Gemma Oldfield – The Gift of Sponsorship.

Coming from a working class family, when leaving school I did not go straight to university as I though only well off families could afford to send their children onto higher education. Now studying as a mature student in the final year of my MA in Digital and Visual Communications at the University of Wolverhampton School of Art and Design, I regret being put off by fees and costs a few years ago. My studies have enriched my life tenfold and I feel I have missed out on years of reward, development and happiness. Over the past 5 years I have been lucky to be awarded several forms of sponsorship from multiple organisations and trusts, ranging from pantone pens to money for books, software and digital technology right through to thousands of pounds worth of fee sponsorship. Without these gifts of support I would not have been able to achieve my goals and dreams; for this I am very thankful to my sponsors.

Filling in application forms, seeking sponsorship and searching for organisations with funding opportunities who’s criteria you meet, is a tough job but don’t be put off. For every ten applications I have made, I have had one positive reply and over the years I have built up a great relationship with some of my sponsors.

Funding and sponsorship is out there you just have to take the time to look. When I started to research I was very shocked by the types of awards available; some disciplines have greater opportunities available than others. I found many offers of support for art & design, media and creative disciplines and so I applied to them all as this was my area of study. The main reason I had so many negative responses was due to my age but don’t let this put you off, I carried on applying and the hard work and relentlessness paid off. With university fees recently having increased I feel it is crucial for students to seek out support from organisations; there is a vast scope out there that are applicable to different subject areas, geographic locations plus social, cultural, ethnic and domestic backgrounds – all you have to do is look.

So how do you find sponsorship? My path started as I knew of a local educational trust named Sebright’s Educational Foundation, they were a local trust that only funded students in the area I live and they have been my main sponsor, offering support for the past five years. Following this I was informed by another student, of The Hugh Walker Mitchell Fund, they too were a local trust related to my community parish church. Again they only supported students in my home area; recently these two organisations have merged together. Proceeding from this I was intrigued to find out if any other support would be accessible to me. A key source for anyone seeking funding is local libraries, as they hold listings of local charitable trust funds, further to this, online there is a vast amount of information relating to sponsorship, scholarship funds and bursaries. If you are interested in finding sources of sponsorship, also visit the university library and student office they will have information available on bursaries and other support. Additionally you may be lucky enough to have an employer that may support you; all you have to do is ask. Finally don’t ever be ashamed to apply and ask for help, I feel it shows a great deal about an individual’s capabilities, passion and drive to achieve their dreams. All you have to do is take the time to communicate with people and you will be surprised as I was. Please see a few links below that may help you research path.

Turn 2 Us http://www.turn2us.org.uk/

The Prince’s Trust http://www.princes-trust.org.uk/default.aspx

Gov.UK https://www.gov.uk/student-finance/overview

Junior Designer - Hunger Publishing, London, NW5

Junior Designer

Hunger Magazine is looking for a Junior/Middle-weight designer to join the team but open to applications from superstar graduates.

As well as Rankin’s 512 page bi-annual magazine, the chosen candidate will have the opportunity to work on a wide variety of other Rankin projects, including books and exhibitions and projects for Rankin Film. You will be working with a senior designer but ultimately dealing directly with Rankin and The Hunger’s Creative Director, Vicky Lawton.

A large part of the role is the management of The Hunger magazine, so the candidate must be organised, efficient and self-motivated, initiating projects and guiding them through to completion.

The ideal candidate will be passionate about fashion, culture, art and music. They will have a keen eye for detail and must be obsessed with editorial design. We are looking for a well presented and crafted portfolio from a typographic expert with a passion for photography.

The successful candidate will have the following skills and experience:

– Expert use of Adobe Creative Suite
– Demonstrable experience in magazine / book design
– A good eye for detail and design craft
– A strong interest in fashion and photography
– Be willing to go that extra mile to get the job done
– Be self-motivated and self-guided.
– Well organised and have the ability to manage time efficiently and effectively.

Our new designer must be available to start quickly, ready to hit the ground running with the up and coming Hunger issue 4.

When applying, please submit a cover letter outlining your experience relating to the role above and salary expectations along with a CV and portfolio (less than 5mb). Please submit all applications by e-mail to Calum Crease – calum(at)rankin(dot)co(dot)uk

We regret that we are only able to respond to successful candidates.

