Farewell to Central Saint Martins...

Book Cover Design

Ten weeks ago I began my Intermediate Graphic Design course at Central Saint Martins. It has been an absolutely incredible experience, not least because of the institution I've been able to attend.

The breadth and variety in the briefs given to us have really helped me flex my creative muscles - as well as reinforcing the essential skills I already have. Setting out as a freelance graphic designer has meant exploring what sort of work is out there and what sort of work interests me. Graphic design is an ever changing beast. Web, print, advertising, marketing, fashion, branding, architecture, typography - Design has a grand selection of specialties.

In todays day in age the versatile designer is highest in demand. To be able to design for packaging one day and a television commercial the next (Or more likely, to be able to work on both project simultaneously) makes this a truly a grand industry for a polymath to be in.

In addition to the practical skills this course, I've also learned that to get bored in graphic design is to be bored of life. There are so many ideas, so many different ways of doing things, and so much evolution in the tools used, that the possibilities are endless.

Turning a name into a brand

I've also learned the importance of collaboration. In design, collaboration is almost a necessity if you want to keep your ideas fresh and different. Another perspective on an idea can turn it into the next iconic brand or unforgettable package.

I've had a lot of fun. The projects I've created aren't going to win any awards, but they've gotten me to think about the multiple ways to approach a design problem. I've enjoyed creating a bottle for rowers, turning a person's name into a brand, and coming up with a cover that captures the story on the pages inside.

I'm not sure which was my favourite brief because I enjoyed so many of them for different reasons. This course not only reinforced that I have a solid foundation as a Creative Specialist, it allowed me to have fun by presenting new ideas and ways of looking at things.

I'm going to miss the weekly brief, the critique and access to the Saint Martin's library. Handing in m student card when the class finished yesterday was extremely difficult. But then, I'm a self taught sort of gal and as much fun as it would be to attend Saint Martin's full time, I know it's just not for me. I've had a taste and that's all I needed. I'm plunging into this industry feet first, with great enthusiasm and all my imagination and creativity to fuel me. This course was a taste of all the possibilities for me as a designer.

Two mock ups of a theoretical Google rebrand

Concept sketches for a water bottle rowers could use

Rowers Water Brand concept

Album Cover Design

The Brief

My experience as an in house designer was quite happenstantial. The short of it was that my manager set me up with CS5 (Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop) so I could do the fundraising support material development. Very quickly I became the person they came to for pretty much every design project, including project management of the website branding and development.

I loved when I got to wear my designer hat on that job. I was learning and getting a lot of really good experience but I was also considered the office expert on design. The only frustration was that I rarely worked with a brief.

For those of you who are not familiar with this term, a brief is a way for the customer to communicate what they want to the designer. The designer translates the brief into the final design. Designing without a brief is like being asked to bake a cake but not being told what kind. So you go away and bake a cheese cake and when you bring it back they go, "Oh! No, we were thinking more of a Black Forest Gateau."

I did get a brief once, and it was amazing because the staff member who wrote it was married to a designer and had done a similar project before. That project was a dream, and that was probably the first time I thought maybe I should do this full-time. Of course, I was still really stuck on the idea of life coaching and at the time that was where my focus was.

My focus is design now, which is why I'm taking this Graphic Design course at Saint Martin's. I'm enjoying it because I'm realising how much I already know and where my talent lays currently, but I'm also picking up a lot and seeing my skills develop and improve with each class.

Each class we receive a new brief after presenting the work we'd done on the brief from the week before. The briefs vary quite a bit so we're getting to work on some pretty awesome stuff. The thing is, the brief isn't even that long or complicated. It doesn't have to be a wordy thing. It just needs to capture key elements that need to be included in the final design.

So far my favourite brief has been working on 'branding' one of my fellow classmates. After interviewing each other we then had to go away and create a graphic expression of that person. When I paint my shoes or have done commissioned work for people this is my exact method to make sure that what I'm creating will suit the customer.

Brief #2, Intermediate Graphic Design
at Central Saint Martin's

As it was, she really liked all my designs (I did three) but definitely loved this one the best.

All you will gain

This week marks several new and exciting developments.

1. I've handed in my notice and as of the end of February will officially be available as a full-time Freelance Graphic Designer.

2. I'm now currently studying psychology part-time through the Open University.

There's a comfort in having a routine, even if it's one which leaves you dissatisfied or unfulfilled. 'Better the Devil you know...' and that sort of thing. Hugh MacLeod over at GapingVoid published a great cartoon about this. I'll wait while you go have a look-see...

Back? Brilliant.

