Shaping the Future – Josh’s reflections on his 3 day work placement

Hi, my name is Josh and I have recently completed a 3-day work experience with TPSquared. I was entered into a competition to win this work placement through a design brief set by my college for a logo/hoarding for a redevelopment of a historic building in Walsall. Although my placement wasn’t for very long, I think it has given me an insight on what to expect if I choose to carry on in this field.

The project set was a continuation of my logo design for the Guildhall redevelopment in Walsall, to further improve it and get some experience in a real graphic design workplace. I have really enjoyed making my logo better suit what the brief set by UrbanHax wanted. I think that my logo has really improved from what I had created at college, and I think that this is because of the help I received here at TPSquared, with the team teaching me how to use new tools on the software that I use at college, and I think that I will be using it to improve my work in the future. It was also helpful to have the opinion of graphic designers about my logo and how they thought I could improve it and what changes I needed to make to make it more likely for UrbanHax to choose my design for the building. It has also been good to see how a business like TPSquared makes the decisions on what they think to include on their projects such as what colours are accessible for everyone, thinking about the different ways my logo might be used such as making it simpler for print or embroidery and making the sharper sides rounder to make the design look better and how to fully check a document for easily made mistakes before sending it to a client.

I had to try and overcome a few difficulties with my logo that I wanted to improve. The first problem is that I thought it was a bit too simple and I could’ve incorporated more of the brief and history of the building. The first thing the team did was sit down with me and talk about what I can improve, I think their ideas have really helped me to create a stronger logo that fit better with what I originally designed. I also learnt about how to organise my files and work properly and why this can be useful to do later as well as incorporating their checklist in my work to fully check that it is appropriate for what has been set.

The team at TPSquared have been very welcoming and willing to offer their opinions and help with my work. It has been very useful having the opinion of two graphic designers and incorporating their thoughts on my logo which has really improved it. It has also been interesting to complete my work in an actual design studio as I have been able to gather a lot of inspiration for my project, and I have been shown skills that I can incorporate into later projects at college.

I have enjoyed working in graphic design through secondary school and my first year of college and wish to carry this on through my second year of college and maybe university afterwards. I think that my time at TPSquared has given me an insight into what to expect in this field of work and has made me want to carry on in graphic design and try and pursue a career later on.

Thank you TPSquared!