Professional Development III//Placement at Glad Creative (Pt. II)

My weekly diary from my second week spent at Glad Creative, up in Gateshead, from 29 Oct- 2 November, accounting the work undertaken and experience of my time in the studio, as well as selected examples of work executed during the week.

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MONDAY

Development of dot-to-dot Christmas cards, submission to V&A

TUESDAY

Development of illustrative technical diagrams for the 'Invasive Weed' company.

WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY/FRIDAY

Editorial design and concept development for the 2013 Scottish Chamber Orchestra programme publications (Edinburgh & Glasgow, Jan-May 2013)

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GLAD DIARY

MONDAY 29 OCTOBER 2012

After arriving in Newcastle yesterday afternoon, checking into the hotel and having a visit to The Baltic (which the last placement I was at in Newcastle, ‘Founded’, designed the brand identity for- including bespoke typeface, point of sale, wayfinding, signage, etc.) and the city center, I was ready to start again at Glad for my placement week this morning.

Again, feeling a little nervous about heading back (something that I don’t think will ever leave me!), I was relieved to settle back in pretty easily and start the studio routine back again, which felt great to feel so welcome and “natural” in the studio environment.

Sadly, for me, Sam is taking the week off this week as annual leave (purely because I felt we got on so well before, and his feedback was always so constructive and useful), however, it’ll give me a little more opportunity to get to know and work alongside Dave and Ant (the latter of whom I didn’t get much opportunity to work with before), which will be fantastic.

Today I largely working on developing some more dot-to-dot designs for the proposed Glad Christmas card range, which I had been working on during my last time at the studio, as well as helping to organise some of the Glad Rag t-shirt and baby grow designs that had been printed and sent through this afternoon, ready for a photo shoot tomorrow, which is sure to be exciting as the designs go live and ready for sale to the public.

TUESDAY 30 OCTOBER 2012

Today, as now expected (of course!), was another great day in the studio, which went by all too soon.

The day started off on a really happy and playful note with Creative Director, Dave’s wife, Heather, coming in to the studio along with their four lovely children (all around five to one years old), for Charlotte (the youngest at sixteen months) to come and pose for some photographs for the Glad Rags ‘Kern, Baby, Kern’ baby grow/onesie, which, fortunately, was a perfect fit. Along with the kids, three models, Sarah, Rich and Jen (Ant’s partner) all came in to model the adult size t-shirts, and produced some fantastic images which will hopefully be added to the Glad site when it’s re-launched and live on Friday, along with the Glad Store (which I’m sure to be promoting, no end).

In the late afternoon and morning I was working on publications for the new year for the Glasgow and Edinburgh concert hall programme prints for The Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Although I was, essentially, at this point, working on maneuvering the existing type and layout, and adding new copy, it was great to be able to try out something new and a little different (particularly in reflection of the past placement work I’ve executed), and will certainly help me as I go on and try to develop my design work within my Design Practice III module and ongoing University projects.

A fun day, and looking forward to hopefully gaining some feedback from the work so far tomorrow and developing the publications further.

WEDNESDAY 31 OCTOBER 2012

Another great day in the studio- this week is going so quickly, already I’m wishing that I could stay longer.

Today I managed to get quite a lot of work done, and quite a variation too, which was fun, and again pushed my existing design knowledge and experience a little out of my comfort zone which was really exciting.

Firstly, I developed a vector-based line drawing for the Invasive Weed company, which was quite industrial and formal (though, of course, with a playful twist that Glad are now known for), so was, of course, quite different to my usual style of work.

I then went on to do some simple editorial work for the HAS Interior company through Photoshop, and finished the day returning to work on the conceptual and visual development of the publication for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, with the proposed tagline of ‘The Key to a Happy New Year’ (see what I did there), which should be exciting to carry on with tomorrow and hopefully develop a range of proposed outcomes for feedback from both Ant and Dave.

More than anything, spending time at Glad makes hope that when I graduate I can find a studio just like them to employ me. My time spent with them so far has been so fantastic, and has completely changed my outlook on my personal and professional design practice. I can’t wait to become a real part of it someday soon.

THURSDAY 1 NOVEMBER 2012

Today I started work on developing the New Year publication for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra further, a long standing, and high-profile client of the studio, so, naturally, I was really excited to start developing some concepts and design outcomes for this live brief.

Essentially, the publication is for the events and evenings as hosted in Edinburgh and Glasgow by the orchestra, but, true to Glad form, there’s always something conceptual and clever about everything they produce, no matter what the digital/printed outcome, whether it be ‘Get closer to the music’, or ‘Resolutions’, the latter of which was the theme for their last year publication. So, throughout today and this evening I’ll get working on developing a strong concept to hopefully have a finalized cover and DPS for presenting to the client ready for tomorrow.

Busy day!

FRIDAY 2 NOVEMBER 2012

Another week over at Glad, and, again, all much too quickly for my liking! Again, I had another great last day filled with 90’s dance music (the Friday afternoon tradition, which, if I ever set up a design studio of my own, I must carry the torch for…), and a lunch at a bar called ‘Eye of the Tyne’ where I had another feedback review with Dave and Ant and got to chat a little bit about the studio, and what I hope to get out of my time spent there for another week, and my plans for the rest of the year and upon graduating.

Perhaps more importantly (a little less so for my stomach, however…), I carried on developing the editorial and publication work for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra today, which was great to be able to push my ideas and concept for ‘Take Note: Advice from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’ (crammed with music-related puns such as ‘Look sharp’, ‘Keep in time’, etc) further, and from the feedback, Dave said he liked how my ideas had developed, which, of course, I was really pleased about.

From my time at Glad, overall, I would say that the thing I’ve learnt the most is how to apply concepts to visual outcomes, and conceptual, and simple, yet effective branding is something I really want to push further in both my personal and professional design practice, and I’m really looking forward to executing this in my University projects throughout the next year.

With a pack of Glad-made Christmas cards and one of their typographic t-shirts, and not to mention a whole wealth of experience, I left again, and can safely say, once more, it was one of the best working weeks of my life.

PPD III//Placement at Glad.

weareglad.com

I'm delighted that today I've booked my accommodation in Newcastle from 28 October- 2nd November to pay another visit to Glad Creative in Gateshead, and work on a placement for the week.

I had a great time with them at the start of the summer, and I hope that returning will really help to build bridges with them, and potentially have long-term contact and a working relationship. Can't wait to get started on some more of their fantastic briefs- plus, staying up in the city on my own will give me a great opportunity to work on some of my dissertation in the evening... no excuses now!

Summer 2012//Industry Placement//Glad Creative Diary.

www.weareglad.com

Image above: Gladys the Glad Creative pigeon, swooping on by in the studio (well...ish).

Written below is my week-long diary entry from last week, and the time I spent at the design studio, Glad Creative in Gateshead on an industry placement, documenting the work I carried out and my thoughts at the time of the placement, both to act as a personal documentation as well as reference in regards to putting together my 7-10 minute presentation to deliver as I return to Uni in September to the rest of my year group and tutors.

MONDAY 16^TH JULY 2012

Having completed my first day at Glad, my week- long design placement at Gateshead, more than anything, I feel very relieved. But, fortunately, not for relief for completing the day itself, but that, in my opinion, it went so well.

Arriving here on Saturday and living with my friend and BAGD student, Steph, of whom is also having a week-long placement in Newcastle, at her Dad’s house, we’d had a good opportunity to talk about what we were hoping to get out of the week, as well as providing one another with moral support. But along with this comes the fact that Steph and I are both self-diagnosed “fretters” and worry about the slightest things. So, naturally, this caused us both to worry about this morning… must of all over what to wear, of course.

Arriving at the studio at 9am (a minute or two before Dave, the Creative Director turned up!) I was shown on a quick tour of the building as I was lead to the studio space- literally just a solitary room in the Nothern Design Centre. Although modern, contemporary and a productive work space, it was a little different from what I was initially expecting, particularly on discovering that just three full-time staff worked there- Dave, Sam, and Andy… and both myself and Ben (a recent graduate from Northumberland) would be joining them for the week, or two in Ben’s case.

Immediately we started work, with both Ben and I presenting our portfolios, and, to my relief, the design team seemed quite pleased with what they saw, and share a similar love for Noma Bar, vector- based minimalism, and negative space. I think I’m going to enjoy it here.

Throughout the rest of the day (and, I expect for the majority of the rest of the week), I was set a live brief to work on, which Alice, last week’s work experience student was working on, for a Scottish clothing brand named ‘Reign’ (designers of Hunter/Barbour-style jackets) that wanted to communicate the British nature of the brand in a high-end, creative, and bold way, along with creating a brand manifesto for the company.

Although clothing brands aren’t something I’ve particularly worked with much in the past, especially in terms of creating the brand, I’ve really enjoyed the work today and seeing my ideas progress a great deal quicker than they have in the past, particularly without the extensive (but by no means unenjoyable) research process that is ordinarily carried out at Uni.

The studio itself, and the designers, were great. Really friendly, happy to offer help and advice, and made me feel like I was definitely part of the furniture, which was a real encouragement to relax and feel at ease, which is perhaps what I was most worried about.

I’m really looking forward to starting work again tomorrow, and am still developing ideas now- hopefully creating some new, strong concepts to progress with in the morning.

TUESDAY 17^TH JULY 2012

Definitely starting to settle in a little more at work now, and feeling far more confident in showing my work, giving and receiving feedback- all in just one day, I really hope it continues and strengthens- this is definitely something that I want to take back with me to Uni and hopefully use what I’ve learnt in both terms of design and confidence to my best advantage, which will hopefully stretch my capabilities much further.

