Great Feedback

I’m currently balancing 2 separate freelance briefs, and just recently had feedback on first drafts and has gone down really well

My two projects are illustrating a business card, effectively a branding, for an individual starting up a new business – “Tulip Sunday”

This and designing some graphics for LCC’s soon to go live ‘e-store’ to buy vouchers for printing here at LCC

my suggestions for what could be done differently from the intended brief, and visualising initial ideas have gone down brilliantly I’m really pleased with how well its gone

both project seem to have no end and theres a lot on the plant coming soon. So I’m now searching for ways to get it finished as much as i am for meeting the clients needs, even though both are great clients and have given me amazing breathing room, id like it finished to concentrate on the approaching important uni projects.

Im finding myself working on the one project, sending it off/meeting for feedback+impressions, then working on the second project while i wait for feedback. This is happening via email and occasional face to face,

both are useful but i was properly delighted when the client for tulip sunday was really excited to see how its coming together with my suggestions for treating the visuals in a different manner. that was great.

She is starting her own business so i want to make sure she has something unique [she came to the right person for that!] but that will also reflect her values but importantly get her business going good

Furious Knights first brief // initial concepts

ok wordpress is officially a complete arse to use i might have to forget this and go back to my design+research blog on blogger.

So i would of shown you my individual pics for each of the concepts i did for my first furious knights brief but this poxy thing is so clunky and I’m just getting irritated now but heres a sample anyway at least its my favourite image too!

Okido week 4

This is my 4th week at okido and its brilliant,

theres so so much i need to put up and keep up with

but this morning i just noticed something, a detail. I’m learning so much through the main project I’m working on with andy, i just noticed myself using the ‘tolerance’ option with the magic wand in photoshop.

insignificant detail i know, but the depth and richness of the things I’m doing has grown without my noticing so just had to mention that for my own benefit really

not to mention LEARNING HOW TO ANIMATE!

i can animate now!

as well as team work, working with andy and working as part of a bigger group. like a team in a team

its great!

monday morning to work never been so cheery

Furious Knights

A big confidence boost to my illustration alter ego, furious knights have officially added me to their talent pool.

Im very proud to represent them and their work, from what I understand it wasn’t at all easy or by chance that i got accepted.

http://www.furiousknights.com/page13.htm

I recently got sent my first brief.

More on this soon!

 

B*** C***

I was very thankful to have the opportunity to work at B*****w the day after we finished for the winter holidays. I was so pleased to have got a proper internship. This is what I’ve been really after, to go to a place, work there with the people and learn from them.

first thing i had to do was this:

NDA-BenRider::ToddChaffee

I arrived, knocked on the door, and a guy in his pyjamas greeted me, “hey ben, come on in”

really nice bloke, but a bloke in his pyjamas. And working in his living room.

Alarm bells started to ring straight away.

-Ive since spoken to people who said they just would of left straight away. I kept on out of professionalism and, i guess politeness? and epic awkwardness

My first task was to sign the non disclosure agreement, read through it … and walk 30 mins to the nearest internet cafe to print it off as they [they=bluecrow=this guy in his pyjamas] didn’t have a printer. more alarm bells. how can a design studio not have any kind of printer?

-Well I’ve never worked in a studio so a design studio could come equipped with unicorns for all i really know about ‘working’ in them [havent worked in one still] so was still up for learning and seeing whats what. perhaps we’ll leave the front room and go to the studio.

no the dinner table was the studio and I was the ‘design team’. I know I’m sounding quite harsh and negative, the guy running it was an ok guy, he seemed to know everything about internship and was up for me to take the time to learn something if i didn’t know how to do it-but who would show me?or tell me where I’m making a massive arse out of something? isn’t that the point of internships?

I should expect “the employer to provide training, dedicated supervision” I wasn’t getting that. Or anything like a studio. or any kind of experience I was hoping for. I was sitting in this guys living room with my laptop making a series of photos [see above] look like they had been instagrammed.

my soul was being crushed like a steroid abusing wife beater crushes an empty can of stella. Is this what I’ve worked 3 years towards??is this all I’m good for???working for free in a guys living room???is this really it???

Thank fuck I had the day off the next day, so I was able to spend time carrying on a submission for the branding of Green Week 2012 – this was important to me as the dean had specifically asked me to give it a crack despite starting an internship on the monday, and I wanted to and in a sense I was a representative of our FDA course

and thanked the work experience gods I had a meeting with the dean about it in the morning and crossed my fingers he wouldn’t be too busy to ask me how the internship was.

Esquire Interview.

 Had an interview with esquire yesterday.

Did want to take a photo of the front of the building for the sake of this blog, but like an arse I forgot. [Was a bit distracted from that task for good reason]

I met Agata there, the senior director. She was really nice to me actually and seemed to genuinely listen and be interested in my work.

