Placement at Spiral Brand Communications

This blog post highlights my day to day placement, showcasing skills learnt and knowledge gained. 

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Infographic created by myself for their social media accounts.

Placement took place over 24th October- 3 November

Day One:

10am-6pm

Met Rob at 10am, briefly discussed my design skills. Took a tour of the office and introduced me to his other colleagues.

10:35-Briefed on Bank Of Scotland Infographic 

The infographic focused directly on statistics, with a previously developed house style being apparent. Colour schemes, typefaces and scale were all factors in which were previously determined.

Thoughts:

• felt un-creative as I began to realise I was in an artworkers position, completing other peoples vision. 
• skills gained surrounding infographic layouts-not an element of design in which I usually explore 
• developing designs in an in-house style 

Day two: 

8.30-5.30

LinkedIn internal brief (bake off)

The LinkedIn brief was mainly the work of a fellow colleague, although I was asked to devise some cake illustrations based upon some recipes. 

Thoughts:

• not an overly strong illustrator but created vector art
• no one really draws/creates anything by hand, something I found difficult as this is usually part of my work process. 
• small corrections were asked but they were mainly okay 

Day Three:

8.30-5.30

Bank Of Scotland Infographic 

Day three was spent finishing the previous work set on the first day for The Bank Of Scotland. 

Thoughts:

• Sat at the desk for hours on end..never really realised that design is an 'office job' till now. 
• Feedback was easily assessible
• Unsure on the artworker role as the days seem really repetitive 

Day Four:

8.30-5.30

Briefed on email header for TSB 

Creating an email header for a 'party' invitation for the in house workers.

LinkedIn internal brief (bake off)

Finishing the previously set brief



Thoughts:

• Sat at the desk all day, no one really talks, even lunch im sat at the desk/expected to work 
• Felt the briefs set to be somewhat boring 
• Felt un-interested/wanted the weekend to come 

Day Five:

RSA Infographic 

Using pre-developed iconography another infographic was developed. Again for internal use, the infographic presents the key figures from the previous years expenditure.

Thoughts: 

• enjoyed developing a more creative response 
• was able to create my own iconography figures 
• felt the social aspect was a bit more vibrant (maybe cause it was a friday?)__

Day Six:

new week, new thoughts? 

8.30-5.30

Virgin photoshop exercise 

                                                                         

Removing the background from an image 

LinkedIn-more cakes 

Thoughts:

• Removing backgrounds etc is very boring/time consuming but that is an artworker role 
• Enjoyed developing the illustrations, allowed creative freedom 
• Began to feel restless staring at a computer all day 

Day Seven:

8.30-5.30

William Hill iconography pieces 

Creating iconography pieces for their internal portal 

Thoughts: 

• Gained a lot of taught skills using illustrator 
• Enjoyed creating individual elements 
• one of the most enjoyable tasks yet 
• lots of feedback

Day Eight:

William Hill GIF

Creating a gif for their internal server 

Thoughts: 

• Learnt how to make a gif on photoshop 
• Learnt via colleagues/youtube 
• Learnt new skills, strong day 

Day Nine:

Lloyds TSB email header 

Developed another email header, but this time for TSB 

Thoughts:

• Learnt how to create their watermarks 
• Learnt how to make a watercolour overlay 

Day Ten: 

Infographic for their social media 

Thoughts:

• throughly enjoyed
• creative freedom 
• created my own iconography person 
• shared via there social media 

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Things learnt during the placement: 

Software skills: 

Photoshop:

• Creating a gif 
• Gif from layers
• Saving gifs 
• Clone stamp tool 
• Opacity effects 

Illustrator: 

• Kerning-create outlines/ungroup
• key short cuts 

InDesign: 

• Preview 
• How to pre-set swatches 
• Converting file formats 

General skills: 

• Sharing via an internal system 
• Learnt what a copywriters role is 
• Collaborating on similar aspects of one project
• How others clock in and out of projects/how they work as a business 
• Confidence in industry 

Companies worked with:William Hill, Tsb, Lloyds, LinkedIn, Bank of Scotland, First Direct, RBS, RSA, Yorkshire Building Society, Virgin 

Future: 

Although the time spent at Spiral allowed me to gain a greater insight into the design industry, the heavily digital format was an area in which I struggled with, as to myself it resembled very much of an 'office job'. I also found the artworker role highly uncreative and de-humanising. By the end of the placement I found the experience more of an effort than a pleasure. Obviously I understand that design isn't always going to be easy, but the artworker role in which I played really is not what I want to be doing for the rest of my life. I also believe that the company in which I selected was highly commercial and did not express the creativity in which I expected.

When considering my creative path after university, it is evident that my placement has altered my judgement. I may potentially (if I am unable to gain other creative employment) consider working as an artworker for a short period purely to gain creative experience. I would not want this process to take more than a few months, as I genuinely believe it would dissolve my creative passion.  Other than for experience I do not wish to work as an artworker within the future, and therefore other creative options became apparent to myself.

During the placement I found that the constant designing was tiring, and did not allow myself time to drive passion. As a result of this I would suggest that in the future I may explore freelance or even some form of creative management. A creative director role may be suiting, as I could complete both design work and written work, ensuring that I do not get creative block.