Sam Blower
Placement evaluation at Mediacom Create/MBA Leeds. September 1st 2014 - August 7th 2015
01 Introduction
02 Press
03 Digital
04 Social
05 Evaluation
01 Introduction
Introduction For my placement year I worked at MediaCom. It’s a global company, however the department I worked in was called Create which was a graphic and web design department within the Leeds office. Halfway through the year ‘Create’ became MBA as it has changed within the company, however fortunately this did not effect my placement. I decided that I wanted to do a work placement about half way through second year of university because I wanted to break up my studies and have a years work experience. I applied to lots of different agencies before hearing back from MediaCom who after an initial interview rang me back for a second phone interview and offered me the job. I accepted the job without thinking about the fact that it involved moving to a new city on my own, but I decided that it was worth the risk. I moved to Leeds at the end of August and I worked from the 1st of September 2014 until the 7th of August 2015. Working 9 till 5:30, Monday to Friday was new to me but was something I got used to quite quickly. The head of studio is Rachel Simmonds (rachel.simmonds@mediacom.com) who was my direct boss, however I also worked with other members of the department depending on what the work was. There were 3 main categories of work that I did throughout the year, these were Press, Digital and Social. I have included some samples of my work as well as descriptions of what I had to do.
02 Press
Press Press adverts were the bulk of the work that I did throughout the year. As the junior designer I was assigned most of the recruitment or public notice adverts, the main clients for these were GatenbySanderson and Bradford Council. When I first started, these jobs would come from a different department printed out and put into job trays. Each tray would have a time deadline for each hour of the day and our department would work through them taking the job from the top. Halfway though the year this changed to a digital system on a website called Trello but still followed the same format without using as much paper. It was our departments job to design the adverts as well as send them off to the publications. You had to be fairly quick with these jobs as they could soon pile up and often had a short deadline. For GatenbySanderson there were already templates set up for Indesign, the client would usually pick a template and supply us with the text and what dimensions they wanted the advert to be. We would then drop in the text and logos making sure everything was in the right colour profile for printing as well as editing any photographs where necessary. The client quite often wanted other changes such as having the colours to match the companies logo, and would sometimes decide they wanted something else completely. These adverts tended to be quite repetitive but it meant you could get into a good routine if there were quite a few to do that day. Bradford Council also had templates for different categories of advert, however with them being things such as planning notices they were more focused on fitting as much copy into a small space as possible rather than having a high quality looking advert. Whilst I didn’t find this aspect of work particularly interesting, it was very good practise for me using Indesign due to the amount of time I spent doing so many adverts throughout the week. Whilst these jobs didn’t challenge me creatively in the traditional sense, it was quite often a challenge to deal with the fact that the client often provided too much text to fit comfortably into the advert without looking too busy. I’ve included some of the adverts I did throughout the year on the next few pages.
Press GatenbySanderson
Commissioner £366 per day, 3 days per month
Director of Children’s Services
We are an independent body set up by the UK Parliament, responsible for regulating party and election finance and setting standards for well-run elections. We work to support a healthy democracy, where elections and referendums are based on our principles of trust, participation and no undue influence and we seek to put the voter first in everything that we do.
Competitive Salary
As one of our Commissioners you will bring a track record of senior level involvement in the administration of electoral processes and will be able to contribute to the leadership and strategic direction of our organisation. You will be comfortable with scrutiny from the regulated community, politicians and the wider media. Your networks at senior level in local government will help us build and deepen our relationships in this area of our work.
Full details to appear in next week’s MJ. In the meantime feel free to contact Penny Ransley of GatenbySanderson on 020 7426 3962 for further details or to register interest.
These are important times for democratic politics – if you have the motivation and passion for the
GatenbySanderson
challenge of regulating this area of public life, we want to hear from you. For further information, and to submit an application please visit www.gatenbysanderson.com If you would like an informal, confidential discussion having read the candidate information pack, please call our advising consultants, Michael Dobson on 0207 426 3968 or Mark Turner on 020 7426 3983. Closing date: Friday 29th May 2015 We are committed to equality of opportunity and welcome applications from all sections of the community.
