DMA 2019 Breakthrough Awards

Congratulations to Ida Bukantyte and Marta Winogrodzka who were both shortlisted for the DMA Breakthrough Awards 2019. Both were given the opportunity pitch to the DMA panel and the client, Direct Line, in London, and then attend the awards event, alongside with the other  finalists, as well as the great and good from across the Marketing community in the UK.


Ida (left) and Marta with their DMA Awards.

Ida picked up the Silver award with her ‘Don’t Guess’ solution, and Marta secured Bronze for ‘That moment’. The winning pair, Jack Brodie and Brodie Childs from Edinburgh Napier, shared a cash prize of £1,000, with Ida and Marta receiving £500 and £250 respectively. All four were also offered a placement at Direct Line Group’s agency, MRM McCann.

Into Orbit

HND Year 2 recently finished a short poster project set by former graduates Kyle McPartlin and Kiera Winfield, both designers at Edinburgh agency Orbit.

They set a brief to explore the word 'collaboration', and the class were tasked with each designing a single A3 poster using the risograph process. We exhibited the work in the hub and also invited along Johnny Gailey, who runs Out of the Blueprint studio in Leith, and specialise in riso printing and facilitated the production of the work.

Kyle and Kiera are due to announce a winner of the project next week, and that will guarantee one talented student a placement at Orbit.  Some sample risos from the project -

We Love Firestarters

Teviot, one of our partner design agencies, has launched 'Firestarter' – a year long paid internship for a creative student from our Visual Communication HND course. The successful student will join the company after they've finished the course in July, and then spend a year under the watchful eye of the creative team at Teviot, working on all sorts of projects and gaining valuable industry experience.

The initiative was started by senior designer at Teviot, Kirsten Murray, a former graduate of the course, who has been involved in the mentoring programme since 2010. As well as the internship, some our HND students will also get the opportunity to develop the brand identity for the Firestarter programme ahead of its launch in the Spring.




Kirsten (centre)  and her colleagues Kat Summers (right) and Ed Vickers, came into the college just before Christmas and surprised the class with the announcement about Firestarter.

Kirsten says: “Mentoring is a powerful tool in career development – whether you’re a student or the creative director. So we’ve launched Firestarter to build on our close ties with Edinburgh College - the opportunity is being exclusively to their students - helping to assist the next generation of talented designers to stay in Scotland and boost the industry here.”

You can follow progress on the Firestarter initiative on Teviot's website. and read the official press release as published in the Glasgow Herald.

Talking Shop

We had a very busy few days of guest speakers in the studio last week.  With the final year class finishing of their D&AD projects and getting their portfolios ready for their placements, its a very busy time but there is always room for employer engagement, and hearing it from the horses mouth on life outside college in the Creative Industries.

First up, on Wednesday, we had Gemma Rundell, who graduated from the HND course in 2009 and is now a designer at Teviot.  Gemma is a former YCN winner, and she talked to the final year students about placements. This is perfect timing because the students go out on work experience from the first week in February. This year we've managed to secure every student at least one placement at a broad range of studios and agencies across Edinburgh.  Gemma provided some awesome inspiration and plenty of words of wisdom.

On Thursday the HNC class got treated to a talk by Ian Greenhill and Jordan Laird - the very talented guys at Something Something.  Both used to work at the Leith Agency and have a reputation for being ideas machines - you can check out their work on their website at somethingsomething.tv

At the end of the week, former student Craigh Robertson came in and delivered a talk to both HND Graphics and HND Interactive Design on his experiences since graduating in 2015.

Craigh worked at Stuff and then at Hookson, before setting up his own business, Hawk, towards the end of 2016. Amongst other things, Craigh discussed how he devised a business plan, sources of support and funding, the development of his brand identity, and pricing work for clients.

Our final year graphics students start placements on Jan 30th, and we'll post up a list of the agencies involved soon.

Multiply This

Graphic Design student Alex De Sousa was fortunate enough to land a two-week summer placement at award-winning agency Multiply.  At the start of this term, Alex gave his thoughts on the experience and explained how two weeks turned into five.


Multiply's Charlie Boyle (left) with Alex De Sousa.

What was the creative task that won you the placement?

The brief was to create conceptual ideas for a viral video marketing campaign to launch a new Naturelly drink into the public’s eye. I worked alongside another student, Toni Gomez, and we presented an idea that would look to explode kids heads into fruit after a quick inhalation of the juice. The idea, as crazy as it sounds, ended up winning.

