Too many graduates

There are too many design graduates. A sentence that invades my sleep. There is nothing worse than putting in the time and effort only to here that your efforts may be in futile. Its common knowledge that there are way too many Graphic design students than jobs will allow. Ever since the first, possibly second year on this course we have been told by real world graphic designer in lectures the shocking numbers of graphic design students that will graduate, and the possible number of jobs out there for us all. What are the options then? Give up, except your fate and get a full time job on in Asda. Or stand and fight, not literally, but put in the hard work and try your best and make sure you get a job in graphic design.

I decided to take this question on as it is the most relevant to myself as a third year graphic design student that wants to get a job within the design market.

When I realised that this was the question I was going to tackle I thought it would be a good idea to email a past student who was on the course I am doing now and has been very successful and has managed to get a job at a graphic design company. Amit works at Jordangate, a design company in Macclesfield. Like myself, Amit has always been interested in art and graphic design. Personally I don’t think I had a choice about what I wanted to do, ever since school. Studying art and product design, I have always followed creative subjects and been fascinated by then, graphic design was a natural progression for me, with a passion for beautiful graphics and a love for great typography. I believe it is essential to be passionate about graphic design if you wish to get a creative job in the industry, there are obviously going to be hard times as soon as you leave university, not to mention that fact that we are leaving university into the middle of a recession.

I have managed to find a recent article about this topic where Ian Cochrane an industry heavyweight, the managing director of management consultancy Ticegroup. Told design students to “get out” of the sector and told Design Week, “There are still too many people coming out of design courses, and there simply aren’t the jobs for them.” I believe this information does inform us students about the hard times in the real world but has to make you want a graphic design job even more. This news has to push you and inspire you to produce great designs to be able to stand out above the masses of other graduate students. Amit in his email told me a good way to stand out is to have a good broad range of work in your portfolio matched with a strong C.V. Being friendly and keeping a positive attitude can go along way, especially in an interview. This seems like great knowledge in particular the positive attitude advice, I know that I may get knocked back a few times before I manage to get a job but I am willing to put in the time and effort to get the job that I want.

Cochrane also says “If you want to design restaurants, it helps to have worked in one or two”. I can see his point, but do not necessarily agree with it, by working in a restaurant you may get some background or inside knowledge about the industry but what’s to say this will help with the design of a restaurant. There is nothing to say that if you are doing a brand identity for a restaurant you will produce a better identity than a designer who researches into the restaurant and can get a similar amount of information, I believe it is more about the amount of dedication, research and time put into an identity that makes the design better. I do not think that this is great advice it sounds like he is saying don’t try and get a job in graphic design for a couple of years and waste time at a job that you do not care for, I will not be doing this my aim is to make sure my portfolio is bang up to date with great work inside and go to as many companies as I can and try my hardest to get a number of placements, gaining experience and from there I will hopefully get a job in future, I am aware this may take time but I know it is what I want to do in my career so it is what I will pursue. 

Arialplate

Definitely an improvement on arial. 

found on typophile.

questions to Jordangate

Jordangate is a Graphic Design company based in Macclesfield. I have had email contact with a designer there and these are some questions that I asked Amit.

Letterpress

Some great letterpress work. got to get me in the print room.

 

Found on debutart.

Barney Bubbles CR

Barney Bubbles with some great letterpress work in January's Creative Review.

Found on the CRblog.

I hope our Bus doesn't sink!

Found. http://www.andrewpougher.co.uk/house/img/SinkingBusEarlhamRoad.jpg

Hemisphere

This is great piece of design by Hemisphere. such a simple idea that looks great.

Found on Hemisphere's website.

Simon and Steve's RC Grand Prix Adventure

A smart little video I found on the Interweb.

Found on youtube.

Interbrand

Baboo is a swiss airline that has recently been re-branded by Interbrand.

They kept the Swiss feel by incorporating the Swiss cross in the 'B'.

Found on Interbrand website

Love

Love. 'One of our dinosaurs is missing' MOSI.

Avery clever idea and use of ambient media. 

Found on the Love website.

The Chase

Layezee Beds. This logo uses a capital L on its back to create a bed then people are added to give it a real feel, This is a great idea that works because it is so simple, like a lot of the work designed by The Chase.

