Future Brand - London Visit

One of the visits i went to in London was to FutureBrand. Future Brand is a large globally ran design company. They have around 25 offices all over the world, this allows clients to get the best of their service, where ever they are.The list is endless of the names of well known companies they produce work for, Becks, Cadbury's, UPS, Barclay's and MasterCard are just to name a few.

On arrival at Futurebrand, we were greeted by Chris Jenkins and Karen Vance; they were very welcoming and took us upstairs into the studio. I was amazed at how big this company actually was, it was for sure the biggest design company i had ever visited. Chris and Karen talked us through some of the recent projects they had worked on, Chris mainly focused on the beer side of the work and Karen on the chocolate side. Chris talked us through some of his favorite work, he started off by showing us where he started and how he got to the final idea, which i found extremely helpful as when visiting design companies you very rarely get shown how they got to a final idea. He talked us through how he and the team designed a font for Becks Beer (see below)















.

Karen mainly focused on the chocolate side, she talked us through how she and the team got to the final ideas for the new Cadbury's Koko (see below)


















After Chris and Karen had showed us some of their work, they took us on a tour of the studio. They explained to us all the different departments they have in their office and who does what. This was really interesting as i have only really visited smaller companies and they seem to do everything them selves, whereas in a larger company you have designers to draw it out, then a different set of designers to convert it on to the macs and then a different set of designers to print it out!
Once we had finished the tour, we said our thank yous and goodbyes and left with a business card from Chris.

Method Uk, London - Portfolio Visits

Another portfolio visit i attended in London was to see Garry Martin, from Method Uk.
On arrival we were met by Garry himself and taken up to the studio. We sat down and showed him our portfolios and the work we produce. He was very impressed by our work and didn't have any negative feedback to give to us. He even mentioned that we could possibly have a placement if we were to ever come back to London, which was very good.
After showing our work he went on to show us the work that Method Uk produce, he took us around the studio and introduced us to Mike Lee, the head designer. He was also very pleasant and showed us some of the work he is currently producing for Topgear. Garry then went on to show us some of the printed design work they produce for lots of major companies, which was all really good and an experience to actually see the design work in the studio rather than in a shop!
Again overall it was a very positive experience, and i am glad i went to visit Garry at Method Uk, and I am happy he gave me positive feedback on my portfolio. They produce work for various different major companies, to check out there work go to there website on the following link: Method Uk.

Minx Creative, London - Portfolio Visit

Another portfolio visit me and Laura attended was once at Minx Creative based in London.
We were met by Two designers Jess and Charlotte, who i had previously arranged the visit with via email. We presented our portfolio's and explained the outcomes of our work. Both designers, were impressed with our level of design and use of programs etc. They took particular interest to some bags i produced for a Coal Mining Museum, in my first year of the degree.
They didn't give me any negative feedback, as i think they were mostly just being polite, however they were impressed at the knowledge of all the programs and skills we had, (i think in London they musn't get taught as much about the software as we seem to do). Which was nice to hear as i feel i am quite basic on some of the software we use. We spoke about the design industry and how they found it quite hard to get a job after graduating and stressed that we should just keep trying if its what your really want because it will all pay off in the end, like it did for them.
Overall it was a great experience, as i got to talk and show my work to two designers of the company and get there opinion of my work. We both got given and business card and told to keep in touch. To check out their work visit the following link: Minx Creative.

Lavish Creative, London - Portfolio Visit

Whilst on a trip to London, i previously arranged to visit a few design companies and show them my portfolio, to see their opinion on my work. A fellow student, Laura, also accompanied me to the visits and we both displayed our portfolio's.
I paid a visit to Lavish Creative, a design company based just near Piccadilly Circus.
On arrival we were met by Karl Gilbert, the creative director of the company; we were then also joined by Vicky Dudley, who i had previously arranged the visit with via email.

Both were very polite and seemed to be very pleased with our style of work. They didn't really have any negative feedback on my work, only positive, which is very good. We had a chat with them about our university course and the type of work we produce, they were impressed at the amount of programs we were able to use on our own. We talked about the design industry, what their company does and what we would like to do once finishing university.

Overall the visit was a success, and a great experience. Karl gave us a business card and told us both to keep in touch and wished us luck with the rest of our degree.

Lavish creative do work for a wide variety of companies, if you want to check out their work then visit the following link: Lavish Creative .

Prime Studio Inc, New York City.

