Work experience with Gelicity

I was inspired following Creative Futures week, to join a few websites like fotoblur, Arthouse Co-Op and The Skull Illusion. Another piece of advice I took on board was that of Alan Whitfield from Minimal Media, and that was to contact the careers office about getting some work experience.

We've been told from day one that getting industry experience will make us more employable. So far, it has been almost impossible to find experience on our own, and despite emailing several companies I've got nowhere. I contacted Lucy at the careers office, and after a meeting I'm happy to report I have two work tasters which I obtained through Lucy and the Go Wales website.

The first was for a company called Gelicity, which is a company who deals with skincare products and is responsible for Gelli Baff, a product that turns bath water to jelly and back again. I was asked to photograph some packaging for a range of products including special Moshi Monsters (collectable little toys) and Gelli Baff sets, Gelicity Spa products and Gunki products.

I enjoyed being able to photograph products knowing they are going into a catalogue, Gavin Jones (owner of Gelicity) also told me that I'll get a copy of the catalogue after it's all put together which is exciting.

Even though I've done product photography before it can be hard to light a white background well, and even though it can look perfect on the back of the camera, it is often the opposite when you get the images onto a computer. With a little editing the pictures looked good, and I was happy with them when I dropped them off the next day.

I'm due to start my next work taster on Monday with a company called Call Miss Jones in Wrexham. I'm looking forward to working with the people there, on a short film and some portraits for the website. It's great knowing that I can put these work tasters on my CV.

If you're looking for work experience I can't recommend the careers centre enough. It's located on the second floor of the library.

Creative Futures - Day 4

How to be passionate, and the benefits of being self employed.

By the final day of creative futures week I was starting to feel really overloaded with information. Although I feel much more of it has been beneficial to me this year, I think it would be a good idea to spread the week over a couple of months, two days here, two days there. This will make it easier to digest all of the information being given to us without it overloading us.

So, the fourth and final day arrived. I was going to attend '

20:20 visions' with Andy Cheetham, however, when we arrived at the Catrin Finch building we found it had been swapped with 'The Chip Shop story'. So we decided to head to the library to keep on top of the creative futures blogs. I've found that I'm writing much more this year!

(The Photo Foundry icon, image courtesy of Google)

My first of two talks for the fourth day was by Alison McLean founder of the Photo Foundry. Another ex student of Glyndwr, but more recent than Dan Fox, graduating in 2010, the year we started. After running her own business, in the financial services for fifteen years, along with teaching Tae Kwon-Do for fifteen years also, Alison considered coming to Glyndwr her 'birth'. This is very similar to how I feel about my own experience with university.

I found a lot of Alison's talk to be useful, like her advice on writing your dissertation during the summer months, which I fully intend to do. Also, she advised that if possible to find a part time job after graduating to enable you to continue to work creatively. After graduating, Alison took a long break, but kept teaching Tae Kwon-Do for about 8 hours a week to keep money coming in.

It's no big secret that having your own website is a basic requirement in the current climate. If people can't find an online presence for your company or service, you don't really stand a change of being noticed. So, if everyone in the world has a website, how do you make yours stand out? Well Violet Fenn had the right idea, to keep your site as up to date as possible and have presence on all the social networking sites, and ensuring every site links back to every other site. It's easy to make a free/cheap website and along with the social networks being free it's simple to get your face out there with very little up-front costs.

If you're not savvy with technology, and if you think HTML is a highstreet clothes shop, then work with a graphic designer to make your site look more professional. You can also use a free portfolio site like Carbonmade which is a hosting site similar to Flickr but with a cleaner and more simple layout. If you're someone who's literately challenged, then a site like Ghotit will pick up on more than just incorrect spelling, but will also correct any bad grammar. A site that's badly spelt, or is full of mistakes or doesn't make sense won't look good to a potential client or customer.

