MAD FERRET PRODUCTIONS: PLACEMENT

When one door closes, another one opens!

Today I received a phone call from Mad Ferret, detailing that my application for a summer placement has been accepted.

Initially I thought that I hadn't got the placement because I hadn't heard back from them in a few months, however the manager detailed there was a lot of applicants and this was the reason why!

The placement will be for one month minimum with a review at the end to see where I could go next, I have a Skype interview arranged for Wednesday the 27th which is convenient in me not having to travel to London and in preparation for the end of year show.

Overview

Although I didn't get the placement at MTV I am really excited to be working and designing this summer, in London for some of Europe's biggest festivals. To get a placement in a field of design that I am most passionate about is a great start to my career as a professional.

This placement will tie perfectly into my passions for art direction and graphic design with not only designing printed and digital material but also builds for stages and scenery within festivals. I am already attending two of the festivals that they design for so I am really excited to see how this all goes!

MTV: REVIEW AND FEEDBACK

Today I received an email detailing me on the success of my application, following my interview. Unfortunately I didn't get the placement at MTV and although this is disappointing, I am so proud of myself (not being big headed) for getting as far as I did and having such a big industry interested in my work!

(emails have not been posted for privacy reasons)

From the email I thought I would ask for feedback as it detailed that I could. For my professional and personal development I thought it would be essential to get some feedback from one of the biggest music and entertainment agencies to take forward for future opportunities and interviews.

Feedback

I received a phone call from Charlotte who gave me all the information about the interview from this phone call I wrote down some notes.

• Congratulations on coming as far as you did, just wanted to say a big thank you for coming down.
• This might upset you, but you was our second choice and it was between you and one other person from who we interviewed.
• Your portfolio was amazing and we loved your indent that you produced.
• You were really professional in your presence and your work.
• The only reason you didn't get the role over the other participant was because they showed more passion for the brand.

Overview

To find out I was the SECOND applicant for the position was amazing, I have used that word so many times, but it was, out of thousands of people I just missed the boat and I am not taking it negatively. I definitely have a lot of passion for the MTV brand but in my previous post I did mention I was nervous and this might have been a factor in me not really showing this side when I was asked certain questions, to know that this was the only factor made me feel disappointed in myself because I always try and show my personality! However now identifying this I will never make that mistake again and just learn to chill out in interviews and be more confident. But to know that my portfolio was 'amazing' and they're was not feedback on how I could improve it, was a great confidence boost and made me feel confidence in my design practice.

I told the MTV staff that I will see them in the future and I will keep applying because I see myself working there one day! So with the experience I have obtained from my first interview I can now take that onto future ones. With leaving a personalised portfolio and my contact details I am now in contact with the creative director and staff of MTV which is a great connection to have for the future and I am pleased that I did do this.

Overall it was an great opportunity and experience, and it has given me the drive and passion to continue to work hard and achieve my goals!

MTV: PERSONALISED PORTFOLIO

In preparation for my interview I spoke to John about some queries I had on what to expect at the interview, I expressed I wanted to create a series of things I could give to the MTV staff as a thank you and an insight about me as a designer.

From our talk John liked the idea of me leaving something behind so I aimed to create a mini portfolio / publication, personalised to MTV. In creating this I will included the development of my personal branding so far. From my printed portfolio I simply translated my presentation boards onto the publication and added some development stages to the briefs as an insight into how I work.

Mock Print

Before printing the final design I did a mock print to ensure the type was at the right size and spelling.

Final Print

A photographic documentation of the process of creating the publication.

Cover

I decided to print my CV on truegrain to go over a bold colourful stock to represent my fun personality and to test out branding colours because I haven't yet confirmed these.

Bind

I stab stitch bound the publication as it was too thick to staple which I didn't initially anticipate and was done at the last minuet which compromised the stock, unfortunately.

Final

Overview

The final production stages for my publication where really rushed unfortunately due to the print room not being open on the day I booked a slot and having to catch a coach to London. This was out of my control and although the publication and images of the final design where not to my desired outcome I am pleased that I have created at least something for the interview.

MTV: INTERVIEW

Today I had my interview with MTV in the Camden office in London. I travelled down the day before so I could get my bearings around London and travelled from Stratford to Camden with the help of a friend who lives there.

