Summer Internship

With this new found confidence in my abilities , I did something I have always wanted to do ...apply for a paid summer internship in Hong Kong. I stayed in HK for a couple weeks, a couple years ago and I absolutely fell in love with the city and I felt yep I would like to work here one day. I did a quick search and found a paid summer internship for a marketing & design intern, bingo! It is for Unison Creative a group of branding and marketing experts and graphic designers.

So I applied and got a response the next day...

Dear Vanessa:

Thank you for your interest in Unison Creative! We have received your application and will be in touch if there is a match in our internship openings. We will keep your application on file for six months.

Regards,

Unison Creative, HR department

Although the reply is from the HR department and the likelihood is I won't land the placement, this has been a huge turning point for me and I will carry on applying. I also applied for another internship at Base Creative in HK. 

Thoughts

My thoughts after receiving work experience 

It was a lot easier than expected, in fact it took 45 minutes. I think I just got really lucky. I have been very realistic with my expectations. Originally, I had dreams of doing placement in Amsterdam, New York, London and even Toronto, especially Toronto. However, financially I could not afford to do that with flights/accommodation/food etc etc and I really didn't want to ask family for the money. I also didn't want to do it in Leeds as I fancy a break away from the city.

It gave me the confidence boost I so needed, to believe in myself and my work and practice. Finding work experience has been something I have been really putting off, not because of the fear of rejection just I felt I wasn't good enough and had low self-confidence in my work. However in under 24 hours I put together a CV , a portfolio and got offered work experience! I generally feel over-the-moon. It might not be the hippest , on-trend, cutting edge studio but its within a marketing agency doing corporate design work which is the likelihood of my first design job and I am really looking forward to it. 

I spoke to a family friend who is an established Architect about work experience, he said when he first got a job, he was designing disabled toilets and now years later finally he is designing bespoke houses, bridges and whatnot. I am going to have to start somewhere, doing stereotypical work. Realistically, I am not going to walk straight out of college and into the halls of Conde Nast and work for Vogue magazine. I am going to have to work my way up by doing all-sorts of design jobs and placements. 

Work Experience

45 minutes after I sent three emails around 5pm, I have been offered work experience at Wave Media a marketing agency in Devon! it might just be a record. 

Hi Vanessa

Thank you for your email.

It’s your lucky day! We are very popular for work placements however we have an opening on the dates you are available.

Would you like me to book you in for the 22nd Feb – 4 March?

Regards

Dan Tofield

Head of Creative Services

After mulling things over for 24 hours, I decided to accept the offer. 

Hi Dan,

Thank you very much for your email. I would love to accept your offer! I will forward you with some documents next week, that you may need to fill out for my college. Look forward to hearing from you!  

All the best,

Vanessa 

CV and examples of my work.

During the day I put together a CV and some examples of my work. I simply wanted to put a range of work together, it might be too much but I always go with what I think is right.

d r a f t

I have drafted an email-cover-letter to send out to studios for work experience!

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am a third year Graphic Design student studying at Leeds College of Art. I am a concept-led designer with a focus on branding and editorial design. In the future, I would love to continue on to study a masters in Marketing.

Currently I am on the look out for two weeks work experience. I would really love the chance to do work experience at_____  because design innovation and marketing really interests me. If you are in a position to offer me work experience I am available between Mon 22nd Feb - Fri 4th March (but I am pretty flexible to work placement during March and April!). I can be available for interview at short notice and thank you for considering my application.

I have attached a PDF of my CV and some examples of my work.

Look forward to hearing from you!

Kind Regards,

Vanessa Cain

Career Guidance

This afternoon I had a career one-to-one chat with Ingrid about my thoughts after college as admittedly I am feeling lost about what I am going to do with myself. I know I want to go into marketing, eventually and study a masters abroad. I know I don't want to move back to Devon (maybe for a couple months to get my drivers license) Ingrid told me to look into graduate schemes and look at the prospects website and career planner. 

Look at marketing week magazine 
I am already on Linkedin, so join some marketing groups. 

Overall, Ingrid gave me the kick I needed. She also stressed the fact I need to focus on the next three years (make shorter goals) instead of what am I going to do with my life, as the likelihood is I am going to have multiple jobs and careers. She spurred me to be more active as I feel I have been drifting for the past two years and admittedly I am becoming bored of college and I am so eager to leave and enter the working world. 

Since my career talk... 

• I have joined the gym...again.
• Uploaded my profile to hopefully do some volunteering work in Leeds (be more selfless ha) doinggoodleeds.org.uk
• Currently sorting my CV and portfolio
• Brainstorming what I want to do with life 
• Look for work experience within marketing 

Evaluation of COP3

 Evaluation

Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed COP3 this year from the theoretical aspects to the final practical design elements to this module. My dissertation allowed me to explore disparity between male and female graphic designers, a really important topic I am interested in, however studying in a lot more depth thus expanding my knowledge. Unsettlingly, there is a female domination in graphic design education that appears to be reversed when it comes to industry, with Design Council stating that 40% of designers are women, in contrast to the 70% of female design students. As a female myself about to enter into industry, it is something that I very relevant, am passionate about and so important to discuss as it is a real life problem that exists. My dissertation (why is there disparity between male and female graphic designers?) had a major influence on the practical and they synthesis well.

This module has allowed me to develop a range of skills such as; research skills, critical analysis to more practical skills, such as printing and photography. The research element of the module has been the most valuable in terms of sourcing appropriate information, extracting key quotes and theories allowing for a successful piece of writtten and design work. These combined skills have led to a well-thought and thorough practical element being successfully synthesised.

By carrying out qualitiative primary research such as email  and skype interviews, it helped deepen my understanding on the subject at hand, from real people. I felt this was perhaps my most beneficial research as I really got a sense of what people opinions were on women in graphic design and why disparity exists, which really influenced and shaped my dissertation writing. 

For the practical outcome I created a theoretical concept for an exhibition at Munro House, Leeds to actively raise awareness of the profiles of women currently and within the history of Graphic Design. I named the exhibition, 'Think Design' as a play on words from pioneer Design Writer and Educator, Ellen Lupton who quoted, 'Think more, design less'. The idea behind 'Think Design' being obviously.. to think design but thinking less about gender and solely focus on the work and learn about the designers presented in exhibition. I used a contemporary, minimal design style, because I do not want to be gender-specific and I want to appeal to a young creative audience (16-25) of both men and women who are going to become the future of the creative industries and acknowledge and to be more aware of women in design. The exhibition idea reinforces my dissertation conclusion points by illustrating the importance equal balance, and about how both men and women need to be part of the conversation to close disparity in graphic design.


My time-managment throughout the module has been on point,  I managed to get a full  draft of my dissertation done before christmas, thus making sure I had plenty of time to work on my practical, blog and design boards. By creating long-term CoP plan at the beginning of september, and breaking it down into monthly, weekly and daily work goals and factoring in my tutorials I have kept on target with my work. I also booked print slots and photography slots way in advance keeping me cool-headed throughout the process and because of that I have enjoyed the process from start to finish. 

If I were to have more time on the project, I would have liked to extend it by actually running the exhibition however in the time I had, I practically could not have managed it  and would have been far to costly. 

Overall, I am pleased with my dissertation and practical work for COP, I have certainly learnt a lot over the module, which has led to a well-synthesised project.