So, it's all very well and good doing the same things over and over because:
1. That's the way the world works
2. We all have to take responsibility and work isn't/shouldn't be/can't be fun
3. If you're good at something you should persist, even if you don't enjoy it
4. We all have to make do
...and so on.

I think it's all a bit pants.

2013 marks my tenth year since graduating high school. In those ten years I've worked in the not-for-profit and charity sector almost exclusively, with a few tangents into retail, restaurants and, gloriously, being an animator.

I assessed the many roles I've had and my favourite bits of any of the jobs I've done. I've got a strong work ethic, excellent organisational skills and an abundance of enthusiasm - all skills that have helped me immensely in any job I've done.

It's my love of the undiscovered that has always produced my best work. I love figuring something out, finding solutions and creating something that works. For this reason I set up a not-for-profit organisation to support gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans youth find sustainable safe spaces. Once it was established and it reached the point of general operation, I was ready to move on.

So it was with my work at Pancreatic Cancer UK, a two and a half week temp job that turned into a two and a half year permanent position involving project management, staff training, system development, marketing and design. There was so much to do to make it work and I was able to tackle multiple problems and develop successful, long lasting solutions. Once that was done though it became day-to-day maintenance and I was, once again, looking for my next opportunity.

I don't think it's ever too late to retrain, although I don't actually feel like that's what I'm doing. I feel more like I'm shifting my focus from one skill to another. I'm taking all my passion, enthusiasm and imagination that has helped me successfully develop websites, write policies and procedures, or set up data entry systems, and looking at it from the perspective of Designer, instead of Administrator.

The brilliant thing about graphic design is that every project is a new problem that has to be solved. How to brand a company that works with inner city youth? How to brand a product that is being marketed to 30-somethings? How to make a logo that clearly conveys a professional but fun organisation?

I love it, entirely, because every day is different and every day my skills are becoming more and more refined. I am not stagnating and I'm not bored - two states I simply cannot tolerate. Instead I'm switching tracks, changing directions, and starting to build momentum. I've no idea where it might take me but I can and do think of all the possibilities and that is what makes it worth it.

London Journal - All the flavours of London

Everyone who comes to visit me in London quickly discovers and falls in love with Pret. Pret is, for those who don't know, a chain owned by McDonalds that is as far removed from McDonalds as it can be other than having a super recognisable brand. That is, it's recognisable to anyone in the UK.

Anyhoo, Pret is actually pretty awesome because they have loads of delicious fresh things and they are one of the few places that does crisp flavours I like. I've not been a fan of crisps for some years now. Pretty much since I stopped being a teenager. I think, as a teenager, your body wants you to consume as much as possible so it dulls your taste buds to things like cold alphagettis straight out of the can or microwavable frozen pizzas.

MSG makes me bokey and a lot of crisp flavours I might go for (Sweet chilli, anything with lime) tend to have gluten as well.

But Pret has this amazing ability to make their fancy flavours actually taste like the thing they're supposed to be. For example, their chilli lime pickle taste just like the pickle chutney that accompanies poppadoms in Indian restaurants in London. It's amazing and shockingly addictive. Normally about three crisps is my fill and the remainder of the bag will go to the first person who will take it, but not with a bag of chilli lime pickle chips. No. Those are mine and I'd open the packet and lick the bag if it wasn't entirely uncouth.

So I was in King's Cross, lookign for an after dinner snack before my Graphic Design course at Saint Martins began (have I mentioned how much I love Saint Martins and that I want to spend every day there because it's gorgeous and the library is amazing?) when I spotted a Pret. I moseyed over and found them completely out of my coveted favourite flavour but all was not lost! They regularly introduce new flavours and lo-and-behold, a new flavour was there. Virgin Mary. As in Bloody Mary, not as in the mother of Jesus.

Look at that packaging. Isn't that lovely?

So I picked up a bag and headed towards Saint Martins (that super glorious amazing place where I'm currently studying a course which is both awesome and helpful).

Chip flavours are country specific. I don't know if you know that but it was something I discovered when I went to Australia. Aussie's have a lot of chicken flavours. Rosemary chicken, fried chicken, chilli chicken. They don't have dill pickle or ketchup. Those are Canadian flavours and ones which I find it really difficult to explain to anyone outside of Canada. They either cringe at the thought or they look blankly at me, unable to imagine what ketchup flavour crisps would be like, let alone why someone would want to eat them.

Well, people of the UK, the Virgin Mary crisps from Pret taste exactly like ketchup chips. And people of Canada, I found a ketchup flavoured chip that doesn't stain your fingers red because it's actually flavoured with natural seasonings and not MSG and dye #8, or whatever weird concoction of chemicals they use.

