Group Hub

12 things you could/should learn in your first 12 months as a designer
Featuring: Craig Oldham

The Harrington Lecture Theatre,
The Harrington Building, UCLAN /
Adelphi Street, Preston, PR1 7BE /

Speakers From 6.30pm /
Networking from 8.30pm /

Directions here
Register by emailing here

Cliched, but true: the future of our industry will be built on the passion, skill and creativity of our graduates. As part of an ongoing commitment to ensuring this responsibility is passed into safe hands The Hub and GroupHub has put together an event dedicated to the creative and design students of our region.

This special gathering will centre around Craig Oldham’s infamous 12 IN 12 presentation—a fresh, frank and funny run through of things you should/could learn in your first year as a designer. This presentation comes with a beautifully crafted pamphlet (available on request here from Craig’s site) and has gained something of cult following since Craig first delivered it at Falmouth University last year. More on 12 IN 12 here.

Whilst this event is specifically for students, it’s not exclusively for students. Anyone in our industry could benefit from the down-to-earth intelligence that Craig brings to his understanding of the design game and the gathering will also provide creative businesses with an ideal opportunity to scout for new talent.

Read on for more information on this event in Craig’s own inimitable words:

When that dreaded time of year comes around where the Universities open their gates and out pour the thousands of Design graduates looking for that elusive first job, I get a little troubled. I feel that there’s a veil of mystery (sounds like a Harry Potter prop) between the act of leaving College (or University) and landing that all important first job: and this is something I tried to correct in the production of the 12 IN 12 booklet.

12 IN 12 is an accompaniment to a lecture I gave in April to the students of University College Falmouth. When I was invited to give a talkie I didn’t want to resort to the usual ‘show and tell’ approach that I had experienced so many times during my Design education (as I feel there are more suitable people to tell the story of The Chase—my place of work—other than myself). I decided that it would be more useful to the students to speak of the things that they would really like to hear about the industry they’re entering. Thus, I gave an account of 12 things that I had learned in my first 12 months as a designer. Things that I feel I could have only learned through an active participation in the industry, and not from the outside looking in.

Not only offering advice on placements and portfolios I also raised issues about the professional practice of Designers and the industry; I touched upon the different cultures of designers: those working more rationally and logically compared to those who strive for an emotional connection between their work and the audience; how Graphic Design can be just a job, where as being a designer can be different; and the realisation that Designing can be a reasonably small part of the job.

The twelve things are:

• Understand what Graphic Design means to you.
• Be honest with yourself about your strengths and weaknesses.
• A portfolio is for life, not just for an interview.
• Placements matter. Do them.
• The Design industry is small, everyone knows everybugger else.
• Participate with other people and share your ideas.
• Graphic Design is just a job, but being a designer is different.
• Fall off your bike. If you don’t fail then you are not trying.
• Life and work exist outside of London.
• Designing is only, about, 20% of your job.
• Have a life outside of Design.
• Work hard and be nice to people.

The 12 lessons were discussed in an open and honest, black-and-white manner to engage the students and to allow for accessibility between them and the subject. With this in mind I allowed a lot of mistakes to remain uncorrected; I wrote it in my personal, conversational tone (which, you’ll find, reads with a Yorkshire accent); and I handed them out for free.