GatenbySanderson
Job no: GSe19264_ElectoralCommission_MJ Date: 20 March Client: Gatenby Size: 148x107 Media: The MJ Insertion date:26 March Account Handler: Paula Operator (Set by):Sam
Job no: GSe22199_PortsmouthCC_Teaser Date: 14 July Client: Gatenby Size: 148x107 Media: The MJ County Council Insertion date: 16Cumbria July Account Handler: Paula Operator (Set by):Sam
Senior Manager, Legal and Democratic Services (Deputy Monitoring Officer) Up to £75,000 Cumbria is a large, diverse and complex county – an interesting mixture of urban and rural communities, leading edge industries and beautiful tourist destinations. The Council’s legal and democratic service is crucial to the smooth running of the Authority, and at the heart of many of the key decisions and issues we face. For example, we have a new headquarters being built in Carlisle, the nuclear industry has various applications in the pipeline, we are in the process of building new schools and maintain thousands of kilometres of highways, we are working proactively with health partners to integrate health and care services with ambitious plans for new residential homes, and our children’s services department is on a significant improvement journey.
Director for Corporate Governance and leading a large newly reshaped team, the Senior Manager, Legal and Democratic Services will also be the Deputy Monitoring Officer, which means they will have considerable exposure to Members from all parties and attend Full Council and Cabinet as appropriate. This is a great opportunity to develop your career in a fascinating and challenging environment. We are therefore looking for qualified lawyers with management experience within a Local Government context, and the ambition and drive to influence and shape the work of the Authority at all levels.
We are therefore looking for someone to head our legal and democratic team who can offer incisive and thoughtful advice to officers and Members, ensuring the Authority makes the best possible decisions across a huge variety of complex issues. Reporting to the Assistant
For more information please see www.cumbrialeadership.com or speak to our advising consultants Rabiya Ali on 0113 205 6063 or Luke Judd on 0113 205 6077. Closing date: 24 October 2014
Serving the people of Cumbria
GatenbySanderson
cumbria.gov.uk
Job no: GSe17781_CumbriaCC - Date: 25.09.14
Press
Chief Executive £178,476
Full details of one of the biggest and most influential roles in local government to appear in the MJ next week. In the
Besides expertise, industry insight and outstanding candidates, here’s something else we’ve picked up. No 1
meantime feel free to contact our advising consultants at GatenbySanderson Jon Houlihan or Martin Tucker on 0121 644 5700 or Luke Judd on 0113 205 6097 for further details or to register interest. GatenbySanderson
Job no: Gatenby_Bradford-Teaser Date: 10 February Client: Gatenby Size: 148x107 Media: The MJ Insertion date: 12 February Account Handler: Paula Operator (Set by):Sam
Assistant Director, Legal and Governance Salary to £74,000
We are delighted to be acknowledged as the fastest growing recruitment organisation across the UK, and doubly pleased that it is our focus on public services that has got us there. Commitment, energy and the talent to transform are skills we both look for and live up to. For more information, call our Managing Partner, Martin Tucker on 0121 644 5708 or email: martin.tucker@gatenbysanderson.com
GatenbySanderson
www.gatenbysanderson.com
Job no: Gatenby_Filler Date: 17 March Client: Gatenby Size: 148x107 Media: The MJ Insertion date: 19 March Account Handler: Bibbs Operator (Set by):Sam
Salford is a vibrant and lively city undergoing significant growth and development – and it is right at the heart of some of the most exciting changes in Local Government. The devolution agenda in Greater Manchester offers us some fantastic opportunities, as does the further growth of Media City in Salford. Within the City Council, we are strengthening the capacity of our top team to ensure we can deliver the services and support our residents and businesses need. We are currently looking to appoint an Assistant Director for Legal and Governance, to be the City Council’s Monitoring Officer and manage a wide array of services including coroners, registrars, information management and democratic services. The postholder will also be the client for the highly successful legal shared service we operate with Manchester City Council. This is an exciting opportunity to work with an elected City Mayor, and the successful candidate will play a key leadership role providing advice to the City Mayor, City Director, elected members and senior officers. We are therefore looking for a candidate with senior legal experience in Local Government but more specifically, you will be robust and principled, with a ‘can do’ approach and the ability to offer clear advice to colleagues. You will of course be ambitious and driven, with a desire to develop your career in one of the busiest and exciting authorities in the country. For more information and how to apply please go to www.leadersinsalford.info or talk to our advising consultants Jack Whitehead on 0113 205 6062 or Luke Judd on 0113 205 6077. Closing date: 22 May 2015
GatenbySanderson
Job no: GSe20996_SalfordCC Date: 24 April Client: Gatenby Size: 148x219 Media: The MJ
Press
a breath of fresh air
Free
Turner Contemporary, Margate
to transform education for the future
Chief Executive Up to £115,000 Opportunity, ambition and growth East Herts Council needs a driven and enthusiastic individual who’s at the top of their game to come and share their vision, drive and leadership. We are ambitious for our communities and our district; are you? East Herts is one of the best places in the country to live and work and you could be the “shaper” of our strong and growing team to bring innovation and dedication to our residents. Ideally from a public sector background, if you share our ambitions please contact us through www.gatenbysanderson.com/job/GSe20950 or by calling one of our dedicated consultants Ben Cox on 020 7426 3997 or Martin Tucker on 0121 644 5708 for a confidential conversation. Closing date is 15 May 2015. We’re not just an exceptional organisation, with successive Charter Marks - we’re a truly outstanding employer. IIP accredited, we offer great benefits including relocation packages, flexible working hours, generous leave, subsidised use of leisure facilities and a delightful working location in Hertford.
