A chat with Mike Lewis at The Archipelago
After weeks of emails and organisation I finally sorted out a chat with Mike Lewis at The Archipelago based at The Tower Works in Leeds. He started The Archipelago about a year ago but it has only just become a bit more established, before he had Studio MIK MIK. Mike produces some beautiful illustration work for print and he offered me some great advice. We found ourselves chatting for a good few hours. He is such a lovely guy which really helped me when he asked to see some work! I have never really shown a professional designer outside of uni my work before, so when he asked for me to bring some along I panicked a bit. I picked out some of my work which I knew I would be able to talk about. We went through my work and I struggled a bit, I did include my YCN work which he was impressed with. We talked a lot about stories of people he knows who graduated and what they ended up doing as I mentioned that I didn’t really know what I wanted to do when I graduate. He told me how he worked at William Hill (the betting shop) for a year after he graduated and then worked for two design studios in Leeds before he set up for himself. He said he found himself in the same position as me in third year, he tried many different things to try and find who he was a designer. Mike studied Vis Com at LCA and graduated about 10 years ago, he told me how he always had a passion for drawing and that’s when he realised that’s who he wanted to be. He told me not to worry about who I am as a designer and where I want to be as that is what third year is all about. He just said that I should cover all areas in third year to build a strong portfolio which may then help me decide what I want to do.
He told me a lot about his pet hates when it comes to people contacting him, and he was sure to let me know I had done a good job when writing emails, which is really good to know! It was funny because I sent him an email saying thanks and he had a typo in his reply. One of his pet hates is badly written emails and letters! I soon let him know and we had a good bit of GD banter ď Š I will be staying in contact with Mike throughout third year as he has told me he would be happy to help and it would be great to let him know how I am getting on.