I chose to email Fluid in Birmingham for work experience as I wanted to know what it would be like to work for a larger company compared to Risotto which was just working for one person. In Easter I worked there for just over a week. Fluids studio is split up in two halves a web side and a design side with about 6/7 designers on each side. I was on the design side working alongside a designer there called Steve and reporting back to James the director. I wouldn't say the environment of the studio was very creative, people didn't really speak to each other, it was always silent and designers constantly getting angry and stressed out at their computers which didn't make a very nice working atmosphere.
Fluid have big contracts with big brands, while I was there designers were working on briefs with Little Mix, PSP, Studio Cannal, Mafia 3, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and a couple more. With these big brands come a lot of brand guidelines to look through, I wasn't working with any brand guidelines personally but many other designers were and having to stick to all the restrictions, this is something I would have to get used to in the future.
Although I didn't enjoy my experience that much it has thought me a lot and I'm glad I did it because it has made me realise what it is like to work with big brands.
Lessons I have learnt from being at Fluid
- designers always want to have more time on a project then they actually have
- getting feedback at various points of designing is always useful
- don't be embarrassed to ask for help, it's not a sign of weakness
- read briefs fully
- always need to research no matter how small the brief is, to think of fresh ideas
- the demand for design can be intense resulting in high stress levels
- sitting in front of a computer screen from 10-6 is actually quite difficult and takes some getting used to
Overall, this experience has left me quite confused about life after college, I much preferred working for Risotto and being more hands on. Nobody in Fluid seemed that exited or happy to be working on such big briefs, I think I have realised that I would like to go into print after college or work for a smaller design studio.
No comments:
Post a Comment