glass sofas and plastic sleeves

I seem to have gone past the point of no return when it comes to being out of date when it comes to blog posts...I started a 'catch-up' one about 2 months ago and never finished. Now that one is so out of date I've had to start again. Sigh. There should be a little plug in our brains that uploads blog posts at the end of every day...I'm going to attempt a speedy summary of all the exciting things that went on in my life over the past few months...I don't think it'll be speedy somehow though...


One day, whilst skiving in sunny Devon (I had run away from uni for the weekend) I got a phone call from the advertising tutor. I was surprised for a few reasons. One: it was a tutor ringing me. Two: I don't even do advertising. Three: I was in Devon.
Not that Devon doesn't support mobile phones or anything but I was sposed to have escaped uni stuff. I'd been put forward, along with two other people, to him by my graphics tutor to go to an interview at BBH advertising agency. Or more accurately, Zag, a small branding company within BBH.


Never miss out on an opportunity. If you have an interview go to it whether you want the job or not. See it as a chance to meet someone new and useful and get some feedback on your work. Also, its a good idea to get an idea what an agency looks/feels like: what the atmosphere is like, what work they do, how they work etc. Even if you hate it all you'll come away with a better idea of what you do/don't want to do in the future. Clever eh?


I quickly put a portfolio together. Time was extremely limited so all my plans of doing an amazing box or book with my work in were ruined. I'm a massive fan of doing something a bit different to be remembered but in the end everything will come down to the work not what it's in (However, make a bit of effort! I know someone who really didn't impress their interviewer by turning up with their work in a KallKwik plastic bag...It just said it all really and needless to say he didn't get the job) I ended up going off to one of the biggest agencies in London worrying about my horrible A3 portfolio folder and it's non-matching clear plastic sleeves...
Before I went though, I went to uni to see a visiting tutor; a man from the partner college in Germany. He went through my portfolio and edited it ruthlessly. And a good job too, I say. It needs an outside perspective to see a piece of work for what it really is. You can become too close to it and understand it so fully that you can't imagine that someone seeing it for the first time might not know what you're trying to say with it. As well as that there seems to be a compulsion to add things to a portfolio just in case someone likes it. Or just in case you run out of things to say about the rest of the work. Never do it! Only ever include your best ever work, even if it means there are only 5 pages in your portfolio. And if you haven't got enough to say about your best projects then you need to do some better ones. I find the best ones are always the ones that feel like they could go on forever and that you haven't finished yet...unless you really just haven't finished anything at all...that's a slightly different thing!
The tutor edited my portfolio by about half which scared me at the time but looking back it was probably the best thing he could've done for me.


I was ages early for my interview. Never risk being late though. Whatever great excuse you have it'll still start you off on the wrong foot. Anyway, after wandering around outside for a while I went up the lift and the doors opened to show the massive glass interior. 3 floors of glass walls, a big glass staircase and lots and lots and lots of people wandering around, working at their desks and sitting on the (non-glass) sofas in the 'atrium' area. Very different from the scruffy desk strewn with paper, cables and various pens that I'm used to.I didn't get to see any actual work spaces that day apart from what I peeked at through the glass as I was interviewed in the reception.


The interview itself was a difficult one for me. Mainly because I had no idea at any time how it was going. I'm used to some kind of reaction to my work, either positive or negative. But as I talked about each piece and came to the end of my explanation there would generally just be a nod and I'd be unsure whether that meant 'Great!', 'Carry on, you haven't said enough', 'I'm bored, go on to the next thing', 'Please leave. Now.' That fazed me a bit but there's nothing you can do but carry on and hope for the best. I managed to stumble through their questions and they seemed to like being able to see and touch a tangible end product. I had taken in a kit and a couple of books I had made along with me to backup my portfolio work which I think may have been my saviour for the day.


And so I left in a bit of a daze not really knowing what was going to happen except that I'd hear word in a weeks time...
In the meantime I had my major Major Project to get on with...

the numbers

I don't think I ever mentioned in my many many (ahem) blog posts how my course works...Basically, I worked for two years without it even counting towards anything. Only the third and final year has anything to do with my final degree. All I had to do for the first two was pass so I could go on to the next year. The idea behind this is pretty logical I think: we are only judged when we're at our best. When we were all rubbish and clueless it really didn't matter that we were. However, there is a big drawback...we are only judged when we're supposedly at our best!...In a similar way to when you have an exam and you're having an 'off day'. It's possible in graphic design to have an 'off-project'. Sometimes the idea just doesn't click and it just never works out exactly how you want it to. But when you're in your third year of university and 100% of your degree is on the line......let's just say the pressure was on and no off-days were allowed!


