A month ago I was given the project of my portfolio. As part of our portfolio development we have been asked to delve into the wide industry for criticism and advice to help improve our work showcase. This also gives me the option to keep in touch with people in the industry and make connections to aid me once I graduate.

Instead of sending an email, I decided to go down a different route. I personal love the post, and always receive a hint of joy when the letterbox goes. I hear a lot also, that many people in the design world enjoy snail mail too. So with an excuse to get my stamps out, I also thought I could make it a reason to break my inks open too.

So over the course of the week, I created a series of postcards. Hand set type took quite a while of time, but gave me a nice reason to learn my skills in the medium. It also took a lot of time to get the ink consistency right for the print, but after a few alterations I was pleased with the result. I am now waiting on the replies from the agencies that received these limited special prints.

If you had one through the post, please reply I would greatly like to meet you.

Yesterday my tutor James arranged for a selection of lucky people to visit the Manchester design company Truth. Gratefully I was one of the very lucky ones to be in the pick. James, Jay, Mike, Laura, Lisa and myself went down their studio to meet up with Dan Ingham.

Dan showed us how tight some deadlines can be, with one of their projects being due a day. This really opened our eyes to see just how much quicker we will be working in the future. Something else he gave us an insight into was how a full projects pans out; showing us the starting brief, their presentation, to first mock up and basically through there whole process. This is a delightful change from seeing final outcomes or even the nice sketches we are usually shown; Dan revealed how much to and throwing really happens to get an end result everyone is completely pleased with.

Truth’s studio is nicely laid out, and again I spotted another bookcase. This again confirms that it is really important to have visual reference at all times for this career. I noticed how they kept the red colour scheme throughout their studio and also in their presentations, I felt this made their brand as a company much stronger and I hope to replicate this in my work as it felt they had given each piece of work their seal of approval and were proud of what they had made.

Once I have my portfolio to an acceptable standard, I hope to revisit truth for some truthful feedback.

Better late than never my Gran used to tell me. Back in January I arrange to see Chris Turnbull while I was in London doing a placement with MGA. Chris runs a small design studio called Turnbull Grey in the craft central, working for clients such as The Economist and Tate Publishing. They mainly work with print material and are greatly interested in tradition methods.

I had planned to see Chris on the day before I came home, but unfortunately Chris fell ill on that day. They were unable to get in contact with me before I arrived, so I was none the wiser when I got there. Angela, the other designer he works with, told me that he wasn’t coming in today and that she had trouble getting in contact with me; but I was more than welcome to see round the studio since I was there already.

I asked a lot of questions about everything and spent a few hours talking to Angela about design and about life as a graphic designer. This gave me an insight into what my future could be like. I also went through their book collection and took some recommendations which I have bought and started to read. Angela showed me through her portfolio, which was great since I was just starting to begin my own.

Within the studio they have a tabletop letterpress with a huge cabinet of type, which they use to make posters and postcards. I was so amazed by this, that once I got home I set about getting my own press — which I have now purchased and learning to print on.

I promised to send some of the things I print once I get a knack to it.

I really enjoyed visiting Turnbull Grey, and I would love to work in a studio similar when I graduate.

Coming to the end of 2009 I got in touch with my first cousin once removed, Phil Meadowcroft whom owns Meadowcroft Griffin Architects based in London. I asked if he had a graphics department at the studio and for any contacts which I could get in touch with to do a placement over the first few weeks in January. Phil replied saying that they didn’t have a set department for graphic design, but however there is a lot of work involving graphics including: reports, presentation boards, the website, visualizations of projects and stationary templates. Srepo if I was interested there would be much for me to help with. Over the next week we kept in touch and discussed dates. And so the plan was all go.

Bags packed and train booked, I set on my travels for the south.

The first day at the studio was great, I met everyone and introduced myself. We went through things I could go through during my two week experience. They had a nicely designed website, but had limited PHP knowledge on how to change and update it. I didn’t have a huge amount of experience with it myself, but I felt enough to help.

One of the schools that MGA have designed.

The studio had an unbeatable atmosphere, everyone worked great together and were also welcoming to me being there too. There was a constant stream of creativity flowing through the air, and I hope to work somewhere similar when I get older. Each day I was amazed at how much can be done — this really shocked me from the apparent busy days I’d had back at college. I found myself mainly focused on the website, teaching myself code and also writing instructions, in addition to this I also ran through with people in the studio how to update the site to ensure they understood — this gave me a huge sense of achievement when I could see they were learning from my teaching. I hadn’t ever really considered a career in web design (or teaching for that matter), but after working with code for a few weeks I felt happy that I could carry on; I hope to keep to keep learning web design and hopefully combine it with my graphic teachings.

For the first week when I got back home I had my contextual studies essay to write, this also added to my working day. Though once this was complete I started to venture into the heart of London. Where I found it to be completely different to Manchester, the shear amount of fresh buildings and exhibitions running.

I managed to get to quite a few galleries including:

Whitecube
Whitechapel
Tate Modern
Design Museum
Saachi and Saachi
Royal Academy of Arts
Waddingtons
And a few others down the street of cork.

The second week soon passed, and it was time to come home. I missed home a lot, but I loved going to work each day; especially with the people who were there. It was an awesome start to the year and one I shall never forget. I hope to keep in touch with MGA, and am pleased that they have been adding to their news and projects. This makes me proud that I have helped them out like they have me.

Also while in London I managed to visit Turnbull Grey, which I shall post about later.