ephillipsresearch

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 During my first year I won the Xhibit 2020 competition to exhibit my first year works at a gallery in Deptford. The exhibition was postponed many times due to covid and eventually made into a virtual show, which launched yesterday. 

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Bibliography

A short bibliography of selected key books, artists and other media. Links can also be found below the relevant blog entries. Key Books Paul Farley , Roberts Symmonds. (2011) Edgelands: Journeys into England's True Wilderness Mark Fischer , Laura Grace Ford, (2019) Savage Messiah Caroline Perez (2018) Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men Blanchard, F. (2019) The Lie of the Land, Milton Keynes Gallery Afua Hirsch (2018) Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging Jini Reddy. (2020) Wanderland John Grindrod. (2017) Outskirts, Living life on the Edge of the Greenbelt Lola Olufemi (2020) Feminism Interrupted Weird Walk Zine , Issue 4, 2021 Nick Hayes, Book of Tresspass, 2020 Key Artists Juliette Losq - https://href.li/?https://www.losq.co.uk/

Laura Grace Ford - Mark Fischer , Laura Grace Ford, (2019) Savage Messiah Kiki Smith  https://www.apollo-magazine.com/kiki-smith-interview/ Benjamin Deakin- https://href.li/?https://drawingroom.org.uk/drawingbiennial2013/drawing/Ben-Deakin_study-for-blanks-in-a-landscape Lewis Chamberlin - https://href.li/?https://www.lewischamberlain.com/drawings-4/y9568aojdk1rqwn8w5qmynca1ccs7c Michal Ziegler - https://href.li/?https://gamingbolt.com/mundaun-interview-art-style-inspirations-development-and-more Ana Mendieta- https://www.vice.com/en/article/gym79y/ana-mendieta-fought-for-womens-rights-and-paid-with-blood https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/mendieta-untitled-rape-scene-t13355 https://www.momentabiennale.com/en/artist/ana-mendieta/ Massinissa Selmani https://href.li/?https://massinissa-selmani.com/bio/ Christo & Jeanne Claude https://christojeanneclaude.net/life-and-work/ Catherine Anyango Grunewald (UAL perspectives lecture) Marjolijn Dijkman  https://www.marjolijndijkman.com/?rd_project=theatrum-orbis-terrarum-panorama&lang=en Fay Ballard https://www.fayballard.com/archive-201015-1 Jock Mcfayden https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019 Alexandra Blum http://www.alexblum.co.uk/dalston_notes.html Films/ Videos New Town Utopia (2017) Directed by C.I Smith Nicola Tyson in Conversation  (2021) https://href.li/?https://drawingroom.org.uk/resources/nicola-tyson-in-conversation-with-rebecca-fortnum 4 Bloc Projects (2020) Harsh Light: Verity Birt, Una Hamilton Helle & Dr Edwin Coomasaru : https://www.blocprojects.co.uk/exhibitionsevents/2020/harsh-light-6

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Issue 4 of my favourite zine, Weird Walk. In this issue, Stewart discusses Lamorna and Ithell Colquhoun (which i have documented below) an other artists inspired by the ancient sites in West Penwith. There is also an interview with Nick Hayes on his new book about trespassing in the English countryside. I am only a few chapters in and already armed with a wealth of useful legal knowledge that has impassioned me to trespass to my hearts content without fear of being arrested. He does point in this interview however that the law works very partially, and the threat of a police holds much darker connotations for some than Hayes as white man who is privileged not to need to worry too much about police intervention - thus, working towards changing laws to welcome everyone to the countryside. On his website he organizes group outings, peacefully entering private land to have picnic or play folk music (legally categorized as aggravated trespass) to raise the urgency of the issue and spread the word. It is still extremely disparaging to find out that 92% of the land in this country is off limits to the public by law of trespass as a result of a series of enclosures and laws that exploited the working classes and effectively banished them from their own land. I did briefly consider exploring this within my practical work, and my dissertation, though i never managed to fit it in. 

