Ello again folks! Something I've been meaning to do for ageeeees. Like literally since I moved down to London 10months ago(!!!), was to start sharing monthly updates of things I got up to, places I ate at and just a general chit chat about things I did. 

I'll be perfectly honest, the photography in these posts will not be top notch, especially if it's a day I forget my camera, the battery dies or it's just a total random trip that came out of nowhere after work. But instead, hopefully they'll give you a bit more insight into what I get up to during the month and how much traditional tourism I actually do. But regardless of all that, what did July bring?

With June being Pride month, the celebrations of such were still rolling on into July with London pride being the 7th of July. I've never actually been to a pride parade before but it was definitely an expierence to get along to London's as my first. Ignoring the nastiness that this years London Pride started with, I seen so much beauty, love and excitement from it. Including one couple getting engaged before they left the parade line up.

The following week of July I had a pretty busy and sociable one. With a few works do's for people leaving and then catching up with a few mates that were down for D&AD's New Blood Festival and to do internships. Throughout this week I got to try a panzo vegan pizza, as well as pizza pilgrims vegan option too.

On the Friday evening, Darren and I decided to make a last minute trip to Westfield in Shepherd's Bush in order to play a bit of crazy golf. We had one round of crazy gold at the first ever Puttshack, a digitised version of the very much loved traditional game. I'll be honest, the game was very quick, about 20minutes. But it was definitely one of the funnest crazy golf experiences I've had with how they have integrated tech into this old game.


The next day I met up with Jamie, a friend I met at GDFS a few years back, along with a few folk from his uni friendship group. We met at The Design Museum in order to check out the 'Hope to Nope' exhibition. Unfortunately, it's already closed but it was definitely a great one to check out. They had a variety of memorabilia, design and so much more that were created for social, political or economical protest, with a large portion being for the Brexit referendum and Trump's presidency.


On the 21st of July, we took to the canals of Camden. With our first stop being the incredible Temple of Seitan. I had previously visited with Robyn (of RobynMakesThings) a few months back but wanted to take Darren so he could try some different (and wonderful) vegan food.

After finishing up at ToS, we headed back along the canals to Camden Market for the afternoon. Neither of us had been round this way so we just spent time walking through the shops, stalls and markets. But it was a super warm day so we headed off about 4ish with me starting to get a bit of heat stroke.


On the Sunday, I headed down to Hyde Park on, at the time, one of the hottest days of the heatwave so far in order to hang out at the picnic Lucy Jane Wood had organised. It ended up being such a lovely afternoon getting to know a mixture of other people that had similar interests and life experiences. Moving to London when you 'know' a lot of people but don't know them in person very much can result in a lonely affair. But it's days out like this one that really makes you feel part of something.

And the last kind of notable thing I got up to in July was heading to my first ever Nicer Tuesday's with my friend Aaron who was down for an internship. For the July night, they had Flat-e, Nadine Redlich, Vicki King and Sophie Koko Gate as the featured speaks for the event. My favourite out of the lot was definitely Nadine as I really connected with her illustrations and I think her way of working is super interesting.

But yeah I guess that's all the cool stuff that I got up to throughout July. I hope you like this little insight of what I'm getting up too and I'll hopefully keep up with it! It's a bit like keeping a visual and written diary but spouting it all out at the end, so I know I'll probably end up coming back and reading it in a few months to be like "omg this was such a good time". But in the meantime that's all! Although if you do want to check out something creative I've been up to this month, check out this IG post.

It's that time of year again, where students all across the country start freaking. 2 years ago I had my spell of freaking. You've graduated from university and now your thrust into the "real world". You see people all around you that have left from your class, or friends on social media starting jobs and internships while you are stuck back at home and your only main resource of your time is spent working in retail. 

It's heartbreaking. 

When I graduated 2 years ago I wasn't sure where to go from that. I didn't feel ready to apply for jobs or even internships. I felt absolutely stuck. I think what I felt was burn out. I had spent the last 7-8 years of my life going from secondary school, to college and finally university in order to become a graphic designer. And here I was at this point that I could be. I had spent all this time in education learn the skills, expanding as a designer and when I got to that last point, with my degree show finished, my energy and push to get there had fizzled out. You need a big dose of energy to keep you going when you graduate and you see everyone else doing incredibly. So today I wanted to give some advice that comes from what I realised and what I know now helped me keep going. 

