Work Experience

During the summer I did a week work experience with a graphic designer, Ian Ladley, who owns the company Graphic Attic which is based in Harrogate. Over the week I worked on advertisements and logo design. I was given guidance and instruction as to what it was the client was looking for - as Ian new the clients much better than I could, but I had creative control over the design.

The experience gave me an invaluable insight - graphic design in the context of earning money is often about doing something simple, quickly. It may have to be design that is not to your taste - it has to be to the clients taste and if they are happy it is them that pay. A graphic design career will always be a constant struggle between having to please the client and earning money, and wanting to be creative and love what you are doing.

I was as creative as I could be with the projects I was given and I had to speed up my designing. I learned a few extra techniques in Indesign, as well as learning Quark for the first time. Also had good experience working under pressure and meeting deadlines because it was a very busy week, which I rather enjoyed.

The work I produced was definitely not highly imaginative, but it was good experience with creating appropriate design and layout quickly.