Head of School Improvement Salary range from £81,619 to £85,010 plus SPA points if applicable and possible market premia This senior role puts you at the heart of implementing the Kent School Improvement Strategy and developing Kent’s vision for 21st century education with responsibility for the delivery and quality assurance of primary, secondary and special school standards and performance. With a strong focus on raising and sustaining pupil attainment for all and with proven experience of successful leadership and change management in schools and/or local authorities you will lead our strategy to improve the quality of provision in schools even further. Striking the right balance of supportive partnership with schools, together with the right levels of challenge and intervention, you will ensure we deliver for children and young people in Kent. Please visit www.kentleadership.com for further information or, for a confidential discussion about the role, contact our recruitment advisers Penny Ransley on 020 7426 3962 or Carolyn Coates on 0121 644 5705. Closing date for applications: Friday 10 July 2015
GatenbySanderson
GatenbySanderson
WORKING TOWARDS EQUALITY
Job no: GSe20950_East Herts Date: 17 April Client: Gatenby Size: 148x107 Media: The MJ Insertion date: 23 April Account Handler: Bibbs Operator (Set by):Sam
Job no: GSe22161_KentCC Date: 22 June Client: Gatenby Size: 148x107 Media: The MJ Insertion date: 25 June Account Handler: Paula Operator (Set by): Sam
BETTER FOR YOU
Director of Estates and Facilities Gloucestershire – attractive salary Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is a £480 million organisation providing acute health services across Gloucestershire and specialist services for patients from surrounding counties, from the Cheltenham General and Gloucestershire Royal Hospitals. The vision of the Trust is to deliver ‘safe, effective and personalised care – every patient, every time, all of the time’ and you will lead the estates, capital and facilities functions that underpin our clinical service delivery.
Reporting to the Deputy CEO as a key member of the Trust Management Team, you will provide assurance and advice to the Board, you will also lead the design and delivery of an innovative estates strategy. With an annual capital programme of £20 million and a team of c600, this is a role requiring a senior leader with experience of managing a complex estates and FM portfolio. One of your first tasks will be to select your Head of Estates. With a demonstrable record of delivery, innovation in change management and implementing best practice standards, you will have successfully managed estates and facilities teams providing services in a complex environment. Personal attributes will include the ability to combine intellectual capacity, excellent communication skills, a ‘can do’ attitude and obvious credibility with senior managers. You will require a relevant professional qualification. You will also bring commercial skills as we seek to maximise the return on our estates investment.
To find out more about our organisation, this role and the recruitment process please visit www.gloshospitalsrecruitment.com and for a confidential conversation call Melanie Shearer on 0207 426 3971. Closing date 12 June 2015
Job no: GSe21599_GloucestershireNHS Date: 19 May
GatenbySanderson
Press Bradford Council The adverts for Bradford Council were usually in black and white and tended to be squeezed into as little space as possible whilst still being legible.
