Shillington Post—Issue 01

THE FIRST ISSUE

02 // My Process by Studio Fellow 08 // My First Big Mistake 12 // First Year Out: Sinéad Murphy

18 // First Test Run by Jarrad Wild 20 // Featured Folio: Holly Ovenden 26 // First Impressions by John Palowski

Nº01

EDITORIAL // Andy Shillington

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D I R Nยบ01

THE FIRST ISSUE

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EDITORIAL // Andy Shillington

T I

O A L Here at Shillington, we have the privilege of working with and around some truly amazing designers from all around the world. Our teachers, all practising graphic designers; our students, dedicating all their energy into crafting a new creative career; and our design community as a whole.

What I’m inspired by the most is seeing students achieve things that they didn’t think they could. I get to meet lots of brave people prepared to challenge themselves, and see the joy they get from their achievements.

It never gets old.

Our new paper, Shillington Post, is a way of showcasing their passion and creativity.

To celebrate our very first issue of the Post, we’re riffing on the theme of firsts. Seven of our teachers have bravely shared with us the first big mistake they made as junior graphic designers, and what they learned from it. We sit down with Shillington graduate Sinéad Murphy to hear what she’s been up to in her first year out in the industry (spoiler alert: setting up her own studio and winning awards). Jarrad Wild has reviewed Macaw, a new app that codes prototype websites—perfect for your site’s first test run. And since we know how challenging it can be to get your foot in that dream design agency’s door, we asked John Palowski to share his advice on how to leave the best first impression possible.

It’s a cracker of an issue. Happy reading.

Andy Shillington CEO of Shillington

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MY PROCESS // Studio Fellow

It’s not often we get to see the hard work that goes into a design—the endless thumbnails, discarded logos presented to the client, Illustrator files… More often than not, we’re only privy to the end result in all its finely executed glory. We’d like to encourage the sharing of briefs from start to finish, mistakes and all.

In every issue, we’ll ask one of our teachers to share their process on a recent project they’ve completed so we can get a direct insight into their creative output.

RUNWAY WARRIOR BRANDING & COLLATERAL WORDS BY CARLOS CHAVEZ, STUDIO FELLOW

Studio Fellow was approached to brand a new, up-and-coming online retailer of sports-luxe fashion called Runway Warrior.

The theory behind the name is simple—it brings together high-fashion luxury seen in runway models, and the powerful and active (and feminine) fitness warrior. It is self-described as a “luxury destination that takes women to and from their workouts”.

Getting stuck into it The brief was simple: design something luxe. But the more simple the brief, the more possible pitfalls. So we began the process by writing a reverse brief. We outlined the company’s mission, vision, and most importantly why they do what they do—we find it to be a more engaging area to build brands on, rather than only hearing what the client is doing. This was followed by a series of moodboards based on brand aesthetics, colours, photography styles and brand attitude.

Originally the direction was to make the brand appear bright, colourful and empowering—active. This initial direction was challenged. We had discussions on the nature of high-luxury

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MY PROCESS // Studio Fellow

brands and products. They don’t seek to empower, but rather, they’re aspirational. This became the new driving motivator, which lead to a more mature and elegant black-and-white aesthetic.

Justifying minimalism As we entered the conceptual phase, the brand took on a more minimalist aesthetic. We explored many typographic styles and eventually settled on three options.

1. A minimal design that simply illustrated walking a runway, with arrows that also appeared sharp and warrior-esque.

2. A staggered version where the letters appeared to have movement—signifying an active lifestyle.

3. A final version that combined a serif and a sans-serif typeface with the O in WARRIOR crossed out—giving it a combative nature. The typography represented old luxury meeting the new sports-luxe.

Less was definitely more It was decided the first concept was the strongest, and best represented the style that the brand sought to portray.

The concept was simple and to the point. We chose Galaxie Polaris Bold for the typeface, a strong, geometric sans serif that contrasted the soft, overtly rounded, humanist typefaces currently used in more generic sport fashion brands.

The brand roll-out consisted of stationery, a media kit, a website, a blog and packaging, as well as social media materials. Through the design of these separate pieces, the overall brand took shape in a consistent and minimal way. The difficulty lay in keeping each layout or webpage simplified whilst still retaining a luxurious edge over the piece.