I had four chances to be brilliant or disastrous over the course of this year that added up to different percentages of my final result:


1. Self-Written Project: 12.5%
2. Industry Brief: 12.5%
3. Dissertation: 25%
4. Final Major Project: 50%


1. Any project we wanted to do. Self-written you see...
2. A project chosen from D&AD or YCN competition briefs.
3. Only 6000-8000 words because it's a design course, not a theory one. Mine was 'How Has Technology Affected The Way We Receive Information?'
4. 50% AH!


AaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhHHHHHHHHHH! An off-project here could mean the difference between a first and the third! I imagine...I never actually worked it out mathematically...But still! 50% for one project!


The last thing we all had to do before the Easter holidays was present to the tutors our ideas for our final major projects. Major is definitely an appropriate word! We'd be working on this one project from Easter to the end of the year so we had to think of things that had enough scope to carry on for a few months and keep ourselves interested. And of course it had to be interesting to other people (ie. the tutors marking it. Did I mention the 50% thing at all?...)


I managed to come up with an idea only a couple of days before the day of the presentation. Before then I'd had no time to think about it because of the deadline for the industry brief. But once I'd given that in (where I last left you. The day the random old man gave me a random weed/flower) I got down to it and decided to take a slightly risky approach when picking the subject of my new project...


And to be annoying and leave you on a cliffhanger (and I can't be bothered to write more right now) I shall shove off.

my return

I have totally abandoned my blog for a long while as you (whoever you may be) may have noticed. Or you might not have and didn't miss me at all. Thanks a lot!

Today, the 14th of June '08, I have arrived in St Ives, Cornwall for a two week holiday now that everything is over. I'm sitting in bed with my laptop in my attic bedroom just a few steps away from Porthmeor beach. I have an amazing view, a lovely sloping ceiling and fishing net decorated walls. There is a even a complimentary surfboard on the floor! I'm not going to want to leave this place!

The only worrying thing are the sounds I am hearing right now. I'm hoping it's the neighbours clattering about next door. If not, there is a possibility of mice above me. Either that or it's the seagulls on the roof but to me to sounds like running...I don't think seagulls run around on roofs. But then again I have never observed seagulls in the middle of night. It's summer; maybe it's their sports season.

Anyway, I'm using the almost peace and quiet to generally catch up with abandoned things and sort my muddled brain out. Despite all my efforts to find a wireless connection to steal, I have no internet here so the following posts will have to be even more backdated. After the months of delay I'm sure another two weeks won't hurt though! I'm hoping I can even remember the above mentioned 'everything' that I'm supposed to be typing about.

The basic update, for the lazy who don't want to read much, is that I have now finished university. I am now supposed to be a normal citizen...

I don't feel particularly ready to go out into the 'real' world yet. I quite like my unreal one, to be honest. My Dad came to pick me and all my belongings up last Wednesday evening to leave my student house for good. 24 hours earlier I hadn't even started packing yet. When I got back from uni on Tuesday afternoon I decided to have an 'hours break' before starting. I went outside in the sunshine and lay on the grass. Once I had laid down there really wasn't much that could make me get up again. I wanted to go to sleep and for everything to all be sorted out when I woke up. Not just my packing either! My packing and my life! Tired, jobless, moneyless and semi-homeless I really wasn't all that motivated to get up out of that grass. I didn't even want to go out to the pub later that night to say Goodbye to everyone on my last night in Wycombe. (As well as a disgraceful laziness) this was down to a well-known thing called denial. If I didn't pack or say Goodbye then it wasn't over yet! There really isn't anything quite like the whole of your uncertain future when it comes down to mind-blowing confusion.

Luckily for me (and my Dad) I finally managed to pack up my things and I even went out on my last night to insist everyone keep in contact. Which in turn means I'm here in St Ives, Yay!