Cock-a-Doodle, a distinctive binding device that contained the limited edition number on the metal rings was adopted for the illustrative book. This is a great piece of design with a great idea.

Cidu the creative industries development unit at the University of Central Lancashire. 

Charles Wilkin

  

Designs by Charles Wilkin. I love his collage style which has been improved on the computer from his original cut and paste style.

Found http://automatic-iam.com/

Hemisphere

As of yet I have not received a reply from Hemisphere.

After waiting 9 days for Hemisphere to get back to me, I decided to give them a ring on the number that was on the website. I phoned at 5:40 as I figured that any receptionists would have gone home by then. I asked for Sue who I sent the email to but she was off until Tuesday. I then asked if she could help me, after the exchange of names I continued to tell her that I was a third year student and was after a portfolio viewing and any advice I could get my hands on. she told me she did not have a great deal of work on and could see me on Monday at 11:00. I'll keep you posted.

The Visit

Today (23^rd March) I went to visit Hemisphere Design company, I choose to visit Hemisphere as I love the Imperial War Museum work that they design. I also thought it might be a good idea to pick their brains as my final major project is based at the Imperial War Museum.

I arrived 20 minutes early, so not to be late. I got buzzed in after a little trouble finding the offices. After meeting Faye in the office, the first thing I noticed was a serious lack of a Mac. We then went downstairs to the second floor where I begin to talk Faye through my portfolio and some third year work.

Faye was enthusiastic, polite and gave some great advice. She also gave me some pointers within my portfolio like writing the entire brief out or having more description to each set of designs, so they can fully understand the designs.

She seemed to like the work I showed her and said the collage style that some of my work was very interesting. To this I said that in my third year work I have not used it at all, partially because it has not fitted he brief but mainly because I believe that the collage style is not as commercial as I want to make my work. I believe it is important to show you can produce commercial work, as that is what I will be doing in the future. She agreed with this point but also said that my collage work shows good designs skills.

After we had finished looking through my work we went back upstairs to their office and that’s were I was introduced to Andy who showed me the Imperial War Museum stuff he was working on which looked great.

Faye gave me her business card and said it would be fine to email her with my final major project work, she seemed really interested in the Code Project.

Over all I really enjoyed this visit and found it very beneficial.  

Think Tank

Think tank is a graphic design company based in London. I had the opportunity to show my portfolio to a couple of designers that had been working there for about 6 months, Andy and Amber. They were both very welcoming and immediately made me feel at ease, the office was nice and spacious with a beautiful pool table taking pride of place in the middle of the room. I started by showing my second year portfolio in the book format, which they seemed to love, saying they were sick of the boxes after seeing a large number of them in the past and its something extra to design and show your design skills in the book format. They were very encouraging about my work and seemed to like it with some great advice along the way. In particular Amber really liked my third year work and the chess stuff I have designed saying she would not be worried if a few people took offence the phrase ‘chickmate’ and told me to push that idea as well as the live pawn idea. We were then showed the studio and some of their work, which was going out the next day. The visit went well and was very informative, I now think differently about the London design world and believe its not as scary as possibly I once thought.

Interbrand

When we went down to London in March, we made a visit to Interbrand, a large branding company. Tim, one of the speakers said it would be fine to email him with some work.  In this first email I introduced myself and asked if it would be ok to send a PDF of my work.

This was the reply I received from Tim, he emailed back quickly, very promising. 

I then sent this email with the PDF attached hoping to hear something soon.

As of yet I have not heard anything from Tim, so I decided to prompt him with an email. I can only guess he has a lot of work on at the moment but I hope to get a reply soon.

A reply from Tim, still waiting on some feedback though.

Im a polite guy.

Astrid Stavro

When I was in Barcelona last November, I visited Astrid Stavro, a graphic design company. I had never heard of the company until a few weeks prior to getting on the plane so did not really know what to expect, not to mention I never seen a graphic design company with my portfolio outside of England. After struggling to find the building in the maze that was Barcelona, we had got there. Now for the hard part.