What did you know about the agency beforehand?

I had previously worked with Multiply on the Innis & Gunn One Week project so I knew Charlie Boyle, who is a mentor on our course.  Two graduates from the course, Emma Hart and Steph Dalzell, are also designers there.  A few hours in the agency and a look at the website revealed the massive success they have had with clients such as Heinz, Tennents and most of the Kimberly Clark family brands (Huggies, Pull Ups, Dry Nites etc).

What were your thoughts on the first day?

‘Holy shit this is real!’ was probably the first thing that ran through my head waiting in reception to be welcomed in. The place is impressive from the get go, a huge space which is misleading from the outside. After a quick introduction to the design team Toni and I were given the task to stretch our concept and then start piecing it back together into different scenarios. We were working towards a presentation at the end of the week to the managing partner of Multiply and owner of the product, Dean Dempsey.

How did the presentation go?

We had everything drawn up on a whiteboard in one of the meeting rooms and we basically took him through everything. The ideas that were presented on that day weren’t received as well as the originals. The idea had evolved into more storytelling, taking the children on an imagination journey through the world of Naturelly but Dean didn’t feel as if this was going to suit the product as well as the initial ideas. He felt that keeping it short and simple in a vine format would suit the playfulness of the product better.

Tell us about your extra weeks in the agency.

The week started by getting myself acquainted with an insanely-hard to use graphic tablet, quite a task if you have never touched one before! With that out of the way, a brief came onto my desk called a 'quickie' - a task that is intended to take no longer than half an hour focusing on amending existing work to the client's specification. It was probably one of the most basic things I have ever been asked to do in Photoshop, changing the copy of a web banner for Huggies. Even though it was easy it took me close to an hour to make sure I was doing it correctly. At the time the studio was extremely busy because some of the designers were on holiday, so the first task set off a domino effect of briefs coming my way, so I also had to manage workflow.

The work ranged from amends on all sorts of banners, web design layouts and brand guidelines from a range of clients. The first week passed in a flash, and before I knew it I was offered to stay on for an extra three weeks to help out. One of the biggest and most tedious briefs I worked on was amending 12 brand guideline booklets consisting on average of about 50 pages. All in all it took me about four days to complete, as draining as the project was the experience was invaluable in terms of learning my way around the shortcuts and advanced features of InDesign and Photoshop.

What did you take from the placement that will help you in the year ahead?

There was a lot of valuable insight into how an agency works that I will take into my practice, one of the biggest things is that work will never go into digital production without scamped visuals. It’s all too easy to jump onto the computer and start designing before you have a clear idea of what you want to achieve. A really important thing is also how files are built and packaged, you don’t realise the importance of it until there are multiple people working on the same file.


Alex is currently completing his final year in HND Visual Communication and hopes to pursue a career in Creative Advertising and travel the world.

On Placement

Once again we are just about there organising the work placement programme for our final year students. With the annual Berlin study trip running from Jan 27th till Feb 3rd, the rest of February is when the students will take up placement opportunities.

The response this year from employers able to take on placements, as always, has been fantastic. As well as support from many of our industry mentors, former students, and regular agencies in Edinburgh, we've also placed students at some of Glasgow's finest, including Scotland's Design Agency of the Year, Freytag Anderson. So we'd like to send out huge thanks, in strictly alphabetical order, to the following employers -

Blonde, Copyshop, Edinburgh District Council, Editions, Equator, Firefly, Freight, Freytag Anderson, The Gate, Hookson, Ignite, Lane, Lewis, Mortonward, Multiply, RAPP, Realise, Shaw, Skyscanner, Story, Studio LR, ThreeBrand, The Union and Whitespace.

We won't be finalising all the slots until next week, so there may well be some agencies to add to this excellent list, but each of our student designers will be guaranteed two different work placements. The class have just finished up a short live brief for Maggies Centres  which they presented on Wednesday to the client, and tomorrow they are presenting their ISTD (International Society of Typographic Designers) projects. Look out for samples from these projects on our Pinterest boards soon.

Summer Placement : Q&A

During the summer break,  HND Graphic Design student Stephanie Dalzell was lucky enough to secure a 2-week work placement with one of Scotland's top creative agencies, the Union.  Steph formed a creative pairing with one of our 2014 graduates, Ross Turnbull, and talks here about her experience at the agency under the watchful eye of Union Direct's Creative Director, Dawn Kermani.


