Over the Easter holidays I managed to get myself a placement at the Burnley Council Graphics department (their site is here) from the 1st of April until the 10th. I was really excited to actually see how designers work in a practice such as a council and learn some new skills. Though they wouldn't have been a company doing ground breaking or game changing graphic design I thought that it would be a great insight into what goes on in a normal agency.
When I arrived they were very welcoming and I was shown their system. They had a system called job log, where they categorise each job that they received in order of importance and then you change the status depending on what stage the job was at. This system made everything very organised and easy to find which made me realised how un-organised I can be in terms of naming and saving files as well as prioritising projects.
They told me that I would be working on two projects on my own which was very exciting to once again be able to produce work and let it go out into the public is a very satisfying thought.
BE PAWSOME
The first brief I was given was one called "Be pawsome" - it was a dog fouling campaign that aimed to create a positive range of graphics to encourage people to pick up after their dogs. So from the go ahead it was about no negativity just positive messages that appealed to most age ranges. They wanted something that was friendly, quirky and had illustrations. I really enjoyed this project as I was able to create branding for it as well as illustrate some posters. Although I was there for a short period of time I made a good start on this project and finished posters and infographics for them to consider.
I have to say that I personally prefer the typography designs that I made to the illustrative ones, although my colleagues really liked them. I feel like I could really show off my style within these designs and I was very grateful that I was able to do this. The people who worked their were very kind to me and let me do it however I pleased. They gave me lots of critiques on my progress until I came to the designs that you see below. These were what I sent to proof just before I left. Unfortunately I won't know if these designs will be used or not but I will be glad to have made something towards it.
SUMMER GIANTS
The other brief was for an fun fair day involving some of Britain's strongest men, lifting atlas stones, logs and even cars. I was a bit bewildered at first by this brief as it wasn't as straight forward as the other. It had a more complicated audience - it needed to appeal to families but then again it needed to appeal to people who go to strongmen events - most likely strong men themselves. Creating a mix between targeting at buff men and families was difficult at first and a lot of my designs were either one or the other.
However after lots of critiques I was really pleased with the final outcome for the flyer. I combined my illustration of the famous bear of Towneley Hall with an old fashioned weight lifting theme to make him lift the title. I also used strong, powerful looking typography to appeal to the people that would want to watch the strongmen perform. I concentrated most of my time on the 'Pawsome' work so I only created a flyer for this event but I believe that it could be printed as it is pretty much done. Once again the client wasn't there when I was to proof the flyers so I don't know whether he will go ahead but I hope he will.
Below are some of the other designs that I created, you can see that they are more aimed at gym buffs rather than families. But it was interesting to play around with photographic images as I don't often do this within my work at the moment.
STANDISH STREET IDENTITY
The final brief was one I was given to pass some time when we were waiting for feedback from the proofs that I had sent out. I started doing some thumbnail sketches for an identity for a street in Burnley, which ironically my dentist is on. They really liked the thumbnails that I came up with and asked if I could do a small pitch of their favourite design and show how it would be used in context.
So I created a set of posters, making use of the image libraries that they had access to. I wanted to make the street look fresh and trendy to younger people around my age. I found that there are a lot of vintage shops that you don't find about anymore like camera shops and herbal remedy shops. It is a very interesting and individual street. This was simply my take on it, calling it "Burnley's best indie street" to try to attract a younger audience. Whether they will use this sort of design I am not sure but I really enjoyed producing the branding. I think branding is definitely one of my favourite things to design.
SUMMARY
Overall I feel like I learnt an awful lot from just one week working there. It was a very enjoyable week and I think if I am given the opportunity I would happily work there again. I learnt a lot about time management and using shortcuts to make the most out of your time as possible. I also learnt a bit more about InDesign while I was there as that is one of the only programs that they use - even for creating logos. Additionally I learnt communication skills - I had to answer the phone as well as sending emails and communicating with printers for quotes. It definitely opened my eyes to a new side of graphic design that I had never even thought of before.
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