Placement - One Big Company, Clerkenwell - EC1R

Full-Time Design Intern
One Big Company is a small, full-service design agency who deal in big ideas.

We’re offering a paid internship (£80pw) for up to three months to a talented graphic designer who’ll bring bags of enthusiasm, common sense and a good knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite.

A decent sense of humour is a must along with a willingness to drink beer from 4pm on a Friday – don’t worry, we’re buying!

If you think you fit the bill send a PDF of samples of your work and an email detailing whether, if you were a Bond villain, you would choose to have a moon-base or underwater lair and why to:jobs@onebigemail.com

Closing date for applications is 2nd January with the internship beginning 21st January

http://www.onebigwebsite.com

Paid Intern - 7digital, Shoreditch, London

Junior Designer / Paid Intern
Cutting edge music and technology company is looking for a creative undergraduate or recent graduate looking to gain experience in design for marketing and branding.

About us:

7digital is the world’s leading digital music and content technology platform, and provides open access to the broadest catalogue of fully licensed, high quality digital music. The company powers comprehensive digital music services for consumers, developers and a wide range of partners around the world.

Through 7digital’s website (www.7digital.com), mobile applications and cloud locker technology, consumers can access over 22 million legal, high quality tracks and listen to their music on the device of their choosing. 7digital provides the complete music experience; discovery, organisation and purchase.

7digital’s global partner network includes Samsung, RIM, Toshiba, HP, Acer, HTC, T-Mobile US, Ubuntu, Shazam, Last.fm, Winamp, Songbird, HMV, Waterstone’s, Universal Music, EMI, Warner Music and Sony.
Role:

You will be assisting the head designer in creating digital design assets for our MP3 stores as well as working on concepts to develop and refine our global consumer brand. The ideal candidate will have a passion for identity design, as well as music and new technology.

Skills and requirements:

- Working knowledge of Creative Suite 5, in particular Illustrator and Photoshop
- Experience of web design, flash and motion graphics are a bonus

Start Date: ASAP, working approximately 2 days per week

Salary: £50 a day

Location: Shoreditch, London

How to apply:

To apply, please email your CV and three recent examples of work in PDF format (no larger than 8mb) demonstrating your ideas and their execution. Alternatively send us a link to your online portfolio. Please include a brief message explaining why you would be suitable for the role.

Please submit your application to careers+design@7digital.com with the following field in the subject line: “7digital: I am applying for “Junior Graphic Designer”.

N.B. If the subject does not contain the exact text above your application risks being deleted.

Due to the large amount of submissions we receive please note that we are only able to reply to successful candidates.

Graduate success - Christian Leoci

Congratulations to graduate Christian Leoci who has recently started working for The Langer Group in Stone. Christian is involved in various types of design for the company, including logo development, brochures design, posters, catalogues and leaflets. Since graduating last summer Christian has been working on placement for Alpha Design in Shrewsbury.

Posterheroes 3 competition

The international communication and social graphic art contest Posterheroes has just launched its third edition.

After dealing with the issues of energy and consumption, with the 2012/2013 edition, Posterheroes proposes a debate on sustainability in the fields of production, health, mobility and public life in cities. Together with the issues of the first two editions, these last ones complete the six characteristics suggested by the European Community as indicators for a Smart City.

This social communication competition, with the patronage of UNESCO, aims at the involvement of the creative community of the world around four issues of global interest - production, health, mobility and public life - in order to stimulate collective consciousness toward a new way of life in the city.

In order to become 'smart' our cities have to become places where the resources will be optimized and improved, they have to become an expression of new habits. They will not change their appearance. Will be the same city as before, but new, accessible, free, clean and transparent.

The creative people around the world are therefore called to express their sensitivity and their clear ideas of evolution through the creation of a graphic poster 50x70.

There is no entry fee.

Eligibility

There are no age, nationality or profession limits, the contest is open to all graphic designers, creative people, illustrators, social communicator, world-changers.

Prize

For each categories, the jury, composed by international experts in the field of graphics and communication, will identify the top ten proposals, for a total of 40 selected posters.

After the closure of the contest the posters will be published in the catalog of Posterheroes and they will become part of future exhibitions and events that PLUG will organize. Moreover, the selected posters will be included within the events organized by Biennale Democrazia in order to create a traveling exhibition through the streets of Turin (Italy).