Keep connected

When you leave university, your main support system kind of disappears. And I'm not talking about family or friends, I mean your tutors and lecturers. When you're at university they are essentially the ones that teach you what you need to know and give you an insight into the real world. But when you leave there's no one. So when you graduate, or try even set it in place before then, find people who are working in the industry that you can go to and ask questions about your next steps. It's so so so beneficial having that up-to-date and insightful knowledge to keep you floating. 

Sort your portfolio out
Yes this is a simple step. But make sure that before you leave university you have everything you need for a portfolio! You’ll need final deliverables & development stages from projects to show the progression. Also make sure that with indesign or after effects files that you have all the linked files in case you want to dip back in later on!

Make your own projects
Again, when you leave university, you have no one telling you what you need to be doing or creating. So the best way to do this without having freelance work, commissions or being in a job/internship is to create your own projects. There's so many ways to do this from a social feed to creating products or something else entirely. But it's mainly a to help keep your design skills fresh in your mind, it can also add something totally unique to put into your portfolio. There’s a magnitude of things you could create, but start with your interests & go from there.

Make some money
So as I've stated already not everyone gets into a job or internship right away. It happens but not to everyone. So if you’re struggling, get a part time job & make some cash for the time being. Or see how you can make money from your designs. Either way you need cash & get it sooner rather than later.

Don’t stop learning
When you leave uni you’re not done learning. The creative industry is constantly evolving with it being the digital age. Our outputs change all the time, technology & software is adapted to fit. So keep brushed up on your key skills but also make time to learn things that may set you apart.

Get out 

& lastly… 
Stay passionate!
Leaving the world of education can be overwhelming, scary & like being smacked in the face, especially if you have a slow start. Being turned down for jobs & internships can take their toll & deter you from continuing. But keep going! Stay driven to work as a designer, keep making things & be open to opportunities if it’ll push your forward.

I hope you enjoyed this post. It was built up from one of the posts I made for The Design Weans takeover I did last month. If you fancy seeing the entire collection of posts check out the instagram profile here: The Design Weans. And let me know what you thought of the illustrations I've created for this blog post via my iPad and procreate as well.

'Sup! So today I wanted to give a bit of a heads up to something I'm doing this week which is taking over The Design Weans instagram account for the week. TDW was set up by Jonny Mowat, a fellow Aberdeenshire bred designer! The account aims to showcase the work from Glasgow (or I guess Scottish) designers and give them a platform to connect with others. 

I've been taking over the account from yesterday until the 16th (this Saturday) with a mix of my life as a designer and also the story as to how I got there. I plan to be sharing everything from tips and tricks, things I did and a little bit of insight from David, the current Art Director at SevenC3. 

My basic plan is to start from the beginning of graduate life and discuss the shit you go through after graduating, to then kick starting your design career with internships and applications to then getting into applying for jobs and what to think about when you start your first full time job. Along with a few other tidbits that really helped me along in my process of getting a graduate job. 

I'm pretty excited to kick start this takeover as I have been wanting to do a blog series on this topic but have kept putting it off. But seeing as it's graduate season it seems to make sense plus I'd love to expand on the topics on the blog once the takeover is finished. I also think that because I didn't have a super smooth ride from design student to junior designer, it's good for others who are just getting into the 'real world' that it isn't always simple and easy. 

But yeah, make sure you keep an eye out on The Design Weans account this week as all the posts I make will be on there as original content for a little bit! And I'll catch y'all in the comments. 

Hello! So today I wanted to chat about an event I went to recently, Commercial Work VS Creative Passion set up and organised by SheSaysUK with partnership from Major Players. There was an all-female line up of speakers including Business Artist Lola Lansa who ran the discussion with  Illustrator Tegan Price, Photographer Catherine Losing and Designer Sadie Clayton sharing what it's like to be commissioned and working freelance, while Saatchis&Saatchi Creative Director Fabiana Xavier and Creative Consultant Sarah Williams gave insight from the side of helping and/or working with freelancers. 

The evening was largely about how freelancers can work in order to produce commercial work that helps them work on passion projects, while also making decent money. But the majority of the speakers also had either a part time or full time job on the side to support this so they spoke about the balance of that and how to make it work as well.

As someone who does work full time but also enjoys illustration and lettering on the side it was such a great talk to go through and I came away from it with lots of tips and advice about how to turn this interest into a way to make some money on the side through commissions. It also made me think about this years 100 day project and how I can look at what I'm creating and see if there's illustrations I'm interested in creating can be targeted to companies, brands or a specific social or environmental issue.