The book is also punctuated with beautiful relief illustrations at every chapter made by the artist himself, reflecting his own interest in outdoor sketching, showing the flauna and fauna that reside here whilst the classic barbed wire fences aggressively signpost these spaces as strictly out of bounds. 

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Reading the latest issue of Weird Walk Zine, Stewart Lee guides us on a path through Lamorna, recounting his love for surrelealist artist Ithell Colquhoun and the monuments that inspired her paintings, and other artists and writers of the period. She rejected the restrictions that Eduard Mesens of the London Surrealist group tried to enforce on her work, and eventually cut ties with them, refusing to give up her occult interests which set her apart. These works appeal to my own interests the occult, hautology, and the relationship between the female body and the land.  Lee mentions the Merry Maidens, and the Minions of Bodmin Moor, the potential inspiration for Colquhoun’s works – ‘Dance of the Nine Opals’ and ‘Dance of the Nine Maidens’. In the latter watercolour works, female figures are drawn encased in monuments, depicting a group of women turned to stone as punishment for dancing on the Sabbath. Colquhoun has analysed the former painting in her own words: This painting, it seems to me, comes from some hinterland of the mind, some border-line region, since elements drawn from both ‘actual’ and ‘potential’ worlds are to be found in it. It is built from several impacted strata of material and meaning: 1) Various druidic stone-circles known to Cornish folk-lore as ‘Nine Maidens’ (ni mên = ‘holy stones’). Legend says that the circle is composed of girls turned to stone for dancing on (at) the Sabbat, and can be restored to natural shape if embraced at midnight when the moon is full. The monument is a petrified ‘Hexentanz’; it is here seen as one of the ‘psychic zones’ of the country-side, one of its ‘fountains out of Hecate’. 2) A Celtic solar festival or fertility-rite; the Maypole’s streamers are replaced by coloured ‘lines-of-force’ connecting the stones with the central fountain and with each other. 3) The nine planets of traditional astrology, including Pluto and Vulcan, revolving round the cohesive and dynamic force of the solar system. 4) Apollo, symbolised by the sun-burst in the centre of the ring, ‘leading his choir, the Nine’. 5) The common chord, symbolised by the three tints – one of them basic – in each stone, carried through an octave, including the first two accidentals. The ‘music of the spheres’ .6) Kether (‘the crown’) mitigating the nine lesser sephiroth – often rep-resented in cabalistic tradition as a tree of life. 7) A supernatural flower with nine petals and fiery pistil. 8) The nine moons of pregnancy with perpetual solar impregnation. 9) The opal signifying by its combination of colours the animal, vegetable and mineral worlds. By its connection with the Zodiacal Libra, it links the whole morphological system with the idea of a balance between static and dynamic forces

This detailed self analysis shows the depth of her love and understanding of the occult, astrology and pagan folklore. The construction of this painting with its carefully places symbols suggests painting as an act of ritual in itself. Her use of real world structures in this paintings makes the ordinary magical in her satisfyingly mystic interpretations of these stone forms. Lee sums it up on his last page’ I love Ithell Colquhoun, her individualism, her willingness to cross boundaries between disciplines, her determination and imagination, and the way you can see her bleeding reality through the filter of her own world view’ https://www.schirn.de/en/magazine/interviews/2020_interview/when_art_and_magic_come_together/ http://www.ithellcolquhoun.co.uk/dance_of_the_nine_opals.htm Like Jini Reddy in her nature book ‘Wanderland’, I feel that I am constantly seeking the magic in my own surroundings and Colquhouns work satisfies that craving with her alluring tales of real life places. It is due to my own spiritual persuasions that I chose to base my final drawings on the ruins of Minsden Chapel in my home county. It has this air of magic, made only more alluring by the barbed fencing that gaurds it to ward off trespassers. It has its own legends of ghosts and supernatural occurrences, but its slow demise back into the clutches of nature as the surrounding trees engulf its crumbling walls are what make it so enchanting, appealing to the English obsession of the picturesque  which I studied in my second year.  

