Wednesday, 29 April 2015
Wednesday, 22 April 2015
Thursday, 9 April 2015
The Scratch Cards - Part Four.
Right! Part Four! If you need any catching up here is Part One, Part Two and Part Three. Here we go:
I got in contact with a company called Dirt and Glory, based in the Havas Work Club in London Bridge. They had an exciting new role as a Social Media Creative which sounded like the type of gig I was looking for. I met with the co-founder (they're literally a company of 2 right now) who was very pleasant and an added bonus he was a Gooner! They needed a creative type and I seemed like the perfect fit - clearly impressed by my scratch card project and saw the potential I could bring to this sort of role. They wanted to bring me in as the 'first man of the hour'.
It sounded exciting, it'd be part time so flexible with my own work, a decent day rate and exciting projects on the horizon. Could this be it? I left the interview with the conclusion that an offer will be sent over the weekend and we'd go from there. Jolly good, off on my way to a merry weekend.
Continuing my search (always safe to cover your bases) I was pointed in the direction of Whistles thanks to my pal Chloe - they were looking for maternity cover for a Junior graphic designer role - I had a solid telephone interview and was invited into their head office for a more in depth one on one interview - which seemed to go down very well and I felt fairly confident about it afterwards.
It was similar to the majority of roles that I've been applying to - digital design that is needed and popular for the requirements of todays modern companies. Work like layouts, web stuff, mock ups, product shots, touching up etc. For the most part and forgive me for sounding blunt, I don't find this very entertaining. However, an opportunity to learn and develop on skills should never be dismissed.
I'm by no means a natural choice for these kind of roles as my background is more of a left wing one stemming from illustration and design. Which unfortunately is likely to go against me - but I think it's important to maintain an element of individuality in your work rather than just be a 'Mac Monkey' like the rest of the designers out there looking for work.
But nonetheless, you should keep your options open.
I was tucking into some new beer label designs for Hellsize Park Brewing Co. on a Friday night when my email icon spun into action. Surprised and curious, I opened this rogue email straight away- who sends an email at this time? Shouldn't people be out socialising and doing things? He said, lurching over his laptop and tablet in dim lighting. To my surprise, an animal had got in touch called Stevie. Stevie The Fox to be exact.
Now, if you hadn't heard of Stevie The Fox - it's on trend with cafe's of a similar theme that are featuring animals. You heard of the cat cafe's, owl cafe's and yep, you guessed it - this was the Fox one.
They needed me. They came across my work and noticed my enthusiasm for foxes - they saw me as a perfect fit to design their logo for their shop and merch. I jumped at the chance. They needed a logo for Monday morning. This was an incredibly tight turnover but in my excited state I churned it out in record time by Saturday afternoon, much to the delight of Stevie. The logo is below:
A few days past and I was super excited at the prospect of my shiny new logo being on a cafe front and on various merchandise. Look at me, all shop front famous.
But unfortunately for both Stevie and I, bad news struck. Stevie up until this point had overwhelming attention, a mixture of excited glee of the idea of playing with some tamed foxes, (and a few other critters too) excited curiosity and concern.
The concerns over the welfare and safety of the animals for their duration in this East London cafe was rising, in which campaigners against it assumed it would take the form of like a Cafe Nero with a few cages thrown in. Matters got out of hand, as campaigners got louder and ultimately compromised poor old Stevie, he was left with no choice but to shut down this exciting project before it even opened. Stevie goes on to talk about it more here in this blog post explaining why he decided to close.
There was certainly no malicious intent behind this project, but never mind, life goes on. I'm sure this won't be the last time we hear of Stevie The Fox..
Back to the search, a couple of weeks had passed and there was still nothing concrete from Dirt and Glory, had one phone call saying that we're still both keen to get things rolling - but nothing serious yet.. Granted that a small start up business will be extremely busy but time's getting on. There's only so much waiting one can do..
A few days ago I was hanging out with my good buddy Will and I got a buzz from my gmail app.
It was an email from the creative team at Innocent, they're back! They want to meet...
To be continued in Part Five...
Wednesday, 18 March 2015
The Scratch cards - Part Three.
Here we are at the third chapter of the scratch card saga, it's been quite an adventure so far hasn't it?
If you need any reminders click here for the first part and the second part.
Anyway, in the middle of all this scratch card action I actually had a holiday booked to Budapest with a couple of mates - a welcome break amongst all the paparazzi and media attention.
You could say it was the Budabest..
*tumbleweed*
Upon my return I got a better idea to the conclusion of the Innocent Drink's situation - basically, if they had the space they would have me in. After talking to a few people in the business it was clear to the fact that this is because they're owned by Coca Cola.
