Mentor Quotes

Today we are revisiting a charming and insightful project by 2015 graduate Kiera Winfield, who collated a series of quotes about the course from our industry mentors of that year, and then assembled them into a short type-based film.

Real Life

Andy telling it as it is in Design Lab A111 at Granton Campus.

We had a recent visit from designer and mentor Andy Jamieson, who talked to the HNC and HND classes about his career. Andy has five years' experience both in-house and agency, and described how he came into Graphic Design through the HND route and described securing a junior position at Teviot.  Andy showed some examples of his work on various projects and for a wide range of clients, then talked about his recent redundancy from award-winning Glasgow agency Front Page and how he has since tackled moving into freelance.

Andy also recently collaborated with two of our other mentors, Kirsten Murray and Kat Summers, on their new magazine 'Aye', and contributed some great photos for the first issue of former HND graduates Liam Philp and Catriona Munro, who feature in the magazine. Check out some of Andy's work here - http://andyjamieson.co.uk and his work for Aye.

Along the way Andy had some great pieces of advice on self-belief, making contacts and developing skills.  Inspirational stuff.

TES FE Awards

We were in London recently at the TES FE Awards, where our HND course gained a nomination for the Partnership Initiative in the Employer Engagement category. The awards celebrate dedication and expertise in the Further Education provision across the whole of the UK.

Curriculum Manager Neil Manning accompanied the design tutors to the event, held at London's Grosvenor Hotel, along with two of our Mentors, Kirsten Murray and Kat Summers, both from Teviot Creative.  A full list of nominations, winners and the official photo gallery are available at the TES website http://www.tesfeawards.co.uk

Not Another Mentor Evening

Tomorrow we are hosting the first Mentor evening of the new session. Our final year students will get to meet their assigned mentors and show them some of their current work, including the DMA Breakthrough Award brief which they've almost finished.

This year we've got mentors from the likes of Realise, Lewis, Story, Whitespace, Teviot, Multiply, Blonde, Equator,  IL Design, Neish, Lennon Design and the Union.

The evening will also see the launch of our Partnership Initiative, where a number of those aforementioned agencies are signing up as official sponsors of the course. This is the latest development in our award-winning Mentoring Programme, and it represents a new way to look at employer engagement in Further Education. Affiliated agencies and studios will share in our curricular objectives, working alongside our students as buddies, mentors, project directors and placement liaisons.

The event runs from 6-9pm and the format for the evening is -

6.00-6.30pm Reception in Hub, launch of the Partnership Initiative
6.30-7.00pm Mentoring presentation and discussion in R310
7.00-8.00pm Presentation/feedback on the DMA brief with individual mentors
8.00-8.30pm 30 minute brief
8.30-8.45pm Review

We're exhibiting samples of past final projects in the Hub, and recent graduate Alasdair Muir also provided the identity for the project.

One Week #6 : Innis & Gunn

On Wednesday our graphic design students were briefed on the latest 'One Week' project, which runs next week, from Monday 16th to Friday 20th March. The group attended a briefing by the client Innis and Gunn - Scotland's leading export beer brand - at their Headquarters in Randolph Place, Edinburgh. The students were accompanied by tutors Helena Good and Alex Gunn, plus mentors from the six agencies involved on this project - Whitespace (who generously offered us the project on behalf of the client), The Gate Worldwide, Multiply, Lewis, Realise and Blonde.



We'll be documenting the project via our Storify and participants can contribute with the hashtag #oneweek6. The One Week project is part of our award-winning experiential employer-engagement Mentoring Programme, where our students collaborate in teams, working alongside various creative agencies for a full week. Our most recent One Week project was for G.F. Smith (November 2014).

Being a Design Buddy

The 'Design Buddy' scheme adds an additional dimension to our award-winning Mentoring Programme by giving design students an early taster of working with employers before they move in to their final year of study.

The arrangement also gives the buddies a chance to give something back, and to have some input on how we develop our curriculum. Their knowledge of the course and their industry-related experiences can inform various aspects of the rollout and structure of our projects, course content, and scheduling.

As part of the programme we spoke to two of the buddies, Kay Cochrane and Emma Hart, to see what they made of the whole experience -

Kay Cochrane

Kay is a designer at the Lane Agency, and graduated in 2011.

When I was asked to be a buddy I felt I was possibly not up to the task. Would I have anything useful to say? Would I be witty, insightful and interesting? And could I take these budding talents under my wing? All worries dissolved as I realised the stuff I do everyday is the stuff the students need to know. Things like being able to help them focus - help them realise that worries, distractions and a lack of confidence hinder idea generation - allowing them to think bigger.  Working as a peer rather than a juror means they break this barrier faster and get to a clearer solution.