On visiting the MTV offices they were absolutely AMAZING! due to the main company being Viacom that own Comedy Central, Nickelodeon,  Channel 5 and so much more the studio had a range of different sections within that building that catered to these channels with life size models of Spongebob to Huge 3D MTV signage. The building was really colourful and bright and was definitely a place I could see myself working in.

Introduction

My interview was at 13:45 and there was about 7 candidates for the position, we were initially given a meeting about the company and their ethos and how they work, which was really insightful getting some further background knowledge on the company.

We then had to go to a board room where we went round the table and said our name, a bit about ourselves and a fun fact. We was also introduced to the MTV creator directors, managers and spoke to a previous intern about their experience at MTV and overall it was a positive and welcoming vibe.


Group Task

The first task of the day was a group task where we had to pitch and present our creative brief for 5 minuets in front of all the other candidates, the creative director of MTV, a resources manager and another employee. Although this seemed quite daunting at first, with all the presentations that I have done over the past three years has enabled me to have the confidence to speak to people of larger crowds and was definitely a valuable skill that I have obtained whilst studying at Leeds College of Art.

I really enjoyed the group task as it enabled us all to see how different people interpreted the brief. Everyones work was really different and of a high standard so I felt really privileged that MTV had seen the potential in me to invite me down for an interview based on the work i'd sent. 


Written Task

The second task was a written task asking us about what we love about MTV and what do we think could be improved in regards to their digital platforms. This task was quite hard because I think the brand is really innovative on channelling  all social media platforms that are current however I did consider ways that they could increase their target audience interaction and so on.


Interview

The interview was done individually with two interviews by two different managers, the first interview was general questions about MTV, what I like about the company and why I think I should work there.

The second interview was with the creative director where I showed them my portfolio and talked through the projects. 

Portfolio 

I selected projects that I felt best represented the companies style and the position I was applying for.

The overall interviews were really relaxed and laid back and I felt really comfortable after weeks of feeling anxious about it. The MTV staff definitely put me at ease and it was overall a really fun and enjoyable experience. 

At the end of my interview I gave the Creative Director a personalised portfolio book I created in preparation for the interview. Talking to my tutors they always state to leave something behind so that they can remember you, so I think this was a nice little feature for them to reflect on when choosing a final candidate and also for them to stay in contact with me. Networking is an essential part of my practice so I am really pleased that I did this.


Feedback

From my portfolio the creative director was really impressed by my body of work and highlighted that I have really good skills in photoshop, which was a good confidence boost.

They were also interested in how I am going to push my Orbit brief further with a digital aspect and they really enjoyed the 'X Festival' brief from the previous year and the colours that I had chosen.

They didn't give to much away at this stage but overall I think the interview went really well.


Overview

Today overall has been a new and amazing experience, having the opportunity to get an interview with MTV for an paid internship for a year was the ultimate opportunity for myself and something that I wanted to achieve at the begging of the year. Now getting to this stage has really made me feel confident in my practice and the stages I need to take after uni to achieve my goals!

I have never been in a group interview before where I have had to present my ideas and this is something that I have now experienced and will feel confident in doing in the future. What I have learnt from this experience is just to be myself and show personality because that was a really important factor for the presentation and I tried to make it light hearted and fun just the MTV company. I think if I was in a position to do something like this again, I could of potentially showed the development of my work instead of my final pieces or prepared some written background to my choices of work prior. However with only 5 minuets to present I think I justified the reasons for my creative brief and was clear on why I had interpreted the brief that way, and received positive comments and intrigue from the MTV staff and candidates.

Another thing I wanted to consider if I was in a position similar to this is to try and remain relaxed when answering questions in an interview, I think at some stages I felt that I was a little lost for words and a bit shaky. So learning just to take a few seconds to breathe and think about the question before answering it would have been more beneficial for myself. Also always research into the company so you can show them how knowledgeable you are about the brand is beneficial! I also think I could have spent more time going into depth about my briefs, at some stages I felt I was rushing through them because I was nervous so thats one thing I would take away when going to another interview.

On the other hand I do feel like I was good at hiding my nerves at some stages and really tried my best to be clear and approachable when talking to the MTV staff and being fun and bubbly.

