Mick Greer vs Mike Rigby

Over the course of the last 3 years of studying design we have had numerous practitioners visit college to speak about life in the industry, life after graduation, their work and their own experiences. This year we have seen practitioners who differ from each other with the advice they give and the experience they have. However, no matter how they all differ each one offered crucial advice to help us prepare for life after graduation.

Deciding on which two practitioners to compare and contrast was not an easy task so I decided to focus on the ones that stood out to me the most and from which I took away the most. The two practitioners I have decided to analyse are; Mike Rigby from agency True North and Mick Greer a freelance copywriter. Both of these designers offered crucial advice on the industry and how to get a job after graduation.

Mike graduated from Preston university in 2002 and since then has had numerous placements and jobs at well known agencies such as; Pentagram, The Chase and Mark studio before landing a job at True North in Manchester. Mike spoke about the positives and negatives of getting a job in the industry with the good overriding the bad. Mike also spoke about placements and how they are an essential requirement to help students get a job. The best way to get a placement is to have a strong portfolio with current well-executed work. Mike expressed how important it is to take professional pride in everything we do, even If it’s just a mock up it should be done to the best ability we can. To get the most out of placements we should make sure we get involved by asking questions and making a brew, but also we should have enthusiasm, commitment and be well organised. We shouldn’t worry if agencies reject us and rejection is all part of design and it doesn’t mean we aren’t good enough.

Mick Greer studied Graphic Design at Blackburn but learnt from this that he wasn't very good at it so instead opted for advertising. Working at high profile agencies such as The chase, Love and Mcann Ericksson he also travels up and down the country to Leeds, Scotland and London. Mick spoke primarily about getting a job after graduation and expressed his views on a the subject that all 3rd year students are worrying about ''too many graduates not enough jobs''. Mick felt that now is the time that we need to up our game if we even stand a chance of beating all the other thousand students that will be graduating in July. The competition isn't just the people in our class and it's important for us to take in account all the people that graduated the year before us and who are still looking for a job, as well as the people who were affected by the recession and made redundant who are still looking for a job in design. Mike also spoke about how students feel not up to scratch and not the 'finished article' when leaving university and looking for a job. This was something I had covered in my issues and practices essay. Mick disagreed and felt that none of us will become a 'finished article' until at least 5/10 years down the line. He felt that designers look for creativity and intelligence over anything else. Even over a good portfolio.

I can compare Mike Rigby and Mick Greer's lecture in great detail the environment in which we had the practitioners come in to talk to us was the same. Taking place in the classroom which was more relaxed and easier to interact and ask questions as well as receiving worthwhile advice. They both spoke of placements with Mick stating that we have to be 'prepared and motivated to get a job' and Mike stating that 'organisation, commitment and enthusiasm' would get us further than everyone else. These are both key issues that I think determine whether we will succeed or not, basically it's down to us.

In contrast to Mick Greer's lecture Mike spoke about life outside of design. Mike feels it's important to take a break and got out of the design world and opted instead to go travelling for a few months stating that it was the best experience and everyone should get out there once in a while. This is a question which has always been in the back of my mind as I too would like to get out there and see the world. It also threw Mike offers of jobs in Australia and this too would be something I would quite like to do. Also unlike Mick's lecture Mike showed us some work that he had produced whilst working for True North. I always find it interesting seeing the work of designers, however we did not see any of Mick's work which was slightly disappointing as I feel a passion for copywriting after working on the Bacardi brief with Grace.

Overall I enjoyed both lectures, both gave me valuable feedback key to me graduating in July. Although I haven't been on any placements yet it's not to say I haven't been in touch with agencies however, I will take Mick's advice and contact other agencies and on a regular basis. It's with the advice from tutors and advice from people in the industry which will help me and push me further in the industry, as we are coming to the end I can't help but be thankful for the advice we have received over the last 3 years.

Mike Rigby

On the 26th November Mike Rigby from design agency True North came into college to give us a few words of wisdom about his life as a graphic designer and priceless advice that has helped him on his way. Mike graduated in 2002 from Preston and since then has worked at Chase Manchester, Mark Studio, Pentagram in London as well as travelling and ending up in Australia working Landor and Moon design.

Mike describe how design is a great job, with no 2 jobs ever the same, he like's it because it's interesting and challenging and being able to meet with different people and collaborate is definitely a positive. Other positives that Mike highlighted involved being part of a strong design community, being able to go to design ceremonies and being able to work for yourself whenever you want. However with positives come negatives and Mike spoke about how competitive the industry is focusing on key points such as long hours, lots of pressure due to working hard and long deadlines, client interference and lost pitches. He also spoke of the anguish at not being able to get a job.

