To complete the work I am going to listen to the employer so that he can give me hints and tips about work. I will give good impressions to the employer so that he could give me more complex tasks other than photocopying and making tea and coffee. I have devised a timeline of events that I will be writing in the orange booklet as the week progresses.
The Activity
During the one week placement (starting 2nd July 2007) I went to Logo Design and marketing. At the placement I was told to make a selection of logos on a computer. I found this very boring and repetitive because I had to do this same task for 3 days. I have researched this type of job and found that: this is a very competitive market; this was evident during the work experience placement because there were always deadlines and targets to be met at the end of each day. The other employers were allocated different jobs at the beginning of the day and everyone had their own specialist aspects for example:
- Video editing
- Photograph Manipulation
- Website Creation
- Administration
- Adverts
I didn’t have to work with anyone else which wasn’t on the team because it was a very enclosed working community because clients did arrive as “customers”, meetings were arranged and interviews were done in a separate meeting room or the manager would travel to the client’s office. During the work experience I made some corporate identity material:
- Two business cards
- Four letter heads
- A wide selection of logos
And at the end (last day) I made:
- A magazine cover for my favourite topic, skiing
- An A3 middle page spread for the same magazine
The results of the work placement was that I gained social skills and the ability to work part of a group of fully trained adults working full time as part of a team.
Health and Safety
When I arrived at the work experience I was told to fill out forms about my health, I was also given a tour of the work place to show me where the fire alarms are, fire exits, first aid boxes and who the qualified 1st aiders are. I was also told some safety tips about using the computers; for example, take regular breaks and always adjust the chair so that you look straight towards the monitor.
The Evaluation
In conclusion to the work placement I have now gained knowledge of how to use different graphical software on the computer. Not only gaining skills with computers and other graphic designing related tools, I also saw the stress with work and the patience you need. During the work experience there were things that went well and things that went not so well. For example when I finished different tasks that I put a lot of effort in to and the end result was of a high standard it made me happy and pleased to have completed it. But on the other hand during the 1st two days I was doing the same repetitive thing, this was very monotonous but I realised this process was what the graphic designers always have to go through for every job so that the client has a choice of deigns to chose from. Sometimes I had problems and questions with the software I was using and what tasks I should be doing after I finish one. I over came these problems by asking my supervisor or someone else who was familiar with the programs I was using. I achieved what I set out to do at the beginning which was to gain experience of a work environment. If I were to do it again I would choose a place to have my work experience where there is more varied tasks so that I wouldn’t get bored doing the same thing over and over.
The Appendices