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I also to applied to the role of Project Assistant for Hospital Rooms, an arts organisation that hires successful artists to transform mental health facilities and other medical buildings into colorful and uplifting spaces that will better aid their inhabitants recovery. The role involves a lot of organization/admin and some curatorial duties. I am still awaiting a response to my application. I feel that I may have been a bit ambitious with this one, but you never know, i was really excited by the project and felt it was too good an opportunity to let pass me by, so i thought it was worth a shot. I have started saving all my cover letters and written application answers so that i may be able to use certain parts in other applications. I have also decided to take on some advice to never spend more than 2 hours on an application, as I’m beginning to learn first hand that jobs are scarce and its unwise to get too invested in a single job. 

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London Transport Museum: Young Freelancers Programme – Application, Rejection, and Training?

I recently applied to a Young Freelancer Role at the London Transport Museum, a part time training programme to get my foot in the door in the cultural sector. I put a lot of effort into my application, citing my experience at the British Museum and other relevant projects and skills.

Unfortunately, I was not offered an interview - ‘from reading your application we felt that it would be unlikely that our programmes would be providing you with opportunities that could meet your needs’.   Perhaps they thought my interests were too creative /curation based and the roles more admin based, i am not really sure what the role offered specifically. However, in a lengthy response from the museum I was told that my application was ‘really strong’ so they invited me to a training workshop in July to ‘support you in identifying your next steps’.... I am not sure what this means, or what the training/workshop is exactly for, so i have replied with some questions and plan to go along. So at least it wasn’t a flat no and very intrigued to see what comes next! https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/about/opportunities/young-people/young-freelancers

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Lewis Chamberlin  The eerie banality of Chamberlain’s work came about whilst living in a small flat in Brixton, and working exclusively nocturnally in artificial light. Isolated from the noise and bustle of the city outside, he began to populate his insular world with small figures in a mode of miniature world building from which he creates strangely familiar but uncanny scenes for drawing, acknowledging their scale with a considered focus on the interior walls, floors, skirting boards and window sills that set the scene, creating a claustrophobic atompshere. The domesticity of this work is so reminiscent of many of our experiences in lockdown - although they were made prior to the pandemic they really seem to sum up to simultaneous boredom and madness of the experience. I particularly love his exterior drawings of  melancholic, suburban gardens. These drawings feel like looking back at my childhood through an adults eyes, where all the magic and colour of a child’s world has faded. There is a sad beauty to them that i really connect with. 

https://thebluereview.net/trek-lexington-in-conversation-with-lewis-chamberlain-8fd06cc79d71

https://www.lewischamberlain.com/drawings-4/y9568aojdk1rqwn8w5qmynca1ccs7c

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Benjamin Deakin

Deakin's paintings are composites of images from various travels and artist residencies as well as more everyday experiences. They reflect his long-term interest in the power of places to trigger associations, particularly connections to art history. He is interested in the way in which culture influences how we perceive and value certain types of place and environment. This can manifest itself in many ways, for example by experiencing a kind of everyday surrealism or romanticism blossoming suddenly in the corner of a street, a site of ancient ruins or an unusual rock-formation. https://drawingroom.org.uk/drawingbiennial2013/drawing/Ben-Deakin_study-for-blanks-in-a-landscape

‘Everyday surrealism’ , ‘romanticism blossoming suddenly in the corner of a street’ - i love these descriptions of Deakins work, the ideas behind them feel familiar to my own. The softness and delicacy in the way these forms are transcribed give them a relic-like quality, and his drawings of nature are fantastical and eerie. Whilst his paintings are also impressive, this kind of mastery of the pencil is what i aspire to. 