The rollout focused first on the website and blog for the online presence and then moved on to the printed collateral, each piece organically informing the next.

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MY PROCESS // Studio Fellow

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MY FIRST BIG MISTAKE Your first year out is a huge learning curve.

But there isn’t anything wrong with making mistakes if you learn from them. We asked seven teachers around the world to share the first real error they made as junior designers.

REBECCA HULME FULL-TIME TEACHER, MELBOURNE

KENNY PHILLIPS FULL-TIME TEACHER, NEW YORK

As a young designer I made the mistake of showing my client some unfinished digital WIP files of an identity that I was working on. He was absolutely stoked with the outcome, however—alas!—he mistook my draft for a final.

GLEN SWART FULL-TIME TEACHER, LONDON

Almost immediately after graduating I did a freelance project for The Shriver Report. The job was to create a series of 40-something title cards for a photography exhibition being held in Washington D.C.

I overcomplicated my birthday invite in my first year as a designer. It was a big mistake! It was folded like a paper origami fortune teller, and each fold hid info about the party. But no one thought to unfold it entirely. So I had a constant flow of texts wanting to know the venue, date and time. Some people didn’t interact with it at all and just thought I’d sent them something I made! The stock was also too thick and being black had terrible white tear marks along the folds. Epic fail.

The name of the person who funded the project had to appear on all of the cards. Instead of copying and pasting the text from the original text document, I typed out some of the text myself when I was designing.

Subsequently, the name of the funder was wrong on all 40-something cards! This could have been avoided if I followed best practice for laying out text, and had copied and pasted out of the original document from the copywriter.

After he approved my direction, I spent hours crafting the final logo.

I meticulously corrected all of the beautiful terminals, carefully kerned, delicately positioned, and sent off the final files, only to have my client call two weeks later to ask me where the “other logo” was. Turns out he preferred the outcome sans-finesse!

Lesson learnt. Clients sometimes don’t “imagine” like a creative might.

Anything digitally crafted that I show my clients now is as close to perfect as I can make it, and any concepts will most likely be sketched up by hand.

Presenting sketches helps to tell the story without the client jumping to any swift conclusions.

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“Lesson learned? Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Everyone fails, so fail faster— then you can learn quicker.”

HOLLY KARLSSON DIRECTOR, UNITED STATES I was working as a junior designer at an advertising agency in London, and I was finalising a government ad campaign that was to be printed nationwide. I wanted to ensure all the elements were aligned properly and I decided, under pressure and in a rush, that using a thin lined box over the ad to help me align the elements was a good idea. You guessed it—it was sent to print with the box still on the ad! Epic fail.

My lesson? Never rush preparing a design for production. Also, always use the align palette! We all make mistakes—we just need to learn from each one.

ED BAPTIST FULL-TIME TEACHER, MANCHESTER My very first day of work after I graduated, I was freelancing at a really high-end retouching studio and was supposed to be putting their portfolio together. I turned up to find that there was no mouse!

Just a graphics tablet I’d never used before. I had a mini-panic, then pulled myself together and figured it out.

But I probably lost half a day.

Lesson learned? Don’t be afraid to ask for help. You’re a junior—no one expects you to know everything.

Everyone fails, so fail faster—then you can learn quicker.

BRENTON CRAIG PART-TIME TEACHER, BRISBANE

PETER OGDEN FULL-TIME TEACHER, NEW YORK A lot of my first mistakes happened in job interviews. The upside was being able to know what not to say in future interviews!

One memorable moment was presenting my portfolio to a couple of senior designers, and getting to one of my magazine projects and pointing out all that was wrong with it. “Don’t look too closely at the typesetting here…” They said that by drawing that kind of attention to my mistakes, that’s all they were able to focus on.

From that experience on, I’ve only ever pointed out the positives in the work I’m presenting. I’ve been offered a job for every interview since!

While I was working as a junior designer at an ad agency, the studio manager allowed me to do my own freelance work in my downtime.

I accidentally purchased a bunch of stock images while being logged into the agency account and not my own.

But I didn’t realise I had done so until the accounts guy came up to me a few weeks later and asked what job code to charge the images to. I lied and said a client!

