The Scratchards - Part Seven.

A 4 month hiatus since the last update!  I know you've been waiting patiently...

Here's the skinny..

(Catch up posts: The Premise, Parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five and 'Six'.)

As we left things in the last post, I successfully Jason Bourned Fruit Towers...

...and now, I was awaiting further feedback following Innocent's lovely social media plugs, huzzah!

As this was churning, I recycled this new campaign to aid my job applications further to the roles that I was applying to - with the hope that it displayed initiative, enthusiasm and shaky camera skills. It was at this point I was 3/4 months into my whirlwind adventure and it was fast dawning on me that my finances were at an anxious all time low from being out of regular work - I needed to sort this and quick.

Now don't get me wrong, since taking on the responsibility of Chief Adventure Extraordinaire - I always had an eye on my finances and because of my escalating popularity I was getting more freelance work in than before, so perhaps it helped mask this impending doom. In particular, the housing company Greystar who specialise in student housing - had been giving me a lot of work over the coming months with a view to take me on a retainer level - which would be ideal.
As well as this, I took on a catering/barman role for the company Hubbub Catering - who I still work for every now and then. They're a fantastic group of people and it was great to have a very good mate as my boss there at the time too.

On a side note, I've discussed this with a few people and I've come to the conclusion that retail and/or bar work should be compulsory for everyone to do. Much like compulsory army service in some countries. You always hear about how difficult and annoying it is to work in retail, with general lack of respect from customers, strenuous tasks, late shifts, generally low pay - if everyone did a year or two in this area your empathy and compassion for shop assistants, bartenders and even other humans will increase ten fold and everyone would respect each other a lot more - maybe this could even lead to world peace? Anyway, I digress..

I had these roles ticking away in the background and I would get stuck into them when called upon, which suited me fine. I work very well in irregular routines and odd hours (I'm currently typing the first draft to this at 9.23pm on a Friday night). Now, the only problem was exactly this, it was all flexible work but inconsistent and unpredictable too. I needed to begrudgingly take something on more of a daily routine (and regular payment) to help me carry on developing my shenanigans.

I'll be the first to admit I definitely placed all my eggs in one basket with Innocent, I just wanted them so bad. We have similar styles and ethos - they seemed keen too. After the beer probe in my last blog post, they seemed to tease me on with nearly monthly email updates saying something similar each time along the lines of 'We're too busy to meet, but soon - we'll organise a meeting" After the 3rd/4th time they did this my patience was dwindling a bit.

(Update 2/10/15:  Innocent got back to me recently and thanked me for the Hellsize Brewing Co beers saying they enjoyed them a lot - they continued to say that they're re-thinking what they need for the creative team at the moment in terms of recruitment and hence why it's taken so long to arrange something. Sounds a bit limbo like so no point in waiting around even more than I need to! Onwards!)

To date I've had nearly 20 job offers from a range of roles and specialisms. Some did genuinely seem interesting and the rest, well, just awful. I've always had a huge gripe about the job market well before this 'social campaign' that I started for myself.

But man, no wonder millennials feel depressed in job searching and even when they are in a job itself. It's that feeling of underachieving in a grossly underpaid role - especially if you're in the creative field.

After a break from direct applications -  I awoke on a bright Monday full of glee. I buckled up and propped myself in front of my laptop with my coffee hand ready clawed around a super large porcelain Starbucks mug. I then commenced to figuratively headbutt my way through tedious clicks, attachments and sycophantic opening lines.

Two days later. I'd gone to 5 interviews.

Without bragging too much I've become pretty good at interviews as you'd come to expect by this point. But this week felt different, I felt a buzz of excitement. 

Then, the Friday hit. Three new job offers. All looked interesting.

The following was my decision making behind the outcome - allow my indulgent thinking out loud but I think it'll be good for me to write and document this - especially now when I'm looking back at it, these were my notes from my notebook so please forgive if tenses are a bit all over the place:



1) hiive - creative hub for opportunities and networking - digital/journalism work looks really fun. Offered full time internship but with a low salary, good networking - proposed increased salary or flexible hours instead. No dice.