From the evening I wrote almost 3 and a half pages of notes which is mainly what I wanted to share in this blog post.  There was so many interesting questions asked and a lot of great points that the speakers came out with that I wanted to pass on some of that wisdom. A lot of it does direct mainly to people working as freelance or those who take on some sort of commissions but I think there's a lot of ways that you can alter them to work in an agency or in-house setting as well. 

Hopefully you've found these points as helpful as I have! There's so many events like this in London and I'm really keen to head to more of them when I can. So be sure this won't be the last post like this if my social calendar has anything to do with it! 

After a stressful week, TV reporter Cora Baxter is ready for a quiet weekend. But

what she hadn’t counted on was witnessing the shocking death of a young woman on her way

home. She discovers seventeen-year- old Leanne had been protesting against a new housing

development, angering the powerful establishment. Leanne’s death is ruled a suicide, but

when puzzling information comes to light, Cora decides to investigate further.

She doesn’t know what an unscrupulous businessman, a suspended police officer and hate-

mail sending neighbours have to do with the case – but she knows there is a news story there.

With her eccentric camera crew on hand to help, can Cora tie the strands of Leanne’s case

together – or will other forces interfere?

The Development is the third in the Cora Baxter Mysteries series.

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'Sup! It's been a while hasn't it? Nevermind... Since my last post, I've definitely had a hectic 2months with getting settled in our new flat, as well as family visits and events. But the one thing that's probably kept me most occupied for the last few weeks is this years edition of #the100dayproject. 

Now I've attempted the project in both 2016 and 2017 and I also tried a #Create365 in 2015. If you've been following me for a bit you know that each of these challenge I didn't finish so why try again? 

The one thing I enjoy the most about these projects and what I learn from them is what I enjoy creating and new ways to use that creative output. Like last year I've given myself quite a simple focus to work towards with the 'goal', essentially, just to think more about how to work or create things in an editorial way that is also humorous, depicts my actual life and shares some tidbits about being a creative/designer. 

This year I also decided to play with one thing I would often stay away from, something I never felt was my strong suit- illustrating people. Or to be more advantageous (I guess?), the person I've been illustrating is myself! *insert shock, horror, disbelief* But actually so far it's gone really well. Although I still have difficulty with drawing things like hands it's been fun to think up concepts to illustrate out. 

One thing that's also driven me to illustrating myself is that being surrounded by magazines and editorial pieces at work, seeing how an illustration takes an article to life has inspired me. It's made me want to work towards doing things like that more whether it's from a typographic or illustrative point of view. And although I do have one lettering piece published in a magazine, I definitely have a lot to learn and experiment with still so I look forward to exploring these more throughout the challenge. 

At this point I'm only about 1/4 of the way through my project, so I'm a few weeks behind but I'm not letting that bother me either. In past years I've gotten caught up in being behind everyone else and feeling like I need to *perfectly* upload once a day. But the reality is it isn't always possible especially when you're working full time and having to do household things like making tea and doing loads of washing when you get home. So the truth is, I'm going to take it at my own pace and if it means I finish a few weeks later then that's fine by me.



I've dropped a few of my favourites so far form the project in this post so hopefully you've enjoyed seeing them. But if you fancy seeing the entire set, you are definitely better checking my instagram @LaurenGemmaHay or my 100 days tag which is #OhHay100Days.

Another post coming from me today but tbh I've had a bit of a backlog of posts that have been needing to go out and I just haven't with the overwhelm, stress and organisation that moving into a new flat brings. Although one thing that certainly helps calm you down is a fantastic meal, right?

Back at the end of January I was invited along to the Dead Dolls House in Islington to check out their menu including a few new treats they have added lately. With it being the same week as Darren's birthday, amongst the excitement of seeing the Jan/Feb issue of IOD being printed, adding in a meal for 2 was definitely the way to top it off.

The Dead Dolls House menu comprises off a mix of cocktails (including some healthy ones!) as well as a mix of veggie and vegan options. There was so many incredible options to choose from but it's fair to say that I left absolutely stuffed and happy with a lil food baby.


So what did I end up ordering? Well, to start with I went for charcoal grilled bread with hummus which omg was soooo amazing! The bread was really thick lovely slices and the hummus topped them perfectly.