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FIRST YEAR OUT // Sinéad Murphy

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FIRST YEAR OUT // Sinéad Murphy

First Year Out

SINÉAD MURPHY INTERVIEW BY THEA POWELL // PHOTOGRAPHY BY SHEREE DUBOIS

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FIRST YEAR OUT // Sinéad Murphy

Sinéad Murphy hit the ground running since graduating from Shillington in December 2013. First up, a government grant to start her own design studio in Port Fairy. She was named winner of the Emerging Talent Category in one of Australia’s leading design showcases, the Create Awards.

We sat down with her to hear more of her story.

You were a fashion designer before moving to graphic design. What sparked the change?

I love the craft of fashion, but I always felt bettersuited to the graphic design tasks I was given when working in fashion. I loved designing prints and using Illustrator, and I was always hassling the graphic designers for tips.

I realised one day that I should give it a go for real.

I share a space with my fiancé who makes furniture, so we help each other out with designs and critique each other’s ideas. I usually do a couple of hours for an animation client, developing concepts and storyboards. I’ll also have a branding project on the go, which involves sketching until my hand falls off, basically, and refining from there.

I do lots of document layout, print design, wedding stationery, and I’ll also meet with clients, liaise with printers and work on personal projects when I need a break.

What do you love about design?

I love that each project I work on is completely different. I feel like the more wacky you get in your development stage, the more you learn. And I love that all the hobbies I never used to have time for are now what I do for work every single day.

What does your typical day look like?

I usually take my dog for a walk on the beach, and start thinking about my jobs for the day before I look at any type of screen. Then I’ll do whatever I need to do on the internet before heading to my sans-Wi-Fi studio (sounds crazy I know, but it has actually been amazing for productivity and creativity).

After you graduated, you were awarded a government grant to start your own studio.

When I returned home to Australia after living in New York, I unintentionally fell back in love with my home town. Graphic design is a way for me to live and work on the coast, but still be connected with, and influenced by, the city.

The grant gives financial support and mentoring to people wanting to start their own business. My little biz is called Lovelock Studio and was set up to offer something a little bit cooler and a bit more brand-focused to the folk in my hood. Port Fairy is hours away from Melbourne so the competition isn’t as rife as the city, and people here have been really supportive of and responsive to my design style so far.

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FIRST YEAR OUT // Sinéad Murphy

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FIRST YEAR OUT // Sinéad Murphy

It can be scary going out on your own. Were you ready?

Shillington provided the studio environment, tight deadlines and relevant content that is all so true to the industry—I would definitely not be able to work for myself if not for that. I feel truly blessed having the amazingly talented and experienced lecturers we had, who pushed us the way that creative directors would in the real world.

My design style has definitely been shaped by studying at Shillington too—you are encouraged to go nuts in the research and development stage but also taught how to refine that into something that tells a relevant story to truly answer the brief. It still makes my head explode a little bit to think that we were only there for three months. It also helped to develop my love of coffee and Friday night beers and break-time hula hoop sessions.

How did you get your work out there after you graduated?

I chose to present my portfolio on an iPad; the digital publishing added a extra dimension to my work. Taking the time to make an interesting website has won me some positive feedback which is nice. I also created a Behance profile and I use social media to promote these—although I am not the most social-mediasavvy person! One of my freelance jobs, working at Yoke Studio in Collingwood, stemmed from a tweet actually. The wonderful thing about the design industry is that everyone is so lovely and so supportive—design events are not about “networking”, they’re just about meeting nice inspiring people.

“ The best and most simple piece of advice I can offer is this: if you do nothing, nothing happens. So set your goals and work your arse off.”

Any advice for someone trying to decide if they should sign up for the course?

Studying at Shillington is up there with the best experiences of my life, and I can say that without even thinking about what it has done for my career. The friends I’ve made, the support and direction we were given, the skills we learnt and the sense of achievement I felt at the end of it were worth the outlay of funds 10 times over.

The best and most simple piece of advice that is on repeat in my brain is: If you do nothing, nothing happens. So set your goals and work your arse off.

And iron your interview clothes before you put them on.

Steam = burns.

