Advice to Design Students and Graduates

Having received a large number of emails from students there was a trend in requesting advice. I feel compelled to answer every email I receive so I thought I would share my ways to be a design successful student or recent graduate in a post.

My 6 ways to become a successful design student

1. Keep your portfolio updated
2. Do placements and enjoy them
3. Be honest
4. Don’t be a dick
5. Work hard and take breaks
6. Share your ideas and participate

Keeping your portfolio updated is harder than it sounds. If your not a web savvy kind of designer have a website you can update easily without code or markup like Carbonmade, Behance or the new Cargo its really easy to add new projects and you can still make it individual. The other end of this is a print portfolio this is a part of you and needs to change constantly to suit whom your showing it to. Don’t try to include all your projects inside, but choose the best ones. Customising the portfolio depending on the job position you’re applying to is also important for example, if you’re applying for a web based position, the person interviewing you would be more interested in seeing your website designs rather than packaging and print. A strong start and finish are also important in comparison to your

Do placements and enjoy them, I’ve been on several placements and all of them have been great. If you need a refresh they always inspire. Don’t go into them thinking your going to be stuck making tea, make your ideas heard and get plenty of feedback. A small quote from other respected designers on your website straddles a fine ego line but might just push peoples opinion of you.

Be honest possibly the most important. If you get caught out in a lie about how long you have worked somewhere its worse than if you just tell the truth. If your not sure you are skilled enough in a certain area to complete a project especially in university say something you can get feedback and help.

Don’ be a dick. Simple, the design industry is a small place and word spreads quickly if your not a great individual it gets known. If you copy or steal you will be found named and shamed be inspired there is a huge difference.

Work hard and take breaks. Sometimes the most productive thing to do is to take a break but if your going somewhere and making progress, work hard. Working hard and meeting your deadlines is important inside your job and university but there is also a life outside design that’s important too, have a hobby.

Share your ideas and participate this is appropriate in a job and university. Share what you know with others and one day when your struggling they might just swing an idea your way. Participate in everything you can, being part of a team can really help your creativity

I hope this helps you as it has helped me get to where I am and another small piece of advice that works wonders is be excited, if you show your excitement for the situation your in you’ll enjoy it much more.

New Blog Design

I admit, I redesign most websites I have far too much but I honestly believe this one will last a while. With plenty of time on my hands I went through alot of designs before finally reaching this conclusion, it involves just the right balance of too much work and not enough design.

So I finally moved away from Tumblr where I wasn’t happy with the quality of the posts. I am moved to a custom template on wordpress if you like the design it will be released soon by WPCoder. This is a little bit more of a formal format where I can play with the design and typography.

I will mainly be posting updates from my Internship abroad allowing this site to work as an archive for myself and as a relay to my friends and family in England. I will hopefully be posting some interesting design articles too, I’ve got a lot of articles in draft mode waiting to get published and now seem to have picked up speed in other projects so working my ass off on them. All the old articles are in the archive and they have all been designed with a header too so take a look.

So as I move to a foreign country for a few months november I have alot of packing and thinking todo in the upcoming weeks. But for now life’s good.

I hope you are good too.

Carpe Diem & the next few months.

So in the last few months since graduating I have been looking for opportunities to work, some are jobs, some are placements all are in the aim of finding a nice friendly studio to work with a great bunch of people. This search is now taking me out of the country and at the beginning of November I start work for a very exciting studio in Germany.

I’m leaving England for at least 3 months to work at www.joussenkarliczek.de this is a complete turn around for me my usual safe zone is breached when I have to catch the train to the city and I am in a new country with a new language which I understand to a point but am useless as speaking so far.

I was hesitant at first but I have friends in Germany (one of which works in this studio and gave me this excellent opportunity) and have been there earlier this year. Then my sister said

“You will never get the chance to do anything like this again, I’m jealous!”

I will post here more regularly when abroad so you can see how I am getting on and what I am up to. But if you require more regular updates my twitter www.twitter.com/mattdavey is the place to go.

So for me now the job hunt is over until I get back. Finding a job has hit my love for design. Dealing with a recruitment agencies and a handful of horrible studios (more to come about those later) really gives a recent graduate a bad view of the industry. I love design and the whole industry and this opportunity I’m sure will renew this.

The Road from Graduation

Its all over the news in England this year that it is incredibly hard for a graduate to get a job or even a placement. From graduating and moving back to my parents house I start the hunt to find any kind of placement or job in graphics anywhere in Europe or America.

This proves to be more difficult than I had even expected. I have a CV counter on my desk which I update every time I send a CV out to an employer in an email or letter. I am over the 150 mark and still have nothing solid.

Although all of this is stressful I have had some placements in the last few weeks that have been amazing and having a good two weeks in an agency with great people is a holiday from actually putting in all the work for actually finding a job. The worst part of this process are recruitment agencies or “The Devil” as I like to call them.

My first placement was at the brilliant Firebrand I really enjoyed my two weeks at this studio and its beautiful location near the sea really helped. I learned alot about the production of packaging especially of eggs and loved working with the great team. The ideas floating around the studio are what makes them great, the kind of ideas that make you think bugger I wish I thought of that. Thank you guys for an excellent two weeks and I hope I contributed to some of the great work.

My second and most recent exhibition for a job has been for a competition from another studio it was similar to a TV series called “The Apprentice” where the challengers fulfil a brief for their dream job with Sir Alan Sugar. This being a little different I win a contract of employment for a Junior Designer within the firm. I was a little hesitant at first I was unsure whether this was exploitive of what students would do for a job at the moment, but the brief was a challenge and I thought would I do this if it wasn’t a live brief and purely a competition so willingly and excitedly after this I went ahead.

I went into the studio to work just for one day to mock my idea from roughs right to prototyping it. It was another challenge but I was ready and incredibly set on reaching the seemingly impossible deadline. I managed it and got through to the final stage where someone else in a similar position will do the same and then it will be a decision for the job between us two. I really enjoyed my day in the office and felt I made myself proud with what I achieved.

I will post updates here of how its going and what I am up to. I have a couple of other opportunities that I am really excited about too. Hopefully my next post will be a job confirmed here is to hoping.

Last Days at University

Yesterday was the final presentation of the Archer and Vine project and it went really well and it was the end of one thing in my life and the start of something completely new and very exciting. I feel the most independent that I have ever felt.

Tomorrow as well as being the first weekend without work in around five months I have to say goodbye to 15 of the greatest friends I’ve ever made as they all go back to the University in Stuttgart.  It feels weird to be leaving but I know I have to start a new chapter in my life, since 15 everything in my life has been moving towards getting a job as a designer and I now I finally have the chance to achieve this. I am first attending the University of Bolton graduate show and then moving on to the D&AD’s new blood. I am really proud to have been chosen and gaining “in-book” for the student awards this year. Hopefully this is a massive step apart from the thousands of students applying for design positions in the UK and abroad.

When I am in a situation where I have no work to do and I can’t work my hardest its very disconcerting for me I have known for a long while that I am a workaholic and to suddenly finish a huge project is strange and I really want to start another.

Today the future has crept into my mind quite alot with such a lot of friends leaving and moving on back to their life back into Germany where do I go from here? Do I move back home and wait to find a job or do I take the first opportunity that is financially plausible? So the last thing to say to all the friends I leave behind in Bolton and that go back to Germany is thank you for the best two years of my life so far and I will post updates when I know where I am living and working.