For the mains I went for the vegan hot dog and a side of chips. Don't get me wrong I loved the sound of the bowls or even the badboy sweet fried tofu but if I go somewhere and they have a vegan hot dog, ya sure as hell know I'm going for the hot dog. And trust me it didn't disappoint! It went down like a treat.


To finish off our meal I had the citrus tart. It was honestly the best option to finish my meal as it left me feeling refreshed and it tasted lavish!

And finally, last but not least was the cocktails! Throughout our meal we decided to have a couple different ones because well, when in Islington! No but seriously, I cannot resit a good cocktail and trust me these were fantastic.


For my first one of the night I tried one of the healthy cocktails called smoked on the water. Initially I couldn't really think of what the cocktail tasted like but later in the evening I realised it tasted like the fruit and barley diluted juice you get. (It was so good)


My second drink I decided to go for the adios motherf#%!er, which for me tasted like a more alcoholic induced twist on the classic blue lagoon. Even though it was a classic twist of flavours it definitely tasted great and went down well with my main and dessert.

Also since Darren was with me, I obviously tried some of his cocktails he ordered. For his first one he went for the deep blue, a fruity cocktail packed with pomegranate, lemon, strawberry, blackberry and blueberries. Although it was packed with sooo much fruitiness the rum, pinot noir and angostura set it off and gave it a good kick. And with his second drink he went for the singapore sling, another classic!


Overall we had a really lovely meal at Dead Dolls House and we were great with such wonderful service too. It's definitely a place I'd love to head back too with some plant foodie friends so that I could try some of the other options on the menu. The vibe is also really nice with the decor and extra elements the bring in, it feels special. And with a energising Friday and Saturday night scene, as well as brunch there's definitely so much to check out down at the restaurant!


*Disclaimer: I was invited by Jams PR on behalf of the restaurant to come and sample their menu. In doing so I was a complimentary meal for two including x1 cocktail each (so yep I couldn't help myself and bought the second one). This does not in any way affect my opinions. All views and thoughts are my own.

Goood evening and welcome back to my corner of the internet. The blog schedules been a bit scattered lately hasn't it? Apologise! I'm finishing up this blog post in the comfort of a new flat that we moved into this weekend. So it's fair to say things have been a bit hectic the last few weeks in order to get everything sorted. One thing that's kept me calm and collected has been escaping into a fab book, and for this post I want to speak about Malia Zaidi's book, The Study of Silence. 

Lady Evelyn Carlisle has returned home to England, where she is completing her degree at St.

Hugh's, a women's college in Oxford. Her days are spent poring over ancient texts and rushing to

tutorials. All is well until a fateful morning, when her peaceful student life is turned on its head.

Stumbling upon the gruesome killing of someone she thought she knew, Evelyn is plunged into a

murder investigation once more, much to the chagrin of her friends and family, as well as the

intriguing Detective Lucas Stanton. The dreaming spires of Oxford begin to appear decidedly

less romantic as she gathers clues, and learns far more than she ever wished to know about the

darkness lurking beyond the polished veneer. Can she solve the crime before the killer strikes

once more, this time to Evelyn's own detriment?

Jumping into Malia's books you definitely get some cosy vibes which for this time of year on a cold night has been the perfect pick me up.  With the book being a period crime novel, it definitely ticked all the boxes for me when I received the email about this tour and having read it, it's certainly not disappointed! 

As I mentioned above, The Study of Silence is a period novel set within 1920's Oxford. The novel follows Lady Evelyn Carlisle while she returns to Oxford in order to complete her studies. Along the way you get to meet a variety of characters which keeps you on your toes as to who the killer is. Compared to recent books I've read, the pacing did feel slower to them but with enough clues to sway you between who was the murderer it did leave for a satisfying ending with a character who ended up making a lot of sense. 

One aspect of this book that I very much respected, especially as it being the third in the series, was the character development. I've not read the first two instalments to this series but I was still given enough background and information that led to this being an enjoyable read. Throughout this chapter of the series, you get to meet a variety of new characters as well as some that I imagine you learn more about in the initial two books. Focusing on  Lady Evelyn Carlisle solely, I found it interesting the complexity her character has which is not unlike any women growing up in modern society. Constantly battling between her own ambitions and what she should "traditionally" be doing, it gives a lot of thinking points but also shows how much has changed between almost 100 years ago and now. 

