This young man right here is the very talented Josh King, one of the latest creatives to join our ranks.
Before finding his way here, Josh studied graphic design at Kingston University, he made all sorts of cool stuff over at Lean Mean Fighting Machine and M&C Saatchi, and he's part of a design collective called King Zog.
Josh was recently invited to speak at the Institute of Contemporary Arts here in London. Here are a few of the top tips he shared with the aspiring creatives in the audience:
A few weeks back I was invited to talk at an event that focused on the transitional period between uni and getting a proper job. For any grads that missed it, here's my 20 minutes of 'wisdom' summed up in three points:
1. When interning, make the company look good in your spare time. Do a project that you're not briefed to do. Something interesting, ideally an idea that you can tell your mates about down the pub. The company can then show off their personality to their clients and even win new business.
2. If your portfolio is the same 6 months after leaving uni, are you really passionate about what you do? Create everyday. All it takes is one good project to get a foot in the door.
3. Make it easy for everyone to see your work. If the caption is longer than a sentence, then it probably doesn't communicate effectively. Make a simple site, learn to code, and if you can't – pay someone 50 quid to do it.
A few mates and I made a poster for the 2012 Olympics. Ages ago we heard it got published in 'Design Elements: A Graphic Design Manual'. Today, to our delight, it arrived in the post:
And here's something else Josh did recently with his friends – a limited edition of a book featuring the first Google image search result for every word in the English dictionary. We've got one here and it's fascinating. If you can get your hands on one, check it out and take your own offline trip across the alphabetised internet.
