design agency into the department it created an opportunity to start a dialogue. Whether it was while passing in a corridor or towards the end of the day, we had lots of conversations that ranged, as good ones do, all over the place - but they always came back to the students, design, and design education. However, unlike many discussions I have experienced with design professionals never once did a sentence begin “you should be doing this…”.

Perhaps, because we had the time and the opportunity to get to understand the complexities of each other’s situations we started to recognise the similarities, not the differences; we are all in the business of dealing with, or helping people deal with, an increasingly complex and uncertain world.

If I had to summarise what the six students that worked with Thoughtful got from the project – a fine looking portfolio, a CV enhancing placement, knowing how to talk to people, a good story and a network of contacts aside – ultimately it was the sustained insight into dealing and coping with uncertainty.

Having Thoughtful live and work in the college for the last 12 months has also had an enormous impact beyond the six students and not in the ways we might have anticipated. The dialogue has provoked us to reconfigure what we do, perhaps surprisingly, we are moving away from explicitly industry focused projects towards broader approaches that focus on cultivating individuals whose creative thinking is only one aspect alongside resourcefulness and resilience. It has also prompted the idea of developing a more agile and responsive curriculum – a challenge within an institutional framework.  

And its not just been one way, Thoughtful have changed too; “we can see how tutors are able to stand shoulder to shoulder with the soldiers in the trenches as well view the battle from the top of the hill. This gives good tutors a unique and expansive view of the world and how design and their students fit into that world.”

We’re involved with the University Network because we think it’s uniquely placed to enable and encourage institutions to find innovative ways to configure, extend and deepen their relationships with design professionals, not because we should be mirroring industry, but because good dialogue will create a richer ecology. D&AD can move the debate on by creating constructive forums and opportunities to draw insightful industry voices into a sustained collaboration with educators.

But it's not just design educators and design professionals that should be yakking more, it needs to happen between institutions, more sharing, more talking. Bring on the real network.

Thoughtful are an ideas agency for the 21st century whose clients include Tate, British Council, howies, innocent and Royal Mail. James Corazzo is a Lecturer on the BA(Hons) Graphic Design course at Stockport College. If you would like to know more about the project James would be very happy to hear from you. Please comment or ask questions below.

Everyone starts somewhere

Piccadilly Circus, by 2nd year student, Richard Seymour

Throughout his year as D&AD President, Garrick's underlying theme has been that 'Everyone starts somewhere'. He has hosted the odd pub event where leading creative lights have shown their early work and has asked his President's Lecturers to include a student piece or two into their talks.

We've now brought all of this and more together into an 'Everyone starts somewhere' exhibition. If you're at New Blood this week, you'll be able to see the exhibition up on the balcony. If you can't make it, we've also put an online gallery together, with all the pics up on Flickr.