Overall I really enjoyed this book. It was refreshing and gave me a break between some harder going crime and thrillers, it's definitely more a pick for cosying up in a blanket with a cuppa in hand. I would also state that even though it is the 3rd in a series, definitely check it out on it's own. As someone who's not heard of this series before the characters and story line made sense and I didn't feel like I was missing any major background to the characters or story. So definitely make sure to check it out if you want a lighter crime novel to read or you fancy jumping into a new series altogether. 

More information

Today I planned on sharing a blog post talking about the work I did on a magazine at work but I actually changed my mind this morning to something else, so that post will come over the weekend.

The 6th of February actually marks 1 year since my first day of officially working as a designer on an internship basis but it also marks the first day of my junior designer life at SevenC3 after passing my probation period. It feels ironic that the two have married up so precisely but it does feel like a nice 360°.

With this all in mind, I wanted to discuss in this post a brief outline of what the last 365 days have entailed, some things I've learned or realised and some stuff that I hope will help other people who are trying to get their start as a designer. 

So where was I 1 year ago? 

Last year, I was starting my first day interning at Glasgow based studio, Freytag Anderson. I was given the opportunity to intern at FA through the GDFS festival which I actually spoke about in this post. I spent the week learning how a studio works and even seeing that on the business side of things, with client and internal meetings, doing some concept research and putting together design packs for competitions. The most impactful part of this internship was actually on my last day when myself and Greig sat down to speak about my portfolio and ways to utilise it in order to enhance my chances with jobs. Leaving this internship made me more hungry for 'real world' expierence and cemented my thoughts on my next one. 

One of the projects I helped on while at Venn. Check out the full project here.

From leaving Glasgow, I then went home for a few weeks to then travel almost 700miles in order to intern for 4 weeks at Venn Creative in Penryn, Cornwall. With this internship I simply found/heard about it by tracking tweets on Twitter that included "graphic design intern" with a variety of variations on that phrase. I spoke a lot about this time on the blog already, so if you fancy reading that check those posts out the Venn Creative tag. I also shared this post on Medium detailing the vast majority of things I learned during my time there too. The main thing that boosted my expierence was the vast amount of projects I got to work on, from both beginning to completion. 

After the extremely eye opening 4 weeks in Cornwall I came back to life that was dreaded normality. I got back to working in retail and applications after application, interviews after interview I wasn't really getting anywhere. Apart from joining in 2017's 100 day project, I wasn't doing much design work. From the period of April to July I got more restless and deterred. I wanted a job or even an internship in the industry but didn't seem to be getting anywhere. I was losing faith in my skills and knowledge and each knock back pushed me further away.


In July however I did go into Aberdeen based design studio, Foyer Graphics for a few days after a family friend put in a word for me. With the few days I got to see, again, another side of the design world. With a lot of their clients being non-profit there's a different way that you need to approach the work. The team that worked there were knowledgeable and on top of it. And also working in an industry where women are considered minorities in top creative/design roles it was inspiring to be in a design studio that didn't just have a single female in the office but all 3 designers were female.

Between Foyer Graphics and the next company I was at, I had a major knock back. I had applied for a role at another local-ish design studio and thought I had pretty much landed it. But thus, it wasn't meant to be. And although it did upset me at the time it was just for the best.

Moving on from the knock down, I'd had seen a post from a creative I knew in the Aberdeen scene and had spoken to a few times. His work was looking for a marketing design intern to join the business group that was made up of restaurants, food delivery service and a gym, amongst other things. Seeing as I had no other work or interviews lined up I figured I'd messaged him about it and he pretty much invited me to come along straight away since we already knew each other.


After that first month of being at the ACC group, I was asked if I wanted to stay on and to actually get paid! It was only on a part time basis, usually 2 or 3 days a week but it meant I could cut back my hours at the Coop to do something I had actually studied. My role at the company varied massively, I would often be creating different types of assets to use on social media from Facebook posts to Instagram stories. I also designed posters, leaflets, newspaper ads, as well as more marketing work including contacting influencers and compiling lists of possible deals we could run in certain areas of the business. My time here obviously ended once I had been offered the position at SevenC3 but I'm thankful for the opportunity I had there. Being in a more 'in-house' role showed me how you can start to develop a style for a brand and constantly develop it further. 

Overall it feels like I didn't do much experience in hindsight but counting it out in total it does work out to be 3/4months of interning and part time work before getting into a full time design role (although this doesn't include the variety of the freelance and self-initiated projects I've done throughout the years). I'm not sure if this is on par with what most people experience or not but I know that I seen a lot of even junior roles looking for one years experience which is mad tbh.