My arrival here, in the greater scheme of things, was an extremely unremarkable event for the world. But I insist on romanticizing it anyway because in my tiny little mind it was great.
The unspectacular beginning to my 'spectacular' entrance was being dumped in a Tesco car park just outside of St Ives. My place in our campervan was reallocated to a load of shopping bags so I ended up walking the last mile or so to this house. Anyone who has been to St Ives knows that you have to come down a hill to get to the town so that's the way I headed. I really felt when I got my first glimpse of the place as I came over the hill as if I'd been walking for weeks and had finally got to my destination. And, no, this was nothing to do with my disgraceful laziness. It was as if all my months of (debatably) hard work were leading to this moment and to be truthful it really was what I had been aiming for in times of crisis. 'It'll all be over soon. I'm going to St Ives.' So, as I walked through the streets on my own (bar the residents, fisherman, shopkeepers and groups of tourists) it was like I had discovered the little town for myself. Many had tragically fallen on the way but I had made it.
There has been talk of a statue on the harbour front but I have refused. I want my good people of St Ives to spend their money on keeping the place lovely for when I discover it again next time...

random acts of kindness

Yesterday I had the very uninspiring task of walking to uni to give in some work and coming back again straight away. It was lovely and sunny but the only thing I could think of when I was walking down the hill into Wycombe was the horrible walk back up again. But a tiny event happened that made my day...

As I walked around a corner I came across an old man standing at the end of his drive. When he saw me he held out his hand, offered me a flower and smiled. It was clearly a dandelion he had just pulled up from his immaculate path but nevertheless it was a wonderful gesture. I thanked him and went on my way with a 'spring in my step' as they say. Whoever 'they' are.

I practically skipped the rest of the way to uni and greeted everyone I passed with a smile or a 'Good afternoon!' if they looked friendly enough (a rare thing in this world it seems!)

I find the concept of 'friendliness' very interesting. You don't seem to be allowed to be friendly for no reason without being considered a complete weirdo. The South East of England seems to be a particularly unfriendly place sometimes. In the West Country it's OK to greet a stranger if you pass them in a park or relatively empty street. Here in the East, everyone keeps their head down and tries to pretend the other person doesn't exist. One little thing can have such an effect on the world that I think this is a shame. I know if someone I don't know says a cheerful 'Good afternoon' to me it makes me smile. In turn I might say it to the next person and so the happiness spreads.

Anyway, this all reminded me of a group called Join Me that I signed up to years ago in Sixth Form. Join Me, created by Danny Wallace (who, in fact, went to the same Sixth Form as me...not the same year though)  is a group of people encouraged to break social barriers and actually dare to be nice to people! They undertake R.A.O.Ks (Random Acts Of Kindness) whenever they can whether it's something as simple as holding a door open for someone or doing things like hiding book vouchers in the pages of books in the library.

www.join-me.co.uk

I've decided to put more effort into being nice to the world again!

In other news, I saw my first bee of the year today. Yay!

s.i.c day two

Sunday, the second day of Social Innovation Camp was much better than the first! Probably because I could start again and actually talk this time! I also found I could make myself useful by doing some of the little extra things that no-one else really had time for like quickly edit and export a video, check out the presentation venue, find out all the 'technical' information about how we could do the presentation and do a quick pdf to have up on screen etc.

The solution that was decided on was to create a website for people to rate their prison visits. Kind of a naming and shaming of poorly performing prisons that would hopefully create a feeling of competition amongst the prisons and encourage positive change.

Thankfully we had some very hard working coders in our group and they managed to get a working site up in less than a day! It still needs work but as a prototype I think its very impressive!

http://visits.sicamp.org

At 2pm everyone had to stop what they were doing, finished or not, and go across to the Bethnal Green Museum Of Childhood to pitch our ideas to a panel of judges. Thankfully my duty when I was there was to get all our work from my laptop onto another ready for the presentation and not to talk!

All the projects were pitched really well but despite having some hard questions thrown in by the judges we managed to come second. Yay! We got £1000 towards the project. 

