Peggasus988’s Weblog

In reflection of my time spent working between the 12th of May to the 30th of May at Parlour Creative and my time spent assisting Richard, it makes sense to comment on what I did in the duration of my stay there as well as to mention the good and bad points I found as they had appeared to me. Filing in a safety Risk assessment form from the start was very tedious as I wanted to get straight into the work ethic however this was an important document that had to be done, although contemplating what many dangers would await me in the office was a hilarious notion to me it was something that just had to be done. In terms of team and roles, the team was simple; Richard and me. And from that the roles were simple as well, Richard was the boss and I was the assistant. Within the time I was there Richard was working on several jobs, a couple of them consisted of advertisements for Dulux, the BAA and Debenams and a pitch for a airplane company I believe to be called Embria, I helped on a couple of these but mainly on Embria.

While I was there I basically worked on improving my skills and helping Richard were I could. I improved by focusing more on layer masks and brush tools which helped me to create shadows as well as general light tones which could then be manipulated within the layer masks to give greater realistic colour balances to the image. As well as that while I was there I spent a lot of time working on a program called Cinema 4D which is a 3D modelling software similar to Maya. Within the time I was there I spent a lot of time working on this program and as every session passed I grew more and more confidant within the program meaning towards the end of the placement I was using Cinema 4D very assertively, I am very glad of the knowledge I have gained in both Photoshop and Cinema 4D.

Although Parlour doesn’t work through an agency it grew to my understanding that the business did get most of its work through an agency a lot of the time, which meant for Richard that the client would most likely be the advertising agency and his level of involvement would simply be at least, them sending him a brief, him working on it (retouching), sending it back and hopefully not having too many problems with what they wanted to what he had done. In essence Richard doesn’t really get a choice to change what the concept is, he is told what to work on and what they what him to do, so you could say his involvement with the production and concept of the work is in a “finishing touch” stage. While working at Parlour my understanding of copyright and reproduction was greatly increased. Within what Richard does, because of the massive amount of work he is under, it would be easier to buy images of a photo library online however this is not cost effective so he usually re-enacts the scene that the client wants in his studio and then photographs and retouches it himself. This method although Time consuming does save money and keeps away from copyright infringement law. The Parlour does have a website but I don’t think it really brings Richard work, as I have said before he gets the majority of his work from an agency and I don’t think the website he possesses, really shows off his recent work, so I would say that perhaps he believes the website doesn’t get him much work either. In all honesty Richards website is fine, and does work as an effective interactive tool, the only thing I would and did suggest to Richard is that he should probably update it due to the lack of recent work, as well as this his flash based site doesn’t seem to be running either which does stop him from showing his animated work. I feel that the knowledge I have gained on my placement has strengthened my knowledge of Photoshop and I am sure my new knowledge gained and the whole experience with Richard will continue to help me with my own work in the future. One of the reasons I believe I have learnt so much from Richard in such a short period of time is because I truly found his work to be inspiring, this is also why I believe the whole experience will help in the future because I will take what I have seen at Richards and try to go on to do even better things. From this it would make sense to say that my placement at Richards met my prior expectations but in reality I would say it didn’t, this is mainly due to the fact that I didn’t have any expectations, I really didn’t know what to except however what did come to be was better than anything I could of expected. Overall the placement with Richard was a great experience for me and I would recommend it to anyone.

In terms of my strengths that I received from the placement and strengths that I already possessed, they are really one and the same. I went to Richards thinking I knew everything there was to know about Photoshop and ended up being humbled quite dramatically. Richards’s knowledge of Photoshop is very impressive, he truly knows the software very well and as much of an assistant I tried to be with the knowledge I had, it was very obvious he didn’t really need me there, however I would say that towards the end my knowledge within Photoshop improved vastly and I was able to help Richard from time to time making me an adequate assistant at best. If I had to do what Richard does for a living there would be no way in which I could succeed, I may have been able to do some of the lighter retouching he does but the speed at which he does it is truly amazing. Richard works very fast and although I picked up a few tips on how to work faster within Photoshop there is still no way I could work as fast as him. Simply put if I was doing the job Richard does there is no way in which I could succeed.

