Placement Experience

My 2 week placement took place at George Home in Leeds at Asda's head office. I secured this placement through meeting the design manager at a Career Track Tuesday event at university entitled 'recruiting creative graduates' in which Clare stressed the importance of showing your unique 'handwriting through your portfolio.

I was unsure of what I would be working on and was up for any challenge given. I knew they would be working on homeware designs and this initially was an option I saw for myself. I enjoy bringing colour and positivity through design to People, so doing this through homeware made sense. I also enjoy shopping/always worked in retail and I notice trends and enjoy seeing new ones emerge to inform my practice.

They were so welcoming when I got there and informed me they had created 5 moodboard packs and colour palettes for next spring/summer 2019. They presented these packs to me and went through the styles expressed through the mood boards.

Every other day I would be briefed by a colleague to try and design either mugs, cushions, signs, patterns and have a go illustrating key trend characters as they enjoyed the illustrative element within my portfolio!

Positive feedback I got throughout was that I was a fast worker, my ideas were bang on the trend presented to me and that my illustration was what they wanted.

These were really positive comments and boosted my confidence, as well as the fact there were no qualms with my work. I would have enjoyed more constructive criticism to improve my skills but the workplace was very calm relaxed and everyone was really lovely.

Throughout this placement I realised retail design could be a route for me to pursue at the beginning of my career, but overall I would like to work on bolder design ideas as these are all very mainstream/family friendly. I still had a great time designing for their trends and the colour palettes inspired me to definetly work this colour palettes/pantones more.

This has encouraged me to keep applying for juniour/graduate positions that come up on Linkedin as I am confident I bring professionalism and focus to the job which I am known for in my retail jobs on the side of education.

I am looking to greetings cards companies due to their fun illustrative/graphic design element and I really took control with copyrighting and coming up with slogans for each trend at George Home trying to come up with brand new ones.

Also, clothing/beauty brands where I can bring my feminine design quality. Ultimately in the future it would be amazing to have my own shared studio (I enjoy working with others) when  my work gets known and commissioned as I feel my own style will grow and grow.

Seeing freelancers being commissioned at the placement was inspiring, however I enjoy working with others too much to work alone as I enjoy sharing ideas and enthusiasm and sharing skills.

The work I have done will be reviewed at meetings and if any of it is chosen I will be commissioned which I am really excited about! All over a brilliant first placement and it has eased me in gently to a design studio environment.

From this placement experience I will...
-Continue to apply for jobs with confidence
-Update my work experience on accounts such as Linkedin
-Keep in touch for possible future opportunities to work with them again
-Get in touch with other companies such as UK Greetings about internships or another placement possibly
-Have more confidence in copyrighting and illustration
-Get a pantone book to really think about colour pallettes
- I want to be part of design ideas and copyrighting process not as an artworker editing others designs etc