Preparing for the future

For all young aspiring designers, we are always told that getting experience in industry is invaluable. The real challenge is finding the right kind of experience.

Earlier in the year I attended a creative social called Meetdraw. On this particular occasion, it was the annual ‘Student Takeover’ Meetdraw where students are invited to meet and question industry professionals about anything we want! I was recommended to talk to Salad’s MD, Bella, and so I shared my fears about my future in design with her. Bella was very supportive and expressed how important being brave is when it comes to going for, or indeed creating, opportunities in my career. She also said that internships are a great option to learn the ropes and grow as a design individual.

A couple of weeks later I applied for an internship. I wasn’t sure how it would go and was honestly quite petrified beforehand. I knew I wanted to get the feel of a studio environment and understand how it really works, as I expected university to be very different. The time between my second and third year seemed to be a great time to experience this and fortunately, I was chosen!

When I nervously arrived for my first day, instead of throwing me straight into the deep end, time was taken to introduce me to each member of the team, which allowed me to get to know everyone’s job roles and how they all worked together.

The design team then showed me their work which helped illustrate how the design process happened. I am really pleased that I had the opportunity to do this because you don’t realise the other aspects to the job that are needed by designers while studying.

On my second day I was introduced to a creative brief for a new identity and range of packaging for a local chocolate company which was my primary focus for the next four weeks. Getting started was daunting but with the help and advice of the design team, the slowly started to come together. I also worked on other live jobs as they came in. It was great to experience variety.

Salad’s daily ‘Lunch Club’ was great fun as it allowed me to get to know some of the team a lot better. I was also invited to join their big team social which was an evening at dinner followed by paddle boarding with everyone, which was really fun!

Both the studio itself and the atmosphere were so lovely to be a part of. It’s scary how quickly my month flew by but I certainly enjoyed every moment of it and I’m so thankful for being given the opportunity to be part of the team. As a result of my time, I definitely feel more prepared for what’s to come and I’m excited for the future of design ahead of me.