I've gained a lot from the experience -
Confidence in what I know (there are always folk that are better than you).
Pride in what I do (not everything gets in the folio).
Inspiration from these fresh brains (it might sound daft but...).

I also enjoy the fuzzy feeling from giving back. After all, we all wouldn't be where we are without someone taking a chance, risk or putting their neck on the line (even just for a couple of hours a week).


Kay Cochrane chats with HNC students Jen Vass and Jordyn Finn.

Emma Hart

Emma graduated in 2011 and joined Story as a Junior Art Director. She is a now a designer with Stuff Creative.

I felt honoured to be asked to be part of the Design Buddy programme, but I was also nervous. I questioned whether I could do it, did I have time, did I even know enough about anything to add value to the students' work? But I'm glad I went for it because it's these kind of challenges that keep us learning and developing.

The concept of the programme is great – all of the Buddies have done the course, we can completely relate to the structure of the HND and the various challenges presented along the way, with the added benefit of being able to share some real life experience from both the course and the working world.

It's really exciting to be able to give a bit back and to watch the students progress, not to mention an excuse for us to come back to college to see the family, like big brothers and sisters passing on first-hand experience and a few tips on how to handle the folks!


Emma talks to students Charlie Law, Rumana Sayed and Maria Del Mar Reche

Mentoring & Motivation

Two excellent examples from the HND Motivation project, which students presented last night in the Studio at our first mentoring event of the 2014-2015 session.

Employer Engagement - One Week

We previewed a new 4-minute documentary about the the course last night at 'Rewind' - our annual Graduate Review night.  This event is where we invite past graduates and mentors to catch up, look over the work of our current students, and generally celebrate our extended family of creatives and designers.

The film, shot and edited by film student Adam Cosgrove, features an interview with Multiply UK's Charlie Boyle, and documents our One Week collaborative project for Cutty Sark. 

Team Neish #getawaywithit

Jason Craig and Wendy Harris Jones from Cutty Sark announced the winning solution to the One Week project today in the design studio at Edinburgh College (Granton Campus). Their feedback was thorough, and the assessment criteria covered -

a) understanding the brief
b) effective strategy
c) working as a team
d) creative and original thinking

and they agreed that Team Neish, led by HND student Calum Mackinnon and mentored by Graham Neish, were the winners. The runners-up spot went to Team Multiply, led by Mark Phillips and mentored by Multiply's Charlie Boyle. You can check out a sampler of all six team projects on our Pinterest boards, and the work will be on display in the college Hub until Friday, May 2nd.

The winning team - Calum Mackinnon, Craig Nicholson, Emily Hubbard, Jakub Sobanski, Saulius Strebulis and Magda Milek, have all been offered a place at the Cutty Sark table at the Marketing Society Awards in June, and the students will also be the first recipients of a new year-long graduate membership of the Marketing Society. As an additional boost to the course, Cutty Sark have also offered to sponsor our end-of-year Industry Night and Show, which will be held on May 29th at Creative Exchange in Leith.

Cutty Sark were full of praise for the standard from all the teams, but felt that the #getawaywithit solution really stayed on brief and featured the most original approach. The copy-based campaign played on the rebellious nature of the target audience by associating the Cutty Sark brand with the ethos of breaking rules and conventions. The idea also took into account the logical conclusion of the concept  - that a real campaign would be banned by the ASA - and that this would raise the brand profile.

Jason said "Their pitch showed a strong understanding of the brief, the product and the target audience. The concept showed composure and maturity and led to danger, adventure, the unexpected, rebelliousness and basically the feeling of discomfort which was the main purpose of the brief – to push us towards areas we had not considered. This team did it very well."  He added that "The reality of breaking the law is not to be applauded or rewarded, but basically putting the idea into the consumers head was very clever. It does translate and it would be able to spread internationally, and taking it into filmed live situations to post on social media was clever and feasible and would feed itself into a Phase 2 campaign."

The concept -

Tweak to the bottle cap from white to black -




Guerilla campaign - outdoor, print, social media and ambient channels

Whiskey, Bacon Rolls & One Week Winners

Jason Craig, Cutty Sark's Global Brand Controller, will be in the college on Thursday morning to announce the winning team from our One Week project which took place earlier this month.  Bacon rolls and coffee will be served in the Hub at 9am, where the work from all six teams will be on display.  Hopefully mentors and designers representing all six agencies that were involved will be able to make it along too (those being, in no particular order, Lewis, Multiply, RAPP, Neish, Whitespace and Family).  

