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Hi Chris


First of all forgive me if some of this doesn't make sense or I rabbit on a bit, as I have just had a bottle of wine.



Thank you for your email, its nice hear from someone who likes your work.


I'm actually just about to finish my new site this week, I have made it live but it still needs tweaking - site address http://www.north45.co.uk/ - I have also attached a pdf of my new work, as I know it is good to see what other people are doing ( this is what I will send to companies).


Advice wise I can only tell you what I wished I had done and I'm still planning on doing, as I have only worked in design agencies for a few years, previously I worked for news media companies, which is a lot different.




1. The thing I wish I had done the most is study other creative media while I was studying at college. All i used to think about is going ooooowwwt on the toon in newcastle, but now 10 years down the line its a lot harder to teach yourself things or go to college at night after working all day . Plus with jobs so scarce these days its good to have other talents and you might get sick of graphic design after a few years, so I wished i had studied at night classes in 3d visualisation, web development or something.


2. Your work looks good to me, you can definitely design - I think you just need some more projects too get your teeth into, plus you need a bit more variety showing you can design for all media, print or web.


3. There are loads of good agencies in Leeds, I would just keep googling them and send your work off, see if you can get a placement.


4. Most of my freelance work is through word of mouth, actually most of them are mates. So maybe if you do some freebies word will get around and you will get some commercial work.


5. The big thing at the mo is social networking, so gets some blogs going and get your work on.


6. Keep looking at the companies in leeds and see what they are doing.


7. Look at inspirational sites like http://logopond.com/ - http://creattica.com/ - http://www.smashingmagazine.com/ this is good for everything to do with design. You can also post your work on these sites.


8. Get yourself a website - or get someone at college to build and seo one for you (maybe in exchange of designing something for them). I'm just about to make my site into a resource centre for designs, offering plugins, brushes etc.. which i will email to creative agencies around the country , which should get them revisiting my site - look at http://www.spoongraphics.co.uk/ . Send html emails out.


Hope this helps, keep sending me your work and if I here of anything which will suit you, I'll email ya. Also don't just look in this country, maybe do bit of travelling (before you settle down) and try and get in at some agencies in other countries ( another thing I wish I had done)




Nolan