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At this point in the process of this drawing i knew it wasn’t working and i would either have to do something drastic or abandon it completely. It was shaping up to be a decent drawing, but it wasn’t achieving what i wanted it to, and i felt it lacked sophistication and nuance. It began to look too much like a scene/ a pretty picture of the English countryside, and there was too much going on in the image for a focus point to emerge, making it appear messy, and un-considered. If I could go back, I would have disregarded the background completely and left the ruin in white space, as i have been doing with my second piece, which is shaping up much better. With what is now my go- to solution for failing artworks, I photographed the picture and digitally cropped it in different ways to see if any smaller, more successful pieces could be retrieved from the wreckage. Jake and i had a lot of back and forth about which areas to cut and eventually we agreed on the above composition. It makes the chair the focus point, but includes the barbed wire fence to maintain the confusing contrast between these two motifs of invitation and restriction. I like how to wire also creates another barrier into the world, between the artwork and the viewer.

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Boy Parts - Eliza Clark 

I recently read this book recommended to me by a friend, which, although doesn’t link directly to my own practice, is a really interesting story that takes place in the British art world, told from the perspective of female UAL graduate photographer, and speaks on the often unspoken power dynamics at work in the art world, between artists and their models, collectors, gallerists- all a bound up the already complex dynamic between genders and social classes.  Aside from the horror/ ‘psycho’ aspects of the book, it was really interesting to read about a world and characters that i already feel so familiar with, but with its ugly truths and hardships laid bare,. In an online review of the book, Beth Krikbride writes:

‘Abuse in the fashion and art industry is rife, with countless stories of predatory photographers luring young men and women into their ‘studios’ where they are asked to undress and then the unthinkable happens. Eliza Clark’s Boy Parts is an electrifying look at the relationship between photographer and subject, which turns the more typical gender and power dynamic on its head and in doing so asks some fundamentally feminist questions about sex, gender and power.’

Interestingly, the writer, Eliza Clarks has also spoken about the London- centric nature of the arts and publishing industries, which really comes across in the book. Clark too is a a working class, university educated young woman from Newcastle with relatively well off parents, like her protagonist, but is still considered as ‘underprivileged’ within the industry, highlighting the extent of the north/ south divide in this country, the lack of opportunities in northern cities and the (more than financial) cost of living in London for any hope of success.  ‘In Clark’s eyes, the north-south divide has become more of a metropolitan-rural one, partly because every city in the UK now has its own big university. But the lack of funding and opportunities in the north, and particularly the north-east, is still a problem. “There are these amazing, scrappy DIY scenes all over the UK, but national and international success is preserved for a privileged handful of people who have connections.”Not just personal connections but geographical connections, too – publishing is concentrated in London, and the ability to live and write there relies on being able to afford it, while also having the time and space to be creative. Clark began writing Boy Parts in 2018 after working in a string of bars and retail jobs and receiving a grant from New Writing North, as part of a fund dedicated to talented writers aged between 15 and 25′ 

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jul/22/eliza-clark-from-newcastle-working-class-publishers-diverse-boy-parts

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This was the first painting i started making at the beginning of third year, It was painted from one of my 35mm photographs in oil on linen. I was struggling with it for far too long, the image just wasnt working as a painting, the figures and small details all looked awful as the initial image was just took dark to be replicated and it showed in the painting. I liked small aspects of the painting but hated the thing as a whole and knew i need to do something drastic to save it. Looking at this parts that i DID like, i simply cut them out of the image, threw the rest away and was left with 3 smaller paintings that i am much happier with and the piece finally felt resolved. This further reflected my interest in edges, not just in the context of place but in aesthetics as well. It also felt more satisfying to be transforming the image rather than reproducing it, and the simplicity of the colour palette is best suited to these small, somber compositions rather than in bigger more complicated images where figures and details get easily lost in the fog. Whilst this painting looks the most similar to those i was making in my first year, i feel that i have become much more decisive in my process. It is here that i began to turn away from painting and back to drawing as a much more immediate and physical process of making, less fussy and slow than oil painting in particular.  

#materials

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Leena Norms is a popular (and my favorite) British ‘Booktuber’ who makes videos on literature, sustainability, and the publishing industry, and has a series of informative videos titled ‘twenties toolkit’ in which she gives advice on things like renting, job searching, university and in great timing - writing CVs! This has a lot of good tips which made me realise i really need to cut my CV down and get rid of a lot of the waffle!