• Improve traffic (people who visit your sites) by putting videos, blogs and keywords on there. And not just your own work, plug others' work that stands out to you. Sites with video content are five times more likely to come up in the top results in Google.
• Make it personal by interacting with your viewers, run contests or give out freebies.
• Always keep your site(s) up to date, I know personally if I see a blog that hasn't been updated in more than six months I'll lost interest pretty quickly.
• Business cards. Everyone has those these days too, Moo do pretty neat little cards and their standard cards are great quality. Looking for ways to make your business cards stand out is also a good way of ensuring people remember you. A lot of businesses, especially artists use postcard sized business cards because of the ability to do more with them. People are more likely to see them as little pieces of art and frame them.
• Spreading the word. Tell everyone! Family, friends, colleagues, students, all lead to referrals.
• Under promise and then over deliver. If someone gives you a job that you know will take three days, tell them it will take five. Then, when you finish early, saving your client money and time you'll look great.
• Do it personally. Turn up to events, socialise, network and be friendly but professional.
• Using social media is great, but use something like Tweetdeck, or Hootsuite which are dashboards that will post an update you make to all of your social networking sites. On the other hand, if you're someone who can while away hours or days on Facebook or Twitter, you might want to look at Anti-Social which is a website that will turn off the social side of the internet, enabling you to work without getting distracted.

All very valid tips really! Alison went on to talk about watermarking your images. Something I only really do if I know my photographs are being sold. If you're posting them online, Adobe Bridge allows metadating, which is an embedded watermark stopping people from saving the image to their computer. Also only upload small images 700 pixels, for example. This stops people from being able to print them large.

Sometimes, it can be hard to stay inspired, it's like writers block and everyone suffers from it from time to time. Alison gave us a list of sites to look out, as well as suggesting we keep a file of ideas for 'rainy days'. I've since gone on to join Arthouse Co-Op (amongst others) where lots of artists from across the world join projects that go on to be displayed in a gallery window in Boston.

Alison explains that having already run her own business that starting the Photo Foundry wasn't too hard. But for the rest of us the ideas of tax, employees, overheads, liability, HMRC, and PAYE to name but a few, are all quite daunting. But there's plenty of help available, especially through the Citizens Advice Bureau. Finally there was a list of websites that might be helpful to us.

• Artists Newsletter. Which is a resource for artists across all fields. It has a magazine that offers £2.5million public liability insurance with subscriptions.
• BJP Online. The British Journal of Photography is a monthly publication, supported by its website offers editorials and new and upcoming talent next to well-known photographers.
• Freelance UK is aimed at freelancers in the creative industries, offering help and support to those who are just starting out to the seasoned self-employed.
• Photographers.co.uk is a site for photographers looking for jobs, employees, training courses and supplies.
• Professional Photographer is another publication and website, with competitions, exhibitions, a directory of photographers the latest news in the world of photography.

All in all, I found this talk to be quite helpful, but it was also long and had a lot of information to take on board. It's only after I've sat down and re-read my notes that I've been able to decipher them and pick out what was relevant to me.

As I've mentioned before, it has been nice to have talks from so many ex Glyndwr students who are doing well for themselves. So it was a nice end to the week to have a talk from three students who only graduated within the last year and are already doing really well. My final talk for the week was 'show passion in your next step (photography and video) Minimal Media'. The three students were Graham Cooper, who's passion is film. Hollie Harmsworth who's fine art background saw her change direction to Glyndwr, and Alan Whitfield who worked in a factory for ten years before doing a GCSE, A Level, HND and finally a degree in photography.

I looked at their website, Minimal Media, which is very simple, and clean and straight to the point. It's nice not to see a plethora of adverts, but being brutally honest, I didn't think much of their show-reel. I didn't see anything that stood out to me, and there was nothing particularly special about it. That said, in the short time they've been a business they've had lots of different projects, some big, and some small. But their advice was very similar to that of most of the other speakers. Don't pigeon-hole yourself, the more skills you have, the more employable you are. Never say no to a project, get industry experience, find opportunities and take every chance you get to improve.

Resonance, is a Glyndwr film that the three are involved in, it was promoted through Twitter and Facebook, which are both great ways to promote for free. It's not just a Glyndwr film, Resonance is about an object that changes the lives of the people who come into contact with it, and it is now a global film stretching over many platforms and many countries. Visit the Facebook page here.

Unlike some of the other talks we've had this week, this wasn't crammed full of information, and although we've already heard most of it, they ended with quite a poignant quote. "Passion is a positive obsession. Obsession is a negative passion" - Paul Carvel.

So, what did we learn?

Well, honestly not much that I didn't already know about the basics. Employability is about being good at lots of stuff, not just knowing one thing inside out. Presenting yourself professionally, saying yes to everything (within reason), get a website and business cards, make people remember you, make use of free advertising, show passion and dedication and a million other things. But first and foremost to remember that when we graduate, hundreds of people will be applying for the jobs we want and to stand out you have to show your potential employer that you're the best man (or woman) for the job.

Having already lived in the big scary world, I already knew a lot of this, but it has been a lot more beneficial this year, with lots of talks that have been useful and relevant and not all of them have been tedious like some talks can be when you're bombarded with information. I'm sure next years' creative futures week will be more important and informative again.

Creative Futures - Day 3

Film! Film! and more FILM!

Day three, and I'm already feeling a little snowed under with information. I do feel that Creative Futures week is useful in putting us in touch with the 'real world' and industry professionals, as well as ex Glyndwr students who are doing well for themselves (which is really inspiring). Of course given that I'm a mature student I'm in the 'minority' and a lot of the lectures are aimed at the students who are yet to enter the big wide world looking for a job. It also feels like there are a lot of conflicting opinions about getting into your chosen industry, some seem to think it near impossible and others not so much, obviously it's important to be realistic, but it's not ideal to make us think that we don't really stand a chance, anyway, I digress.

First up for day three was Berwyn Rowlands who works for a company called The Festivals Company, which is a small company specialising in moving image, consultancy and events (festivals), they have done work for the Welsh curry house of the year competition, Dwr Cymru (Welsh Water), the centenary of the national library in Wales, and the Welsh assembly commission.

Berwyn came to talk to us about Ffresh, which is a moving images festival, based in Wales and primarily for students. It has been run since 2002, and next year the festival is coming to Glyndwr, which means there will be plenty of opportunities to get involved, not just submitting work (which I fully intend on doing).

Ffresh has two main objectives, the first being a link between industry and students and the second is peer to peer, which gives us a chance to see what other students, locally, nationally and globally have been doing. Even if your film is short-listed, but doesn't go on to win, employers see this as a positive. It shows you value your work and the opinions of others to critique it properly. It made me think about my work, after I finished it, I would blog about it, and perhaps upload it to YouTube, with little response. I'm very proud of some of the work I've completed, solely and as a group, it would be nice if more people could see it, which is another bonus of submitting it to Ffresh.

It wasn't a very long talk, and although it wasn't rammed with information like some of the lectures this week, there was a lot of information that I considered important, as well as spurring me to find out about possibly getting work experience with the festival company.

Next up was Adam Partridge, who's talk entitled 'film, funding and Wales' was possibly one of the most information packed talks we had all week. He works for The Film Agency for Wales which is an agency that works to develop the film industry in Wales. The film agency also offers a number of schemes to help you develop and fund your film ideas. So how does someone get funding? Well Adam explained that it's all about what you have done and how you present yourself, which seems to be part of the emphasis for this week. Present yourself professionally, and people will treat you so. When approaching the film agency for funding, they will expect to see what you have done, scripts, showreels etc.

Adam explained that there were several avenues just within Wales if getting into the film industry was where we wanted to go. The BBC make a lot of TV in Cardiff, there are a lot of post production houses, and animation companies like Dinamo and Calon. There are also a number of schemes and festivals for professional and aspiring film-makers. Here is a brief list as there were many.

• The Light House offers lots of workshops, opportunities and funding for aspiring film-makers and those with a track record of submitting to festivals.
• It's My Shout produce up to 30 short films every year, for the BBC, the UK films council and the Arts council of Wales.
  
• Cannes film festival, probably the most well known of all film festivals. However, we were told that they people you'd want to speak to wouldn't be there, or would be too busy, and it seems to be information overload.
• Rotterdam film festival offers Rotterdam lab, which is for producers and Cinemart, which introduces film-makers to people in the industry who can help them get their film produced.
• The Berlin film festival is a two day event designed to try and raise finance for films, with a talent campus, talks, screenings and creatives from lots of different fields.
• Toronto film festival offers funding and critique to people who've already achieved in the field of film making.
• The Ontario Media Development Corporation offers financing options to budding film makers, across several fields including interactive digital media, film, TV and music.
• The London Film Festival is a little closer to home, it offers education as well as news of other film festivals in and around London. They also offer a new scheme called Think - Shoot - Distribute which is for experienced film-makers looking to
• Media Desk offers training opportunities and a list of all training sessions, and courses across Europe.
• Skillset is a company run for those in the creative industries, it offers funding for training, a list of apprentiships and internships.
• EAVE, the European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs works with audiovisual producers, to further their knowledge and offer support and financial options.
• Binger offers labs and training for writers, directors and producers with in-depth coaching.

So as you can see there are many avenues, it's a little overwhelming really. Still I do appreciate all of the links and ways I can step forward from here, if only I had a clue what I wanted to do! Adam went on to give us a guide to being successful.

1. Audience research - think about who your audience is when you're filming and editing.

2. Select your project for the right reasons - make it because you want to, not for the money.

3. Remember that screenplay is the most important element.

4. Build up relationships with sales agents, bankers and lawyers amongst other people - it seems like networking is vital.

5. Cornerstone strategy - lock in the financial sources.

6. Develop fully - don't run before you can walk. Good core skills are vital.

7. Know the value of your project in the market place.

8. Make it for less than its value.

9. Know when to give up.

10. Remember the last 10.

We went on to speak about some people who've made films with small budgets. Films like Monsters, Katalin Varga, Bronson, We need to talk about Kevin, Free Runner, and Slumdog Millionaire. Adam finished with some suggested reading, The International Filmbusiness by Angus Finney and The Filmbusiness Handbook - Mike Downey.

It really felt like a long talk at the time, but sitting down and re-reading my notes, it's clear just how much information was packed into an hour.

The last speaker for Wednesday was Dan Fox, another ex Glyndwr student who graduated in 1999. I thought this lecture was a little disheartening, but truthful. Dan explained that all the technology that's currently available to students is making them lazy. When he attended Glyndwr the film course was done with 35mm film and on the verge of moving to VHS tape. Dan explained that everything was much harder when using analogue equipment, especially greenscreen.

I was sad to learn that producers have the power now to completely change the feel and mood of a film, and they are pushing for more and more visual effect with every film that comes out. Technology also means that there's no need for thousands of extras anymore, if you want an army scene you can easily duplicate people, and stagger their movements so the don't all look the same. It's also easy to chance the feel and mood of a film by changing the colour and tone, and again, unlike in the past, it's much easier to do.

Matte painting is another technique that has developed dramatically in recent years. To begin with cameras would have to be static as the background would be painted by hand on sheets of glass, and the skill was highly sought after. Now it is all don

e on computers and is simple to train in the basics.

So the advice was to always be taking photographs or making films, and not to be lead by the technology. Watch lots of films and compare them, the brain can be tricked to believe visual effects are real as we tend to watch a film with an open mind for them, but look out and see if you can see where they're being used. In one of our earliest lectures on this course, I remember Stewart telling us that our brains fill in the gaps when watching films, I always interpreted that as also meaning that sometimes, less is more. Sometimes it's what the eyes don't see that can be the most scariest, tense of disturbing part of a film. Even so, Dan explained that if we concentrate while watching a film, you will be able to pick our what are visual effects and what aren't, and that with the current technology, there is no

reason things should look fake, even with a tight budget.

The above picture is from the 2009 film 'Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus'. This is a good example of cgi gone mental. Although I've never sat through an entire film like this (and there are lots, Mega Shark vs Crocosaurus, Megapiranha, Mega Python vs Gatoroid and 2 Headed Shark Attack to name but a few) however, I've caught snippets as they get repeated on the free movie channels on TV. The huge creatures in the films are shown to crush cars, chew bridges like gum and eat people like chips, which is unrealistic. But when you really watch the films, you can see that the things these mutants interact with don't react the way they should. I.E. cars do not buckle, and the people who get tossed and eaten, don't display the physical behaviours humans would in that situation.

So is it a case of going back to the basics? I think it is important to appreciate where film and photography have come from, what may seem to be the archaic days of 35mm film are actually days where you had to rely on your knowledge of lighting to be able to take a well-lit shot. Sadly today, if you make a mistake you can easily edit it in post. Although I worked with a giant film camera in my first job, I haven't had the chance to really get to grips with working with film until I started at Glyndwr and bought my Zeiss film camera. It really makes me work hard at getting the settings correct before pressing the shutter, not being able to see the photos as soon as you've taken them the anticipation while you're waiting for them to be developed almost unbearable but very exciting.

As Dan mentioned in his talk, it's a case of balancing between using visual 'tricks' and not. With a good core knowledge of how important good lighting and sound is, along with working knowledge of editing software and visual effects software seems to be the only way to ensure what you create isn't over the top. Plus, like a lot of the other speakers we've had this week, will only add to your employability.

Lastly, day four.

Creative Futures - Day 2

Collecting photos of the dead, getting a job with the BBC and how NOT to give an interview!

After only attending two of the seminars during day one, I had four scheduled for Tuesday. First we met Violet Fenn who runs a website called The Skull Illusion. I was particularly interested as the titled 'How I make a living from death' along with the warning that came with it was enough to draw me in. I found out that Violet was a student at Glyndwr and had gone on to own her own business, which she runs from under her stairs.

It isn't the first time I have come across the types of photographs Violet collects. Post mortem photography is a predominantly Victorian invention, where the dead relatives would be laid, or propped up and photographed with their (alive) relatives or sometimes alone. There is a saddening number of very young children photographed this way, and although it might seem morbid, the truth is that for most of the children it would be the first (and last) photograph ever taken of them. There are a plethora of these very strange images to be found on the internet, and Violet's intention is to keep them stored in one place. As the photographers are well gone themselves, no copyright remains on the images and they are in the public domain.

"How I did everything wrong but somehow managed to survive anyway, despite everyone's gloomy predictions." Something in that sentence comforted me. Some days I wake up with no idea of where I am, and a sinking feeling that I'm just blagging my way through this life. To meet someone else who still really doesn't know what she wants to be doing 'when she grows up' was a comfort.

Violet explained that she fell into plush making after creating one for a friend, and was selling mostly to friends and family. Using an image of Colin Murray with one of her creations helped cement her in people's minds and after attending a free accounting course through business link she set up under her stairs and started making more of her creations.

We've all done it, you're supposed to be working but the call of the internet is too strong. So while browsing Wikipedia one day, Violet stumbled on an image of a man, dressed as a fireman. At first it looked like another Victorian image, but there was something not quite right, his waist was pinched in tight, and his eyes were blank. It was this image that started her collection of post mortem photography.
Bit strange when you really look at it, isn't it? So Violet began a blog to bring all of these images back to life again in a way. She got 800 hits overnight and now gets thousands of hits a month on her website which also encompasses her jewellery shop. The photographs remain a mystery, some come to her and it's hard to guess if the person is alive or dead, sometimes there are sure giveaways like the person being propped up with books, and their relatives.

Violet's online presence is spread over several sites including social networking, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and each site links back to The Skull Illusion. 'Cross pollinating' is a way to make sure people don't leave your site, that they're always linked back to the main website, and that each avenue is linked to another. It has spurred another website called The Spooky Isles to contact her to write for them, and a possible book deal in May.

It was probably one of the most interesting and useful talks I've attended so far during creative futures. I intend to follow the blog closely in future. A massive thanks to Violet for her talk!

