Work Placement 02

My 2nd placement over the summer is at True North, a Manchester based design studio consisting of a relatively small team of designers and creative directors. They work on a diverse range of design project ranging from branding, packaging to exhibition work, which was what appealed to me initially. Their work seems very conceptual and considered, nothing seems to decorative for the sake of adding aethetics, which is something I'm trying to focus on.

Again, similar to IdN I will be working at True North for a month over the summer. Hopefully this would provide an opportunity for me to work alongside other designers to get an idea of what it's like working in a design studio that's of relatively small scale. From placement, I aim to improve my understanding and experience with working on a range of projects with a small team of designers in mind. 

Work Placement 01://

After getting in contact with numerous design studios and design individuals whose work I admired and shared similar interests in their way of thinking and design solutions, I finally managed to secure a placement for the summer period. This would be at IdN magazine, they're are monthly publication that focuses on a specific field of design and visual communication for each issue. They're based in Hong Kong but distribute internationally. Aswell as the magazine itself, they also have a number of books that they've designed and published under IdN, they also seem to be quite well connected with design events around the world.

I chose to apply to IdN because I wanted to work with a studio practice that dealt with publications/ editorial again. IdN was one of my top choices as I really like the way it's written and designed, with each issue focusing on a very specific field of design. They also utilise many print finishes and seem to take a lot of care into detail and also seem very current with design trends in an international scale. After working at HK Magazine last year, also in Hong Kong I wanted to experience working overseas again and absorbing the lifestyle and studio culture. From the 4 weeks placement there, I hope to gain experience and knowledge around putting a publication together in a small team, networking with other designers and also overseeing what the studio culture and design practice is like.    

Brooklyn Brotherhood competition://

Brooklyn Brothers are a design and advertising agency with offices in London and New York City. Over the Easter break, I entered one of their competitions, the format was very open and pretty much invited people to create something interesting about their hometown and where they came from etc.

I entered this, without much initial thought, they seemed quite big and I just wanted to create a simple print booklet that utilises photography so this seemed like the perfect opportunity. As I was back home for the week I spent a day cycling around taken photos of the dingy corners of my home town.

The concept was simple, I wanted to capture my hometown in it's raw state, so kept the framing quite natural to how you'd normally see it. This was then laid out in an A5 format book with the details and timing of each photograph printed. The PDF was then submitted to the Brooklyn Brotherhood competition in it's it original state aswell as an ISSU publication link as shown below. 

My submission://

Open publication - Free publishing - More whittlesey

A couple of months later, they got back in touch and said that my submission came out as one of the top ones so wanted to hear more about me and what I do. From this, I'm now planning on going down to London in June to meet them and discuss something......