I was approached by a current student who wanted to know how to push our buttons. What would make us love him, employ him, or let him through the door, again. The truth is, he’d already been with us for a month over the summer so he knew us pretty well, but even so, wanted my opinion on this brief and help him get a mega wicked grade to show off at an awards ceremony – hopefully!

I guess the following passage isn’t so much what I’d like to see from him, but almost every student who wants to come here and work with us or just simply share some work.

So, let’s begin. If I’m completely honest, I’m yet to see anything that quite frankly knocks my socks off when it has come to meeting with students/ graduates about potential work placements or employment. I myself never knocked any socks off, but hey, that’s it – you don’t really have to. A decent portfolio and good solid communication really does go a long way on the day. Essentially, you need to know who your talking to and what you’re talking about. Going off on massive tangents about skills in flash or your recent oil painting of the river Avon at dusk aren’t particularly appealing to a branding agency, so do your research. Set up your portfolio with branding projects, logos, brandmarks – a combination of rough sketches and refined concepts are much more appropriate.

There’s always students who show a lot of good stuff, with a wide scope of design work, but sometimes a little refining of what is appropriate and what isn’t goes a long way. Design is design, yes, but certain disciplines within our industry are relevant to particular agencies. Digital, branding, interactive, interior and so on.

By hierarchy of our expertise, passion and vision we like to think of ourselves mainly as a branding agency. We love to brand. Create unique marks that are clever, provoking, relevant and memorable. Not to say we don’t look at other aspects of graphic design such as digital and advertising but if you were really trying to catch our eye, branding would be the way to do it.

So, in short, what we would love to see (in an ideal world) is a beautifully composed mark/ logo and some big brand thinking beyond that. How is it applied beyond just a mark? Some clever copywriting in the form of statements or messaging, all nicely complimented with graphic elements, shapes and colours and more. How you bring it to life is up to you.

However, I guess it’s one thing to have nice work – but what if you don’t really fit in with us as people? Well, personality is important too. A sense of humour is always appreciated, and that comes in all kinds of shapes and sizes. You might show it through your work or in a joke. This is all fine – we’re only human and we love a good laugh.

So if you can combine the above two assets talked about, then you’re onto a sure thing. Well, with us anyway. I can’t speak on every agency’s behalf, that would be wrong of me. It’s up to the student to research, refine and ring (yes the most ugly or the ‘R’ words: it’s rare that a student ever wants to make a phone call). Call them, see what you need to do to get a meeting and get noticed. Hopefully you’ll find out exactly what they’d like from you and then you can adjust your portfolio and communication accordingly.

Good luck!

Stuart