Placement : RAW

Sometime over reading week, I was offered a paid placement at Raw Design studio in Manchester for a month which will start straight after I graduate. This is great news for me, not only for the opportunity to gain experience while getting some sort of payment, but the fact that this will be directly straight after I finish the course.

I haven't really got any plans as to where I'd like to settle down after the course, I have my eyes set on a few places in the UK aswell as potential destinations overseas and in Europe, however all that takes a lot of planning so this is definitely great timing for me to gain some experience straight after. I'm quite terrified by the idea of not having anything planned after so this extra month of having some sort of schedule should be good.

Raw design is a relatively small scale studio who do a range of things from branding to printed materials for commercial and cultural clients, which is exactly what I'm after. I went to see them in summer 2010 and have since kept in contact via email, which has paid off! Overall I'm looking forwards to the experience. should be a good one!

Below are a few samples of their work taken from their website.

Placement : Qubik

Since November last year, I've been going to Joe's studio for a one day a week placement on and off, depending on how busy college work got. More recently I've picked this back up now that the dissertations been submitted. Although I do have quite a lot of work on from college, I feel that having a single day out of uni would be a good additional practice, which is also manageable alongside everything else that I have on. It makes me manage my time and days more efficiently knowing that I have a day less than everyone else to be in the studio, which makes more committed to my work I guess. So far, it's working out alright, I'm getting decent professional experience, getting a different taste of studio culture than my previous placements and working on quite a diverse range of work quite often for the cultural sector.

What I enjoy about the experience from Qubik is that it's a small design studio so getting feedback on my work and the dialogue is very casual, unlike other placements when I'd probably only get to see the art director once every 3 days while I'm there. In general, I'm enjoying the experience and hope to continue this for a few more weeks and see where that goes.

Studio Visits : Sandy Choi

Studio Visits : Co Design

Studio Visits : Eric Chan Design

Studio Visits : Tommy Li Design Workshop

Studio Visits : Sixstation

The 2nd studio visit while in Hong Kong was with Benny Luk - founder of Sixstation design studio.

In general, the discussion I had with Benny from Sixstation was again quite insightful and at times off putting in terms of working in hong kong. He went through my portfolio picking out questions and challenging my thought process which gave me the opportunity to explain my decisions and design practice.

One of benny's main points was that I needed a bit more variation in my folio, he complimented on my use of typography and that my knowledge, skills and ability with using type in my design was evident in the work, but if I was to consider working in Hong Kong, I should really consider experimenting and including other types of work such as digital media, motion and web etc.

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Studio Visits : Milkxhake

During the reading week I took some time off in Hong Kong. I was aware that this would most probably be the last time I'd visit the place while still as a student so wanted to make the most of the opportunity to network and ask around about the design industry in Hong Kong. I was fortunate enough to arrange meetings throughout the week with 6 of my more admired design studios in Hong Kong, ones that showed a great flare in ideas, quality and type of work for a design studio in the city that related to my practice and aspirations.

The first studio I went to speak to was Milkxhake
A studio that I've been following since 1st year so was very excited to have been able to meet up with the co founder - Javin Mo, who has an admirable client list, collection of quality work and achievements for a 2 man design studio in Hong Kong.