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Before I started university, i took part in a little local project with Hertfordshire Libraries and Archives called Herts ‘MyStory’ Due to the small number of people working on the project, i ended up taking on quite a big role within the project, and as such have been invited back to work on the 2021 project this coming summer. They have offered to pay me £150 per session to work on ‘creator days’ shadowing professional artist Alex Macintyre, who i worked with on the first project, and am in conversation with the project organizers to negotiate a potential paid role on the wider production team of project. I was a big part of the production team on the first project, meeting with the organizers twice weekly to discuss ideas, budgeting, event development as well as producing art (8 oil paintings and a number of illustrations) for the project exhibition. Having just completed my foundation i was happy to do all this for free as it was great work experience where i was given a lot of creative agency and responsibility within this project. Now that i am soon to graduate however the organizers recognize that i should be paid for my work and hopefully my support for them and the good relationships I've formed with everyone on the team will perhaps help me to secure a paid role on the event production team as well. I am keeping my options open but this more informal way of working suits my interest in freelancing and trying out different roles for shorter periods of time. 

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This is the final events i worked on as part of the British Museum Youth Collective, and in my opinion the most successful, We want to provide information to young people like us and those particularly from underrepresented backgrounds about the kind of barriers we might face in the museum sector and more importantly how to overcome them.  Our guest speakers were Aksana Khan, Arts & Youth Engagement Producer and member of Museum Detox: a network for people of colour who work in museums, galleries, libraries, archives, and the heritage sector; and Michelle McGrath, founder of Museum as Muck: an award-winning network of working class museum people working to effect change in the socio-economic diversity of the sector.  We recorded this live and opened it up to questions from viewers at the end. I think we tackled a lot of subjects that the museum hasn't addressed before such as nepotism, problematic expectations of doing unpaid work and volunteering, barriers for people of colour and working class people in the sector and how museums need to be doing better. We had about 200 people turn up for the live event and lots of positive feedback, i think this is the event i am most proud of.  Our time in the collective has now come to an end as the musuem is now looking to recruit the next group. There were many times that i felt like dropping out because of the amount of time and work required - many others did but i made friendships within the collective and did not want to let them down and increase their workload. I also felt it was important work that i am proud to have been a part of, and i’m glad i stuck it out until the end. Whilst it was all unpaid, we did get gifted a years membership with free entry to all exhibitions and good deal of experience in event planning, producing, advertising and communicating professionally with people from across the spectrum of roles at the british musuem, including Hartwig himself (our interview with the museum director can be found on the British Musuem Events Youtube, though i have not posted it here as I was less directly involved with event. 

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I recently attended a virtual open day for Goldsmiths to get more information on the PGCE Secondary Art and Design course, as I have been considering teaching as a possible career path. I looked up to many of my art teachers throughout school and the idea of connecting with other young people through art and providing this space for creative freedom for others is very appealing. I had looked at other PGCE Art and Design courses in London, including Slade, though Goldsmiths most piqued my interest. The virtual open day was a general overview of the structure of the course, the university, and the requirements for application. I asked directly if classroom experience was necessary for acceptance onto the course. The course leaders said that whilst this was not a necessity for them, they recommended that we do get classroom experience in order to ‘try before you buy’ and see if you enjoy working in this kind of environment. This lead to me to question whether teaching is really for me -  I do not have much experience with children am I unsure whether I would be suited to the role. A big part of the appeal of this career path is financial stability – once you have completed teacher training, you almost have a guaranteed job for life and can work anywhere in the country, and once you graduate you have already spent most of the course in practical work experience – the same can rarely be said of many other creative post grad courses. I am sure it is also very rewarding and the course leaders make it sound like a great experience, but stress that the work load is heavy and you are thrown immediately into the deep end after a few short weeks of initial training. After attending I am came to the conclusion that I do not yet want to commit my money to this course when I am not 100% it’s the right path for me, and might take on some teaching assistant placements to see if I enjoy this kind of work. To get a better idea of the role, I have also been watching various videos on youtube by artists who recently completed the PGCE or who are currently employed as art teachers, showing the typical day in the life of teaching art in a secondary school, including virtually. .

