Careers Seminar

Last night we were invited to attend a careers seminar in the lecture theatre. There were four speakers in total; Tim Jones from Ignition Strategic Design, Rich Milton from Brand in a Box, Sam Dyer from The House and Bob Abbott from Future Publishing.

First to speak was Tim Jones, who had the menacing corporate air of a Bond villain (think Christopher Walken in A View To A Kill). It was immediately clear that he is not a designer and never has been. He talked about "going forward", "the extra mile", "design as a product" and "the big guys". He is exactly the type of person that I will never work for or with. It was not surprising when he said that he "came in through sales". Used car sales most likely. Moving swiftly on...

Rich Milton seemed more like a real human being. He works for Brand in a Box, a company that makes eco-friendly packaging for sandwiches. The packaging looks pretty classy, sort of like Pret A Manger, and he told us about how people "eat with their eyes". I wish he demonstrated this live for our amusement, especially if he used an extra crispy BLT. But as our first speaker might say, "lunch is for losers"...

Sam Dyer was introduced mere seconds before Rich Milton lost the room completely. Then there was a technical hitch with his presentation and the room was lost completely. In stepped Future's Bob Abbott, whose face was vaguely familiar from when I served my time there (1998-2002). His delivery was hip and down with the kids, as is the Future way, and he even dropped in the occasional swear. To be fair to him he seemed like a decent sort and he wasn't born in a suit; he started out as a designer before becoming editor of Computer Arts. He talked about how a typical magazine team at Future was a passionate bunch, who loved their subject and loved making great publications. This was certainly true when I started at Future in 1998, although everything changed when the company floated on the stock market in 1999. It is now a top-heavy corporation that churns out sub-standard product for an ever-dwindling readership, with no room for anything as unquantifiable as "passion". Where do you put that in a spreadsheet?

/rant

Anyway, after assuring us that Future was still a very cool place to work, "like uni but you get paid", he told us that design is not shit, which most of us already knew, and that percentages were something that you had to talk about a lot in business. Thanks Bob! See you down the pub later?

Finally Sam Dyer took to the mic and nervously informed us that he didn't like public speaking. Finally, a human! Sam is actually a designer, a fellow creative who works for a branding agency in Bath called The House. He showed some examples of his work, most of which was really nice and also very clever in true A Smile In The Mind style (use of negative space, visual puns, etc). It came as no surprise to hear that he cut his teeth at The Partners - the huge London agency that was co-founded by A Smile In The Mind author David Stuart. He was not in any way brash or cocky, despite being an obviously talented and successful designer. And he didn't do anything that followed the current hipster trends, which was very refreshing. It's also probably why we never had him as one of our usual guest lecturers!

Sam gave us a lot of practical advice - work hard, do work placements, research the companies you want to work for and do the kind of work you know they will like. He also said to not bother emailing him or writing a letter as it's just too easy to ignore. No, if you want to get anywhere you need to pick up the phone and call. I am not too happy doing this but I also can't imagine that Sam is either. Sometimes you just gotta suck it up. The person on the other end of the phone is after all a human being too. Unless of course it is Tim Jones.