Music - Anthony Smith Lecture

After studying at HND level at Bolton university, Anthony Smith graduated in 1989. He then went on to work for a design agency called Tucker Clarke Williams for the next 5years. After deciding it was time to leave he went on t work as a freelance designer down in London for a few years. He now currently works up here in Manchester for a design agency called Music.

To start of his talk, Anthony talked about how he got his first ever placement, he expressed that it was fairly hard to get placements and especially hard to get full time work. He eventually after about a year got a full time permanent job. He explained that throughout this period he kept his portfolio up to date with recent work and new layouts and this got him his first job. He went on then to talk about portfolios and how important it is to keep them updated and the layout nice an simple. He said during a portfolio interview to explain the brief fully and explain how you answered the brief clearly and simple, this then avoids confusion with what the brief is about. He also said that even if you don't like a piece of work so much to still stay positive and talk about it like you are interested.

The second part of Antony's talk was about how he and Dave Simpson, a designer working for Love Creative at the time; set up the Design Agency Music. He talked about how he had to think quite hard about weather to start up the company or not, but was pleased that he did in the end. They first started off working in Dave's flat but then it got a bit too small and they found an office to work in. While it was being refurbished they carried on working in the flat and then finally moved out once everything was sorted. He also included how they built up their client list, which all of us listening were secretly wondering. He said most of his clients he had previously got to know from his placements and working with other companies. A lot of his recently clients have come from the awards they have received and word of mouth because of these.

I am really pleased that Anthony came in and told us about his experience as it answered a lot of questions i was too shy to ask and made me realise more about life outside of university.

I have since emailed Anthony and arranged for a portfolio viewing soon.