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Weekends at Paperchase

Since my first year at university i have worked every Saturday and Sunday (except lockdowns) at the Paperchase store in Wimbledon’s centre court shopping centre. Initially intended as a way to make some extra money to support myself,  this job has become a valuable part of my university experience and has helped me develop in unexpected ways. Paperchase refers to itself as a ‘leader in innovative, design-led stationery, cards and gift-wrap’. It really is a very vibrant place to work – and attracts a lot of creative people. The kinds of cards and gifts paperchase sells are very different to its counterparts in Clintons or card factory- they are much more modern and design led, working with new and popular illustrators who’s work I’ve become very familiar through the job, and has perhaps unconsciously influenced my own interest in illustration. Unofficially, the chain prefers to employ people who are in some way creative, and within our small team of 7 there are 3 other artists working at our branch. Louise is a freelance photographer about my age – we are currently planning to go shooting together as she is also interested brutalism and street photography. Bernardo studied graphic design at Camberwell , and works as a freelance fashion photographer, as well as teaching photography short courses at UCL. He has worked as a  fashion photographer in New York and Denmark , and likes to give us advice about working in the industry, how to network, which cities have the best art scenes, and how to balance freelance work with long term employment. He makes a lot of money through his teaching and freelance work, however he has kept his part time job at Paperchase for 7 years as a back- up source of stable income, as his income from freelancing can be sporadic.  We have arranged to do a shoot together in Wimbledon in a few weeks as myself and some other colleagues will be modelling some jewellery for a friend of his who makes earrings etc. .Additionally, Louise and Bernardo have invited me to join them in designing a new collection of cards which we would hope to launch in stores. Its very early stages but would be great experience for my interest in illustration, even if it doesn’t come to fruition, and goes to show the kind the creative communities to be found in unlikely places. My manager always encourages me to be creative with my job and gives me tasks to express this. The above photograph shows a recent craft event we’ve been running in store on weekends to promote certain products, which my manager put me in charge of. We set up a craft station in store to encourage children to do some colouring, card making and origami for a small prize. Chatting with the children and doing a gentle sales pitch with parents can be a difficult balance to strike but it’s been a really good experience working with children as i am still considering teaching as a possible career path. Aside from this my manager gives me lots of smaller creative tasks which involves a lot of visual merchandising, (which doesn’t sound like much but is particularly important in a store like paperchase, the way products are arranged is very particular and takes time), creating window displays, posters, choosing which products and designs to put out and always being in charge of the chalk board! Lastly, the actual sales part of my job has done a lot for my confidence, I’ve had customer service roles before but always hated them-  with this job however, working in a colorful creative environment with creative people really makes a difference, as well as the flexibility of the role (not always being chained to a till), so I’m much happier to talk to strangers and more confident in approaching customers and pushing sales for products I actually use and enjoy. It’s been the best job I’ve had so far and has given me much more than ‘retail experience’.

#ppd

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Starting a career as a freelancer - Notes from UAL Careers and SU online events with OkMentor : Notes

  1) Get your portfolio ready

shake’- web platform to register as freelancer and apply to jobs – upload portfolio etc - think about your projects, what did you enjoy, what bought the most value, where does your expertise lie? -Organise your work - organise by practice, prioritise the roles where you bring the most value, think about what you want to do in the future- your portfolio should support that,make yourself hireable -Make it easy to understand, showcase the most important projects, be clear about the role you had in each project, show your process and the value you added to each project, state what type of opportunities you’re looking for or what interests you, make it easy to share -Make a website, social media professional account, or pdfs that showcase the work -Strengthen your portfolio – create proposals for your dream clients, join competitions and live briefs, collaborate with other creatives

·          2) get ready to invoice define your rate – what do you need to survive? -survival budget, income goal, taxes you will have to over your personal allowance- if you earn more than 12500, you must pay tax  What are industry standards -how much can you charge depending on level of expertise -how many projects do you have to undertake per month to reach survival budget -pricing strategy- time based pricing, project based pricing, value based pricing