2) Gander - start up, coming in as sole creative and right hand man. Seemed very exciting but unpredictable and confused what the exact role would entail. Wanted me in full time freelance which is a bit of an oxymoron - meaning no job security. Money was okay. It's a no from me, strike two.


3) Design Against Crime - now this was an interesting part time role social media/designer role at a research design innovation company based in Central St Martins in Kings Cross. 3 months initially, with good network and opportunity to stay longer. Any sort of social media experience in this day age is gold dust on a CV -could really make the role my own too.

I decided to go for the 3rd option. Now, I'm currently 3 months into and it seems like it's going well, learning new things but I'm keeping my eyes peeled on the horizon.

Especially because I have 2 cards up my sleeve: an idea for my 3rd campaign and an idea for a very big idea for a project which may well involve you, dear reader.

All will become clear in the next few months, in the mean time, let the adventure continue... Until next time..

TTFN.

How Innocent am I?

Following from Part Five of the scratch card saga, I decided to go for an extra effort in order to entice Innocent drinks to meet with me after a few months worth of delays.

They'd been in contact twice, but nothing really materialised from the emails we exchanged - it seemed they had every intention to meet me but couldn't find the time.

I decided to take matters into my own hands.

I wanted to create a new prop that would grab their attention once more and get this chin wag in full force. In collaboration with Hellsize Park Brewing Co (here's their Twitter link too), I obtained a few of their tasty beers with an idea to deliver them to Innocent personally. 
In the package there are: 
2 x Phantom Urns (IPA)
2 X Bonestorm Boc (Bock) 
2 x Pedigree Chum (Pilsner). 
A fine selection brewed by Josh of Hellsize and all designed & branded by myself and compatriot Louis Valenzuela. 

So the thinking for this is similar to when I did the scratch cards - everyone loves to receive post. Everyone also loves Friday beers. It's not bribing...

I wanted to make something hand held and individual to package the beers in - my own packaging with a personal touch. I'm all about hand made and hand crafted artwork - I do believe personable and hand made items speak volumes in terms of thought and skill. For me, it would have felt very easy and fake to get a design printed onto a case - I like to see the paint strokes of a painting by the artist kind of thing, you know? My main man Saul Bass touches a bit about this:

Did a bit of ideas generation to get the juices going:

Even did a Periscope broadcast when I was painting - even more surprising is that people ACTUALLY watched it. 27 to be in fact. Which is also my lucky number. I can't say they're anybody I know personally but I'm massively flattered and creeped out in equal measures. This can be watched but only on mobile phones, if you want to hear me blabber to myself.

Got me box from the local Oddbins. Time to paint!

I wanted to create a chargrilled look, as if the box had just been freshly branded with a red hot iron in HELL.

Few more smarter and finished shots:

The finishing touches:

I added a consignment note and letter to make sure it would be well received and not be just a random samples delivered to the company.

Then I was on my way!

So here I was, a faux courier. Dressed suitably in all black with a leather jacket, I was half tempted to borrow a helmet to make the appearance a little bit more convincing but decided against it I think it would've looked quite silly and anonymous hopping on off public transport and walking on foot in London..

Cheeky snapchat.

I was absolutely bricking it at this point. I envisioned the worse case scenario, security being called, dropping the bottles, a car chase, spilt smoothies etc. I didn't know what to expect in all honesty. Below is a video of the act, you'll have to excuse the vertical filming and terrible camerawork. I was trying to be incognito..

What I was going for:



More like:



Following from my blog post in Part Five, I mentioned Innocent in the blog and it notified them. A mini dialogue begun:

I continued the dialogue before and after my sneaking shenanigans:

Yep. Definitely.

 Now I wait....

To be continued...

The Scratch cards - Part Five.

Here we are at Part Five.

If you need any catching up, here is the Original post as well as the sequels in Part One, Two, Three and Four.


