It all started on YouTube
It all started with me sat in my bedroom, 11 years old, making logos in Photoshop for Xbox Call of Duty clans. Fast forward a decade and I’ve got a real-life grown-up job. Who woulda thought?
Yep, you read that right!
My journey started 12 years ago as a GFX artist on YouTube. I created everything from logos, motion graphic intros and account backgrounds using Photoshop and Cinema 4D. I did pretty well in all honesty, people were paying me in Xbox gamer points, so as you can imagine, my avatar was dripped head-to-toe in the best clothes and I was changing my gamertag more times than you can imagine, including one stage where I was ‘DrifterMad 123.’
Now this was all well and good until I turned 14 and my mum told me that I needed to focus on my GCSE’s; they were kicking off in the next academic year. So, I did what any smart-arse 14-year-old does, I took Graphic Design as a GCSE. I was lucky to have an amazing teacher, Mrs. Walkley, who opened my eyes and I began to see how incredible design really was and how there was so much more to it than just YouTube.
Nearing the end of my GCSE’s I was told by Mr. Cotterill, a true legend in the careers department, about a college course. It introduced me to topics I had never thought about before; print-processes, art history, life drawing, coding, typesetting and so much more. I shot over to Leicester College to enrol – but there were no spaces left!
But fear not!
After an interview with Kate Drew, the course lead, she made me student number 21 in a class of 20. Although at first this meant there was no proper space in the studio for me, it turned out to be a true blessing – it’s here that everything took off. I was surrounded by so much amazing information and knowledgeable tutors, I learnt so much in such a short space of time. One day I was screen printing wallpaper inspired by the Memphis Art Movement, the next day being introduced to life drawing. And I discovered a passion for type and communication which has stuck with me ever since; I was beyond happy. I was taught all of the traditional methods as well as the full Adobe Creative Suite, but I won’t pretend I remember much from the coding lessons!
Following college, I had a great Sunday job at Specsavers, they offered a fully funded university degree to become a Dispensing Optician. I loved working with people so it seemed like a great offer. However, what really caught my eye was the graphic design course at the University of Lincoln. I went to lots of open days at different universities, but the tutors at Lincoln were something else. Not only did we have the legendary Barrie Tullett as our course lead amongst other incredible tutors, but we also had access to amazing facilities and workshops throughout our 3 years (and there were great societies to join too). It was the best decision and I would recommend it to anybody who was considering a degree in graphic design.
So now you’ve got a somewhat short snippet of my history. You’re probably thinking, nice one Kav but what were the steps you took to go from being a student to landing your first real-life grown-up job?
Four words. Bobby Break, Design Challenge.
Bobby Break: There are many twists and turns in the road to finding your true vocation and I’ve had my fair share. The biggest being what I like to call my ‘Bobby Break.’ Halfway through my third year of University I had an epiphany, ‘I am meant to be a Policeman just like my dad.’ It came upon me almost overnight and the next day I gave the recruitment office a call, I attended some lectures soon after to get a better insight into the role and it sounded great. It took until stage 4 of the 6 interview stages until I thought, what am I doing here? I’ve wanted to be a designer most of my life. So that was it, I did a full 360 and spent the next few months back at it, hammering out my design work, trying new approaches, creating new designs – I was back in my happy place.
Design Challenge: In my final year at Lincoln, I entered a design challenge set by BrandOpus and the Chrysalis Award (Not Just), I was shortlisted to the top 10 of 120 entrants. Like many other designers, artists and creators in 2020, you had to put yourself out there and connect. Buzzing with enthusiasm and confidence in my work, I took to LinkedIn with my Not Just project and made my first post, telling people about the design challenge, the project itself and asking people for feedback. And guess what? For a week it sat there with 5 likes, 1 of them being my Mum and the other 4 being a mix of my college tutors and my mates.
And then it happened.
I went to sleep one night, and I woke up to a comment from Chyaz Buffett who at the time was Head of Design at BBC Creative. He gave me a full 200-word critique with the sign off “any brand or packaging studio would be happy to see concept work of this calibre.” And that was it, next thing you know; 5,000 views. 12,000 views. 18,000 views. And finally, 21,000 views.
This gave me the opportunity to put my work in front of the people that I really wanted to see it. From this came multiple freelance gig offers. The one that I took was from Andy Lester, Creative Director of Childish Design. Jobs were hard to get, we were mid-pandemic and this was just an incredible opportunity. Andy gave me so much of his time over the next 3 months. Starting from the ground up, he aimed to teach me everything I needed to know before I went into my first full-time role. We covered everything from the basic principles of design, how a design agency functions, how to create invoices, how Pantone colours work – it was endless.
The knowledge that I have accumulated over the last 12 years be it from YouTube tutorials, tutors, creative workshops, books, museum visits and friends, combined with the mentoring throughout my studies, enabled me to enter my first full-time role in January 2021 at ACNE London. Here I have had the chance to work with brands such as The International Olympic Committee, Spotify, National Geographic and Netflix.
If you’ve made it this far, firstly I’d like to apologise as there is no free prize at the end, although if you’re down for a zoom chat or a pint, please feel free to get in touch.
So, what do I think you can take away from this. Ultimately, do what makes you truly happy and it will all work out, even if that means you have to take a few detours to work out what that is. If you’re a designer, creative or art director who is just starting out and you have any questions or want to have a chat, feel free to get in touch by email, LinkedIn or over on Instagram. Through my own experience I know how important mentoring and support can be and I aim to give as much of that back as possible throughout my career.