Hear straight from our graduates.
I couldn’t believe how much I’d learnt after just 3 months and how much my confidence had increased.
Design Lead, We Are Empire
Louise Hamer
Coming from an acting background is obviously quite different to graphic design, but do you think there were any transferable skills you’ve noticed since entering the industry?
Absolutely—training in Acting gave me great confidence and communication skills which has really helped when presenting work to clients. This plays a huge part of my role at We Are Empire and my acting background has helped in giving me the confidence and ability to do this. It can be a really daunting task presenting and speaking about your work in front of a group of people, but I think my acting experience has helped me to overcome a lot of fears in this area and communicate my ideas in a clear and confident way, which then helps to demonstrate the confidence in my own abilities and ideas.
What was it like applying for work after your 3 months at Shillington, how did employers react to your portfolio?
It was a lot hard work! But it was equally a really good experience and learning curve along the way. After graduating from Shillington I spent about a month applying to different studios before I was offered an internship at Uniform in Liverpool. For some studios, instead of sending my PDF portfolio in an email, I had copies of it printed and spent a couple of days walking around Manchester and handing over my work in person. This gave me the opportunity to quickly introduce myself to Creative Directors and let a little bit of my personality shine through. I had some really good feedback from this, with some of the studios following up and offering to meet me and go through my full portfolio in more detail. From the studios I visited, I had some great feedback on my portfolio, particularly about the variety of work that featured in there showing different disciplines.
Is there one core piece of advice you’d give to someone who is curious about making a career change but anxious about taking the leap?
I would say to just go for it! I was in exactly the same position before I decided to take the leap and retrain as a designer, but I don’t regret it for a second. If you have a lot of determination and are willing to work hard and create the best work you can then I am sure you will succeed. Graphic Design is such an exciting industry to be part of – come and join us and see for yourself!
Visit Louise’s website and read her full interview on the blog.
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I couldn’t believe how much I’d learnt after just 3 months and how much my confidence had increased.
Design Lead, We Are Empire
Louise Hamer
Coming from an acting background is obviously quite different to graphic design, but do you think there were any transferable skills you’ve noticed since entering the industry?
Absolutely—training in Acting gave me great confidence and communication skills which has really helped when presenting work to clients. This plays a huge part of my role at We Are Empire and my acting background has helped in giving me the confidence and ability to do this. It can be a really daunting task presenting and speaking about your work in front of a group of people, but I think my acting experience has helped me to overcome a lot of fears in this area and communicate my ideas in a clear and confident way, which then helps to demonstrate the confidence in my own abilities and ideas.
What was it like applying for work after your 3 months at Shillington, how did employers react to your portfolio?
It was a lot hard work! But it was equally a really good experience and learning curve along the way. After graduating from Shillington I spent about a month applying to different studios before I was offered an internship at Uniform in Liverpool. For some studios, instead of sending my PDF portfolio in an email, I had copies of it printed and spent a couple of days walking around Manchester and handing over my work in person. This gave me the opportunity to quickly introduce myself to Creative Directors and let a little bit of my personality shine through. I had some really good feedback from this, with some of the studios following up and offering to meet me and go through my full portfolio in more detail. From the studios I visited, I had some great feedback on my portfolio, particularly about the variety of work that featured in there showing different disciplines.
Is there one core piece of advice you’d give to someone who is curious about making a career change but anxious about taking the leap?
I would say to just go for it! I was in exactly the same position before I decided to take the leap and retrain as a designer, but I don’t regret it for a second. If you have a lot of determination and are willing to work hard and create the best work you can then I am sure you will succeed. Graphic Design is such an exciting industry to be part of – come and join us and see for yourself!
Visit Louise’s website and read her full interview on the blog.
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