CITY OF BRADFORD METROPOLITAN DISTRICT COUNCIL NOTICE OF DECISIONS ON PLANNING APPLICATIONS WHICH ARE ACCOMPANIED BY AN ENVIRONMENTAL STATEMENT The Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2011 - NOTICE UNDER REGULATION 24 Application Number: 14/01827/FUL Description: Construct new junction and access road, extraction of remaining mineral reserves and restoration with non-hazardous on-site quarry waste - Revised working, restoration and highway proposals Location: Buck Park Quarry Whalley Lane Denholme West Yorkshire The City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council has considered carefully all the planning issues raised by this proposal together with all representations received, and having regard to all relevant policies, has concluded, on balance that planning permission be Granted Subject to a 106 Agreement and subject to conditions. Copies of the decision notice and the report to the Regulatory and Appeals Committee, which sets out the main reason on which the decisions are based, including the main measures to avoid, reduce and offset effects of the development, also information about the right to challenge the validity of the decisions and procedures for doing so, is available for inspection, free of charge at the Planning Reception, Jacobs Well, Manchester Road, BD1 5RW, or alternately the documents can be viewed at www.bradford. gov.uk/publicaccess.
Councillors’ Surgeries ON THURSDAY 6 AUGUST CLAYTON & FAIRWEATHER GREEN Clayton Library 6.00pm to 7.00pm Councillors Engel, Swallow & Thirkill
ON FRIDAY 7 AUGUST CITY WARD Millet e Islamia Association 2.00pm to 4.00pm Councillors Azam & Lal
ON SATURDAY 8 AUGUST BAILDON WARD St James Church, Baildon 10.00am to 11.00am Councillors Davies, Pollard & Townend
GREAT HORTON WARD Great Horton Village Hall 11.00am to 12.00noon Councillors Dodds, T Hussain & Jabar
WYKE WARD Holy Trinity Church, Low Moor 10.00am to 11.00am Councillors Ferriby & Warburton
City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council CITY OF BRADFORD METROPOLITAN DISTRICT COUNCIL Job no: EIA_PlanningAdvert_T&A Date: 19 Feb Client: (SPEED LIMIT) (NO. 10) ORDER 2014 Bradford Council Size: 80x85 Media: Bradford T&A HAINWORTH LANE AND WOODWORTH GROVE KEIGHLEY
Insertion date: TBC Account Handler: Paula
Operator (Setthat by):City Sam (Last Amend): - Council NOTICE is hereby given of Operator Bradford Metropolitan District No. Orders of Amends: - powers contained in the proposes to make the above under its Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 the general effect of which will be to introduce a 20 miles per hour speed limit on lengths of Hainworth Lane and Woodworth Grove, Keighley. A copy of the draft Order together with a map showing the affected roads and the Statement of Reasons for proposing to make the Order may be examined during normal office hours at the Customer Services Reception, Ground Floor, City Hall, Bradford and the Keighley Customer Service Centre, Town Hall, Keighley. If you wish to object to the proposed Order you should send the grounds for your objection in writing to reach the undersigned by no later than 12 noon on Thursday 7th May 2015 quoting reference:- LEG/DEV/SPN/72650. Dated: 16th April 2015. Dermot Pearson – Assistant City Solicitor, Legal and Democratic Services, City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council, City Hall, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD1 1HY
Job no: HainworthLane_KN_16.04 Date: 8 April Client: Bradford Council Size: 70x85 Media: Keighley News Insertion date: 16 April Account Handler: Mel Operator (Set by): Sam Operator (Last Amend): - No. of Amends: -
Job no: MembersBradford_04+05.08 Date: 9 July Client: Bradford Council Size: 100x56 Media: Bradford T&A Insertion date: 4&5 August Account Handler: Paula Operator (Set by): Sam Operator (Last Amend): - No. of Amends: -
Press Misc Clients Recruitment Adverts Y PL AP OW N
THE UK’S NUMBER 1 HOMEWARE RETAILER
It’s an exciting time to join Wescot. We’re looking for enthusiastic and motivated Customer Service Agents, who have the customer at the heart of everything they do, to join our growing team at The Maltings, Hull city centre. • Full time: 35 hours per week. • Part time: 16 to 30 hours per week. • Competitive salary plus benefits. • Exceptional training & development. Find out more and apply at uk.hudson.com/wescot-jobs/hull
WE’RE NOW RECRUITING We are coming to Harlow and we want you to be a part of our team. We’re recruiting for a variety of positions. What are you waiting for, apply now.