While working with Richard I identified a fundamental weakness I have as a designer, I find that I have a tendency to rush straight into my work not really planning out what needs to go where and furthermore not considering what would be the best course of action to take whilst making the design. If I am to improve upon this I need to research further and spend more time thinking about possible beginnings rather than just choosing one, and following on with that. I do believe I can change this; I just need to work on it. I would like to think that in the long run Richard may end up giving me a job after the course, however I doubt this due to the fact that there are people far better qualified than me. Richard did suggest however that at the end of the placement he might give me a call over the summer for some more experience. I doubt this will happen however as Richard is very busy and has a lot of other people pressuring him for his time. If I was to get a job with Richard I would not be sure if it would be right for me, at the time of me working there I was certain that it was what I wanted to do however upon reflection I am not sure, I guess I will have to keep my options open as well as my mind. Following on from what I have just stated I haven’t identified an area of work I would like to specialise in because currently I am very unsure of what I want to do. This also reflects where and with whom and within what market I would be interested in as well, I just don’t know. While working with Richard I kept a day-to-day diary of what I was doing and how I was progressing, these are just some of the journals I kept while I was there.

My first day at the placement was rather exciting as I had actually started on the second day due to Richard not being in the office, I say this was exciting due to the aspect that where I had been waiting a day to start I was now very keen to begin. Richards’s office was like no office I had ever seen before due to the simple fact it looked nothing like an office, it was actually a flat he had turned into a workspace. There were computers everywhere, printers, scanners all types of computer hardware; my immediate thought was very messy. Upon my fifth day there I was beginning to realize that I was quite a useless assistant, Richard pretty much knew all there was to know about Photoshop and spend time passing shortcuts onto me, I felt bad because of this, I wanted to help but with my current knowledge there was no way I could. Into the second week I began to notice a program on all of Richards’s computers, a program I was unfamiliar with, a program called Cinema 4D. I asked Richard about the program to which he replied “Its fun to play around with” I began thinking, if I could get to know this program quite well I may be able to show Richard something he didn’t know, I could repay his kindness by strengthening his knowledge just as how he had strengthened mine. The next week was spent practising the skills Richard had shown me on Photoshop, helping him on a project for an airplane company Embria, I also spend work time as well as my free time learning about Cinema 4D. While I was at Richards, from time to time I went to help a friend of Richards on photo shoots, although this was also a great learning experience I didn’t feel that it was a great use of my time, I would of much preferred to be helping Richard.
As the end of placement came, I told Richard how thankful I was for the opportunity to learn and work with him, sadly however I was unable to teach Richard anything about Cinema 4D, he didn’t seem to mind thought, he suggested that I keep practising with Cinema 4D as he was impressed with the progress I had made. The placement had seemed to have come and gone really quickly, I had learnt a great deal from Richard and was looking very forward to perhaps working with him again in the future. These were just some of the comments I had made in my day-to-day journal while at Richards, I didn’t include them all, I just included the most important ones.

In conclusion to my time spent at Parlour Creative I would say I have progressed not only as a designer but also as a design student in practice, one of the key principals I received from Richard is that we as designers and students never stop learning, because the market is always changing we too are forced to change as well and thus because of this, there is always more to learn. In the same way that I have grown as a designer with Richard I also feel that working alongside him has really opened my eyes as to what to expect when I leave university, I realise now that upon leaving university I will have to start from the bottom and work my way up as well as always being on the lookout for fresh and new inspiration, I have truly learnt a great deal from Richard and In response to indicating my next steps for the future, I would have to say I have none, as I have said already working with Richard has really opened my eyes and I am presently unsure of what I would want to do in the future after university. I now have to consider several opportunities as to what I would want to do, I do however have several ideas as to what I would want to do however at this stage these ideas are merely thoughts and I have nothing set I stone. As a final note I would like to mention that working with Richard was truly a privilege and I am very thankful for the time he spend with me, teaching me and generally helping me, I would recommend anyone to have a placement with Richard and believe him not only to be an amazing designer but a very kind person as well.