Prime Studio Inc is a integrated Product + Brand design consultancy that i went to visit whilst i was in New York. Taken from there current website they describe themself as the following:

"Prime Studio is an integrated Product + Brand design consultancy which is dedicated to providing successful solutions for our clients. Our multi-disciplinary team is strategically aware, creatively driven and technically knowledgeable.

Flexibility is inherent in our approach, allowing us to create and evolve teams appropriate for each project and to provide creative solutions that form powerful connections with consumers.

We work hard to engage with our clients to ensure our designs are based on a strategic foundation, encompassing a thorough understanding of the business, the brand and the consumer.

Since our launch in 1998, Prime Studio has worked in a wide range of markets, believing that the diversity of application is crucial to maintaining freshness in our ideas. We have experience in Consumer products, Housewares, Tabletop, Personal care, Food & Beverage and numerous other areas.

In addition, we maintain a trained eye on the global marketplace, to help our clients define the future, rather than react to it."

They have won a number of awards for there work over the years.  Some of these awards include:

ID magazine annual review
Good design 1999 - Zelco Foodtool
Good design 2004 - Zelco LifeAid sport
International Housewares Award finalist 2005 - Polder dishrack
International Housewares Award finalist 2006 - Violight travel sanitizer
Pentawards Bronze 2008 - Axe Detailer packaging
International Housewares Award finalist 2009 - Fiesta Head Chefs
Pentawards Bronze 2009 - Sun Products detergent packaging.

Below is a few examples of there work that they were kind enough to show me:

Studio Lin, NYC. Portfolio Visit

Whilst in New York, attended another portfolio visit.
this once Michele had organised and i came along to it as she did with my previous one.
We went to visit Alex Lin, at his company called Studio Lin.
We had a bit of a nightmare on the way to the studio as we had ended up on 64th street instead of 4th street number 60!! so we had to jump in a taxi and travel 60 blocks to find the right road, luckily we had left enough time to spare in case this had happened. When we had finally found the right road and building, we started walking up the stairs, we were a bit confused as the stairs were very scruffy and there were posters up everywhere advertising dance lessons and we thought there may have been a dance studio somewhere on one of the floors.

We got to the top floor and noticed a sign next to the door saying Studio Lin. We realised that we were infact in the right place and knocked on the door. Alex answered and invited us in, when entering the room it was very small indeed with only Alex and another design working in there.
It looked almost like an arts and crafts room, with lots of stuff hanging from the ceiling and boxes full of bits an bobs.

He was really nice and welcoming and asked us what we had been doing in NY and if we were enjoying it so far, we explained we had only been here one day so far but had enjoyed it up to then. He also asked us what projects were working on in uni and how we generally tackle briefs and come up with our solutions. We explained how we start a brief and come to our final solutions and then went onto show our work.
Michele went 1st this time as she had organised the visit through emails. Alex was very pleased with her work and suggested a few tips to improve the standard of work. I then went on to show my work, Alex's comments were generally the same sort of comments that Erin had said earlier on in the day at my 1st visit; to maybe photograph my work, improve the quality before printing out and increase the sizes on certain images e.g my typeface twigs. Again i was very pleased with the feedback he gave me and was happy that he enjoyed my work and was happy to help me.

After showing our portfolio's, he took us around the room that he worked in and explained some of the current and existing projects he had been working on. I was surprised at some of the work, concidering when we 1st walked in it felt like a kids arts n crafts room.

I then left alex with one of my little booklets i made and we said our goodbyes and left.

Prime Studio Inc, NYC. Portfolio Visit.

After arriving in New York n the Monday, i had previously arranged to meet with the creative director of Prime Studio Inc. As new York is such a big place we decided to stay in pairs when walking around on our own and visiting company, so i paired up with Michele Mckee.
We had already wrote down the address and directions on how to get there before leaving England, so we left the hostel nice and early to give us extra time in case we got lost. With the building only being a few blocks away from our hostel we decided to walk as it would be quicker and easier than getting a taxi or using the subway. We found the building easily and told the man working on the reception who we were going to see and he then told us what floor we needed and what studio number. Being on the 11th floor this was unusual to us as we don't normally have tall offices and buildings this high in Stockport. We arrived on the floor and found the door leading to studio 1101.

