Monday, 25 March 2019

Outcome of making professional contacts


Making a Linkedin account has allowed me to contact professionals and alumni that could be useful to my developing practice. Overall, contacting through people through email, Instagram and Linkedin has given me some advice for the future rather than just being thrown into the world being unaware of where I should be. 

Speaking to recent alumni (last year) made me feel less nervous about graduating. Most graduates from last year are still working at a normal full time job and making personal work alongside. Others, such as Emma Knowles, are working in a design based environment to get experience. However, she keeps her personal work aesthetic completely separate from the her job. 

Alumni from a couple of years ago such as Joe Boyd are now more experienced and are constantly taking on more freelance work. He explained to me that it was difficult to get paid work straight from graduation and finding work is still an ongoing process. He also mentioned how working in a studio has aided his work ethic because it separates work from home. Knowing that you're paying for a position at a studio makes you more motivated to make work that you could potentially be paid for. 

On Linkedin (mostly) I have had conversation with professional freelance illustrators and hiring agencies. I had a useful conversation with Scott Balmer who mentioned that sending postcards of your work to newspapers/magazines is a useful way to get your work noticed and then possibly used alongside an article. This is something that was also briefly touched on at Hanbury. Social media is also now a useful place to get work noticed in the modern day and I'm constantly trying to keep up with my instagram account. 

Overall, the experience of being able to make connections with professionals on various levels has advised me on where to head in the future. It's helped me feel less nervous about not having my work 'out there' as much as some others might seem to AND KEEP MAKING WORK.

No comments:

Post a Comment