Work with True North, Royal Mail Yearbook:

  

Mike felt that placements are an essential requirement to help getting a job after graduation. As well as getting to work on live briefs in a real design environment you are forced to work at the same pace as everyone else therefore this speeds up the pace you work on. To get the most out of a placement it's important to take professional pride in everything you do even if it's simply just a mock up. Always socialise and ask questions, be enthusiastic as well as making a brew are all fundamental parts towards succeeding whilst on placement. Mike also thought it was important to remember that if you don't get a placement or you don't get offered a job from a placement to not worry. Rejection is part of design and it doesn't mean your not good enough.

Mike also spoke about the importance of taking a break and said that the best thing he ever did was to just quit and travel the world. He showed us some AMAZING pictures of his travels and although I would like to make it in the industry the thought of going travelling for a while is very appealing to me as I feel I have been in education for ever now! Whilst travelling Mike also landed a job abroad and he couldn't express any more how much of a great experience this was, you meet great people and it's a fantastic lifestyle.

True North work, expecting a baby:

  

Mike's 'final rambling's' were for us to ask ourselves why are we doing design? are we commited enough? He felt that it's important for us to ask ourselves now who we want to work for rather than deciding later. We should ignore the doom and gloom and believe in our own ability.

He ended the talk on this quote... ' If I could live at any point in human civilisation I'd still choose now'

I really enjoyed Mike Rigby's talk it was very insightful and gave me a lot to think about.

Mike carter

On the 5th of November Mike carter from Orchard creative recruitment came into college to talk to us regarding how to get a job, CV's and how to prepare a portfolio. With an average of 456,000 graduates each year there is a lot of competition when looking for a job in design.

Mike felt that it's a good idea to get a head start on making contacts within the industry and preparing CV's and keeping an updated portfolio would be what gets us ahead of other graduates. This advice was particularly helpful.

Mike gave us constructive advice on jobs and how agencies will look for enthusiasm, commitment and organization over anything. He touched on how to compose a good CV making sure that we communicate what we want to say in 3 seconds stating who we are, what we want and why we want it. He spoke about portfolio's and how we should make them relevant to what job we are going for, whether it be for packaging or advertising.

On the whole Mike's lecture was very insightful and extremely helpful.

Fake id

Fake Id was founded in 1999 and is an independant graphic design practice that develops projects for exhibitions, performances and workshops etc. Currently in it's tenth year they have produced a range of work such as books and magazines and commisioned different work for clients such as Emigre, Nike, Sony and Urban outfitters.

We were lucky enough to have Yvan Martinez and Joshua Trees who make up Fake Id to come into college and do a workshop with us 2nd year students. The project involved us making sound and dialogue from our imagination and thoughts on an image. I found this a really fun process and it was something we have never done before. As graphic design is changing each day and becoming vastly popular it is becoming more apparent to us that it's not about just sitting down and drawing pretty pictures or making posters or books. Graphic design now covers such a huge area that it was fun to try something new.

When Yvan and Joshua came into college the workshop that they gave us was based on "the voice over''. We were divided into pairs and given an image to work with. We had to use our imaginations to describe what was happening in the image without describing anything we could see. Challenging I know.  The brief was really interesting and something we hadn't done before, it challenged us to open our imaginations and work outside of what we know nomally. I really enjoyed it.Myself and Kat were given an image of a countryside with a sign placed in it saying 'hell is real'. Thinking of an idea was hard at first but we decided in the end to script a 2 minute voice over of a helicopter news report covering a crash on the country road. This is how it went :

"Thanks everyone there in the studio

From what I can see from up here there is what seems to be a rather large shipping lorry that has overturned and is now in the middle of the road and this seems to be the main course of the hold up on the A623…

We have just heard from witnesses on the ground that have said that a Nissan car was weaving in and out of traffic, causing cars and the lorry to steer out of the way …and from what I can see the chaos created is ...there is just wreckage and an outstanding quantityof cars either overturned or mounted on top of each other, prayers with the families of those involved with the collision..

Reports are coming in that the lorry itself was travelling at great speed which caused it to overturn that caused the consequences of the crash, the crash itself has caused major delays and a back log of cars for what I can see from here…stretches miles back

As this is the main Highway leading into the next state there have been reports that several of the cars in the backlog havelooked for their own diversions, possibly in order to get away from the hold up, but please if you are listening to this report then we advise you to stay in your vehicles and STAY WHERE YOU ARE. If you know of friends and family that may be involved in the crash then ring 0800 900 300 and we will give you news as it comes to us

Emergency services are on their way to remove the lorry and let the traffic continue by.