We rang the buzzer ad was invited up by a member of staff, we were greeted by Edward who was working on some design work. But came to talk to us and offered us a drink. Its always interesting and valuable to hear how design students managed to get into a company. Astrid was running slightly late but I barely noticed as we were talking away. After hearing about Astrid’s past and how she studied at Saint Martins College of Art and Design and then the Royal College of Arts. She then told us about the history of her company and talked through some of her best pieces of work. Astrid was very warm and polite and made all four of us feel very comfortable. We then individually showed her our portfolios and got some advice along the way. In all I was very pleased to have had the chance to go and see her design company it was one of the best parts of the Barcelona trip.

Practitioners

Practitioners

 

The two practitioners I will be talking about within this text are Grant Gilbert, a freelance designer who operates under the alias Double G Studios (http://doublegstudios.com/), and Truth Design a larger graphic design company that have only been around for two and half years

(http://www.truth-design.co.uk/). To start with I would like to state what the differences are between a freelance designer and a design company or a designer that works within a company. A freelance Graphic Designer is there own boss there is usually only 1 person designing and usually under an alias as a company, and will probably have to work all hours and have to take work home to make deadlines. Or will get drafted in by another company at busy periods with high workloads. Where as if you are a Graphic Designer working for a company will usually be expected to put in a 9 to 5 day, this being a lot more like an office job, that’s not to say that it will incorporate any sort of weaker design or less imaginative work. In the first year of this course I definitely presumed that I wanted to become a freelance Graphic Designer but as I have learnt more about the area I wish to work in I believe it would be a lot more profitable to work in a company for a number of years while I continue to learn this trade to an excellent level and understanding before parting ways and setting up a smaller company. 

                       

The Truth lecture was one that I particularly enjoyed this is because they did not come just to show us there work and leave, they spoke to us about general tips and things to remember within our own work and the advantages and disadvantages of starting up your own company and how it is a very difficult thing to do especially if you have just graduated and do not have any experience in industry work. Other great pieces of advice and things to remember are ‘less is more’ this is something I always try to incorporate with my designs as I often believe the best designs are the simplest such as the 3CV logo the chase designed and also there logo for Leaf Street. These logos are so memorable because they are so simple and yet clever this is exactly what Darren Scott was saying. Another great thing he said was that Design is a process you rarely find that right answer straight away and that should try and make the client understand the process by rationalising and justifying your design so the client picks the best design.

 

The work that was shown to us by Truth (Fig.1) (Fig.2) was very enjoyable and interesting, I particularly liked the Fat Hog work they were recently doing, There original brief was to create a completely new brand for the trade decorating market and then to design the packaging for a line of brushes, rollers, sandpapers etc. I believe that the final pieces of design were really clever they played on the heritage of traditional high-performance hog’s hair used in paintbrushes, there designs were really striking and very different to any existing designs for decorating products which must have for filled the original brief given to them.  

 

 

The lecture by Grant Gilbert was also fascinating he told us of his story from college to modern day. After completing an ND at Stockport Gilbert went on to do his Degree at Birmingham University then worked at Planet 24 in London where he cracked a joke about making lots of tea for three years. Gilbert then worked at Channel 4 for three years and was involved in the re branding of the channel and the title sequences as well. After this Gilbert became a freelance designer and started Double G Studios to make him seem like a bigger company, his work is a lot more multi media based than truth’s designs and indeed my own but I decided to write about him as he is a very successful freelancer as he used the contacts he made working at channel 4 to get some great clients such as more 4 and channel 5. He seems like the man in channel branding world to me. Gilbert worked with Spin, a graphic design company in London, to create the identity fro more 4 and the animation of the television commercials advertising the channel. Gilbert has recently completed the new re-brand of channel 5 as well. I do not thing this is as good as the more 4 identity as once again the more 4 work is a lot simpler and clean cut (Fig.3) I believe that the new channel 5 identity looks a lot like the EA games logo.

 

Gilbert also gave some good advice in his lecture, he told us to experiment in college, as there are more restraints in real world work also that simple ideas always work better. These are pieces of advice I have heard of a number of designers, so I do not doubt for a second that they are true, I plan to experiment in my final project and come up with a simple and effective outcome for what ever I design.

 

In hindsight I think that both of these lectures were vital in giving me inspiration, ideas and advice on becoming a Graphic Designer. I believe that the truth lecture probably interested me a little more as they where doing more print design than Grant Gilberts multi media but both were fascinating and incredibly enjoyable.