www.dunelmcareers.com
Job: Dunelm - Harlow Client: Dunelm Newspaper: Herts Mercury Insertion Date: 25 February Size: 140 x 134mm
GOT A HEAD FORDate: 15 July Job no: Hudson_Wescot_HDM_22.07 Client: Hudson Size: 120x66 Media: Hull Daily Mail Insertion date: 22 July Account Handler: Paula Operator (Set by): Sam
BEER INSTALLATIONS? OPPORTUNITIES LOCALLY FOR
FIELD SERVICE TECHNICIANS £COMPETITIVE + BONUS + BUPA + BEER ALLOWANCE
Because we brew great beer, we believe in giving great service. In fact we’re the only UK brewer to have our own in-house, end to end customer technical service team. You’ll be trained to deliver industry leading installation and support services in pubs, clubs, bars, hotels and restaurants. You’ll install, maintain and repair cooling and dispensing systems and train outlet staff how to use them safely and correctly.
You could come from almost any background – skilled trades, armed forces, manufacturing or technical to name but a few. What you must have is technical talent and an NVQ2 or equivalent in a trade or engineering subject. You’ll also need to be over 21 and have a full UK driving licence. Ability to manage your time, your day and yourself will be essential and you’ll need to take pride in your work.
GREAT BEERS DESERVE GREAT TECHNICAL SERVICE. IF YOU CAN DELIVER IT, COME AND JOIN US.
To apply, please visit www.molsoncoors.com/en/careers
Job no: MolsonCoors_Portsmouth Date: 26 March
Press Misc Clients Recruitment Adverts Bradford Teaching Hospitals
Assistant Chief Nurse - Informatics
COUNTER SALES PERSON (FULL TIME OR PART TIME)
Stoke £Competitive
Salary: £46,164 to £57,069 per annum This is an exciting opportunity to be a part of a new team that will enable clinical work and improve patient safety through information technology. The Foundation Trust is embarking on a new clinical informatics programme that will bring transformational change through technology to our clinicians and patients. You will provide direction and nursing leadership on the design, implementation and use of information and technology to support the delivery of high quality health and care services. Providing sound advice and guidance, you will work collaboratively with nursing leaders and stakeholders to ensure the successful use of integrated knowledge and information systems. You will also promote and champion a clinically appropriate information culture as an enabler of quality improvement across the organisation. Experience/Skills/Qualifications required: • Registered nurse or midwife • Extensive experience in clinical practice at a management or leadership level – with a track record of credibility • Experience working with information technology, electronic records and information • Demonstrate leadership qualities, skills and values • Excellent communication skills with a range of people from a variety of disciplines • Ability to influence at a senior level
Buildbase is one of the UK’s fastest growing builders’ merchants. All of our branches are long established and have been serving local tradespeople for many years. We believe in understanding their needs and delivering an outstanding customer service. Joining a friendly team, your focus will be to provide a dependable service that combines excellent product knowledge with an eye for optimising branch sales and profit. An excellent communicator and naturally effective at building good working relationships with customers and colleagues alike, you should ideally have good sales and/or customer service experience. This is one full time or two part time positions. For more information and to apply, please visit our website: www.grafton-careers.co.uk quoting reference number GM002183. Closing date for applications: 19th February 2015.
Part of
Apply on-line at: www.jobs.nhs.uk/in/btht quoting Post Reference 389-A-15-5606 Closing date: 22nd May 2015 (this date may change dependent on the response) We are an equal opportunities employer and a No Smoking Organisation. All full-time posts suitable for job share.
To see all our vacancies go to www.jobs.nhs.uk/in/btht
Job no: Buildbase_Stoke Date: 30 Jan Client: Grafton Size: 100x100 Media: Stoke Sentinal Insertion date: 4th Feb Account Handler: Bibbs Operator (Set by): Sam Operator (Last Amend): No. of Amends: -
Job no: BradfordNHS_5570 Date: 29 April Client: BFD NHS Size: 130x87 Media: Nursing Times Insertion date: 6 May www.surrey.police.uk Account Handler: Bibbs Operator (Set by): Sam Operator (Last Amend): - No. of Amends: -
Take on new challenges and make a difference across Surrey, Sussex and the South East.