Breaking news! We are hearing of people running away from what looks like a tank exploding in the middle of the chaos area, we do not know how this started we ….we remind you if you are not involved in the main crash site to stay where you are, do NOT take diversions just yet we do not know whether you will be safe

This really Is a quite horrific crash and we will keep you updated with the news as it comes, back to you in the studio…"

Dan Ingham and Ste Owen

In November we recieved a talk by Ste Owen and Dan Ingham who both graduated from Stockport College in 2007.They have done placements at Thoughtful and The Chase and now have steady jobs at very contrasting agencies; with Ste working at McCann Erickson and Dan at the more independent Mark Studio.They came into Uni to talk to the 2nd and 3rd year students about their achievements and what we should expect once we leave University.

Dan and Ste emphasised that whilst we are students we should make the most out of all oportunities that are given to us as well as making use of the college facilities and use what we have to the max. We are lucky at college to have a photography studio and a screen printing room whereas at a design agency all you would really have is a mac and a printer. I think it is some of these facilities that we regularly take for granted. They both expressed how important it is that we go to college everyday as we get to interact with other people rather than sitting working from home. One thing about working in the industry is that by interacting with each other it allows ideas to bounce off one another. They also told us that by the time we leave we will be fighting off competition from 15,000 and more other graduates who want the same jobs as we do, so now is the time to get noticed. They felt we should be contacting agencies, entering competitions and attending events.

The advice they gave was really helpful and it was nice to see that not one but two people who have been through the same experiences we have so far have managed to get so far in their career. It just goes to show that if they can do it then so can we!

Craig Oldham

'Warning... this lecture is blunt, honest, contains foul language, opinionated and spoken in a Yorkshire accent'

Yesterday Craig Oldham from design agency Music came into college to talk to us about what we should expect when we leave university and what the industry is like. This was constructed in the style of 12 points; 12 points which has recieved lots of awards for Craig as he compiled together a booklet of things to be expected in the first year of being a designer. ' 12 lessons in 12 months'

 These lessons are:

1. Understand what Graphic design is to you. Define creativity, and what you value as good design, then you will know what it takes to achieve it.

2. Be honest with yourself about your strengths and your weaknesses. Know what you are best at. We shouldn't be embarrased about telling people what we are bad at.

3. A portfolio is for life, not just for an interview. The portfolio is never finished, treat it like and ongoing project and update it every time you do something.

4. Placements matter, so do them: get stuck in and give them a go -  within this Craig stated why we should do placements and why we shouldnt :

Why we should 

* New expectations

* Real work

* Become much better

* Meet interesting people

* Put you ahead of competition

* Improve your tea making! Craig states ' whether you like it or not.. brew up'

* Make you more confident

You shouldn't

* Make a loss money wise

* Away for a period of time, most of the time alone

* Taken advantage of

However the good still outways the bad! Craig thinks it's better when looking for a placement to have a hitlist of favourite agencies and to research everything before you go. When your there you should be punctual, be yourself and remember that a little enthusiasm goes along way.

5. The design industry is small, everybody knows each other.

6. Two heads are better than one so participate with people and share your ideas. We have to learn to take criticism as well as praise.

7. Graphic design is just a job but being a designer is different

8. If you don't fail then you aren't trying. Make mistakes. It is the only reason you will learn.

9. Life and work exist out of London

10. Designing is about 20% of your job, the rest of your time is spent away doing this, meeting with clients and answering questions

11. Have a life outside of design, let your life inspire your design

12. Work hard and be nice to people

I really found Craig's lecture really interesting and helpful as well as lighthearted and opinionated. It was one of the best lectures I have attended so far. We all know the design industry is slightly scary when you leave University and head out into the big wide world but with advice like this it makes things seem not so daunting.

Truth vs. Craig Oldham

'' Compare and Contrast the processes and practices of your two chosen practitioners, upon this analysis what lessons could be applied to your own practice''

Throughout the past 6 months a number of practitioners have been kind enough to give up their time to come along to college and talk about their work and the design industry. We have seen many designers such as; Fudge, Thoughtful, Glorious and Grant Gilbert, to name a few. Also, we have seen the diverse way in which they approach briefs and present their work yet all given the same advice on approaching agencies for work placements and producing portfolios.

