Employability Week, Chris and Eve (Robot Food) - OUGD602

This was my most anticipated talk of the week. Robot Food are a packaging agency based in Leeds and both Chris and Eve are graduates from our course. Their packaging can be seen displayed in most stores around the UK working with huge brands all over. I heard of them initially through a friend on the course and have followed them ever since.

Packaging has always been something that interest me but I had never looked into it. As a creative I've never really found one aspect of design I would love to stick out and go into as a career. I have felt over the past year that packaging could really be that something and Robot Food are one of the main inspirations for this.

I asked both speakers are they able to carry on with self driven projects outside of work. They explained that they quite often take on their own projects as the times they work to in their job are feasible and leave them time to socialise as well as start their own projects.

Chris explained he started his career in Preston (My home town) but it wasn't that great and eventually came to work for Robot Food. I did question him on why Preston "wasn't that great" but he meant that there wasn't much to do which I agreed with. He lived in Lancaster most of his life before uni and work, knowing someone who has started out from a similar background and worked his way up in the industry was a real inspiration and confidence boost.

Employability Week, Rose (OOMK) - OUGD602

Rose was a different speaker to any we have had in all three years. Not for the practice she was in but because of her age, she was younger than most professionals we have had the chance to meet. This was great, a lot of her projects seemed self driven and personal showing that we can all do what we enjoy, you just have to find out to fund it and get it out there. 

We were able to make a zine with Rose using work from the whole class. Although this was not the most difficult brief or maybe for some more digital students the most stimulating it was a great look into working in a team. As nearly all of the third year students were in it could have proved to be quite a difficult task getting everyone's work in in such a short time but instead it seemed to flow together even if time over ran slightly with the photocopying. 

Below is my piece, I took some inspiration from Dines the day before but also tried to fit the design to my chosen word, Juxtaposition. 

Employability Week, Dine (Studio Blup) - OUGD602

Dines from Studio Blup was a great start to the Employability Week. He was a highly energetic, passionate and inspirational person. The talk given gave fuel to most students in the studio knowing that he was able to start up a studio on his own from his bedroom. This is similar to how a lot of people work at the moment so it means that it is possible to do as long as you push yourself. He told us how he nearly lost out on a brief to Adidas and thus losing over £2000 because of such a little issue as using the wrong colour envelopes. This was stated in the small print of the brief that he as many of us as young creatives skipped over. A valuable lesson for all of us as we move into the future.

Later in the day we were able to pitch an idea to Dines and see gain some valuable feedback on how to push this idea. Knowing how to get something out into this busy world of design is a very valuable asset. Nowadays social media almost rules over all of us so this was a main advertising feature throughout the pitches. Dines was very happy to stay around and have a chat and even help a few individuals showing that even when you've made it in the world of design and own your own company you can still be humble and help out aspiring creatives in the same field. 

Contacting Professionals - OUGD602

Above are some of the agencies I have been looking into over the past few years. I believe my style and skills would fit into these companies or could help to bring a new insight into them. Many of the agencies are up north. This isn't just by preference but because I enjoy the works presented by each of the companies. Most deal within branding, advertising and some within packaging. I enjoy to work in a diverse environment to show off all my potential and to be able to learn new skills or improve my current set. Working for agencies such as the ones above would give me the opportunity to do all of that.

I did not want to be generic in my emails to the companies and instead wanted to be able to start up some sort of conversation with them. I managed to find contacts through LinkedIn and through a method taught to us by Alec Dudson showing how to search for email addresses within agencies. As I said earlier I have been looking into some of these agencies for a while so I could find some addresses through their websites.

I sent out the emails through my new personal email address, linked to my website and added an email footer to give a more professional look to my emails.

Here are some examples of emails sent out: