I've been asked to give a lecture to Year 3 about making the jump from education to industry from 2 - 5pm, Friday 16 October 2009 in Room S010, Mellor Building.
I'll cover a range of issues that affect Year 3, and will answer as many questions you have about things like...
• Getting your portfolio together • How to get your foot in the door • How does the current economic climate affect your chances of employment when you graduate
All the information will be based around giving you a true, honest and realistic insight into getting into the design industry.
I've also designed a poster to promote the talk, which hopefully you should see around the studio.
Our second week on this 'Sense of place' project was spent in my home city, Manchester. After a cold start, for once the sun shone in the rainy city, making it a great day to mooch about, take some pictures, soak up the inspiration and wash it down with a brew.
After meeting in Piccadilly Gardens, we headed towards Magma, the fine Oldham Street design bookshop. Plenty of inspiration in there. Then it was on through the back streets, towards the craft and design centre. Again, loads of craft based, hands on delights. We briefly watched paint dry with one of the resident artists, Kathryn Edwards. She kindly explained how she created some of her fantastic work, as seen below.
I also got chatting to photographer Edward Chadwick, whose studio was packed with atmospheric architectural prints. After barking at the students for taking pictures of his pictures, I explained that we were from Staffordshire Uni and this seemed to pacify him! We briefly chatted about how business was for the both of us, and let him get on with his day's work. Nice bloke though and some great work.
After a brew and some sunbathing it was off to take some more pics (it's amazing what you see when you open your eyes!) So much of this Manchester has been redeveloped over the last decade that a lot of the old signs that existed from the rag trade have now disappeared forever, which is a real shame. Managed to get a couple of snaps though, I love this kind of stuff.
Then we flitted around a couple of other places which I won't bore you with.
One thing that did come to light was how few of the students actually read the brief. A worrying sign indeed. As a designer, the brief is the cornerstone of any project. If you don't digest it, how do you expect to provide an accurate response? Anyway, there's my sermon for this week (in the style of He-Man at the end of the cartoon (Jesus, I'm really showing my age!)
It was good to get to know at least some of the students a little better and I hope that you were all inspired by the greatest city on earth.
After my initial fear of my iPhone, I've actually grown quite attached to the little thing.
I was browsing the 'App store' the other day and wondered if there was anything on there for designers, when I stumbled upon my dream app, a Pantone book in my phone called 'My Pantone', genius! Problem is it's £5.99 and I'm skint. But if you're looking to blow your grant on something why not give it a whirl.
The other one was 'The Typography Manual'. I've given it a quick scan it seems pretty informative, so there's no excuse now for bad kerning (not that there ever was!)
Yes, that's right, those poor souls that are Year 2 have been cursed with having yours truly for 2 consecutive modules. Never mind, at least I have more of a chance to get inside your heads.
It was good to see you all and some new faces, especially our friends from Cork, birthplace of one of United's greatest players, Roy Keane.
Anyway. Our first lecture introduced the 'Sense of Place' brief, and for those that stayed awake, hopefully this provided you with an insight into how to get the most from the brief.
My advice for this project is to read the title, 'A Sense of Place', and there's a massive clue of how to answer the brief in one of those 4 little words.
As Ben Casey, Founder of The Chase once said to me, "the answer is in the problem... now get on with some f*****g work you lazy b*****d!"
Well, academic year anyway. I've been pretty hopeless at writing posts for this blog so far (cheers to Mark for keeping the fires burning), but I am going to make amends this year.
My plan is to do a weekly post after each session in addition to any other stuff I see fit to share with you. So, here goes...
The aim is to document my observations as a lecturer, encourage debate, create stronger links with industry, motivate, showcase, inspire, assist, guide and advise graphic design students from Staffordshire University and beyond.
Graduated from Staffordshire University in 2008 with a First. Selina was an award winnerat at D&AD's New Blood. Selina's work is completely different to the usual graduate portfolio due to her hands on, craft based approach. She has an incredible typographic instinct which is borne out in her highly detailed type based images.
If you're a design company that appreciates craft and are looking to add a different flavour to your design team, then I can thoroughly recommend you take a look at Selina's outstanding portfolio. To contact Selina please click here.
Andy Fryer Graduated from Staffordshire University in 2007, Andy has been hit by the economic downturn and was recently made redundant from Atomic Design in Hale, Cheshire.
