Giving back to the community is what drives us every single day, and our commitment to helping others has never been stronger.
Over the past six months, we have had the opportunity to host a number of work experience placements for some of the creative young adults that are part of the Swindon Platform Project.
The Platform Project is a non-profit organisation based in Swindon, that helps disadvantaged and vulnerable young people develop the skills, confidence and experience they need to launch their careers and take sustainable steps towards a thriving future.
They work closely to bridge the gap between education and employment so that young people can overcome challenges and become work-ready, capable, and confident entry-level talent.
By equipping those that are looking to get into the creative industry with valuable skills and knowledge needed to progress into a professional working environment. We hope to provide an insightful experience in a real-life working creative studio and some of the skills, processes and software we use on a daily basis to complete our creative work.
The work experience journey & skills gained.
Our designer, Elisha has been working with Jamie over the past few months to develop his software skills and knowledge of the process we take.
We started out by setting Jamie a creative brief and over the period of time, he's worked on each creative element, in the hope that by the end of the process Jamie will have a new addition to his portfolio that shows off the new skills he has learned during his time with us.
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Some of the skills we have had the opportunity to explore include:
Client meetings and communication.
At the beginning of Jamie's time with us, we provided him with a creative brief and initially explored the type of questions we would ask to find out as much information from our clients before starting a project. This then led to Jamie hosting a meeting with the client. This allowed Jamie to get an insight into the creative briefing process and gave him a set brief to work from over the following weeks.
Logo & branding.
As part of the brief, the client required a logo and new branding. We took Jamie through our typical brand process from initial sketches all the way to developing final variations onscreen using industry-standard software. Jamie then learned how to develop these further until we settled on the final solution.
Business stationery.
The client required a business card and flyers to shout about their new business, this led Jamie to research and mood board the type of content that was required and the best compositions and layouts to use. He also learnt how to set up these documents in a format that would be readily accepted by professional printers.
Mockups and presentation.
Once the work was complete we looked at the best way to present the work using mockups. Jamie learned how best to use them and began to create his own little library that he could then use to help present his work in the future. We also explored creating mockup files from scratch, turning everyday imagery into layered mockup files. Once we had his work in real-life situations we were then ready to collate it all into a portfolio entry document.
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Elisha, our designer, said:
"It's been a pleasure to mentor Jamie over the past few months, and to see his progress and understanding grow. Knowing that I've been able to help and support in just the smallest of ways has been massively rewarding for me too. I know how hard these opportunities are to come by, so feeling that I've been able to provide an opportunity that I didn't really find until GEL has been humbling".
Jamie said:
"Elisha has helped me learn about new graphic design skills and software, mainly Adobe Illustrator. This has encouraged me to apply those same skills with other projects outside of GEL Studios.
The atmosphere, in their office, is calm, positive, and focused and everyone there is willing to answer any kind of question. It's an ideal job for younger employees who may be unfamiliar with an office work environment.
As I carry on with this placement, I look forward to learning more about the team's methods of sharing files as well as managing/scheduling tasks for one another.
I enjoy working there as I feel comfortable around the fellow staff and I am able to put into practice everything that I learned in college, which is satisfying. It has been a positive experience for me for which I am very grateful for".
Through our creativity, we inspire change. It's our hope, that we can continue to share our knowledge, skills and experience and help offer more real-life work experience and placements in the future.