Was this your first student placement?
I had worked with two other agencies, RAPP and Whitespace, as part of the 'One Week' projects at College. So this was my first independent placement, but having some prior experience gave me a bit more confidence and meant I had a vague idea of what to expect.

What did you know about the agency beforehand?
I knew a few people from the course who had completed placements there. My first impression was that they were primarily focused on digital design, but after some research I learned that their work was much more varied. While I was in the office I became aware of some of their successful campaigns for clients ranging from Vladivar Vodka to VisitScotland.

Your thoughts on the first day?
The building was very impressive and the whole office had a friendly and welcoming attitude. The departments were quite spread out and it seemed like there was a lot going on, which meant plenty to get involved with. I was keen to learn abut the various facets of the company, and particularly where design could take me. Dawn gave us a tour and there were plenty of introductions which made it much easier to settle in and get started. There were a few students from other Colleges and Universities and it was obvious that the agency was very involved with placements. The rest of the staff seemed quite comfortable having us there which put me at ease.

Who gave you the brief and what was that like?
We were invited to a meeting where the creative team were discussing their plans for the brief. We were given a copy and listened to their initial thoughts and ideas. This was a great way of easing us into it, and gave us an impression of how they had approached the task in the past. The brief involved refreshing a recruitment brand for a large public sector client, and was particularly focused on bringing young professionals to the area. We felt we could contribute some fresh ideas for the target market and were eager to get started. We researched the work that Union had previously produced for the client in order to understand what they were looking for. Our deadline was the end of the following week, when the placement was due to finish.

You were one half of a placement pairing, how did that work out?
I enjoyed being one half of a creative duo and I felt that Ross and I worked well together. We had a lot of interesting conversations which turned into great ideas, and were supportive of each other’s suggestions. It was occasionally a struggle to organise the work as we were both somewhat reluctant to take charge for fear of stepping on the other’s toes. We would usually make a list of tasks and then divide them up, checking in with each other throughout the day to make sure we were on the same page. We also had a regular morning meeting which helped us to stay on track. Combining our two visual styles was sometimes difficult but the feedback from the creative team helped us to identify the best parts of our work. They were keen to emphasise the importance of defining the roles within a team, in our case the writer and the art director. This wasn’t easy but has encouraged me to consider my own strengths and how I can best put them to use.

How did the agency manage the project?
Dawn checked in with us regularly but generally we were given a lot of freedom. We were allowed to choose when our progress would be reviewed and so planned our own schedule. We gave an initial informal presentation during the first week and received some great feedback. It was really helpful to see the project from a more experienced point of view, since there were a few factors we hadn’t taken into consideration. Everyone was very encouraging and we felt our contributions were appreciated. Our final presentation took place within the creative team’s office and again went well. It wasn’t overwhelming, mainly due to our experience of presenting to large groups and real clients on course projects. We felt confident and were proud of our ideas, which were well received.

What skills did you draw upon during the placement? 
One of the main challenges of the placement was determining each other’s strengths and dividing the work accordingly. During my time I built upon my organisational skills, striving to make decisions and lay out a plan as quickly as possible. The step-by-step design process taught at College was invaluable, particularly because we were primarily working independently. Having a structure to stick to prevented us from getting lost in the brief. Brainstorming also played a key role. Taking plenty of time to explore our ideas meant that our final concept had a strong foundation and we could argue it convincingly. We had considered various options before we arrived at the final conclusion. The team at the agency encouraged this process and allowed us plenty of creative freedom.

What will you take into your final year of study from this experience?
This placement has definitely built up my confidence and made me aware of my ability to work well within this environment. Having some industry experience will hopefully help to focus my work, and the feedback I have received will stay with me as I develop new projects. The Union in particular highlighted the importance of honing your digital skills, and I’ll be dedicating a lot more time to this in the following year. The creative industries are highly competitive but I now feel I have a better idea of what will be expected from me.

Future Travel

Motion Graphics have become an increasingly important aspect of visual communication, and are now a regular feature of project-work on the HND Graphic Design course. The example here, by HND student Emils Blooms-Blumanis, demonstrates how versatile the medium can be as part of the design process.

