Silver Smart Start

November 2011

This month, we had Grace Galer, a GCSE student with a love for graphic design, photography and fashion. Grace was enthusiastic and full of ideas and it was great to have her on board for a lot of our work with EcoCreeper, our sister company.
Grace was given a brief to design a range for EcoCreeper with products that the eco clothing company currently do not make. From the sourcing to the designing to the making, it was useful for Grace to experience it all! That's one of the best things about being a designer, to be able to research from the beginning right through to seeing the finished product.
As well as the design part of the week, Grace also had the opportunity to head out and do actual market research, asking potential consumers what they look for and what they want in a clothing brand. Photography was also a key part that we wanted to elaborate on, as this is one of Grace's hobbies out of school and so we headed to the parks and got some great shots for our emails etc, taking advantage of the sunshine and the BMX and freerunning talent.

Grace was a pleasure for the week and she kindly sent us a card,

'Dear everyone at Silver
Thank you so much for having me on work experience this week.
I believe I have learnt a lot and it's been great being part of EcoCreeper.
Thank you for all your help and support.
If you ever need an extra pair of hands, I would be more than happy to help out…even if it's just wrapping and packing!
Thanks again
Grace Galer'

It is lovely to see a young, talented and very keen designer in the making, it would be great to have Grace back again in the future!

October 2011

This month we've been to visit the students at Cleeve School to give them 'mock interviews'. We asked students from a range of years (Year 10, 11 and sixth form) questions about their career choices, GCSEs, application forms amongst other things! The incentive was to give them a taster of the outside world, especially as some of them may be looking to apply for jobs, or have university interviews in the near future. Being back at school made both of us (Matt & Katie) reminisce about our school days, which really didn't seem that long ago...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 2011

Silver Smart Start has been in full swing this week with another temporary member of the Silver team, Jackson Black (trust us, his name is as cool as he is).

We first met Jackson at Gloucester College when we were interviewing students doing a HND in Graphic Design for an 'imaginary job' as part of their course. Jackson stood out by far for his creativity and enthusiasm and whilst we hadn't planned on giving one of the students work experience we felt he would be a great asset to the Silver team.

This week we've been putting his creative mind to the test with EcoCreeper's 'Urban Hype' magazine. Jackson has definitely risen to the challenge, getting his mind into the EcoCreeper way, and making it look great and this will be available online and in print soon. Jackson loved EcoCreeper so much he took a hoody and t-shirt home with him. After he left we got the following email,

 

'Hey guys,

Just wanted to say a massive thank you for giving me this amazing opportunity to come and work with you for a week. I mean it when I say I have had the best experience working at Silver this week. You have all been so supportive and accommodating, it has been a pleasure to meet such a friendly team!

I hope to work with you all in the future!

All the best!

Jackson'

 

 

 

 

 

July 2011

We had the pleasure of having Helena and Sophie in the studio this week, two students on a work placement as part of our Smart Start programme. Helena has just finished her first year of sixth form, with a passion for design and painting. Helena is looking into doing afoundation course at the end of her next year at school whilst Sophie is still in her third year at school. She has a love for textiles and is still deciding on what she wants to do in the future. It’s been great to see their ideas and skills develop, even over a week.  

They were both given a summer themed brief, creating their own festival and designing the logo and overall branding. It was great to demonstrate the importance of typography and composition within design, as well as the process of research and development.

After leaving and purchasing one of Graham's books Helena sent us the following letter,

'Dear everyone at Silver,

Thank you all so much for making my work experience week so enjoyable and interesting. The week helped me learn new skills in Photoshop and Illustrator that will be really helpful next year.

I enjoyed creating my bikini on the computers as it was pleasing to see my design looking so professional.

I had not expected that an office environment would be so interesting and creative. Everyone was very kind and helpful – and thank you for the discount on your book!

Kind regards,

Helena Bullock'

We look forward to hearing about their progress in the future and welcoming the next students into Silver Smart Start!

 

Working together with students to help prepare them for industry.

Silver is proud to work with organisations such as; Gloucestershire College, to help prepare students for life in the work place. Our Silver Smart Start initiative involves a variety of activities from interview training technique to brand and marketing talks and involves all of the staff at Silver.

 

We began Silver Smart Start in 2006, working with Jess Davis and Andy Ginn at Gloucestershire College. Silver Chief Executive; Graham Dodridge found himself right back where he started – mentoring in the very same studio in the old Brunswick Road Campus, where twenty five years earlier he had learned life changing skills, as a graphic designer, from Dave Keskies and Mike Kerridge – to name but two of the very great tutors who taught him.

Silver is pleased to conduct interview training, provide C.V. advice and 'live project talks' and, of course, we're always on the look out for the next great creative to join our ranks.

Most recently Silver creatives; Matt and Katie spent a couple of days conducting mock interviews with HND students at The Llanthony Priory Campus of GC and, as a result of the very high standards, they have decided to offer a work placement to one of the many outstanding students.