To find out more details click here

Designer - Mark Design,Brighton

Designer

Mark Design provides online and print design services to businesses large and small, public and private, consumer facing and business to business, in Brighton, London and throughout the South East UK. Clients span a variety of sectors including travel, tourism and leisure, film, music, retail, healthcare, interiors, education, local authorities, corporate, legal, telecoms, technology and media

We require an enthusiastic ideas-based designer to work on a wide variety of projects both online and in print, from branding, brochures and leaflets to websites, mobile and ecommerce. Although no coding will be required, a good understanding of web technologies will be a distinct advantage.

Liaising directly with clients, excellent organisational and communication skills are a must. A desire to learn and the ability to work independently and as part of a small team are also essential. We work in a busy friendly office in the centre of Brighton.

Start date will be end January / beginning February.

Please email your CV and work example PDF or URL to
designer@mark-design.co.uk stating your availability and salary expectations.

Design Internships - Leahy Brand Design, Clerkenwell, London

Design Internships

We’re on the lookout for a creative and ambitious students or graduate designers to join us for a month long internship. We really need people who not only enjoy a creative challenge, but also will challenge us with ideas and opinions in return. We want you to demonstrate a hunger to learn new things. You’ll get the opportunity to work on all sizes of branding projects in our fun, busy Clerkenwell studio.

Please send your portfolio PDF/website and CV to Dave Taylor on david@leahybrands.com

Branding the band

Graphic Communication students working on the Branding in Context module welcomed members of Shatter Effect to see their ‘elevator pitch’ in November. Students gave it their best shot to impress the band with their ideas using social media to on-brand and spread the word.

The students work was well-received and it was even filmed by Level 6 Video and Film students for an assignment recording the latest newsworthy happenings in the School. The top image is of level 5 student James Spellman doing his best with the two minute timeslot to impress.
Tutors Jeff Leak and Callum Ives were impressed with the work undertaken to make the presentations impactful and concise. "We're really grateful to Shatter Effct for not only giving up their free time to give students a free gig but also to follow up - guiding students to relevant references and sitting in on the presentations"
Shatter Effect hope to follow up the presentations with the offer to work with and to use the winning student idea in their next campaign.

Omkar Khadamkar - Exchange Student

“Design offers both creativity and richness, these are my two prominent wings. I enjoy flying.”

I am Omkar Khadamkar a semester exchange student from India. My home institute is National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT). Currently it has 15 centres. I study Fashion Communication (a four year course) at Mumbai centre (http://www.nift.ac.in/mumbai/index.html). I am attending the semester exchange as a part of my seventh semester.

My design interest rests in various fields of graphic design – editorial, identity, interactivity and illustration. I have a great interest in music and poetry. I am fond of travelling which is one of the reasons to attend this international exchange program. The exposure to different level of learning system and culture are rest of few. I am enjoying these days, as they are offering lots of new ways, updated learning and fun.

Though, the semester exchange is a small period of three and a half months but it is changing my perspective, viewing new direction to my career. I am thankful to NIFT and University of Wolverhampton, this is experience is really fruitful. 

Student World Aids Day Poster Display

Eight School of Art and Design students studying the ‘Applied Illustration Practice’ module have had their work selected for display outside the Students Union as part of the Staff LGBT Network and Student LGBT+ Society’s 2012 World Aids Day awareness campaign this December. This event is is taking place with the support of the University of Wolverhampton Equality and Diversity Unit and the School of Art and Design.

Martin Evans, chair of the University of Wolverhampton LGBT Staff Network, presented the brief to the 64 first year students who took part in the design competition as part of their module. The students were asked to create a poster to promote the World Health Organisation’s World Aids Day campaign ‘Getting to Zero’, Zero new infections, Zero discrimination and Zero AID’s related deaths.

Module leader Howard Read said “This is a great opportunity for the winning student work to be displayed and seen by the wider academic community. The students showed real commitment and engagement with this brief, creating well researched ideas and positive individual responses for this important global issue. Working to a set size and format and integrating image and creative typography will help prepare students for real client briefs and future employability.” 

The eight winning entries by; Philip Whitehouse, Jordan Kendall, Lucie Williams, Kyle Wright, Stephanie Neath, Deanna Kitts, Gabrielle Booth and Zack Sealey, will be on display in the MD corridor from 26th of November until the 10th of December to raise awareness of World Aids Day.