But what do you mean? I hear you ask. Surely, if you're owned by the world's biggest conglomerate, they'd be plenty of room for financial and personnel leeway?
Quite the opposite in fact.
Coca Cola were brought in to help manage and control finances better within the company - if anything when they bought Innocent they had to let people go. If Innocent were still the independent company they once were then obviously they'd have more direct control over such matters.
But hey ho! They're keeping me on file for when a position opens - I'm aware most companies have a tendency to say this but it does seem a bit more genuine considering the events over the last few weeks.
From here I had interviews from companies including Ralph, Cadogan Tate, SMC Design and The Carpenters Workshop Gallery to name but a few. The roles varied creatively which is ideal as I really want to cast my net as wide as possible to see what really grabs my attention.
One element that is still completely surprising to me is that I've had a few offers from companies (whose names I won't mention) of unpaid internships. I thought these were a thing of the past? Any company executive or manager that accommodates and authorises this should be quite frankly ashamed of their work ethos.
But that's another rant for another time.
Moving on, in a bizarre twist of events, I got an interview at a modelling agency.
I know right!
I'm not sure if it was through the DASH magazine launch party where I managed to hand out a few business cards and make exceptional small talk or just through the scratch cards themselves but I got called into Fusion Management, down in Victoria.
I was sat down and taken through the skinny.
"We love your look." They said wide eyed and enthusiastically.
"Yeah, we always need Shoreditch hipsters and cockneys on our books, even though you're from West London." They said very matter of fact-like.
"So it's only £200 to sign up, it's not like you'll be breaking the bank or anything..."
Didn't like the sound of this. I went away with the relevant information and did some research by asking my acting and modelling chums. The general consensus is that you pay sweet F-A up front.
They were probably trying to make a quick buck out of me and get me on their books at the same time - which is rather cheeky - and £200 is an awful lot just to go into something without much guarantee.
My good friend Louis suggested going to an open casting in Shepherds Bush instead if this was the kind of thing that interested me. Being the vain individual that I am, it totally did appeal to me so off I went!
After a 40 minute queue I got my details and photos taken. I actually got called in to be an extra in a feature film a week later - which turned out I need extensive fight experience rather than my street cred, so unfortunately I couldn't do it...yet.
So a slightly hilarious and surreal tangent in many ways in this job search - like I said though, it's good to have a lot of options on the burners. I'm holding out for that awe-inspiring moment for the time being, which I have a feeling is just round the corner...
Next time: Double or nothing? Will Jamie survive against the odds? More interviews! More shenanigans! And foxes? Find out in Part Four..
If you need any reminders click here for the first part and the second part.
Anyway, in the middle of all this scratch card action I actually had a holiday booked to Budapest with a couple of mates - a welcome break amongst all the paparazzi and media attention.
You could say it was the Budabest..
*tumbleweed*
Upon my return I got a better idea to the conclusion of the Innocent Drink's situation - basically, if they had the space they would have me in. After talking to a few people in the business it was clear to the fact that this is because they're owned by Coca Cola.
But what do you mean? I hear you ask. Surely, if you're owned by the world's biggest conglomerate, they'd be plenty of room for financial and personnel leeway?
Quite the opposite in fact.
Coca Cola were brought in to help manage and control finances better within the company - if anything when they bought Innocent they had to let people go. If Innocent were still the independent company they once were then obviously they'd have more direct control over such matters.
But hey ho! They're keeping me on file for when a position opens - I'm aware most companies have a tendency to say this but it does seem a bit more genuine considering the events over the last few weeks.
From here I had interviews from companies including Ralph, Cadogan Tate, SMC Design and The Carpenters Workshop Gallery to name but a few. The roles varied creatively which is ideal as I really want to cast my net as wide as possible to see what really grabs my attention.
One element that is still completely surprising to me is that I've had a few offers from companies (whose names I won't mention) of unpaid internships. I thought these were a thing of the past? Any company executive or manager that accommodates and authorises this should be quite frankly ashamed of their work ethos.
But that's another rant for another time.
Moving on, in a bizarre twist of events, I got an interview at a modelling agency.
I know right!
I'm not sure if it was through the DASH magazine launch party where I managed to hand out a few business cards and make exceptional small talk or just through the scratch cards themselves but I got called into Fusion Management, down in Victoria.
I was sat down and taken through the skinny.
"We love your look." They said wide eyed and enthusiastically.
"Yeah, we always need Shoreditch hipsters and cockneys on our books, even though you're from West London." They said very matter of fact-like.
On the outside.
In the inside.