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Design by Dailey Crafton

TIPS & TUTORIALS // Macaw

FIRST TEST RUN WORDS BY JARRAD WILD

A couple of months ago,

It needed to be more

To me, all these factors pointed to one thing: simplification. On top of all this, we also needed to allow for the fact that nowadays mobile and tablet devices share the majority of internet browsing. This means the new design would have to work across every device and browser and operating system kicking around.

accessible, easier to read,

The problem & process

I was asked to redesign the Shillington blog. The brief?

increase social sharing, and have flexible layouts.

The first step in undergoing this task was to understand the issues with the current blog. After doing a review of the old blog, I found that while it was populated with great content, the existing design was really image driven and didn’t allow for large portions of content. The homepage was overpopulated with hyperlinks, which impacted the page hierarchy, and was still based on the 960px grid (960.gs) so everything felt squeezed in.

With an understanding of the current problems, it was time to start designing. After generating a list of keywords, some loose sketches and developing an idea, I researched some sites which sat within the same style. This led to more refined thumbnails with a focus on the User Experience.

After sketching, sketching and more sketching, I arrived at a few possible solutions to work up on the computer. I began by quickly wireframing the layouts using InDesign. There are a bunch of free wireframing or prototyping tools out there to create either static wireframes or working prototypes: balsamiq.com (trial & paid), wireframe. cc (free) or justinmind.com (free & paid), to name a few. Personally, I find it fast enough just using InDesign for sites of this scale.

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Once all the wireframes were approved it was time to create the refined design. Generally I would do this in Photoshop, but this time I decided to run a bit of an experiment.

Macaw: the experiment A while ago I stumbled across a neat little application that looked set to answer the dreams of many non-web-savvy designers. It was called Macaw (macaw.co).

The app claims to provide the same flexibility as Photoshop or a similar image editor, while also writing responsive semantic HTML and clean, structured CSS. Essentially, it allows you to design directly within the program, with the ability of exporting the HTML/CSS generated by the design. The program also has the ability to specify breakpoints where the design will need to respond to different screen sizes and modify the layout, allowing designers with no coding ability to produce a clean front-end design. Sounds like a dream come true, right?

I’d been following the release date and itching to give it a go, and luckily for me, it was launched not long before I began the new Shillington blog. We purchased a license and dove right in.

At first glance, the interface appears really clean and simple, with nothing blatantly jumping off the page. It has a similar feel to the recent update of the Adobe CC interface, with the tool bar on the left, additional tool options across the top and extra palettes and page info on the right. I did still need

TIPS & TUTORIALS // Macaw

“ Macaw is an extremely quick program that’s great for a working prototype website that can respond to mobile and tablet devices.” to jump on the Macaw webpage and follow a few demos to really understand the ins and outs of the program, though.

Within half an hour of opening the program I had a basic layout of my wireframe working at desktop level, so I began to set some breakpoints. Initially everything was working okay, but if I modified the styling at desktop level it would subsequently change it at the lower breakpoints (as you’d be looking at the site on tablets or mobiles). It was essential to have the styling 100% perfect at desktop prior to working on any responsive levels. It meant I had to build desktop down, which goes against Luke Wroblewski’s concept of Mobile First (lukew.com/ resources/mobile_first.asp).

a working prototype which responds to mobile and tablet devices. It can be a valuable tool when demonstrating or when working closely with clients on responsive sites.

Since then, Macaw has released an update fixing the issues I had come across whilst experimenting— you can see a full list of the updates at macaw. co/onefive. The updates make Macaw even more desirable. During this time, a few other competitors have stepped up and entered the game with Google releasing Google Web Designer (still in beta), Adobe releasing Brackets.io (an open-source text editor with PSD extraction) and Project Parfait by Adobe (a browser-based CSS-extraction application).

Make and break

Another issue is that Macaw has no easy way to hide certain page elements at the different breakpoints. It’s not always essential for every element to stay on the page when scaling down to tablet and mobile devices, as page real estate is drastically limited on those smaller devices.

Instead, it is extremely important to ensure the most relevant content is visible on the initial page view.

For example, page elements like contact forms may change from being a physical form on the desktop page to simply being represented by a contact icon when viewing on a mobile. Because of this limited functionality, I threw in the towel and went back to my normal workflow using InDesign and Photoshop and generated the HTML/CSS manually.