Jumping off the overground, I swaggered into the familiar village-esque area of Forest Hill and knocked on the doors to my latest interview at Place in Print,  a company who specialise in word play and location/geography artwork, which if you know me well is right up my street. 

I was a whole 5 minutes early.

The owner, Ed, answers the door. A sudden look of surprise spreads across his face. 

"Oh! You're... early!" He exclaims.

There I stood, all smug. I'm a man who prides himself on his punctuality and usually shames people on being late. 
Finally! Some recognition for my timekeeping!

He continues.

"I thought we said next Friday?"

"Ah!"

Oh I'm early, a week early. We had a case of classic email miscommunication that both of us agreeing to meet on a Friday... but not the same one.

It kind of reminds me of a miscommunication I had once when I was referred to as 'Ms Kyle' in an email. I can only assume that this was because of my unisex forename. 
The cheek - I didn't even get the chance to be called a 'Miss'! Humph.

But regardless of this we ended up having a great chat, I'd highly recommend checking them out as a company as they have great work and a great attitude. 
Unfortunately, this opportunity didn't work out for me. Ed seemed to like what I had to offer but he mentioned that there had been over 80 applicants for this new position in his currently, one man company. That's massive competition. It makes you think that what sort of numbers you're up against for the bigger companies - two, three times that? More? It really puts the creative job market into perspective. 

Are we churning out too many creatives or do we not have enough jobs for them?

Cheers, Conservative Party.

Next up - I had been liaising with the creative lead at Innocent via email for about 2 weeks now trying to squeeze in a date to meet, kept being pushed back and back until things had to be put on hold until April 30th as they had a holiday booked. So unfortunately I was put back into limbo.

But fortunately for me, I also had a trip booked. I was invited by a friend to go for a long weekend in Athens. That's one benefit of having time off, you can scour for cheap flights and go on them when you want. Good food and shenanigans - with one perk of the trip being taken along to the Olympiakos women's water polo semi final. It was quite the experience:

When I returned I had an interview with Havas Work Club with one of the creatives there called Dan.

This was the view as I waited, they hired an illustrator to re-create all of Bart Simpsons chalkboard detentions. The illustrator hired even dressed up as Bart too!

We had an awesome chat and got along really well. Dan said he liked the cut of my jib and liked my work - which was great. Only criticism and it has been mentioned before is that there's not enough digital/campaign/social media work in my portfolio, which is true. This slightly irks me as these kind of campaigns are usually obtainable once you're in the job - it's a slight catch 22. It's not the end of the world by any means but it's no where near as bad as when 'Junior' roles that were advertised in 2010 needed to have 2-3 years experience (!!).

Regardless, it seems like this is the main weakness of my 'folio - so I'm pursuing some set briefs to tackle this and make it a bit more well rounded. Dan was awesome enough to give me a few pointers which I've happily taken on board and I'm grateful for.

All in all, I've had to reflect on this whole experience. The scratch card saga has lasted about 3-4 months now, the sails aren't as full as they were but I'm recycling the campaign further into new job applications which is still giving me exposure.

When I started this, I had 2 goals I wanted to achieve:

a) Increase my profile and exposure as an illustrator.

b) Get a brand spanking new job.

I can definitely say (A) has been completed. I've obtained crazy exposure, attention, commissions, contacts, you name it. It's been great and so much fun.

Now, (B) hasn't been achieved just yet - I did anticipate this may take a bit more time - especially for a creative role - and I've been very diligent and patient towards this goal in particular.

The dream job I want is to work for Innocent. I've been in and out of contact with them over these past few months without much flourishing from it. 

I'm going to get them.

I thought of an interesting allegory. My scratch card project has been like me qualifying for the Olympics. I'm here now at the games, now I need to win the Gold medal. 

So I'm making 'something' to really get Innocent's attention...


I'll be talking to Innocent whether they like it or not.

Stay tuned for later this week...

General Election 2015 - Big heads, small ideas.

All as bad as each other. 

General Election 2015 - They're all as bad as each other.

General Election 2015 - The next televised debate.

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...