Friday 20 October 2017

1st Tutorial

On the first tutorial with Alec I was concerned if I could make the 2 briefs in the second half of the year. He suggested me to try not to do that and get the first brief done by January.

I was going to initially send a notebook for logo design, but Alec gave me a great idea (which was an extension of what Chris Do once told me about copying my favourite design studios): which is to make a physical publication of similar work to show them I understand what they are doing.

I think one single publication could be tailored for the studios I'm interested in as a fictional project based on similar briefs they've had in the past.

Other interesting designers he suggested me to check out were Cosstores, Paloma Wool and Document Studios.

Client negotiation workshop

I was very interested in participating in this workshop carried out by Lou Bones from the Association of Illustrators in London because I believe the design of business and the business of design are equally important to be a successful graphic designer.

Many things that were said I was already aware of, since I've been interested in this topic for some time now and thanks to The Futur. However, there were very interesting points.

Lou explained that our websites should show the name and our work first and foremost. "Who is our work speaking to?" is the question we need to ask ourselves to have a clear message.

Also, avoid be paying by time because that's how companies save money. One should say: "I don't work on a day fee, but I'm happy licensing my work" in terms of copyright. The prices should also be based on "where" and "how long" it's going to be used for.

At the end of the workshop, I asked Lou if she had a nice and not too inappropriate way to know her clients' annual revenue to calculate the right fee for them. She told me that there's a way to check this out through the company's house register or checking out previous projects they have been involved in.

Experience: the recent grads enemy

In many job offers (at least in the Spanish ones) they don't usually post the salary with the excuse that it depends on the value of the applicant. This made me raise an eyebrow as it feels that they are going to say that they are not willing to pay more than "X" because I don't have the experience.

I want to be prepared to argue this and to be able to be taken seriously. So I spoke with John and Alec about this problem. Since I can't rely on experience, what do I have that experienced designers don't?

These are some of the arguments I can pivot around that I've been gathering from the conversation with John:

- Freshness

- Mental Flexibility/ malleability / Adaptability

- Energy

- Been in England studying and working (this has an added value applying for Spanish jobs)

- Enthusiast / Out of comfort zone.

After speaking to Alec, this is what I wrote down:

"I am what you are looking for because I believe you are looking for someone fresh and young, not necessarily experienced. My work is not the regular work a student would do, otherwise I believe I wouldn't be sitting here. I am willing to show you how valuable I am, but this is something I cannot prove to you in a 15 minutes interview".

Ikigai session

The Ikigai is something I already carried out during the summer... or at least something similar.

I've participated in a webinar with the designer Chris Do (I can be seen on the small screens of the participants) in which he spoke about how to focus on a purpose.

These were the results

Passion-profession: Critical thinking, Psychology, Analysis and Strategy.

Profession-vocation: Branding, editorial design, videography.

Vocation-mission: Raise consciousness, increase cultural presence, healthy arguments about everything

Mission-passion: Negotiation, Design, Music, Comedy.

During the session with Alec, I found particularly interesting the way to track down e-mails using hunter.io. Creepy and dodgy, but most certainly interesting.

Sara Acosta

During my external collaboration project with Sara Acosta, a Spanish photographer I briefly chatted with once, I've been working on defining the brief with her.

It's been a great feeling to see how surprised she is of my professionalism. She claims that she doesn't know many designers in Las Palmas (our mutual hometown), and the ones she knows seem not to have the same level of dedication.

She was very happy to see how interested I was in her business and how well I understood her mission and values. I told her that my dream would be to work as a graphic designer in my hometown, and since she has many contacts in design agencies there, it's worth to mention that a professional path might open there.

The Cool Kids

Frankie Ratford from The Cool Kids came in to give us a talk about her career and the design industry.

It was a very interesting trajectory the one she had and she gave away a lot of useful tips to get a job. She even said that if we don't get a job after following these steps, we should e-mail her every single day until we get a job!



After that, I had a chat with her about a design studio in Madrid she talked about, which was Tres Tipos Gráficos. She said they were great people, so I decided to e-mail them talking about Frankie, how well she speaks about them and how important it is for me to work with the right people. The e-mail was sent, but no response so far. At least now I'm more interested in this studio and this can be mentioned in a future application.

Lumen

At the end of August I applied to have paid internships with the local audiovisual company Lumen. They needed a Graphic Designer for a short marketing campaign based on flyers to let people know they moved their headquarters. They contacted me after sending them my CV, cover letter and portfolio.

Before starting to work with them, I made some research into what they do and it's important for them. The first day went so well with them they offered me another project to take part on (Light Night Leeds). During the first day I questioned why they wanted to design a flyer and I wanted to know what made them take that decision and if it was the best choice for their audience and message. They liked how critical I was, not taking anything for granted and showing how I really cared about the project.

In the end, we decided the best was to design a flyer alongside with e-mail signatures that went along with it. I came up with different concepts, hashtags, colour combinations and so on for them to have choices.

At the end of the week, I put together a PDF file for them to send it to their contacts to have some feedback that it was considered, discussed and applied afterwards.

This is what it was sent away: