What were you up to before Shillington?
Just before I started Shillington I worked as Office Manager for a business consultancy. Part of my role was laying out internal reports for the consultants, and briefing larger jobs in to design agencies. I felt a little frustrated on both fronts, to be honest. The layout in Word was as painful as you can imagine, and I felt I wasn’t really able to get across what we wanted to achieve when talking to designers — because I just didn’t get what they were doing.
It’s funny now looking back that I only signed up to upskill. It wasn’t until a few months into the course that I realised just how much I cared and that this was actually my passion. Everything just fell into place then.
Why did you decide to study design part-time? Why Shillington?
I took a Word template design training course run by a Shillo graduate (Rebekah is now the owner of Kboodl). Rebekah absolutely raved about the course and said I’d totally enjoy it. So the seed was planted and when I was looking for a way to upskill a few months later Shillington was front of mind.
Shillington was my final choice because it promised studio ready skills that where up to date with what the industry was doing — in such a short period of time and at an affordable cost. It had obviously been a great experience for Rebekah. The brief based learning in a studio environment felt like the perfect fit for me. And after seeing the quality of the student portfolios at one of the Information Sessions I was sold.
I chose the part-time course because I wanted to keep working in my admin job. Studying part time meant I could go to school straight from work, spend my days off with my family and then work on my design projects at night.
What would you say to someone sceptical about Shillington’s fast-paced course?
There is nothing to be sceptical about. It really is just awesome. Whether you do part-time or full-time — you’re thrown right into it with your first brief due on the first day/night in class.
The briefs get more complex as you are taught new skills and at the end of it you are able to jump right into a studio and pick up a brief. That’s because you’ve been taught how to take a brief, what questions to ask of your clients, and how to systematically reach a design response through your create process then get it to print, or online.
Visit Frankie’s website and read her full interview on the blog.