"So it's only £200 to sign up, it's not like you'll be breaking the bank or anything..."
Didn't like the sound of this. I went away with the relevant information and did some research by asking my acting and modelling chums. The general consensus is that you pay sweet F-A up front.
They were probably trying to make a quick buck out of me and get me on their books at the same time - which is rather cheeky - and £200 is an awful lot just to go into something without much guarantee.
My good friend Louis suggested going to an open casting in Shepherds Bush instead if this was the kind of thing that interested me. Being the vain individual that I am, it totally did appeal to me so off I went!
After a 40 minute queue I got my details and photos taken. I actually got called in to be an extra in a feature film a week later - which turned out I need extensive fight experience rather than my street cred, so unfortunately I couldn't do it...yet.
So a slightly hilarious and surreal tangent in many ways in this job search - like I said though, it's good to have a lot of options on the burners. I'm holding out for that awe-inspiring moment for the time being, which I have a feeling is just round the corner...
Next time: Double or nothing? Will Jamie survive against the odds? More interviews! More shenanigans! And foxes? Find out in Part Four..
Tuesday, 3 March 2015
The Scratch cards - Part Two.
All this exposure was immense, I got other notable mentions from Design Taxi and Elite Daily which was beyond fantastic. There were numerous Twitter accounts who post and re-post Buzzfeed articles constantly, this probably explains how I got articles about me in France, Netherlands and Estonia.
The Estonian link in particular was actually one of the most in trafficked articles to my blog - usually my audience is predominately the UK or US in terms of stats, but Estonia completely leap frogged USA by a couple of hundred views.
Maybe I should go there for a job?
Estonia, if you ever need a honourable Eurovision contestant you know who to call.
I continued to be patient and carried on with my otherwise 'standard' job searches. I was given an interview by an entertainment company called Sternberg Clarke as a content writer/blogger of sorts. This would be a fun job - getting paid to go to events etc. I confidently took the interview and felt great about it, making sure to showcase my new found internet fame in the interview itself too. The show off.
I took the bus after the interview - my phone buzzed with excitement - a new update on the scratch cards.
I got an email from the Editor-in-chief of Dash Magazine NoéMie Schwaller:
I did think at one point that some of the scratch cards would get lost in the post but didn't think there would be a penny thieving postman on the loose. Will our streets ever be safe? Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves..
Regardless, I was really happy with the email and NoéMie was kind enough to instagram this to her followers on the DASH account and her personal account:
That's not all - about an hour later I got another instagram mention in the form of the lovely shop Lik+Neon off Brick Lane:
.PNG)
Super sweet, I'm currently talking to the owner about showcasing my greeting cards there which is great. These responses were definitely more what I wanted; exposure, opportunities and that horrid word... networking!
I'm a firm believer that there's always 2 sides to every coin, so everything good must have something bad. Any praise should have criticism too. I had an abundance of praise up until now and karma was kicking in and knocking on my door. I was due my comeuppance to restore the equilibrium, this took the form of popular aggregator site Reddit, which some of you may be familiar with.
It's a fun site with the latest memes, articles and jokes. It's self described as 'the front page of the internet'. As much as this can be a fun site, the members or 'Redditors' or 'Le Reddit Army' are widely known for being absolute trolls. I naively put a link on their Design section, thinking I could get more praise and feedback on the scratch cards.
Oh man, was I wrong.
Within a couple of hours I got a tirade of abuse in the form of about 70 comments or so. It was a lot to take in and quite frankly a bit upsetting how personal the abuse got. The majority of the people commenting missed the point of my project in that I intentionally designed a garish looking scratch card to capture attention of prospective employers and that was my goal.
I'm a designer who majored in illustration and quite often consider myself an Artist rather than a Designer, whereas in this section of Reddit lurk pure typographers who scrutinise everything. You could say they were jealous and perhaps they were, but there's no point dwelling in negative interactions.
DoWn WiTh ThE hAtErZzZz!! Onwards and upwards!
Earlier I mentioned how NoéMie instragrammed my scratch cards for me, to top this treat I got an email from DASH a week later inviting me along to their fashion launch for their SS15 issue.
Thrown in the deep end for sure! As you're all completely aware already - I have fantastic (Kyle) style so I'll be able to slot in fine visually, but this is to the next level in terms of networking.
Unfortunately I had no plus one on my invite, which would make breaking the ice ten times easier. Undeterred, I ventured to Holborn, ready with my conversational quips.
"So.. clothes eh?"
"We have so much in common! I like to wear them daily."
"Black is so in"
(Disclaimer - I thankfully didn't say any of that, here are some snaps)
It was a very unique experience, which I really enjoyed. For the life of me I couldn't find NoéMie but I managed to make small talk and hand out a few business cards so not all was lost. The event photographer followed me for a bit and was snapping away at me. Nailing the Kyle style. Then another guy asked me to hold the events sponsored soft drink called Laimon, so there's a photo somewhere lurking in the world of me posing with a can of lemonade. Alright! If any photos happen to float about I'll make sure to stick them up here.
The adventure continues in the next episode: Budapest, interviews, modelling, despair, excitement and more in Part Three..
The Estonian link in particular was actually one of the most in trafficked articles to my blog - usually my audience is predominately the UK or US in terms of stats, but Estonia completely leap frogged USA by a couple of hundred views.
Maybe I should go there for a job?
Estonia, if you ever need a honourable Eurovision contestant you know who to call.
I was feeling pretty good about myself - look at me, all internet famous.
But it's a fickle limelight. It got quiet for a few days again, I was waiting for another ripple in the ocean...
I continued to be patient and carried on with my otherwise 'standard' job searches. I was given an interview by an entertainment company called Sternberg Clarke as a content writer/blogger of sorts. This would be a fun job - getting paid to go to events etc. I confidently took the interview and felt great about it, making sure to showcase my new found internet fame in the interview itself too. The show off.
I took the bus after the interview - my phone buzzed with excitement - a new update on the scratch cards.
I got an email from the Editor-in-chief of Dash Magazine NoéMie Schwaller:
I did think at one point that some of the scratch cards would get lost in the post but didn't think there would be a penny thieving postman on the loose. Will our streets ever be safe? Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves..
Regardless, I was really happy with the email and NoéMie was kind enough to instagram this to her followers on the DASH account and her personal account:
That's not all - about an hour later I got another instagram mention in the form of the lovely shop Lik+Neon off Brick Lane:
Super sweet, I'm currently talking to the owner about showcasing my greeting cards there which is great. These responses were definitely more what I wanted; exposure, opportunities and that horrid word... networking!
I'm a firm believer that there's always 2 sides to every coin, so everything good must have something bad. Any praise should have criticism too. I had an abundance of praise up until now and karma was kicking in and knocking on my door. I was due my comeuppance to restore the equilibrium, this took the form of popular aggregator site Reddit, which some of you may be familiar with.
It's a fun site with the latest memes, articles and jokes. It's self described as 'the front page of the internet'. As much as this can be a fun site, the members or 'Redditors' or 'Le Reddit Army' are widely known for being absolute trolls. I naively put a link on their Design section, thinking I could get more praise and feedback on the scratch cards.
Oh man, was I wrong.
Within a couple of hours I got a tirade of abuse in the form of about 70 comments or so. It was a lot to take in and quite frankly a bit upsetting how personal the abuse got. The majority of the people commenting missed the point of my project in that I intentionally designed a garish looking scratch card to capture attention of prospective employers and that was my goal.
I'm a designer who majored in illustration and quite often consider myself an Artist rather than a Designer, whereas in this section of Reddit lurk pure typographers who scrutinise everything. You could say they were jealous and perhaps they were, but there's no point dwelling in negative interactions.
DoWn WiTh ThE hAtErZzZz!! Onwards and upwards!
Earlier I mentioned how NoéMie instragrammed my scratch cards for me, to top this treat I got an email from DASH a week later inviting me along to their fashion launch for their SS15 issue.
Look at me all fashiony and that.
Thrown in the deep end for sure! As you're all completely aware already - I have fantastic (Kyle) style so I'll be able to slot in fine visually, but this is to the next level in terms of networking.
Unfortunately I had no plus one on my invite, which would make breaking the ice ten times easier. Undeterred, I ventured to Holborn, ready with my conversational quips.
"So.. clothes eh?"
"We have so much in common! I like to wear them daily."
"Black is so in"
(Disclaimer - I thankfully didn't say any of that, here are some snaps)
Fashion people!
Clothes!
Clothes! Fashion!
Fashion!
It was a very unique experience, which I really enjoyed. For the life of me I couldn't find NoéMie but I managed to make small talk and hand out a few business cards so not all was lost. The event photographer followed me for a bit and was snapping away at me. Nailing the Kyle style. Then another guy asked me to hold the events sponsored soft drink called Laimon, so there's a photo somewhere lurking in the world of me posing with a can of lemonade. Alright! If any photos happen to float about I'll make sure to stick them up here.
(Edit: 16/03/2015 - only gone and found the photo haven't I!)
The adventure continues in the next episode: Budapest, interviews, modelling, despair, excitement and more in Part Three..
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