The interview was more or less done in a corridor, the building [72 broad wick st] is a mass hive of magazines, so the staff of Elle got a free view of my stuff as they went past

again, having a smallish A3 ‘folio paid off again.

Worried about mentioning my previous internship where i had to quit, might make me come across badly? but then i worry a lot and the rest of it went brilliantly. and i argued my point across well

 

posting a copy of my bacon zine as requested!

be good to do a stint there actually

[and i got a free magazine!-thanks fia!]

Jan Plan

Im spending the next 3 Weeks now finishing 2 Uni projects and applying for work.

Starting Late this month Ill be doing more work for Green Week-wherever I can chip in and doing the printing onto various surfaces etc.

So- back soon!

Undisclosed internship experience

I was very thankful to have the opportunity to work at B*****w the day after we finished for the winter holidays. I was so pleased to have got a proper internship. This is what I’ve been really after, to go to a place, work there with the people and learn from them.

first thing i had to do was this:

NDA-BenRider::ToddChaffee

I arrived, knocked on the door, and a guy in his pyjamas greeted me, “hey ben, come on in”

really nice bloke, but a bloke in his pyjamas. And working in his living room.

Alarm bells started to ring straight away.

-Ive since spoken to people who said they just would of left straight away. I kept on out of professionalism and, i guess politeness? and epic awkwardness

My first task was to sign the non disclosure agreement, read through it … and walk 30 mins to the nearest internet cafe to print it off as they [they=bluecrow=this guy in his pyjamas] didn’t have a printer. more alarm bells. how can a design studio not have any kind of printer?

-Well I’ve never worked in a studio so a design studio could come equipped with unicorns for all i really know about ‘working’ in them [havent worked in one still] so was still up for learning and seeing whats what. perhaps we’ll leave the front room and go to the studio.

no the dinner table was the studio and I was the ‘design team’. I know I’m sounding quite harsh and negative, the guy running it was an ok guy, he seemed to know everything about internship and was up for me to take the time to learn something if i didn’t know how to do it-but who would show me?or tell me where I’m making a massive arse out of something? isn’t that the point of internships?

I should expect “the employer to provide training, dedicated supervision” I wasn’t getting that. Or anything like a studio. or any kind of experience I was hoping for. I was sitting in this guys living room with my laptop making a series of photos [see above] look like they had been instagrammed.

my soul was being crushed like a steroid abusing wife beater crushes an empty can of stella. Is this what I’ve worked 3 years towards??is this all I’m good for???working for free in a guys living room???is this really it???

Thank fuck I had the day off the next day, so I was able to spend time carrying on a submission for the branding of Green Week 2012 – this was important to me as the dean had specifically asked me to give it a crack despite starting an in, and I wanted to and in a sense I was a representative of our FDA course

and thanked the work experience gods I had a meeting with the dean about it in the morning and crossed my fingers he wouldn’t be too busy to ask me how the internship was, had a good sit down and plan about the Green week project [which ill post about later cos i loved it and for lots of reasons never thought i would] and after got to speak about this] and discussed this internship. and decided to politely quit. and thats what I did

I took time to write a very thankful and polite letter, and got an understanding and slightly guilt triply one back.

I felt so relieved once decided.

1st Fail

its the 2nd day of the year and I already got fired ! brilliant! what a spectacular fail

Shit it I wasted all that time on that poxy spread and told they replaced me already

I’ve learnt to really make clear about EVERYTHING. I was told the deadline was 15th, still don’t know when it was but it obviously wasn’t then!

Ive also learnt even more about how important time is. With a deadline for 2 major projects on the horizon each hour of the day is very important to me, that I spent the better part of a fortnight working from home for something [for free!] was a bad use of my time.

Still learnt a thing or two!

wasn’t for me anyway. can only get better from here though!!!

IDOL Magazine

Max+Jen spread by Ben.Rider

Max+Jen spread2 by Ben.Rider

oh my god these spreads have somehow taken up a stupid amount of time. I haven’t had any feedback on it yet, mind you I haven’t asked for any yet, as it has literally jus been xmas+new years. But thank feck i finally cracked something good enough to send.

I properly went through the interview, i did go insane at first, i was like yeah this is easy! wasn’t that easy. i went mad going off on some of the content like “rough and ready” [fucking loving that] “sexual aesthetic”

thyre a couple rough n ready designers from berlin so it made sense to go a bit bat shit with the whole thing. but the most important thing is to fit in with the rest of IDOL style, so thats what i went for. i was lucky to get some feedback from a fashion stylist I know well so that was interesting working in a new environment in a way.

This soaked up the last weeks worth of library time before xmas. right now Library time is valuable ITC/SVR time so that irritated me, but certainly for the next few months I’m saying no to nothing really. only no to pyjamas.