Work Experience Summary
Total 6 weeks
Sunne Printing (Taree), 1 week (April, 07)
Start Work (Kevin’s) (Albury), 2 weeks (July, 07)
Mobius Marketing (North Sydney), 1 week (Sept, 07)
Dobija Design and Publishing (Griffith), 1 week (Jan 08)
Gold Coast Bulletin (Gold Coast), 1 week (Sept, 08)
Sunne Printing Services, Taree
16th – 20th April 2007
sunne.com.au
The company
Sunne Printing was a medium to small sized printing business that had been around about 20 years. They employed 2 graphic designers, a pre-press person, estimator, sales person, Director (Ed), 3 printers and a Receptionist. The majority of work they get is commercial. They seemed to do a lot of DL’s, newsletters, brochures etc. There clients seemed to be tourist related, being on the coast, such as caravan parks, wineries, art galleries, cafes etc. Most jobs didn’t require a lot of creativity and were up dates from previous issues with an existing template.
The pre-press person, Graham, had been with the business for years and was good to listen to with how things have changed with computers and printing. They had a new plate machine that was more automatic than previous ones. Graham guessed the CMYK amount by looking at the print through a magnifying glass to match up colours.
My experience
I worked with one of the graphic designers Kelly Emerton who was young and had only been with the business about 6 months after finishing her design diploma at TAFE.
I didn’t get much of a chance to o anything on my own and mainly sat and watched Kelly for the 5 days. She used InDesign for everything, as well as a little in Photoshop and Illustrator. This made me realise what an important program it was as we were only just starting to use InDesign at uni. I learnt a lot about InDesign and also about setting a document up for print.
Would I work there?
I think maybe to start with Sunne or a printers similar to them would be good for the experience as being on the job you would get experience in the programs and in the industry, especially setting documents up for print. However there was very limited creativity and the work may get repetitive and boring after a while.
Start Work Graphic Design (Kevin’s), Albury
10th – 21st July 2007
Kevin Spendier
The Company
Kevin Spendier worked alone in his office in Albury. He originally studied and worked in Melbourne doing work for companies such as Kraft and Joss. He did a wide range of work from logos and corporate ID to packaging and websites. He also did photography and painting and recently had started getting into interior design. He had a large collection of logos he had developed including the Joss construction logo.
My Experience
Kevin was very grateful for my help and wanted me to stay an extra week. I brought my own laptop in so I could work independently and produced a slide show for Joss, ads for print, web design for Redgum, letterheads, as well as a bit in interior design. He was working on a mural for a kids play centre and designing a makeover for a small sandwich café Yums, which I helped with.
What I got out of it
I enjoyed working for Kevin, maybe because he actually gave me work to do and I got to see my own work used for a real client. I don’t think I would like to be freelance straight out of uni. I would want to get some experience first, but working for a small company, like if Kevin wanted to expand I bit, I think would be enjoyable as you have control over all aspects.
I enjoyed discussing the interior design jobs as it opened my mind. I learnt that graphic design is very broad and encompasses I wide array of design aspects, not just corporate Id and print jobs.
Kevin made me start to design my own identity and helped me with my logo. Before working with Kevin I wasn’t very motivated with logos but Kevin’s way of working inspired me and I looked up to his logos he had done.
Mobius
Marketing, North Sydney
18th-22nd Sept 2007
mobius.com.au
The Company
Situated in the heart of North Sydney with a view of Sydney Harbour surrounded by other design houses and trendy shops. There work includes branding, print design, advertising, packaging and new media. They produce a lot of corporate style work like financial reports and promotional items. Some clients include IPN, BP, Castrol, Austcorp, Holden, Optus, Nutrametics and Oral-B. The company structure comprised of creative director (Jane), ceo, branding consultant, copywriter, 3-4 designers, strategic consultant, 2 digital media.
My Experience
Working and living in Sydney was an experience of its own. Travelling on the train for 40mins each way a day was a new experience. The space they had was quite modern and posh which made it a little intimidating. They had a balcony where they could have lunch and smoke breaks (I was surprised by the number of them who smoked). On Friday they supplied a lunch with sandwiches, cakes and wine. All the designers/copywriter were in the same main room with the media people upstairs. Jane encouraged us to work on paper first and they had stacks of large paper pads to work on.
I worked on St Fiacre’s logo, alcohol, which needed the saint, promotion for Castrol, cover for Austcorp’s financial report and presentation for IPN. I learnt about corporate style books and how creative restricting they can be, but it was also good to have a guideline. They had a large library collection which was also interesting to look through.
Would I work there?
Apart from travelling to work and the fact I’m not an inner city lover, this style of work would be great to start and build experience.
Dobija Design and Publishing, Griffith
7th -11th Jan 2008
dobijaworld.com
The Company
Dobija is a country town printers who recently moved into a bigger premise in the industrial area. They have 3 graphic designers, 3 sales, manager (Mr Dobija), admin staff, printers out the back and finishers. They do the usual print jobs and have several magazines they produce including a free lifestyle magazine, “the Go magazine”, real estate, farmers and car magazines.
My Experience
I was able to have my own desk and computer, which gave me a real feel for working at the place. I was given the job of producing the “tips page”, which features in the real estate magazine and produced the next 11 weeks worth for them. One of the days I was there I was the only graphic designer and they needed a business card done for Darrelea’s hairdressers ASAP. I was thrown in the deep end and it felt good to have the responsibility and challenge. They also got me to revamp the contents page and look of the farmer’s magazine.
What I got out of it
This was a better experience to give me an idea of what it is like working for a printers as I was actually given work. As it was a small country town the work reflected this and was a little mundane. I liked the fact they produced magazines. I love doing layouts and was excited to have to revamp the farmer’s magazine layouts. Once again it would be a great place to start and get some experience.
Gold Coast Bulletin
22nd-26th Sept 2008
The Company
The Gold Coast Bulletin has been in circulation for a long period, starting as far back as 1885, and is the 2nd largest newspaper in Australia. They produce the GC Bulletin and the Sun Bulletin. They have recently upgraded their printing press and employ about 500 people. The company is made up of the advertising, classifieds, editorial, photographic, promotions, marketing, and pre-press, print, accounts, circulation, education, IT and purchasing department. I worked with the pre-press department who take care of processing and producing the paper as well as enhancing images and preparing and checking final editorial and advertising pages before sent to print. They were mainly in charge of resizing, resetting, making changes or producing the press ads. Pre-press had about 15 graphic designers working 2 shifts (7am-3pm and 3pm to 11pm). They were using Photoshop 5 (I haven’t even seen before) and InDesign CS.
My Experience
I found it very difficult to get work experience on the Gold Coast. I am moving up to the Gold Coast next year and visited in all my holidays this year and every design place simply said no they don’t take work experience. The Bulletin was my last resort and the only place that would take me.
I really felt like I was part of the company. It didn’t take long to learn the way they did things, where they saved things and to understand the job number system. On the first day they gave me a large job of resetting a car ad. I had to find the cars, cut them out, enhance the images, change the prices and fit it into the set grid size. It wasn’t long before I was doing any job in the tray.
How I found it/Would I work there?
I found it a very easy job that didn’t have much creativity. It would definitely get you experience in the programs. A lot of what I did was simply resizing to fit into a new dimension. At first it was a challenge but forever would get very tedious. When I left they sounded promising that they would hire me. As I will be moving up to the Gold Coast next year they said to keep in touch as they employ casuals and it is busy up until school goes back early in the year. I will definitely contact them in regard to this as a temporary job while looking for something more permanent and fulfilling.
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