Second speaker of the day was Wendy Rees on behalf of the BBC with a talk called 'Getting that job'. Wendy is the head of operations in North Wales for TV, radio and online content. After graduating as a law student, she didn't want to work as a lawyer and ended up in S4C which is the Welsh language channel, eventually moving on to the BBC.

There wasn't really a great deal to this talk, Wendy explained about the recruitment process, and how it is all done online. The BBC employ around 20'000 people over from technical to designers, on screen talent to carpenters there's something for everyone. They also have graduate schemes like a production trainee scheme that current director general Mark Thompson was once a part of. They take on 12 trainees a year.

Wendy explained that the BBC look for candidates that show passion within their field, have great portfolios and industry experience. They especially look for a flexible attitude towards work, as well as multi-skilled people.

It was a short talk, and there wasn't really as much depth as I'd have liked in regards to the recruitment process, but it was helpful and I would like to apply for work experience, which you can also do through the website.

Finally, and split into two sessions was 'Piece to Camera' from another BBC employee Matthew Richards who is a reporter for Wales Today and has been working for them since 2000. Matthew says he has conducted a staggering 6000-10'000 interviews! His talk was about how to conduct and give an interview from both the interviewer and interviewee's perspectives.

We pretty much began with a drawing exercise, in groups of two one person had to describe the image on a piece of paper, while the other had to draw it from what the person was saying. It was amusing, and nice to be engaged in the talk instead of having to sit and listen (which can become hard to concentrate on after a while). The idea I think was to understand that you're trying to paint a picture with words to the audience with what you're saying. The only way to convey well is to be descriptive.

Several videos were played to us over the course of Matthew's talk. The first being a film called 'the bad interviewee' in which Matthew had interviewed himself, badly. It was stilted, the interviewee was fidgeting and nervous and used jargon (which can be confusing), was making eye contact with the camera, and was not enthusiastic. Matthew informed us that the footage could still be used as a piece, but that it was the longest answer, and not the best answer, that would be chosen.

As an interviewee, we were asked to think about what we would want our objectives to be, publicity? money? a political message? or just curiosity about being interviewed? And as for being the interviewer, is it just good TV? highlighting local or national talent? a news story or hook? It's always best to start with the basic questions, who, what, where, how, why etc with no agenda, advance questions and no ambushing the interviewee.

The next video we saw was between Ali G and Buzz Aldrin, and to his credit Buzz holds it together expertly, even though Ali G was doing his best to trip him up and confuse matters. We also saw Cassette Boy vs BBC News, if you've never head of Cassette Boy, he's someone that takes video clips of celebrities, news, programmes etc and mashes them together to make something new, usually risque with its fair share of swearing. Obviously when being interviewed, no one will mash up what you say to make it sound like you said something else! Well, probably...

So be passionate, show control, be animated and lively (but not crazy), speak naturally, explain any technical terms you use, keep it simple and get personal as people respond to human emotion. But don't get too personal, as artist Tracy Emin did in the next video we saw where she talks openly and personally about her past. Dramatist Dennis Potter, who sadly died in 1994 showed how to display emotion in an interview we saw. He explains, despite being in obvious pain that he learnt how fragile life was, and how knowing the end was near found peace.

We were shown a news piece about famous graffiti art-terrorist Banksy, despite not doing interviews, he gets his message, usually political, across loud and clear. Newswipe by Charlie Brooker was a funny video that explains how most news pieces are filmed in quite a funny way. Finally we saw a video called 'how not to walk out' by Christine O'Donnell was a nice way to end to talk, and showed how to walk out of an interview without making a fool of yourself.

So day two finished, and what have I learned? How to apply for a job with the BBC, that even if you're 42 with children it's OK to not know what you want to be when you grow up and that I should learn about how to give and take an interview and then forget it!

Coming up...day 3

Creative Futures 2012 - Day 1

Creative Futures 2012 - Opening address and key note speech

Here it is upon us again! Creative futures week. For those of you who don't know, it's a week-long event held yearly where lots of professionals and alumni of the university visit to hold seminars, lectures, networking opportunities and portfolio surgeries. I found from last year that some of the sessions can be truly priceless in terms of what you're looking to do in the future.

