Todays industry talk came from Sarah Hanley, an ex Newcastle College student (where I study) and Creative Director of Sumo, a Newcastle based design agency that has done work for the National Trust, Sunderland City Council, Newcastle University and the National History Museum to name a few.
This talk was a great insight into what life in the industry is like, going from what it was like when Sarah was a student trying to get into agencies, to what its like being in one of the most influential agencies in the north east. She admits she wasn't the best designer on her course, but this made her work harder, this was also the case with her first project in an agency for After Eights, at the pitch the other designers went in with one idea, Sarah went in with 20, going above and beyond what was asked, this is also apparent in her recent work. Three words that definitely stood out in the talk for me was "I'm all in", do everything 100%, surround yourself in the project, dive in and have fun, definitely something I try to do and will do in future projects.
Knowing that we were in our last year of the foundation degree and that we were going to be looking for places to do placements and get experience in agencies, Sarah gave us some useful tips on what we should be doing to be in with a greater chance of getting into the industry. The first tip we were given was think about what agency you want to work for, whether it be a digital agency or a print based, it is better to get in somewhere that is tailored around the kind of work you want to do; however, it is good to get experience in other fields too. The next was to not just stay in Newcastle, try different places around the country, every agency has a different way of working, so why not experience them all? The importance of Twitter and social media was also mentioned, tweet your work to designers, ask for opinions, have an opinion and put stuff you like from agencies etc onto your profile, it should be a representation of you.
Overall this was a great talk, I feel like I've now got a greater understanding of what I have to do/should be doing to get placements in the industry and some places to get inspiration from in the future. A big thank you to Sarah for a brilliant insight and some lovely freebies!
Check out Sumo's work at: http://www.sumodesign.co.uk/work/
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