Thursday, 9 April 2009

Visiting Gratterpalm

I went to visit Gratterpalm today. I took my portfolio with me as I have new additions in it. I met Rachel at 2 o'clock and she showed me round the building. It was bigger than I expected. We went to the design team room and she showed me the Umbro brochure she is currently working on with two other designers. They had to present it to the accounts person so I watched as they did this which was interesting to see how they crit in industry. It was quite similar to what we do in college. 

I looked through the work they have done for clients such as Asda and Whittards and found that the work they do is mainly print based for in-store such as the signage and windows. The work that is in my portfolio is print based but mainly focusing on the packaging and stationary of brands so I think I need to start to do more of the instore graphics work.

Later on I spoke to Gareth which was really helpful. He gave me some good advice on how to look for and find a job and then how to go about getting an interview. He told me that the first job I get after graduating will be the most important in my career because it will shape my career path. I also need to make myself stand out from the crowd when sending work or mail shots. I am going to look at the language used in retail and try and word my CV and covering letters like this and also make a mail shot that will reflect the retail market.

Going to Gratterpalm was really helpful and made me realise what I need to do to get a good job. When looking at the companies I want to work for I need to look at the clients they work with and what kind of work they do as I will still need to build my portfolio. I have two options of where to get a job. I could work for a Retail Graphics company which deals with different clients but could focus on a different area or I could work In-house on the design team for a particular shop which would mean being able to work in different areas of design. If I were to work In-house it would only be beneficial to work there for around a year because as the seasons change I could get stuck in a rut doing the same kind of work. My portfolio would then be full of just one client. 



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