INTERNSHIP AT FRANK DESIGN 2011 By Marta Puchala
Contents
INTRO This document illustrates my experience of getting a work placement in the Graphic Design Industry. It tells about a journey that I went through, the process of preparation, application interview and the work experience itself. It includes advice and feedback I received from professional designers. It also includes reflection on my performance and work that I carried out for Frank Design, my placement.
#01 INTERNSHIP
#04 MY FIRST DAY
Arranging my Interview with a Frank Design and getting my portfolio together.
Learning on how to design a website from scratch.
#02 THE COMPANY
#05 MY WORK
Getting to know the company.
About project I have been working on at Frank.
#03 DESIGN TEAM
#06 ACKNOWLEGMENT
Getting to know the design team and making new friends in the industry and what have I learned fro them.
Thank you note.
#01 INTERNSHIP During the past two years of my Fda course I have done a couple of placements, both of which were related to the fashion industry. I really enjoyed both of them. However I felt confused about the pathway I want to explore in my career, so I decided to go for something completely opposite, so that I can see for myself what works for me. I decided to take the opportunity that was given to us in the second term to find work experience where I could explore new areas in graphic design. Therefore I applied to Graphic design studios with a wide range of work. At first I created a list of studios that I thought were most suitable for me. After researching the studios, I created a list of phone numbers to contact. I wanted to investigate more about what they do, who they are and their studio history, to make sure
I would be prepared for an interview. In addition this research proved very useful when I was putting together my cover letter. When I was sure about what type of studio I wanted to apply to, I created a list of phone numbers and making and email contact details in the form of a short data base.
Contact: Victoria Walmsley Victoria@blast.co.uk
Contact: Andy Hall Andy@wearefrank.com
Contact: Kyle Wheeler kwheeler@sasdesign.co.uk
Contact: Bryan Edmondson Bryan@seadesign.co.uk
Contact: Miranda Bolter Miranda@thepartners.co.uk
Contact: Lauren Bell Lauren@zipdesign.co.uk
Arranging my Interview I called all the studios on my list, introducing myself, politely asking if I there would be a possibility of sending my portfolio. The responses were very positive, and I received details of people who would be the best to contact. Some of the places were not interested in taking on students at that particular time. However they were more than happy to see my portfolio for future reference, and some of them asked me to keep in touch and contact them again later in the year. Before sending my portfolio, I redrafted my email directly to each of those places, which took me
several hours. I looked through my work samples several times to make sure that the photography was of high quality and I showed only the best samples of my work. I made sure my layout was clean, easy to look at and didn’t draw attention away from the work I was presenting. I also sent the PDF of my portfolio to tutor Catherine Smith, who gave me useful feedback and tips which I applied in my final portfolio. So, I was ready. I had my cover letters and portfolio ready to be sent off.
Responses that I received
Miranda Bolter form The Partners
Andrew Hall from Frank Design
Interview with Frank Design Victoria Walmsley from Blast Design
Kyle Wheeler from SAS Design
The first interview I arranged was with Frank Design, for the 9th of December 2010. I left home with plenty of time to make sure I would not be late as the first impression very important. The interview was carried out in a relaxed atmosphere, with four of us sitting in the meeting room where I was able to talk about my work. The Frank team seemed to be impressed with my portfolio and straight away offered me 10 weeks of work experience, saying: “We will offer you 10 weeks at Frank. Normally we take students for one month only, however we give you a one month trial and if the chemistry is right, we will work together for a full ten weeks� Richard Webb. During the interview I received very useful feedback both from Andy Hall and Richard Webb
about my physical portfolio. As much they appreciated my work, they commented about disorganization of my portfolio. The areas that interest me in graphic design are very wide and I equally enjoy Illustration and communication design. Their suggestion was to create two books, one which presented my illustration skills and a second with my graphic design for communication. The also commented that since I am now closer to graduation and probably will go for interviews more often, it is possible that my work could be damaged if the number of people have to look through the original pieces. When I finally came to leave the interview Andy asked me if I would leave one of my prints behind for them to display in their office. I was very flattered.
#02. THE COMPANY About Frank Design Frank Design is a partnership : Richard Webb and Andy Hall who have been working in the industry for over 20 years. They both worked in the past as art directors and designers. The addition to this partnership is Niggle who is a senior graphic designer and media expert at Frank. Frank design has been running since 2005. Their work covers identity and brand design, packaging, print web and everything in between. They say: “ The principles of good design are universal, and our multidisciplinary team bring experience, insight, and
knowledge to whatever form of visual communication is appropriate” Their joined-up approach means that client needs are considered as whole and “we deliver rational, effective design using whatever medium is right for the message”. Currently most of the work that Frank does is based on brand identity and web design, which was a great learning opportunity for me. Previously, before my time in the studio, I had very limited ideas on carrying out web design. You can view their work at www.wearefrank.com
#03 THE DESIGN TEAM
Learnt.....
