Paper cutouts

Since I have started freelancing in Tigerprint, I am surrounded by loads of talented people. Last week I have met Emily, who's really talented paper craft artist. What she does are very detailed, multi layered paper cutouts.

Emily is from Edinburgh so many of her pieces include Scottish symbols such as thistle or hairy cows, like the one above, which makes me feel a bit sentimental. 

More of her work can be found here.

Interviews

I have moved to London for summer to look for some job or internships. This means a lot of interviews where I am trying to 'sell' myself and impress people.

Design interviews are new to me and they surprise me to be honest. One was taking place on the rooftop and when it started to rain was moved to a ping-pong table. The other in children's library (I loved it!). Those weren't unofficial - informal chat with jeans and tee-shirt member of staff. This made me quite relaxed and confident, so when I went to Hasbro yesterday I was expecting similar... Well it wasn't. On the other hand it was very corporate and white-collar. Before I had to complete a personality test and the recruitment process is divided into 2 stages - interview and then one-week life project for selected five.

my digital presence

Last Monday we were given a presentation on CV's, portfolios, job interviews and all that professional – ‘grow-ups’ things, that we will have to go through after we graduate. It was done by our Product Design lecturer Pete Thomas and his friend Matt Shannon practitioner from Imagination.

Although the presentation was very constructive and valuable, I had an impression, that after we graduate, it all becomes about how effective we sell ourselves. Nevertheless, it was good to find out about certain do's and dont's of presenting our work to the outside world. I found this session particularly useful, as my personal website is just starting to take shape. (I reveal a snapshot of it here)
The main conclusion concerning the digital portfolios was, that we shouldn't show too much. Just demonstrate some of the strongest parts of our university work and treat websites more as a catch enticing our potential employers to invite us for the interview.

Looking at my digital portfolio from this angle, it appears very amateur. But on the other hand this was my primary intention. I wanted it to be something personal – an evidence of my passion towards design and art; my own development and different experiences gathered during the years of studies. I was intending to reflect most of my skills, to demonstrate flexibility, multidisciplinarity and my general enthusiasm. I was assuming, that as a graduate, my main advantage is, that I still have a fresh mind and I can prove myself in different areas and aspects of design. In a way I don’t want to pretend that I am professional. It’s dishonest – I’m still happy to learn and shape myself as a designer. And in this respect my website demonstrates a charming clumsiness of young design student.