A range of Superintendent and Detective Superintendent roles Based in various locations in Surrey, with frequent travel across the county and within Sussex. Surrey Police has an exciting range of Superintendent opportunities available and are looking for dynamic individuals to join to their successful team. Roles exist in a variety of areas such as Contact, Major Crime, Operations, and Public Protection and in order to fill these key roles, applications are invited from substantive Superintendents and Chief Inspectors who are ready for promotion; both from uniform and detective backgrounds. You must be a proven leader with a record of building teams to deliver sustainable performance within a dynamic environment. Your key skills and experience will be in assessing vulnerability, managing risk and dealing with complex situations. Your excellent interpersonal skills will enable you to engage, motivate and inspire officers and staff whilst building effective working relationships to promote and develop our collaborative relationship with Sussex Police. Surrey Police has embarked on a 5 year plan to develop a policing model which maintains local delivery and adapts to the changing nature of crime. Creating this in the context of tight financial constraints will require you to challenge current thinking, activities and processes, whilst utilising
your drive and influence to improve our key performance priorities in a complex environment of change. If you can successfully contribute to delivering an exceptional service to the public in this context, then we would welcome your application to join us. The process will involve an application form, Peoples Panel (delivering a presentation in an open forum) and final interview. For an application pack please contact Jane Isaacs on 01483 632687 or email HRConsultancy2@surrey.pnn.police.uk Closing date: 27th March 2015.
03 Digital
Digital The digital work that I did for the web was less frequent than the press work, the clients were more varied and so was the style of the adverts. The majority of the digital work I did was Flash banners to be featured at the side or top of web pages. Some of the clients for this included Harvester, Slimming World and Dunlop. The client would usually supply the text and any images that they wanted us to use as well as a brief description of what they wanted the advert to look like and also the different dimensions that they wanted. We would then create a scamp or a storyboard. Once the storyboard is approved we would create the advert in one of the listed dimensions and send it back to them, at this point they would decide if they wanted any amends or if it was good to go. We would then create all the other advert sizes and send them off to a different department who were in charge of putting them on the web. I enjoyed doing this because it was always something different which made a nice break from doing recruitment adverts. The only limitations were that the adverts usually had to be less than 30 seconds and less than 50kb in file size which could sometimes get a bit tricky if the client wanted large images or too much text. Before starting my work placement I had very little experience with using Flash so this was a very quick learning curve for me, fortunately I was given a lot of help and the person who taught me was very patient. The fact that it was a friendly studio environment meant I could ask anyone for help if I got stuck which meant I got to grips with using the Flash builder quite quickly. I have included screenshots of some of the digital work I created, however the best way to view them is to download the ‘swf’ files from this link. They should work on most computers provided you have flash player installed. www.goo.gl/c3uWeA
Digital Harvester Below are some screenshots of a Flash banner set that I had to create for Harvester. I was asked to use the colour palette and fonts from the press ad as well as the main image. Although I wasn’t happy with having to reduce the image quality to make the file size smaller, I think the overall design served its purpose quite well.
Digital Slimming World Below are some screenshots of a Flash banner set that I created for Slimming world. They were intended to go live at the same time as a new set of leaflets so were designed in a similar style.
Digital Teesside University Below are some screenshots of a Flash banner set that I created for Teesside Uni. They were re-used several times with different wording as the months went on. These were some of the easier banners that I had to make because they were vector based meaning I didn’t have to struggle with file size because of any images.
Digital Dunlop Below are some screenshots of a Flash banner set that I created for Dunlop. They were intended to go live just in November 2015 to boost sales of winter tyres however due to delays they never went live. I particularly liked these designs because they made use of being able to animate in Flash, they were also the first ones I did without any help.
Digital Great Rail Journeys Below is a screenshot of a micro-site that I designed for Great Rail Journeys that was inserted into a digital newspaper. Whilst I didn’t do any coding or web building, I helped in creating flat designs and layouts for a few web pages for various clients so that the web team would have a design to work from when building the sites.
Imagine a holiday where the journey is just the start of the adventure Choose from over 220 tours to destinations all over the world At Great Rail Journeys we pride ourselves on providing you with a first class holiday experience. We combine excellent rail travel with excursions to interesting and cultural places, fabulous hotels, and the services of a friendly, professional Tour Manager, developed with 30 years’ experience of organising holidays by rail. Our included excursions bring the destinations to life, and free time provides the opportunity to explore at your own pace or simply relax knowing that everything has been taken care of.