The team Rick Web Designer and partner in the business.
Andy Hall Designer and partner in the business.
Niggle Senior Designer and media expert at Frank Design.
During the time I spent at Frank design I had the pleasure to work with each of the Frank team members. Whichever project I was working on, and whichever member was in charge of a job, they all were very happy to help me out when I needed it. They taught me a great deal and showed plenty of patience in explaining what I should be doing when designing a website, from simply setting up a document through to how viewers interact with websites, designing layouts and generally how things worked at Frank Design. They are an extremely friendly team with strong team ethics and a great sense of humour. I found it a wonderful working environment. While they work on a project they are so very willing to help each other out with ideas and corrections to help improve their overall work.
Often students don’t understand the basic principles of working in a team in a graphic design studio. It is hard to adapt to working under the direction of somebody and to be working for a client who has a vision which is not always the optimum answer to a brief. Working at Frank was really enjoyable for me and something important I learnt is to always to back up the work we are doing a client. Admin in a studio is very important and it is crucial that the files you have been working on are organized and clear for other designers, as there is always a possibility that the project will need to be completed by another team member. Plus if you are working on a project as a team it is important that your teammates understand exactly where and precisely at what stage the project is at. This idea also applies to website design which involves many intricate layers in it’s construction. It is important when designing a website that the web developer knows exactly how at what stage the work has reached and the layers are named and easy to understand. The management of time in a studio is very important, as often designers work on several projects at once, jumping from one to another. At Frank each team member keeps an individual record of all work they undertake, which maximises the productivity of each designer and the studio as a whole and enables a deadlines to be meet. I also learned that designers love tea! So I became an expert in making this for the team.
#04 MY FIRST DAY...
#05 MY WORK The Firs Task From the first day at Frank Design, one of my main jobs was to work for a client, Calypso Rose, who is the owner of Clippy London. The Clippy brand is a range of PVC products with opening pockets for photographs, fabrics, buttons and beads. Anyone can customise a product to create their own personalised accessory I completed several small jobs including graphics for Calypso Rose’s Clippy display in Japan, helping to create a stand design for a trade show there. The client provided images of a previous stand which helped me to understand what she expected from us. Calypso Rose was happy with work I did for her on the stand design, so I was asked to carry on working on low budget small projects for her.
On my first day I arrived early and had a very warm welcome from the team. Before we started working we had a small chat and we got to know each other a little bit better. I arrived to the studio prepared, having the basic tools with me, so I was able to start on tasks without causing too much of a fuss. In the morning there was a lot of note taking: mainly passwords, names, and timings. Once I had all the necessary information, I was briefed by Andy on a new project that had arrived from a client named Clippykit London. I spent the rest of this day on research related to this project.
Clippy bag
Those images were provided with a brief . The photographs are of stand that Clippy used previously.
Brainstorming and Consider all Factors.
Images, witch I thought saying a story about Clippy.
. I started this project considering all the factors, and brainstormed to clear any preconceptions and to generate quick, new ideas. Then I moved on to collecting images that I thought represented what
Clippy is about and created an idea boards to be presented to Andy, The presentation went smoothly and I was ready to create some images and I came up with a theme and some illustrations
Examples of a graphics I have designed for Clippy sett in Japan .
Printing Unfortunately Frank Design was not managing the printing for this job and the graphics, which were printed in Japan, were not managed in the way we wanted. It’s a shame, however the first job was done and the client was happy.
Work in progress
Second Task For the second job, I prepared digital informative collages for her website. The first was a instruction on how to customizes a Clippy bag online, and others were a informative panels which communicate that Clippy London is offering to their customers competitions. The competition panel include a click through page which I had to design to. Calypso Rose was very happy with my outcomes and guys in a studio were laughing that I am an official Clippy Girl!