There's a possibility our ideas might be piloted in Belmarsh prison but I guess we'll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, loads of thanks to Cassie, Huey, Marc, Peter, Mori, John, Dan, Julie, Patricia, Alison, Jeremy and Paul for putting up with me!

s.i.c day one

Imagine jumping into the deep end of a swimming pool and realising you're still wearing your clothes. You then remember you can't swim and there are bricks tied to your feet. You also then realise that the pool you're in is in fact a dark bottomless pit. The only things lighting the way are flourescent post-it notes that burn your eyes...

OK, it wasn't that bad but I felt seriously out of my depth on the first day of Social Innovation Camp! Everyone was really friendly but also very experienced and professional!

I didn't get much time to actually say what the whole thing was but it's probably easiest to steal some text from the website:

"What happens when you get a bunch of software developers and social innovators together, give them a set of social problems and only 48 hours to solve them?

We're going to find out.

In London between the 4th-6th April 2008, the Social Innovation Camp will bring together some of the best of the UK and Europe's web developers and designers with people at the sharp end of social problems."

So everybody there was there for free, working on 6 projects that were chosen from a ton of other ideas submitted in a last few months. I think I was the only student there. Kind of. I was relieved to talk to one other and heard of others mentioned but then the letters P H and D were uttered!

The project I worked on was entitled 'Prison Visits': "To build a website or tool that creates greater access to prison visits and improves the experience of visiting someone in jail. It should provide better information about how the system works and what life is like for offenders inside."

Anyway, Saturday was all about getting into groups, quickly coming up with an idea that will work and actually getting something visual up and working. The group bashed out the ideas and it was finally formed into a do-able project. Less than 48 hours to get something done was very challenging!

The problem, I found, was all of my group had some kind of experience and confidence about a subject whether it was web coding, some kind of project management or web design. A good thing, yes, but intimidating at the same time! I didn't say a word the first day! At first it was OK because I had expected it. But you know when you talk to someone you know you've met before but you can't remember their name?...The conversation goes on and you realise it's too late to ask them what they're called without seeming really stupid. It was like that! By the time I felt I had something useful to say in relation to the project it was too late to suddenly speak up!

So that was a slight blip. Quite a big blip, I guess...But today was good! I'm too tired to write about that right now so I'll do that tomorrow!

In the meantime, see if you can spot me in the Guardian Blog (twice!) under the titles 'Social Innovation Camp: Show And Tell' and 'Social Innovation Camp: Inside Story'. Its a challenge but I'm there!

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/digitalcontent

social innovation camp

Adventure number one is fast approaching!

Tomorrow morning I'll be taking part in the Social Innovation Camp at the Young Foundation in London.

Since starting university I've slowly become less and less interested in the idea of designing packaging for sausages and adverts for the latest TV set. Design and images can have so much impact on the human mind. They can help us to trust or mistrust something, make us want things, believe things, change our opinions. Design can go from making something look pretty to controlling how we live our lives (ie. road signs) So why not use the ability to design for good things? Things that are socially helpful or environmentally responsible?

In the words of the website, the Social Innovation Camp is 'an experiment in using social technology for social change'. Designers will come together with web experts, entrepreneurs, and anyone else who wants to join in to work on projects that have a lot of potential social impact.

www.sicamp.org

I'm not quite sure how I'll get on because, by the looks of things, all the other people attending seem to be professionals already! I'll do an update after I get back on Sunday and we'll see how a mere student got on!

In the meantime, good ol' BBC iPlayer will save the day when I get to watch Doctor Who when I return :P

and in the end

64 days, 12 hours and 17 minutes until my last day at university and I still have no idea what my future holds. 

After 3 years of studying Graphic Design and Advertising at BNU I am apparently just about ready to enter the Big Bad World of work. This is possibly the scariest but most exciting time of my life! I've taken the decision to record my upcoming adventures so I can read back and remember them when I'm living in my little cottage by the sea when I'm 80 and it's raining and there's nothing better to do.

Also, this could sound very big-headed and self-important, but it could be a useful read for other 'designers-to-be' when they are just about to come up to this stage of adrenalin-fueled sleeplessness of uni work and job searches. The only things I've heard said (over and over again) about leaving uni and getting a job are along the lines of  "Send out loads of CVs and wait and see what happens". But how do you know who to send them to? What are the good and bad ways of going about it? What happens if someone actually says "Come in and show us your portfolio then"?...

...I'm about to find out.

                                                 ...I'm scared.