As soon as we get the all clear from the client, samples from each solution will be available to view on our Pinterest boards, and the winning solution will be posted in full here on the blog.  The work will remain on display in the Hub until Friday, 29th April.

Mentorism

Back in mid-January we hosted our second Mentor Evening of the year, with 7 mentors and the Final Year students enjoying some great employer engagement.



The session included speed-dating,  a D&AD project surgery, a 30-minute brief, and a mentor/tutor discussion. As usual, our resident photographer Derek Anderson was on hand to document the evening, and you can check out the picture set on our Flickr.

RAPP App wins One Week

SAMH (Scottish Association for Mental Health) were in our studio earlier this week to announce the winning pitch from the One Week project, which ran during the first week in November. The project saw our design students working in small teams alongside a mentor on a live project.   SAMH's Jo Anderson explained that they had some very tough choices to make after the pitches - all six projects featured great ideas, interesting strategies and strong presentations. 

A runners-up spot was awarded to Team Lewis #2, mentored by Gillian Grant and Gregor Matheson, but the winning pitch came from Team RAPP, who spent a week working at RAPP's Edinburgh office under the watchful eye of their mentor Jen Wood.

This team presented a sophisticated user journey that connected perfectly with the target audience, combining inventive traditional advertising and strong copy with a clever App.

One Week Pitches

Our 'One Week Agency' teams presented their work in the studio today to the client, SAMH. Also in attendance were mentors Graham Neish, Alan Lennon and Veronica Ferguson. Each team pitched a great concept with plenty of ideas - some safe, some radical - and the client will now have to go away and make some tough decisions. Jo Anderson, SAMH's Director of External Affairs & Fundraising, said "We were blown away by the amount the students have achieved in a single week.  The pitches felt really professional, and the creative is really strong in all the solutions, so we've got a difficult task now to pick a winner".

Ahead of the selection, we've exhibited a small sample from each project down in the college Hub, and they look a little bit like this -


Team 1 : Mentor - Graham Neish (Neish)


Team 2 : Mentor - Alan Lennon (Lennon)


Team 3 : Mentor - Kirsten Murray (Family)


Team 4 : Mentors - Gill Carrie, Gregor Matheson (Lewis)


Team 5 : Mentor - Jen Wood (RAPP)


Team 6: Mentors - Ian Kirkby, Michael Heins (Lewis)

Once the client has made a decision, we'll post the full presentations, plus some nice photos (by our resident photographer Derek Anderson), documenting the week and the presentations. You can find out more about this project here.

It's in Holly's Hands

Moving On Inverclyde visited the college today to announce the winning design for our live Mentor project. We arranged for samples of the work to be exhibited on boards and on a suite of Macs in the college Hub area, along with a buffet lunch. The client then presented a nice summary of their decision-making on the project before handing out prizes for the winner and two runners-up. They also presented a small token of appreciation to all 19 students who submitted work.

The joint runners-up Calum MacKinnon and Craig Nicholson received £50 each. Holly Kemp's 'The Power Is In Your Hands' campaign, coupled with a great logotype, was overall winner. Holly was presented with a cheque for £250, and her idea will now be taken into production across web and print.

Moving On Inverclyde's John Hackett said "The presentations were all really excellent, and this left us with a huge problem. In the end, having whittled it down to six possible winners, Holly's logo stood out as something we could use and build upon in the years to come".

Holly and Calum are both mentored by RAPP's Jen Wood, and are currently hot-desking at the agency, whilst Craig is working with one of our longest-serving mentors, Graham Neish.

Moving On : Mentor Project

On Wednesday our final year students presented their Mentor projects to the client, Moving On Inverclyde, a Recovery Skills Service founded in 2001 to assist people affected by problematic drug use and associated mental health issues in the West of Scotland. The brief was to re-brand the organisation, re-design the existing website, and create a campaign to raise awareness of the charities' work, and hopefully attract more addicts to attend and seek out help.

The project spanned three weeks, and the students met with their mentors to discuss concepts, art direction and project management. The client panel (all seven of them!) made the journey across the central belt to our studio to see the final results and were blown away by the scope of the work, and the professionalism of our students. With 19 presentations to view, it wasn't possible to pick a winner on the day, and the panel will be coming back in a week's time with their result. The winning entry will receive a £250 prize, plus the chance to develop the idea for print and digital. As a sampler, here are three of the web design work.

Craig Nicholson (Mentor - Graham Neish).







Ryan Allan (Mentor - Ian Farmer, Upright Creative).











Mark Phillips (Mentor - Vicky Sinclair, Line).









A full selection of work from this project will be on our pinterest board soon, and we'll be announcing the pitch-winning work on Thursday 31st.