·Decide your status -sole trader -simpler to register, fewer admin and tax headaches than ltd, no set up costs, smaller accountancy fees -limited company- extra workload and higher accountancy fees, tax benefits, protects your assets against company debt, separate bank accounts are mandatory

Next steps: -Find jobs, promoting yourself, find niche, manage admin format;  sqaurespace, wix, cards, cargo, for portfolio

 Arts SU freelancing vs company work with Okmentor

-Company employment-takes longer to earn lots of money for yourself as money goes to the employer and you have to wait for raise Freelancers-  sell their skills as a service – must be a skill that is unique to you, do work for bigger brand and create demand so that your daily fee rises, and you can charge more money for less work – very fulfilling to choose projects you want to work on , a great place to start if have no other options you can manage your own schedule, more freedom  - downside is you must be prepared to work long hours, a low fee at the beginning means you must work more jobs to earn a living, lack of structure, must be good at time management, harder to know when next pay check is coming in -working alone vs working around ppl – freelancers a more solo workers How are freelancers getting jobs? - sign up to freelancer platforms – dot unojuno, pplperhour, upwork, set up a profile, list your skills and price per hour is good place for beginners, you can ask your friends to share -freelancers must create contracts for themselves – you must list what you’re doing for the client down to smallest detail, be very specific, so they don’t ‘scope creep’ – make you do things that aren’t in your contract – always ask for payment for these extras -covid is a good time for freelance – staff redundancies to use freelancers instead. Demand for graphic designers and animators has gone up - reach out to agencies, send an email, show them your portfolio, ask if they have any freelance work to get them to add you to  their database – make sure portfolio is high quality lots of organisations like okmentor – go to non profit organisations and asked to join committee or help, build connections What makes a cv successful? -1 page, always send as pdf, be careful in introduction not to sound like everyone else – hardworking, passionate etc – be more unique – alter cv to client, show some personality, talk about why vs what- instead of saying ‘i did this’ show what this did as a result- write the results of your actions. Always ask for results for the work you provide. if applying for junior role, how what you did AND the impact you made - Reach out to people who work in places where you could do anything to add to your cv -Create your own experience – write your own brief, work for yourself – create your own projects use it as a project brief -show attention to detail and excellence – is the formatting good, no typos etc

What were your biggest struggles getting into work? -getting the job and feeling like an imposter/ incompetent -don’t underestimate the power of networking and asking for introductions -convincing people to work with her – no experience or portfolio ALWAYS TRY TO FIND THE ANSWER FIRST – THEN ASK -don’t be shy/ coy- fake confidence -always try to come with a solution, show how you’re good  at finding solutions. In interviews be a good listener -they are looking for real genuine passion and enthusiasm – come across as curious and interested - Use this time to work and upskill and expand knowledge, build portfolio, online presence -start practicing networking- it can change your career. 7X more likely to get a role if you know someone – try to start figuring out what you stand for, you won’t get hired if you don’t fit the culture - get really curious in the things you’re interested in – upskill in areas you’re passionate about -attend online events, go onto eventbrite and see what’s on – try to dm the event organisers, show your instagram, get in touch with everyone on the call

· challenges entering the industry  – make a choice, either prepare yourself to work really hard to stand out, work hard in your 20s so you can relax in your 30s – or if you want to have a work life balance- think hard about how you will stand out in competition - tips –if you go to a meeting, take notes– think of strategic ways to work smarter rather than harder – depends on the industry - its easier to get jobs in agencies than in brands for young people but you work very hard very late hours -freelancers –best thing you can do to get advantage is to make sure your online presence is up to scratch, put a lot of effort into it- employers will look – need to be blow away by what they see

tips for interviews and cover letters- if you’re applying for creative company, express your personality, opening line should be ‘hey team , really loved that campaign etc -reference their own work , compliment them , i love this because i am... -for interview- research research research – go to linked profile, company website, google the company news, ask and prep some smart questions

#ppd