Click here for more information
Book your 2016 holiday now
04 Social
Social The work for social media that I did was centred around 3 main clients; The Co-operative Insurance, Benenden Health and occasionally Loake Shoemakers. The Co-operative Insurance and Benenden often required stock images cropping to size with captions or borders placing over the top to be in-keeping with their brand guidelines, it was my job to find these stock images based on what the scheduled post was about. I’d then open them up in Photoshop and adjust the levels etc. to make sure the image would look nice on the page. The other main aspect to this job was creating illustrations for their posts. Both companies had a style of illustration and colour palette to follow. Co-op’s style was supposed to be quite flat, simple illustrations, whereas I was allowed to put a bit more detail into the ones for Benenden. We would usually start work a week ahead of when the posts were supposed to go live, so I would have the weeks worth of images to start on the Monday ready by the Wednesday before for Co-op and the Thursday before for Benenden. This didn’t always go to plan though, because there were often times when certain posts would be moved around or the content would be changed. I enjoyed this work the most because it was varied every week, but also because I got to see it go live on Facebook and Twitter meaning I got to see how well it went in terms of people liking the work or interacting with the posts. My main job for social was just to do the artwork, although there were some occasions where I had to cover the community management aspect of the Loake and Co-op Facebook pages. This involved replying to peoples comments, private messages and wall posts then passing on the relevant information to the customer service departments. In the same away that the companies had a different style of images, they also had a different “tone of voice” to use with their customers. Loake was more formal but with Co-op I was allowed to be a bit more cheeky with clients if they were posting something funny. I wasn’t as keen on this aspect of the job, because it often meant having to deal with irritated customers. The exception to this however was with the “Messy Moments” campaign that Co-op ran, the idea was for customers to post images of their messy moments (e.g. their dog after running through a puddle) to the page and the best image for that category won a gift voucher. I actually enjoyed commenting on these because it was mainly funny pictures.
Social The Co-operative Insurance Below are some of the image posts that I had to create for Co-op, there are lots to choose from so I have picked a few of my favourite ones. One thing I realised is that memes or posts involving dogs tended to be the most popular rather than the helpful posts about insurance.
Social
Social
Social I also created some cover photos for The Co-operative insurance. Below is the existing generic cover photo that I designed, as well as an alternate version for last Christmas and also a special one that I did for during the “Messy Moments� campaign.
Social Benenden Health Below are some of the image posts that I had to create for Benenden, there are lots to choose from again so I have picked a few of my favourite ones. The target audience is slightly older for Benenden, so the style of images and illustrations had to reflect this. This shows more in the colour palette that I used.
Social
Social
Social Loake Shoemakers I only did a small amount of unique artwork for the Loake Facebook page because the majority of the work was just retouching existing photos, however I was asked to create a cover image that celebrated them reaching 20,000 fans. I also helped in setting the email newsletters using a software called MailChimp.
Social
05 Evaluation
Evaluation Constantly having to work on different briefs throughout the year has made me more confident in what I do. I have improved my time management skills significantly by having to work to schedules and deadlines which will hopefully help me a lot when starting my final year of university. I have also learned to follow budgets and to work with client feedback when designing something, even if this means having to compromise. Despite not being a fan of recruitment adverts, I benefited greatly from having to do them because it meant using Indesign a lot more frequently which has improved my ability with the software greatly. Despite already knowing the basics of type setting and laying out pages, it is something that you definitely improve the more you do. Having to create web banners meant that I learned how to use Flash, this was something that I’d previously attempted without success. However having a job that needs doing by a certain date is a good push to make you learn something quickly. It also made me think about other elements of design other than text, images and layout because I had to think about animations and movement which was something I had little experience with. Whether I will need to use Flash or not in the future is debatable due to other methods of creating web adverts, however it was an interesting learning curve that I enjoyed. Whilst I don’t feel that the illustrations or images that I did for various social media posts improved my ability as such, I definitely enjoyed doing them the most. I have always been a fan of illustrating and enjoyed some of the unusual image requests. I also learned to deal with customers whilst covering the Facebook pages which is something I never expected to do. Overall I think that doing a work placement year was a good decision. I was initially wary of what it would be like working at a big agency such as MediaCom but I found them to be a great team of people to work with, not just in my department but in the whole of the Leeds office. I have met some great people and had a really good year. I would highly recommend doing a work placement to anybody who is studying a design course, because whilst you can learn about theory and techniques in college or university, you learn lots about the work environment and the industry by being thrown straight into it.