Inspire Create Leeds

Yesterday I went to the free Inspire Create lectures and seminars at The Faversham. I booked myself in for a fairly full itinerary which was exhausting but so worth it!

I managed to get so much networking done and got some really good advice and contacts.

First off I spoke with Clearsilver who offered some really valuable advice about placements.

I then spoke with Brand_Nu and Chris from Jelly - this was my ultimate goal of the whole event. Although I would obviously love my poster to win and get the mac and the placement with Brass, Jelly are an agency that I dream of being a part of. The designers they have under their umbrella are some of my biggest inspirations at the moment so it meant a lot to here his lecture and meet him in person (even if I did have to stubbornly lurk behind him until the opportunity arrose!). He gave me some great insight into getting a placement with them and what it would involve if I got one. I showed him my poster design in the exhibition and explained my concerns about my practice - whether I should stick to what I love or keep my skill set as broad as possible so that I am more commercially employable, and he said that he thought an internship with Jelly would help me decide this. It seemed like a positive meeting and  he told me to contact them with more samples of my work. I e-mailed Georgie (the woman in charge of submissions) and cc'd chris in as well as e-mailing him personally to say it was nice to meet him and let him know I had e-mailed in my work. He responded saying 'see you when you come in....' so I am hoping for the best.

If I hear nothing back I plan to follow up this submission with my premature christmas crackers that I am planning to send out next week to a few agencies.

I also e-mailed Clearsilver thanking them for their advice and asking them to take a look at my work in light of a placement or studio visit.

I also spent some time talking with Adam, the head of Creative from Logistik - who are offering an iMac as part of the prize for the winning poster. He said he would welcome a visit and would be prepared to talk about internships. He was really friendly and inspiring and just seemed keen to get people involved and aware of what they do which is great. I have written a draft e-mail to him that I will send after the winner of the competition has been announced. I have written it in the view that I have lost - so it might seem pessimistic to send it before the winner has been announced!