That being said, I wouldn’t rule Macaw out. I found it to be an extremely quick program for generating

After experimenting with Macaw, I jumped back in to my normal workflow—and continued to work up the design using InDesign and populated it with real content. This allowed me to be able to try and “break” the design, ruling out any possible issues that could arise. All the content uploaded to the new Shillington blog will be user-generated content (UGC), which means it’s impossible to know exactly what will be on the page at any one time. By trying to break the design you get to see what would happen if a post has extremely long titles, or not much content, or what could happen if there are no images. This process is extremely important when working on websites with UGC. It saves a world of hurt later on down the track once the site goes live.

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Holly Ovenden studied sports therapy and worked her way up in healthcare before she decided it was time for a change. Within weeks of graduating from the full-time Graphic Design Course at Shillington London, she landed a job as a Junior Designer at Bloomsbury Publishing.

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1. ARCHITECTURE EVENT BRANDING

3. ANTIQUE FAIR IDENTITY

2. HANDLETTERING FOR ANTIQUE FAIR IDENTITY

4. MOBILE WEBSITE FOR NEW AIRLINE BRAND 22 // Shillington Post

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5. QUARTERLY MUSIC CULTURE E-PUBLICATION

7. ANNUAL REPORT

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SMALL BUSINESS BRANDING FOR A BOUTIQUE EXOTIC SPECIALIST BY HOLLY OVENDEN 24 // Shillington Post

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FIRST IMPRESSIONS // John Palowski

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: GET YOUR FOOT IN THE DOOR WORDS BY JOHN PALOWSKI // ILLUSTRATIONS BY JEFFREY BOWMAN

What’s the deal here, then?

So you have—or are working towards—a great portfolio, full of work you have spent hours refining, crafting and sweating over to get up to a standard that’s going to help you get that first opportunity after college. The next stage is no less of a task, and unfortunately there’s no clear-cut process to follow.

But you’ve come this far. There’s absolutely no point reducing your efforts now. Embrace the next part of your journey with open arms.

Let’s look at the reality...

You gave your portfolio your all, and you’re leaving college with a spanking body of work. You’re off to a flying start. Even if you’re not feeling all that confident, don’t spend too much time worrying.

All the more reason to get your work in front of a experienced designer who might find it in their heart (and schedule) to critique your portfolio and offer you some direction.

One thing to remember when looking for your first job is that you are not in a unique situation.

There are your classmates, students from other colleges who are graduating at the same time, and plenty of other entry-level designers who are not in work at the present time—and they’re all competing for the limited amount of jobs in your city. Who will be first to get their foot in the door?

Those with the best work in their books? Those who contact the most studios? Those who come across best in interviews? Those with the cleverest self-promotion? Those with the most followers on Twitter, or connections on LinkedIn?

There’s a single answer to all of the above: it depends. And for the most part, it’s not just dependent on you and your actions, but on one other very important, uncontrollable and overarching factor: the employer.

Stop for a second, and really understand this potential hurdle. If you can get your head round the reality that it’s not all about you or your work, then you’re more than half way there. A junior-designer role exists because a studio has taken time out of their extremely busy schedule to come to the conclusion that they need to bring somebody in to help out. Someone who will hit the ground running.

Think positively. They’re in need of a junior, and their business won’t survive for long if they don’t have talent in the pipeline. They need you.

Job hunting should be treated like any other brief: with a focused plan of action in place, trying out multiple routes, and hopefully leading to success.

You need to communicate the message (that’s you) and how that message is suited to the intended audience (the employer). So where do you start?

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FIRST IMPRESSIONS // John Palowski

“ Job hunting should be treated like any other brief: with a focused plan of action in place, trying out multiple routes, and hopefully leading to success.”

Here’s how to answer the most important brief of your career...

If you’re graduating from Shillington, you’ll be leaving with the tools to help you on your way: a polished portfolio (either printed or tablet), a portfolio website and an email-size PDF of selected pieces. You’ll be using each of these at different stages in your job hunt, so keep them updated, tidy and ready to go at all times.

RESEARCH

THE FIRST CONTACT

OTHER TIPS...

Like any brief we teach here at Shillington, or any other brief you will face in your design careers, focused research is an absolute must to help you achieve your end goal. So what must you investigate for this task?