I know it seems funny to write an entire blog entry about a bag of crisps, but I simply couldn't help myself. I was so stunned by the flavour (which transported me right back to my childhood, when Ketchup was my favourite flavour chip) that I had to share it. Besides, I've not done a London Journal entry in a long, long time and I've decided I want to do them again because they're fun and it reminds me to look for all that I still have to discover about living here.

Don't let them

I originally intended to publish this post as just the graphic, but then something happened last night that I couldn't not gush about: I started my Graphic Design short course at Central Saint Martins. 

I decided to sign up for the course last year when, in a fit of frustration, I realised that I need to have creative jobs - not admin jobs or fundraising jobs or project management jobs (Unless they're creative project management jobs) but jobs that actually require my creative skills and imagination. So I looked at my work experience and the things I've enjoyed most at each job I've had. 

When I was working with youth in care I got to project manage the development of a booklet for youth transitioning out of care, which involved designing the layout and look of the book, as well as developing and writing the content. 

When I worked as a researcher on a collaborative project to raise awareness of violence in and towards the gay and transgendered community part of my job involved working on the development of the content and design of the website. 

As the founder of a not for profit organisation I took on pretty much every role imaginable but enjoyed myself the most when I was working on the promotional 'zine, posters and other marketing material - not to mention the fun of designing the logo with the input of the youth involved. Not to mention the absolute fantastic time I had performing in drag, which ties into the experience I had last night. 

For a time IKEA was brilliant because my day consisted of building things. They weren't of my creation but it was fun to put stuff together and I had a great sense of satisfaction at the end of the day when I had seven or eight physical pieces that represented the work I had done. 

When I came to London I was still in the middle of my Tarot Card painting series. I had a large creative project which sustained me as I began working at yet another charity in yet another administration based role. I was lucky enough to get a manager that saw my love of all things creative. He appreciated my talent and skills and he was really good at his job. He knew that, as a manager, it was up to him to find ways to maximise on my skills to the benefit of the charity whilst also feeding my energy. If not for him I'd not have stayed at that job for as long as I did and, if not for him, I would never have begun working on digital design. 

I spent the last two and a half years doing everything from website development to print material layout to social media marketing. I got to work with Illustrator and InDesign, work to deadlines, work without a brief, work under immense pressure and work entirely to my own tune. It was varied and manic but when I was designing I was content and that alone kept me going. 

But I wasn't hired there as a designer and though it was a large part of what I did, it wasn't in my job title or description. So I quit and at that time my focus was on finding clients so I could start a life coaching practice. 

I still want to be a life coach and one day I will be, but I was struggling because, try as I might, I couldn't find my niche. I want people to see how awesome life is and I love helping them open their eyes to the absolutely wonder of the world. I don't have a niche as to how or who I want to help with that - mostly because I want to help everyone live the life they love. If I've learned anything about marketing, I've learned that you have to have a clear message. I didn't and couldn't come up with one so I changed my approach. I decided to jump track and go a different direction. And in a fit of inspiration I signed up to an intermediate Graphic Design course at Central Saint Martins. 

Last night I walked onto the campus and I felt a great sense of having arrived. I was where I belonged. The air smelled of art supplies and the vast space stretched out invitingly before me. The lyrics to 'Common People' - the song which defined my drag persona - made this place feel mythical and almost unreal. Yet there I was, with a kit full of supplies, (gouache, pens, scissors, glue, pencils, pencil crayons) a brand new sketchbook, and all the creative energy I spend too much time ignoring. 

It could have been so easy for it to crash and burn, as my giddiness mounted and my expectations grew, but it was much like my other experiences of schooling post-high school. I dismissed post secondary and have not regretted it. I won't even now, even as I think of that gorgeous, gorgeous school and how much I'd love to go back tomorrow and the day after and every day for an entire semester if I could afford it. 

Thing is, I wasn't ready for post secondary when I was eighteen. I was ready for work and I'm so glad I did. Because I sat in that class and had confirmation that I may not be a senior or even mid-weight designer (yet), but I know how design works and I've been going about it the best way possible. As the instructor explained how the course would work and covered off the basics of graphic design I ticked off boxes in my head. 

Research. Tick. Find inspiration. Tick. Conceptualize with drawing and/or writing. Tick.

This course will be an opportunity for me to do some hands on work with things I've not been able to do before but it's also enforcing the fact that I have a great skill set and I'm a talented Creative Specialist. The validation I felt last night was incredible an the resulting energy and enthusiasm led me to write this rather long blog post. 

Feed your bliss people. If you do what you love you will do it well and it will bleed into all aspects of your life. Life is too unpredictable to not follow your dreams, take chances, and explore. 

I want to dedicate this post and the accompanying graphic to Ian - the best manager I've ever had and a damn fine friend as well.