Another day of working on the logo, this time with a little more direction and focus from Dave, as I think he could tell that I was coming to a bit of a dead end with generating new ideas (the best one I did turned out to be not too dissimilar from a logo that the studio made a couple of weeks ago…), so that’s really helped me to focus down.

Dave left early today as he wasn’t feeling great, but before he left, he told me that he’d like me to work on the studio’s Christmas cards, which I’m really excited about getting started on, and hope I can make a real effort and impression to hopefully result in the cards being the finalized, live, and used designs.

Another brilliant day, I’m feeling very lucky.

WEDNESDAY 18^TH JULY 2012

Today was another great day at the studio. I love coming out and feeling so happy, and that I’ve really achieved something out of my day. With each new day that I spend at the studio, I discover even more so why I love graphic design, and am finding myself falling for it more and more each day, to the point of which I can now, perhaps for the very first time, can say, I completely love what I’m doing, and can’t wait for my future design practice (whatever that may hold.

Dave was away from the office today, and whilst I felt I might get a little distracted, or perhaps slightly less motivated, I worked at the same pace, and felt that the logo development work showed the greatest improvement and progression today- especially thanks to the great feedback Sam and Ben provided in the studio, which I found incredibly helpful.

I’m hoping to get the logo to a more developed conclusion to show to Dave tomorrow when he’s in the office tomorrow and make a strong development towards starting the dot-to-dot and colour by numbers studio Christmas card/V&A cards which Dave has assigned to me (which I’m particularly excited about), which I have to have completed by Friday, with a total of six cards- finally, a deadline I’m enthusiastic about (and not dreading!).

I’m so, so, happy that I got the opportunity to work with Glad, with two days left I’m already feeling sad that it’ll come to an end. I feel so welcomed, and at home, and more inspired than I have ever been before. I really hope I can channel this enthusiasm through to Uni in September, and have already started visualizing some of the outcomes for my self initiated briefs as a result.

THURSDAY 19^TH JULY 2012

Today was perhaps the first day I felt a little bit of pressure in terms of my design work at the studio, but, of course, as the past has shown in my design practice, the pressure was completely put on by myself as opposed to Dave, or any other member of the Glad design team, and now, in hindsight, I feel that I still need to perhaps relax a little more in terms of my workload, and realize that it’s okay to take a break, and I’ll probably be more productive at the end of the day in terms of my workload if I relax a little more, and this is something I definitely hope to take with me into third year (perhaps the time to be least stressed of all…).

Reflecting on this today, I still realized how much I was enjoying working on the briefs, and still felt that I was getting a lot out of the tasks and projects I was given, and hopefully will have something more finalized and resolved to present to Dave, Sam and Ben tomorrow.

FRIDAY 20^TH JULY 2012

Today, although actually quite sad (sad to leave the studio after such a fantastic week!), was a genuinely brilliant day. As well as finalizing and coming to a near close of some of the tasks I had been working on throughout the week (working on some idea generation and visualizations for the Reign logo brief, as well as creating a couple of dot-to-dot designs for the Glad Christmas cards, to be submitted to the V&A), Dave was kind enough to take Ben, Sam, and I out to a local bistro restaurant bar (next to Gateshead College, just across the road) where we discussed my progress throughout the week, how I felt, and giving mutual feedback to one another.

I told them, of course, how much I’d enjoyed and gained for the experience, and appreciated how kind, welcoming and humble they are as a design studio- with no evidence whatsoever of an ego, or a feeling of superiority, which made me feel really relaxed in the studio environment, and, of course, made everyone so easy to get on with. And, to my surprise, really, perhaps from a slight lack of confidence/unsure about the abilities, was really delighted when all of the feedback about my progress at the studio was completely positive, saying that I had a great attitude and motivation towards my work as well as working at a very good pace, which will serve me very well in the future- as well as inviting me back to the studio at any time for another placement, suggesting possibly even October reading week, and asking me to keep in touch upon graduation- all sounding, amazingly, really positive. I was so, so delighted!

Also, Ben and I discussed with Dave and Sam about new ideas to promote Glad and to raise the profile, which resulted in creating the first student placement profile interview- which I now proudly grimace (I never did like my photo being taken…) upon on the Glad Creative Facebook page (www.facebook.com/pages/Glad-Creative/197055890310279).

Working at Glad Creative has been such a wonderful experience, and my only wish would be that it would have gone on for longer! I felt as though in just a short space of time, I learnt a great deal about the process of branding, working in a studio environment, and about my own personal design practice, which I hope to take with me to September as I start the third year in Uni, and can use this experience to my best advantage in terms of developing and strengthening my branding portfolio, and my personal and professional design practice as a whole.

Industry Experience//Glad Creative Presentation.

The presentation delivered to Glad Creative, Gateshead, on the first day of my placement, Monday 14th July (last week), showcasing a brief summary of my portfolio of work, along with inspiration for my design, influence and where I aspire to be in the future, as requested by the creative director of the studio, Dave Burdon. More information and a diary account of my work experience/industry placement will be uploaded as soon as possible.