• Giving the studio a phone call might be daunting, but it’s best to get used to it early on. It’ll only get easier the more calls you make! Set yourself a key objective for the call: to speak to whoever it is that’s responsible for hiring junior designers. Then, work out three decreasingly ideal ways to meet that end objective.

Ask to speak to them directly. If you can’t, when would be best to contact them? If that’s also off the cards, what’s the best way to contact them in the future?

• Being a self-proclaimed “social butterfly” is outrageously cringeworthy, but the principle might help you out there. Creative networking is usually a lot of fun compared to other industries. Attending design events, talks, symposia or creative meet-ups can help you put names to faces and break the ice for potential future opportunities.

• The Studio: its history, ethos, location, size, client base and field, and the work it produces.

• The People: the creative director, senior creatives, juniors, plus anybody else who with whom you might find yourself working closely.

• Who is the best person to contact about the job, and when is the best time to contact them? No point sending your portfolio to the office cleaner—nor to a senior creative when they’re on a month-long holiday.

• Sending an email can be less effective than calling, but more often than not it’s a studio’s preferred method of communication. Don’t expect a timely response, and don’t get frustrated if you don’t hear back straight away. There’s nothing wrong with following your initial email with a call, or another email after a week or so—but don’t become a pest.

• Visiting the actual studio on the off chance that you might actually get a few minutes with whoever you want to meet face-to-face—it takes a lot of courage and get-go, but it’s worth giving it a try. You never know who you’ll bump into on a good day.

Plus, it’s an opportunity to see what the studio is really like behind the fancy website and appealing tweets.

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• No matter what stage you’re at in your career, the importance of social media cannot be overemphasised. Every person in the industry has their own story about how opportunities have arisen from nowhere. Sign up to Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook if you haven’t already, and use them as tools to help with research, making connections and being first to know when opportunities arise.

• Keep up your hobbies, even if they’re unrelated to design.

You never know what’ll lead you down a surprising avenue that helps your career.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS // John Palowski

“ Once you’ve broken the deadlock, the hard work isn’t over.

But you guessed that, right? Here are some tips to make the most of your studio experience.”

The first meeting

The first job

Congrats, you’ve landed your first interview. It’s a good idea to set some goals before going into that meeting.

Once you have broken the deadlock, the hard work still isn’t over. But you guessed that, right?

Here are some tips to help make the most of your first studio experience.

• Establish a relationship—get to know them, and more importantly, let them get to know you. Once you have figured each other out, nature will take its course.

• A permanent position: does one actually exist?

• If there’s no job currently available, are there freelance work opportunities? Try to get on their roster for future work that might come in.

• Feedback and advice on your portfolio: is there scope for a second catch-up meeting once feedback has been actioned?

• Be confident; be your (best) self; don’t pretend; be honest. Be unforgettable (but for good reasons only).

• Get around: very few opportunities come and bite you on your arse. Don’t hang around—go and hunt them down. If you don’t, somebody with more drive and ambition will beat you to it.

• Always overcome defeat. Never give up, even after an unfortunate long line of knockbacks. That next push might be the winning one.

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• Make yourself useful. Chances are, you’re not likely to be given the dream brief you were hoping for.

You might not be given a brief at all. That doesn’t mean it’s time to sit in the corner and sulk. Utilise your time wisely—find out what you can do to make somebody else’s task easier. They will definitely thank you for it.

• Be wary of the Tea-Maker Internship Program!

If a studio invites you in and expects you to just make brews for the whole of your time there, then they are probably not the studio you’re looking for.

But if you do find yourself in that situation, think of it as an excuse to get chatting to everyone in the studio.

• Write a blog about your time inside the studio (after you’ve asked the studio’s permission). If you are allowed to share your story, it’ll not only help you take stock of the experience yourself, but it’ll show them your level of passion for the role. It’ll also show other studios how keen you are, if you play your social media cards in the right way.

• Make the most of it. Everything said and done during your first job should be cherished—whether it’s useful now or later. Speak to people, share ideas, share processes, and don’t isolate yourself— no headphones. Revel in the creative environment you’ve yearned.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS // John Palowski

Know your doors!