Earlier this year Emils completed a work placement at Skyscanner, working alongside former Edinburgh Telford design graduate James Ferguson, who is Head of Design for the Edinburgh-based travel comparison specialists.  One task Emils was asked to do was to mock up a proposed design for a forthcoming Skyscanner project 'Future Travel' - a website showcasing Skyscanner's vision of the travel industry in a decade's time, 2024.  Using illustration, SVG graphics and wireframing, Emils put together this inventive demo in Adobe AfterEffects to simulate parallax scrolling for the website.



Using the demo as a guide, the Skyscanner team then set about developing the idea into a real product, and you can check out the remarkable results on the actual site, which Skyscanner launched recently at http://www.skyscanner2024.com/

Emils, a YCN winner in 2013, is currently working part-time at The Union, and his work will be on display at our Graduate Industry Night and Show at Creative Exchange on Thursday 29th May. More details can be found at www.etcshow.net. You can also get a sneak preview of work from the Class of 2014 on our Pinterest boards.

a busy start to 2014

We've only been back for one week, but things are already seriously busy. On Thursday 16th we are hosting our second Mentor Meeting of this session, where the mentors will get a chance to catch up with the students, look over some initial work on their D&AD projects, and give some useful advice in the run-up to work placement.

Our final year students go on placement each year at some of Edinburgh's top creative agencies during the four-week stretch from late January through February. Arranging the slots has been tricky this time around because we've also had to factor in a week-long student visit to Transmediale and CTM, in Berlin (Jan 28-Feb 4).

The work placement scheme is an important part of our employer-engagement strategy, and an essential experience for student creatives. As usual the response from Edinburgh's design community has been superb, and we'd like to thank (in no particular order):

Lewis, Mortonward, RAPP, Multiply, Contagious, Whitespace, Jump Marketing, Three Brand, Peach Digital, Shaw, Iain Lauder Design, Eskimo, Line Digital, Story, The Union, Tayburn, Skyscanner, Stuff, The Lane Agency, The Gate, White Light Media and Hookson.

One Week Agency

Pics were taken by Derek Anderson using a Nikon D600.

A selection of images documenting the presentation day. We had four different creative teams all presenting in the same afternoon, at three different locations. Team RAPP presented in the RAPP studio in Leith, Team IL and Team Heedi presented in the College at Studio R310, and Team Lewis presented at the Lewis Agency, also in Leith. All four team will now present to Edinburgh Zoo on April 10th. Read more about the project here.

Nice Work If You Can Get it

A great piece of typography from HND student Rowan Campbell, which she completed earlier this week whilst on placement at Edinburgh agency Contagious. The final work will be painted onto wooden slats and mounted on the wall inside the agency. This test run required 150 sheets of A3 to get exactly right.

Rowan is at Contagious for a further week, having spent the previous two weeks at editorial agency Editions.

We Love Work Placements

It's that time of year again when our final year students take up to four weeks out from their studies to work in the industry. Placements are a crucial rite-of-passage for any fledgling designer, and gaining valuable industry experience is an important aspect of our course.

The response this year has been as good as in past years despite the economic climate, so we'd like to thank, in no particular order:

Heedi, Lewis, Mortonward, RAPP, Multiply, Editions Financial, Contagious, Heehaw Digital, Edinburgh District Council, Sedley Place, Whitespace, StudioMB, Eskimo, The Union, Line Digital, Story (and quite a few others who were unable to help out this year but whose support we value greatly).

A Busy New Year

Our Final Year students have started 2013 in top gear, tackling a live digital brief and starting their D&AD projects. They are also getting set to go out on work experience in February. We've had a great response from all of our favourite agencies, and the students will start their placements on or after Jan 28th.

The HNC group submitted their packaging projects this week - a choice between the Goji brief for YCN, and a brief to reinvent the inflight experience on BMI's European business flights. A selection of the YCN work will be posted soon, in the meantime here is snippet from Ryan Allan's BMI solution - a fingerprint-activated check-in planner App -

A Busy Easter

Whilst the design team tutors are putting their feet up during Easter, our HND students are busy planning out their final projects, which will begin later in April.

Some of our Year 2 students are also back out on placement - Jordan Porteous is at Project, Terry Smith has a full month at Tayburn, Marketing Awards shortlister Steven Brown is at industry giants RAPP, and Michael Kerr has journeyed south for a second stint with Newcastle's finest, me&alan.