My work online
Competition Panels
Third Task Alive is a collaboration of musicians with a strong percussive core laying down a rhythmic spine to support the five rhythms. With a variety of instruments including flutes, kora, cello, guitar, bass, didge, harmonium and voice to draw upon, our music can be tender, powerful, reflective and euphoric. Live music has the ability to reflect what’s in the room in the moment, it is a current for energy that the dancers bring and become Alive! Events really are a co-creation by all who come to them. The client Tim Brown asked Frank to design Flyers which are informative of their events and to redesign a website for them. I was briefed by Rick for this project and then I was more on less left alone to get on with it. I was very happy that they trusted me enough to give me such a responsibility, though I felt there was a lot of pressure on me, especially as I have never designed a website before. I realized during the process that I had no idea whatsoever how to go about it. At first I had to find out a little bit about the musicians, and used a technique to consider all factors, then brainstormed and did some sketches. A couple of days after I started working on the flyers, Rick realized that he hadn’t given me the correct size of flyer, which was a problem as I was working in a square format and the flyer size was supposed
The work is exposed on line at www.clippykitlondon.co.uk/
to be A6, which was a waste of time. However a good lesson for the future: “Don’t be afraid to ask questions and speak up!” There was no big drama and I had some ideas in my head, but I still had to redesign the composition of the flyer. When it came to designing a website there was a slightly bigger problem. First of all, for some reason I thought that you designed a website in Illustrator, and I had no idea that it is actually better to do this in Photoshop as this is a pixel- based program whereas in Illustrator you work in vectors, so when it comes to developing a website, problems may appear. So when I was working on this project I learned a great deal, from setting up a document in Photoshop, through to organizing layers that are easy to understand for a web developer and simple to present to a client. This project took me a long time to do even though it was very simple web design- but this is where I have learned the most, from my mistakes! The other problematical thing for me was the subject and style I had to work in. My work is often clean, crispy and very controlled, whereas here I had to be everything opposite, For me, to be like a chameleon was very hard and this project was probably something I would never choose to work on. But there you go- you have to be flexible in the graphic design industry!
Quick task redesigning a logo
Alive! Old Logo
Brainstorming
Alive project was very low budget job there. The Client ask for new website and Flyer, They didn’t mention to redesign a logo. However we decided to put a little bit of afford in to this as we felt that we cant go anywhere with a awful mark like the previous they used, which is a the Name of a group typed in a Cracked typeface. There was not much
New Logo
time to think of ideas for this logo so I kept the essence they try to communicate before with a slightly changes. Before I started working on a flyers I cleared my had and put some ideas on the paper. Starting from brainstorming, idea generation through small scathes.
Designing a flyer
I come up with several different ideas for a flyer , the most successful where once with a dancing and jumping people which client find most appealing. After sending through to a client couple of versions
we made a final decisions and changes in a colour pallet. The flyers has been sent to print, one job done. During the design process I was getting a feedback from Rick, and making changes under his direction.
Final changes in a colour pallet and the job is done!
Designing a website
Version 01.
Version 02.
Working on Alive website I find much harder then I thought it will be. I soon realized that my organization skills were very poor what in effect make this process much longer and harder. I was getting confused in my own work and waisted a lot of time of finding necessary files and layers in Photoshop, also designing a layout for a web I funded much harder then designing layout for print. The proportions and scale on the screen were overwhelming and when I was focusing on aesthetic of the website I was forgetting a functionality which in web design is a main priority. During that task I learnt how to sett up a document when I am working on the website, what should I watch out for the measurements like for example the withe of a website what is important as
we all have different computers and the size of screens are different, I had to find out what is the standard, most appropriate seize, I also learnt about dead space in web design and how important is for me designer to decide what will happen on the ages of a page, this is something I had no idea before. Besides aesthetics, functionality and how viewer interact with website I learnt technical things which were equally important in process of designing a website also how to take advantage of small space in the browser that designer is given. Before I started working on the computer, I was advised to create several scathes and work out how this website will function.
Feedback
Final Design
During the design process I had few short meetings with Rick to evaluate what I have done so far. Every time I revived useful feedback and I could push the process forward.
Fourth Task The final design. After the last meeting with Rick, I have applied some changes in the design on which he comment on. By that time my layers where organized and ready to pass on to a web developer. The design has been approved first by Rick and then by client and is now in a process of developing and soon will appear on line.
‘Frank’ asked me to design moving postcards for them studio, this was very enjoyable and fun few days. I generated several ideas, collected research of images and then start drawing. After I worked in Photoshop to polish off this illustrations. The Frank team was very happy with the result and the postcards will be displayed on their website.