BARN DOORS The jobs everyone goes for. The famous, most talked-about, award-winning agencies. Easy to hit, and easy to be lazy. Every designer and his dog will be aiming for these guys, so make sure you stand out from the crowd.

DOORS WITH LONG HALLWAYS The job itself might be relatively easy to find, but you might find that a chance to go for an interview is a long way away—weeks, months, even years down the line. Don’t hang around. Move onto the next.

DOORS THAT LEAD STRAIGHT TO THE LIVING ROOM There might be instances where you are offered a chance to meet and show your work immediately.

Don’t be caught off guard; be ready for it and make the most of it.

AUTOMATIC DOORS Unfortunately these don’t exist for most people.

Those who have a friend, relative or contact in a position of power at an ideal studio should not hesitate to get in touch. But the worst thing to do in this situation is to take a job offer for granted.

Treat it like any other potential opportunity and show your worth.

REVOLVING DOORS They’ll take you in, chew you up and spit you back out where you came from. You might not be right for them or you might have hit them on a bad day.

Get back to your feet quickly, dust yourself off and move on.

TRAP DOORS Out of the blue you get offered a position you feel you have to take. Then you realise (when you eventually find the light switch) that it wasn’t the best move for your long-term plans, and that you need to find a way out before you get stuck forever.

SECRET DOORS Speakeasy agencies keep themselves hidden away from the main strip but are worth the effort to find.

They can offer advice, guidance and much more.

Absolute treasures, but only if you spend the time seeking them out.

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CALENDAR: SEP ’14 – MAY ’15

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WHAT: DESIGNERS IN RESIDENCE WHERE: LONDON

WHAT: WEB WE WANT WHERE: LONDON

WHAT: HENRI MATISSE CUT-OUTS WHERE: NEW YORK

WHAT: TYPE MOTION WHERE: LIVERPOOL

Four lucky designers are chosen for a seven-month residency at the Design Museum each year.

Designers In Residence is your chance to discover the design stars of the future.

The Web We Want Festival is back!

They'll be taking over the Royal Festival Hall, exploring the past 25 years of the internet and looking to the shape of the future. Explore some of the things that threaten the web as we know it and what solutions there might be with a free programme of digital art, interactive workshops and installations.

In the late 1940s, Matisse turned almost exclusively to cut paper as his primary medium, and scissors as his chief implement, introducing a radical new operation that came to be called a cut-out.

An exhibition featuring over 200 outstanding examples of text and typography being used alongside the moving image.

SEPTEMBER

This year, young guns James Christian, Ilona Gaynor, Torsten Sherwood and Patrick StevensonKeating have responded to the theme of Disruption by exploring future housing, judicial system loopholes, construction as play and the financial systems.

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

Ends 31st May 2015.

MOMA is exhibiting the largest and most extensive presentation of Matisse’s cut-outs ever mounted, including approximately 100 cutouts—borrowed from public and private collections around the globe.

NOVEMBER

The exhibition celebrates the creative possibilities of opening up uses of text far beyond print, and seeks to showcase not only the importance of writing, but how bringing it to life with movement is an artform in itself.

Ends 8th February 2015.

Ends 8th February 2015.

Ends 8th March 2015.

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WHAT: CRAFTING TYPE WHERE: CHICAGO

WHAT: TYPISM WHERE: GOLD COAST

WHAT: DESIGN RANCH WHERE: AUSTIN, TX

WHAT: 99U CONFERENCE WHERE: NEW YORK

Crafting Type is an intense 3-day workshop where absolute beginners learn how to design typefaces and intermediate type designers boost their skills.

Do you froth uncontrollably at the sight of a well-formed ampersand, or stop on the freeway to photograph a vintage sign? Do you freak out your friends when you fondle letterpress wedding stationery just that little bit too long? It's OK. Typism is the conference for you.

AIGA Austin Design Ranch is an intimate, three-day, hands-on, workshop-driven design retreat in a rustic setting on the banks of the Guadalupe River.

The goal of the 99U Conference is to shift the focus from idea generation to idea execution. Providing road-tested insights on how to make your ideas happen. They bring together some of the world’s most productive creative visionaries and leading researchers to share pragmatic insights on how ideas are brought to life.