We knocked on the door and Erin answered and invited us in. The studio was fairly large and spacious, unfortunately most of the staff were out on a meeting so there was only Erin and another designer in at the time of our visit. Erin offered us both a glass of water and we sat down at the table with our portfolio's. I showed my portfolio 1st and she had very positive comments towards it. She was impressed with the way my portfolio was laid out, she said over in New York a lot of people don't present there work in boxes and it was a nice changed for her to look at.
She was very helpful on tips in ways which to improve the presentation of my portfolio, she suggested to photograph certain pieces of work instead of using the live surface applications on photoshop. I agreed with this as this had been my main aim to do but i had ran out of time before my visit to New York. She also suggested that i changed the lay out of the page where i was showing my homemade typeface out of twigs, if i made the letters bigger, it would be more noticeable that they were made from actual twigs. The only negative comment she suggested was that some of my pages were pixelated, i agreed with this as i had noticed this after printing it out but had no time to re-do it before new york. I will taking every comment that Erin said into consideration and making those changes to my portfolio to improve the presentation towards it.

After i had shown mine, Michele then had her turn. Again she was very nice and made a few suggestions to improve the presetation towards it.

Once we had shown our portfolio's Erin went on to show what work the company had been doing recently and how they got to the final ideas. I was impressed with the work they had created it was very inspiring.

After we had talked for a while, we then said our goodbye's and left the studio. I had previously made some little booklets, showing some of my work and my contact details, i then gave one to erin for her to keep and we left.

I am really please that the visit went well and she liked my work and was very positive about it.

Portfolio Viewing - Flame Digital

Today (7/05/2009) i went to Manchester to visit Flame digital, a graphic design agency based in Manchester. I had previously arranged through emails to meet Jon at 4pm. When i arrived there i was surprised to find that Jon wasn't actually in the office due to a last minute meeting. But the receptionist kindly introduced me to another designer called Ian. He then offered to see me and look through my portfolio with me and give me some advice. This was very nice of him as he explained they had been very busy the last couple of weeks.

I took a seat on the sofa's as he just finished off some work. The studio was very like Music's, i even think they had the same bookcase! Again it was filled with lots of books and magazines all to do with graphics ect.

Ian then came over and we went through my portfolio. He was impressed with my work and said i was very creative. He suggest that i should experiment more with my portfolio and make it less traditional and more unusual. He said there was nothing wrong with the way it was now but would look better if it was more creative as my work was along the same style. I agree with his comment and will experiment more and see if i can improve it. He also liked my Identity breif for the coal mining museum and said that my bags i produced were a brilliant idea. I was happy with this as i really loved created and designing my bags.

Having another portfolio visit really made me feel better with my work and if i push myself i can create really good ideas. Ian said to keep in touch and he would like to see my portfolio again when i have re arraged it.

Again i was happy with how the viewing went, especially as Ian made the time to see me last minute as Jon had to rush off

I thanked Ian and then left.

Portfolio Viewing - Music

I went to visit Music yesterday (6/5/2009). I had previously arranged through emails to visit Anthony at 1pm. I gave myself enough time to get there early and some extra time in case i got lost. I found that i needed this extra time as a lot of the roads near by were closed due to roadworks and there were no diversions set up in place, this was annoying.

I eventually got there with 5Min's to spare. I buzzed into the building and up to the 2nd floor where Music is situated. Anthony greeted me and i took a seat on the leather sofa's while he saved his work. Whilst i was waiting i had a good look round from where i was sat. I really liked the layout of the studio, it was very modern and just the right size. There was a large bookcase full of interesting books to do with everything to do with graphics, i also noticed there was a 'Grafik' magazine on the table in front of me.

Anthony came back over and took a seat next to me.We went through my portfolio and i explained what was required from each brief and how i came to my final solutions. Anthony said he really liked my work which made me feel more confident about myself. He seemed to take a great interest in my typeface i created out of twigs, which i liked. He offered me a few tips on making my portfolio, he said to possibly make it a little larger as this would emphasize my work further, and also to leave a little bit more room next time when binding so the content isn't so close to the bind. I agree with both suggestions as i thought of them myself after making my portfolio.

He also asked me some questions and we talked about his lecture he gave to us just a few months before. He asked me what type of graphic design companies would i like to work for and i gave him the honest answer that i didn't know and that is why its important to go and visit lost of different types of company. He said that it is a wise idea and will help me with the process.
I then thanked Anthony for having the time to see me, and he asked me to keep in touch and recommended a few websites that i might be interested in.

Overall the viewing went really well and has made me think that i definitely do want to be in this career. I will be arranging to meet with a few more companies to help improve my confidence and boost my enthusiasm.