To begin day one, we had an introduction by Dr Stuart Cunningham. His introduction was brief and to the point, he told us that 67% of employees in the creative sectors are graduates, and that the number is rising. In a world where technology is changing and improving daily a good education with good core skills, business sense, management skills, experience and industry intelligence are the things that will land us that dream job after we graduate. With 94% of Glyndwr's graduates getting a job within 6 months, it is comforting to know we stand a chance in such a volatile climate.

Dr Cunningham finished with some lyrics from a Pink Floyd song 'and then one day you find ten years have got behind you, no one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun' and encouraged everyone to grab all opportunities that come our way.

We were supposed to be receiving our opening speech by Maurice Cockrill, who couldn't attend. Kindly stepping in last minute was vice chancellor Michael Scott, who has also been a visiting professor at Georgetown university in the US as well as Oxford university. He has sold his books 'text and performance' globally. He came to speak to us about Shakespeare.

I've studied several of Shakespeare's plays at high school. I always imaged him as a bard and a playwright. However, Michael Scott informed us that Shakespeare was little more than a thief and a very good business man. He went into great detail about Shakespeare's life, how his business is one of the oldest in the UK and still makes money to this day.

It was only after James Burbage saw the bear pits of the day that he decided to create the 'theatre' and although only ten years old at the time, the young Shakespeare went on to make his fortune in the theatre. It isn't a tale without its twists and turns however, the Puritans refused to allow theatres in the centre of London, so Shakespeare built on the outskirts, in North London. With a young girlfriend and baby back in Stratford, he needed the money to raise his daughter and so began stealing plays, rewriting them and putting them on the stage for people to watch.

In 1576, James Burbage died, leaving his son Richard in charge. The lease on the theatre is due for renewal, but it is refused. Their number one performer Will Kemp not only leaves, but takes great pleasure in telling all and sundry that he has left Shakespeare's company. Shakespeare and Burbage decide to move the theatre, pulling it down and moving it to south London on barges before rebuilding. It is here that he decides to have two companies, a theatre company and a company of actors who pay rent to the theatre.

For a while he's on top again, that is until Henry Evans realises that he has found a loophole in the Purtians ban on theatres inside the city of London. He makes a deal with St Paul's Cathedral to put on plays, he charges 6pence for the seats, drawing in the elite of the city. So begins the war of the theatres. Eventually however, Evans' luck runs out and Shakespeare ends up buying the properties in London and putting his own plays on. He returns to Stratford, buys the second largest house on the market, becomes a money lender and land owner and goes on to make his fortune.

Despite his start in life, where he saw his father a glove maker, go bankrupt Shakespeare was a shrewd businessman, he saw the uprising of the theatre and grasped at his chance to make his fortune. Michael Scott's message was that crisis was the potential to be your greatest moment of all. Next up was Angus Montgomery, he is a journalist for Design Week (click here for their website) which is a weekly publication that concentrates on design, education, new businesses and developments in the design world.

Angus told us he had spoken to several people from within the design profession about tips they could give graduates trying to break into the industry. Simon Manchipp who works for 'SomeOne' which is a design company in London (SomeOne Website) said that students should pay particular attention to how they brand themselves. Lateral thinkers, showing excitement about the field, and progressive workers are all very attractive traits in designers.
Rhiannon James who works for D and AD talked about the successful graduate academy that the company runs, how they nurture the best talent. And how their graduates get a job within 3 months. Illustrator Lizzie Mary Cullen reiterates Simon Manchipp's message by emphasising the importance of marketing yourself professionally.

Finally, Greg Quinton of The Partners, says it's important to encourage students to find their own influences, not to follow what everyone else is following. To collaborate with other fields, and people and find a space to work in groups. To always love what you do, push yourself and your passion will drive you to better yourself.