Initially I thought that there would be a few applicants selected for the position but during the assessment day I found out there would only be 1 position. Although this is quite daunting with the amount of applicants and talent that was there on the day, I am still really positive and thankful for even being shortlisted and this was a big achievement for myself as a designer.

Lastly I have learnt so much from this one interview and I have now got the knowledge and skills to transfer for other job interviews / placements in individual and group situations. I will find out in the next few weeks on weather I have obtained the position but overall I am very happy with what I did and how it went.

MTV: CREATIVE BRIEF

In preparation for my MTV interview the email detailed information about a creative brief to be completed for a presentation. Below is the email and the outcomes I produced for the brief.

Hi

Please find below details of 3 tasks, all of which you will need to complete and present on the Assessment day. You will have 5 minutes to present your work followed by a few minutes for you to answer any questions, so please think about how you approached the brief, which choices you made and why.

CREATIVE BRIEF

This brief is split into 3 tasks. Please spend no longer than 40mins in total on tasks 2+3.

TASK ONE:

Create a 5-15 second MTV Ident for instagram.

You must include the MTV logo and a link back to our website.

You can do a generic ident OR base it around one of the following themes: Goth Day OR Sunglasses Day OR Burger Day ORSay Something Nice Day OR  World Turtle Day OR Geek Pride Day

Format: GIF, mp4 or mov

Dimensions:  1000x1000 pixels

Concept

I made between the brief was the theme of summer, this is a season that is personal to myself as it being my favourite season and the season I was born in! I decided to go ahead with the sunglasses day ident and create a fun stop motion video where the glasses would move and dance across the page.

Initial ideas

In search of some sunglasses I found some great pairs from primark, with ones that even said summer so I started to experiment with taking some images and comiling them together to make different gifs.

(thanks to my mum for helping me out on this one!)

from my initial developments in my room I then decided to push these ideas further at university and utilising the resources at hand.

Development

One

The first idea was to use people wearing the sunglasses evoking emotions of excitement and themes that the glasses represented to show a personalised tone of voice for 'sunglasses day'. 

(Cheers to the BAGD course for getting involved!)

Two

The second development I used some photography equipment and some coloured card to extend the idea of sunglasses popping up in the same position.

Three

For the third development I experimented further with moving the sunglasses around the page like they were dancing to create a more fun and engaging indent.

Final

For the final element I combined the stop motion images and some music to really add to the indent which is used in most of the one's on their Instagram.

Overview

I think the outcome i've produced is fun and engaging and reaches the MTV audience, I think I have taken a slight risk in doing something that is not something that isn't digital. However it reflects that I am versatile in my practice and was a new skill I have obtained in doing stop motion.

TASK TWO:

Choose one of the following themes. Source 10 images based on this theme. Each picture must be resized to 650 pixels wide. Please bring images saved on a laptop, tablet or memory stick, ready to present. 

‘Emma Watson – Best Looks’

’Hottest Celebrity Couples of All Time’

‘Justin Bieber – Through The Years’

‘Taylor Swift’s most awkward moments’

Justin Bieber – Through The Years

I collected a series of images of Justin Bieber as a child growing into a man for this brief to see how much he has changed.

TASK THREE

Please create vector illustrations of any two of the following:

a)      an ice lolly

b)      a turtle

c)      a pencil

d)      a burger

e)      a beach ball

f)       a cocktail

g)      watermelon

h)      parasol

i)       crab

Concept

This initial brief was the one that I was most worried about as I am not really confident in illustration of vector design. However with a few hours of practice and development I found that it was a lot easier than I initially anticipated!

In keeping with the summer theme, I chose to create an ice lolly and a watermelon for my vectors, as these are items generally eaten in this season.

Development

Final

From my developments I chose these designs as my finals as I thought these reflected the target audience perfectly and the bright bold colours were influenced by the MTV brand.

Overview

I have never had the task of creating something prior to an interview so this was a scary prospect in not only designing but the idea of having to potentially present it. Although I have done this throughout my practice, it is something I haven't experienced in a professional setting. With that said I think I really considered the target audience and MTV aesthetic in the production of this brief and I hope that they like it. This creative brief has challenged my comfort zone as a designer in creating vectors and indents which is something I also have never done before, however I now have the knowledge to do it in the future!