Questionnaire:
1.) Recently, myself and James entered 10 awards between us for D&AD and YCN. This has possibly had a slightly negative impact on our Final Major Project's as we have not spent as much time on them as other people on our course who entered one or none. We felt that it is our last chance to win student awards so we wanted to give ourselves a good chance. Tutors have told us a number of times to be wary of spreading ourselves too thin on each entry by doing so many. We were advised to focus on one or two and make them entries better. However we feel all of the entries had a chance of winning so we worked them all up and sent them off.
Do you think we approached this in the right way or would you agree with my tutors? What are your thoughts on the subject of student awards?
I think student awards are a great place to start your career. If you win
them it could get your name in front of the right people.
From my experience many people get placements from student awards, which are the best way to get jobs. Sometimes winning awards are more important to agencies rather than your degree grade.
I probably would have entered 5 rather than 10 to make sure the ideas that I entered were as strong as possible and so that my degree work would not suffer. If you thought that all the ideas you entered were good though…why not!
2.) I am of the opinion that good ideas should be put ahead of the design of anything. I did my dissertation on this subject and found out a lot about products and advertising doing their job well rather than just looking nice.
How much emphasis do you think should be put into an idea with relation to the design and why?
In my opinion the idea is the most important element, however the design may have an effect on how the idea is portrayed. It may hide the idea or enhance it. I think you should spend enough time on the design to make sure it almost makes your idea even better so that your idea is not let down by the design.
3.) I have now done a number of work placements at various design/ad agencies which I feel has helped me adapt to the industry. It is a much faster pace and more of a challenge to be in an actual workplace.
What do you think about the importance of placements and what are the benefits/disadvantages of having placements in your agency?
University life is very different to the working world. As much as you hear about the industry it’s best to get first hand experience. I personally learnt a lot from my placements. Students need to get used to feedback which may be much more critical and placements are the best place to start. It’s also important to work along side seniors as they are great teachers. I think agencies only benefit from placements as they get a fresh, more up to date input on work and an extra pair of hands.
4.) Pitching is obviously a big part of an agencies work these days. I have been involved in a few pitches and it's a good feeling when you win but I think it would feel like a lot of wasted time and money if you were to lose.
Do you agree with this system or do you take part in the pitching process out of necessity?
5.) I have been working as a freelancer recently and have run a small business the past couple of years which has helped me learn to deal with clients and sourcing web coders and signwriters etc.
Apart from being a source of income, do you feel that it is worthwhile during studying to get involved in real work and start to interact with other businesses. Do you think these skills can be important in helping you get a job?
Of course it’s worthwhile. Not only do you get client experience but any good piece of work you do can go towards your portfolio.
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