Angus then went on to talk about how student fees is a topic that often comes up within Design Week. He asked lots of professionals in the industry that if they were faced with paying up to £9000 a year in tuition fees if they would do it. Apparently every single on answered yes without a doubt. That if you have to pay for your education you will make the most of it and value it. I feel this is very much true for myself!

Moving on to work Angus has reported on, or that struck out to him and starting with a campaign called '300 million' a petition to stop sex trafficking in children. Thanks to this colourful and engaging campaign, 17 countries have had law changes regarding sex trafficking. It was also in conjunction with the Body Shop, who created a hand cream called 'soft hands kind hearts'.

Next was the 'one laptop per child' campaign. This started off as people donating old, somewhat outdated laptops to developing third world countries. Also known as the fuse project. Yves Behar is responsible for designing a laptop that is durable, rugged, hard wearing, cheap to make and efficient to run. There have been 2.5 million laptops shipped over the last four years alone.

The Plumen energy saving light bulb was next. To be honest came across as quite stupid and pointless. Apparently the designers (Hulger) thought that the existing light bulb design needed updating and came up with the world's first 'designer' light bulb. Although I'll agree that the design itself is clearly unique and stylish I can't imagine why anyone would want to own one. Maybe I'm getting old? Anyway, the point being that designers aught to be able to look at existing technology and thinking about ways to change or improve it. I however honestly believe that this is a case of useless design at its very best!

After the disaster that was the Plumen light bulb came something quite unique. As we all know, there is little to no money in the NHS and a lot of A&E staff are quite concerned with the level of anger and violence towards staff and so asked designers to come up with a way in order to reduce the risk. It was furniture designers PearsonLloyd that came up with the idea of redesigning a person's experience with A&E, by removing the mystery with a flow chart that maps the route through the different departments and a screen that displays the current state in terms of busyness people seem to be calmer and much less violent. At the moment it is being piloted in seven to eight hospitals with plans to introduce it to more in future.

I found the next piece to be quite an eye opener, which was the intent really as it was an annual report for a charity called St George's Crypt, which deals with the homeless. It was done in A2 size to illustrate the size of a blanket of newspaper a homeless person might sleep under. The photographs were incredibly sharp and shocking, revealing the true nature of the homeless people along with their personal cases. A great design, with hard hitting photographs, clear font and very difficult stories. This is design that really helps to highlight a very real and serious issue.

I've already mentioned the company SomeOne in London, and this next piece was from them. Basically, they spent a thousand pounds on flowers, froze them in liquid nitrogen and then blew them up, using a high speed camera to capture the footage. I think that this really was a bit of a waste to some nice flowers, and the images really weren't great in my opinion. It was for a company called Resonate.

Next up was a company called The Milton Agency which commissioned Magpie Studio to create a brand logo for them. The Milton Agency is a company that works alongside the stars of Hollywood providing make up and costumes. The simple star design shows that while the stars of Hollywood are in the foreground, the M, cleverly placed in the negative space of the stars shows the Milton Agency are always in the background. A very clever and simple, and fun design
The company Harrison & Co were the final to be shown. They had been commissioned by the Orchestra of age and enlightenment to highlight what the orchestra was about, and specifically the characters that made up the orchestra itself. By using a simple, but engaging design and some colorful tape you can really pick out the music and the individual personalities.

Finally, Angus showed us two examples of work he enjoyed by students. The first was by a man called Sam Grey who studied at Plymouth University. His bright posters were designed to highlight the issues of vertigo, and how a sufferer feels like the earth is spinning. The second was by Alan Clarke who studied at Falmouth university and used the concept of movement to design a series of posters surrounding the Olympics. He promoted them through his blog and had a surprising and positive response, I think both are very good, solid pieces of work.

So that was the end of day one. Considering neither of these lectures really stood out to me, I have said a lot! I learned that you have to market yourself professionally if you want people in the industry to take you seriously, and that Shakespeare was a fraud and a thief but made himself a fortune. I'm not sure if that's the right message to portray really, but I understand it from the angle that he was also a man who made the most of what he could in a time when he really had no other choice and stole in order to escape bankruptcy.

Coming up...day two!