Five Task The fourth task was one of the most enjoyable for me. Guys at Frank asked me and Niggle to redesign their website. I was in charge of design and Niggle was acting more like art director and he was developing a website. For the first few days I was collecting a good body of research. Mainly looking at several websites, looking in to how they viewer can interact with them and the overall aesthetics. Then I organized my research in to several different categories: big background image, black and white ,
busy, minimall, colour full, illustrative, competitors etc. After this stage me and Niggle presented to Andy and all together analysed what we like, dislike what works and what doesn’t and eliminate styles that we thought are not appropriate or don’t work very well. Next I did good brainstorm and idea generation on Frank design, who they are, what they do and what is them studio ideology. I created a mood boards which helped me to visualise what Frank is all about. Then I was ready to start creating layouts.
Brainstorming
Layout 01. Fixe
Home Page. Grid display work in categories. In each of the panel The navigation panel stay still, and as you scrolling down the grid you can see slights of work, that consistently change. with work is hiding behind.
After I created first layouts I presented them to Niggle and together we were analysing, and improving those ideas. After receiving a feedback from Niggle, went back ad add changes which we discussed.
When you scroll over the image, panel is highlighting and it give you description of work.
When viewer click on image, the work is displayed as a single project with a description on the right hand side.
As you scrolling down the images are changing, but the description doesn’t move.
When viewer get to the end of a project, there is an option next project which task you to a next project from the same category. However viewer may chose to go back to home page using main navigation.
Layout 03. Growing on You!
Layout 02. Hang Man
Home page. The big panel on a home pages is fill with a photograph made by the Frank Design teem.
As viewer scrolling over the photograph the grig reviews selection of projects.
project description.
As a viewer scrolling over the image the grid rearrange it self, and create a space for a big image .
GROWING ON YOU
HUNGMAN
If viewer click on one of the small images it will take them to HUNGMAN
Home Page is a grid with selection of work and the navigation panel is base on the left hand side and always stay still.
Project zoom and description
GROWING ON YOU
When viewer click on about page, the informations are shown on the top of a page, but as viewer scrolling down is going back to original grid (home page).
Few days later we both presented the ideas to Andy and Rick . They liked some of ideas, however they comment that we need to do something more current and they added: ‘less is more ‘. . About Page
Frank Website Design – Development
Home page is very minimum. The big Background image change every few second. On the left is main navigation panel.
When viewer press work, the selection of chosen project will shown.
I take to account what Rick and Andy said. I took a step back and did some more research, then several sketches and finally start creating new ideas for layouts
If viewer press on image is going in to a project, and can view it all by scrolling down.
When viewer press about panel the information will slide down on the same page. About can be open on any page.
If viewer scroll over image, other images go orange.
Home page. Background image change every few second. Overview ( About Frank) is based in the top panel.
Home page. Viewer manual scroll panel on to of a page to view images.
Work overview. Is a selection of the Frank projects. If viewer press about button information slides in the right hand side.
Work page zoom. Information about a project appear on the left hand side. Viewer by scrolling navigation panel on top of a page is able to see other images related to a project. When viewer scroll to the end of a project the original grid with selection of work appear.
Work page. Work is displayed as a grig of images.
Contact page.
Project zoom. The navigation for a project zoom are two small arrows. To see rest of a project viewer simply press on arrow and images slides on page.
By pressing Read More, full informations about Frank drop down over a image.
Viewer can also view work by category.
Final and approved Design Page 1.
Home page. The big background image is a image of Frank moving cart. Home page is a gallery of Frank scathes and photographs. Image change every few second.
Work Page. Project are displayed in a vertical grid.
Overview is base in a panel on the left hand side. If viewer press read more full informations slides down.
Work Page. To see more project viewer scrolling down bar on the wright hand side.
Final and approved Design. Page 2
Work zoom. This page has few navigation systems. Viewer can navigate the work by pressing a button base in a bar on above a project. (Each project is braked down to few categories for example: Caravan project is Identity, Print and Website)
Contact Page. Is a map with directions and necessary details. The illustration on the bottom is an moving image.
Work zoom. Viewer can also navigate each project by pressing and arrows on the left hand side of every image. Work slides down or up and hide behind invisible panel on top of a page.
At the momet Nigel is working to develope my design and soon my work it will appeare online.
#06 ACKNOWLEDGMENT I would like to thank Andy, Rick and Niggle for having the patients to go through so much with me and helping me to understand everything from technicality of a website, design, thought useful tips on using a software etc. Especially the time he has taken away from his own deadlines to make sure I know what I’m doing. So a massive thanks for the training!! I had a great time working in Frank studio and Each of a members taught me something important which will help me with my development as a professional designer.