JANUARY

Type can seem like a dark art, hidden in mystery. But the team at Crafting Type have developed a learning experience that reliably evaporates the sense that typography and type design is impenetrable.

Ends 1st February 2015.

APRIL

APRIL

It's a day full of inspiration from some of Australia’s leading typographers.

This year you’ll hear from Luke Lucas, Jess Wong and Instagram darling Jasmine Dowling.

Design Ranch isn’t one of those slide-and-lecture “big conferences”.

It’s about putting down your mouse, getting your hands dirty and reviving your creative spirit. They’ve lined up some excellent speakers for 2015.

There are only 150 places so get in quick!

APRIL

There will be 16+ keynote talks on how to put your ideas into action over this two-day conference.

Ends 1st May 2015.

Ends 19th April 2015.

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WHAT: JEAN JULLIEN WHERE: LONDON

WHAT: NICER TUESDAYS WHERE: LONDON

WHAT: SYDNEY FESTIVAL WHERE: SYDNEY

WHAT: DESIGNING FOR MOBILE WHERE: LONDON

You may have seen Jean Jullien’s illustrative work for Eurostar’s new campaign around Tube stations lately.

Jullien is a French graphic designer currently living in London, and his new solo show, Us, is showing at Kemistry Gallery through December.

Nicer Tuesdays is a monthly event curated by It’s Nice That. It brings together a selection of speakers for short, sharp insights around a chosen theme. December’s event will be a round-up of all the Nicer Tuesdays this past year.

Every January, the Sydney Festival enlivens and transforms Sydney with a bold cultural celebration based on the highest quality art and big ideas.

You’d be hardpressed to find a more impressive mobile expert than Thea Frost, which is exactly why D&AD have chosen her to teach the upcoming Designing For Mobile Training Workshop.

Ends 1st January 2015.

Nicer Tuesdays will be back in 2015 on the final Tuesday of every month.

DECEMBER

DECEMBER

JANUARY

The program is kaleidoscopic in its diversity, from burlesque circus to Chicago rap to Dutch theatre; from contemporary dance to family programs to traditional Indigenous arts practice. In all, the program comprises around 370 performances and around 100 events performed by over 700 artists in more than 30 venues each year.

JANUARY

You will be taken through the production of a mobile app, from brief, concept, design, and then into build.

Thea will share with you bespoke mobile checklists but be warned— there's no coding involved in the workshop. Just brainwork.

Ends 26th January 2015.

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WHAT: TYPO TALKS WHERE: SAN FRANCISCO

WHAT: HOW DESIGN LIVE WHERE: CHICAGO

WHAT: DESIGN MATTERS WHERE: MELBOURNE

WHAT: D&AD AWARDS CEREMONY WHERE: LONDON

Focus permeates the designer’s everyday world—from specialising in one specific area or discipline, concentrating on getting that client project done on deadline, or zooming in on the pixels of your typeface.

HOW delivers everything you need to pursue a fulfilling, successful creative career—in one essential event. Tactical information you can immediately put to use, dazzling inspiration from the brightest minds and biggest brands, timely explorations of trends and technology, and a healthy dose of camaraderie and connection with your fellow creatives.

Design Matters is a celebration of design excellence, and highlights the role of design as a catalyst for innovation, linking creativity with business, technology and society.

The D&AD Awards are entered and attended by the best from around the world. Set to reward, promote and enable brilliance in all areas of creative communication, a Yellow, White or Black Pencil is the pinnacle of many careers.

APRIL

By focusing on “Focus”, the twoday conference TYPO San Francisco will bring together a diverse slate of international and local speakers to explore this theme through a creative’s lens.

MAY

MAY

Ends 17th May 2015.

Speakers include Tina Roth Eisenberg, Jessica Walsh, Michael Bierut, and Aaron Draplin (just to name a few).

Ends 1st May 2015.

Ends 8th May 2015.

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MAY

Pencil winners will be announced at Battersea Evolution in London.

SHILLINGTON IS A PROGRESSIVE DESIGN INSTITUTION PROVIDING COURSES AROUND THE WORLD. TURN YOUR PASSION INTO A CAREER IN JUST 3 MONTHS FULL-TIME OR 1 YEAR PART-TIME. shillingtoneducation.com