For my design practitioner comparison I have decided to talk about Truth and Craig Oldham. Both of these lectures were completely different in what was being presented to us. From Truth we saw a lot of their work while with Craig we recieved lots of advice but also got to see a little work.

One lecture that stood out to me the most was the agency Truth, a 2 and a half year old agency based in Manchester. Truth's members who visited college consisted of Darren Scott who is the main designer and Jane Kaye who is an administrator. After Darren left University he spent a lot of his time knocking on agencies doors and asking for placements. He ended up working at the advertising agency McCann Erickson.

 The lecture was mainly about Darren and his early works to recent projects created at Truth. Typography is Darrens primary interest and this was evident by the wide variety of typefaces he had produced, such as; Amplifier, Sodium and Berliner. Darren showed how his typefaces are incorporated into his designs and states that ' I like to create typefaces and then disown them to see how other people use them'

  

(Truth's typeface design Berliner used in Fuse magazine - showed in situe)

The lecture was very long, probably one of the longest we have ever attended but I really enjoyed it.

Another practitioner who I felt gave a useful lecture was Craig Oldham's from design agency Music. Craig has been working as a designer for 3 years and has recently just left The chase to work for Music. This particular lecture was very different, similar to Dan Ingham and Ste Owen Craig is a young designer who's understanding of being and student and leaving University to go into the design industry is still fairly fresh in his mind. This meant that he could relate to us slightly more than Darren as Craig's experiences will of been slightly the same as ours.

Craig delivered an extremely useful lecture on what we should expect when we leave university and what the industry is like. This was given in the style of 12 lessons, in which Craig has put together and made a booklet of the 12 lessons entitled '12 lessons in 12 months' I felt the information we recieved from craig gave us a really good insight into the industry and the information was vital for when I graduate from University.  Some of Craig's lessons included; what to expect from a placement, be honest with yourself your strengths and weaknesses, portfolios are for life and how you learn from your mistakes to name but a few.

I really found Craig's lecture really interesting and helpful as well as lighthearted and opinionated. It was one of the best lectures I have attended so far. We all know the design industry is slightly scary when you leave University and head out into the big wide world but with advice like this it makes things seem not so daunting.

In comparison Truth's lecture and Craig Oldham's couldn't of been more further apart in regards to what was being presented to us. However I though this was a good point as we gained a variety of advice and reassurance as well as seeing design work. Both lecturers stated that 'competition is fierce as everyone is fighting for the same thing' and 'sometimes the most challenging thing is being taken out of your comfort zone'  they felt that sometimes we have to be prepared to do things that we don't like and maybe we might actually quite enjoy it. This is one thing I tend to avoid in my own practice, I tend to stick to what I know rather than try other ways of working or challenging myself.  Another piece of advice that I took away from both lectures is that we should participate and work with other people, other students in College as this allows us to share ideas and bounce ideas from one another. I found this piece of advice helpful. In College when we worked on the Identity briefs as part of a group project I found it very useful working with others and pulling our ideas together and refining them as a group, although it was stressful working as a team it was helpful.

Overall both designers like all designers have different ways of working and producing work ad have very distinctive styles. However they are both very talented and it was extremely helpful having them come into college to talk to us. With regards to Craig Oldham's lecture and the portfolio this is helpful as at the moment we are producing our own folio's so it is good to get some advice on what we should put in it and what designers would be looking for.

These have been my two favourite lectures of the year and I think a good reference point to refer to.

www.truth-design.co.uk

www.craigoldham.co.uk

Glorious Creative

As James had informed us that we would be having a guest lecture by Glourious creative coming into college soon i thought i would read up on them and have a look at their work online.

Glorious creative is a design agency based in Manchester. They have been named as 1 of the top 5 of the North England design consultancy of the year and describe themselves as '' We are identity specialists who are renowned for creative thinking and craft skills and we enjoy the challenge of problem solving''

I quite liked the work they had produced, imparticularly their project called 'Pay and display ticket' The brief for this project was set by Liverpool and Manchester design initative who decided to hold an exhibition at a NCP car park. The solution to this brief was to generate awareness through word of mouth and Glorious did this by using the location as a direction. Therefore they produced invitations which were created in the style of a parking ticket. I think this is a really clever and effective idea.

I also liked there identity work that they produced for the Rose design awards. Every year before the awards Liverpool and Manchester design iniative hosts a design symposium which is used to create debates about current issues. Glourious have designed the material for this for the past 5 years and created different posters to appeal to the target audience. My favourite is the 'Love or Money' poster as i really like the loose feel of the typography.