I hope this helps give you some insight to what my journey was and feel free to ask below any questions about interning or building up experience. I do want to write a full blog post on some tips I realised through my time so let me know what you would like to see within that.

One thing I've been thinking about a lot lately is how to be a fulfilled creative person when the majority of your life is consumed by being interested in creative related outputs. From working full time as a designer to also developing this blog, social media content and my own lettering projects, it can feel exhausting to be creating content or designs all the time, so today I thought I would just have an open discussion about it. 

If you asked me what I enjoyed doing I would reply by saying by lettering, designing, animating, writing, taking photos, reading, mind puzzles, going round exhibitions/museums, hearing live musicians/comedians and visiting new places. The vast majority of that list includes creativity in some sort of way, and then a good 3/4's are directly produced by myself. When your life is like that it can be hard to always feel up to the mark. 

Since moving to London, I've had a feeling like I need to be doing all the things all the time. Then with the idea of being a "hustler" (although can we please leave this mentality for 2018 and onwards) it's very easy to feel like you are falling behind when you aren't actively doing something that directly impacts your creativity. 

But what I've been realising is that you need to make time for the things, hobbies and whatever else that gives you enjoyment from life that won't make you feel pressured, forced or stressed about the work. If you are interested in creating something it should be done at a moment you want to during a time that you can focus on it with the mental capacity to actually enjoy it. And it's actually good to switch things up a lot.

When I need a break from thinking up ideas, I'll usually sit and play a game or do some sort of puzzle. Once I got into a routine for commuting to/from work I realised I needed something that wasn't necessarily writing or sketching on the tube but still stretched my mind. So instead I looked to getting a soduko app as I've noted before I love completing these! They still make me think about patterns and layouts but in a totally different way. A refreshing way. 

The moral of this post though is that you don't have to be and honestly, you shouldn't be a 24/7 creative. It can put a lot of strain on your overall physical and mental health as well as your wellbeing to be continuously be creating, thinking up ideas, visiting creative events/shows/museums, etc and then be implementing everything somewhere. So make sure you take a break- it doesn't mean you fail as a creative, it'll give you the strength to grow as one.

[header photo by Ben Kolde from Unsplash]

How's 2018 been for you so far? I wish I could say it's been easy sailing but it hasn't, with family passings, looking for flats and needing to cancel your bank card it's been stressful to say the least. But on the flip side, there have been thins that have been going fine including making plans to see friends, feeling creatively inspired and well, my job. 

I'm nearing the end of my probation period there now and it's coming to the time where I'm starting to think about my ~almost~ 3 months in the role and what I want to continue, what I want to learn and if there's any changes I feel need to be made. As someone in their first full time design job at an agency I thought today I would kind of go through some of the things I've learned or realised so far from working. 

It's scary. But it gets easier.

Holy hell it's terrifying going into your first job with only (in total) 4 months expierence of working and even then that's split across 4 different companies all of whom do slightly different work for vastly different clients. Even more unnerving when you realise that you are most definitely the youngest person in the office.

But for me I jumped straight in, with notebook in hand to make all the notes and doing this definitely helped. Make sure you to ask for help or direction when you're stuck. The most difficult thing I felt when I started was that people may thought I was being annoying in asking about this thing or that but it is actually helpful. It means you know what you're doing and you can get through issues or hurdles a lot quicker than if you go into a project blind. So  just get stuck in, there's no point tip-toeing about.

Do actually get stuck in

For me this was my 'coping' mechanism, if that's the right way to phrase it. Basically with just getting on with my work, it has put me in a better place now. When I started I pretty much just took any work I could to learn about the different clients and get used to their branding/identity styles. Since a lot of the work done at my job varies across print, digital and motion it's been super important to learn this but because now I've helped on a lot of different client work I don't need to worry about spending time reading their branding guidelines doc.

Write everything down. Literally everything.

As I previously noted I had a notebook with me from day one. It's definitely been super helpful and I literally make all the notes. Writing down each of my 'tasks' for the day got me to remember all the clients and better helped when it came to doing my timesheet or having discussions with project managers about what work I was doing. From making the time to put pen to paper it definitely makes me more accountable and remember what I actually need to do day to day and it's a space I can use when I need to note things down in brainstorming sessions. 

But basically all I'm trying to say is to keep track of what you're doing and write that shit down.

You can learn from everyone. And everyone can learn from you. 

I feel this is one I always seemed in posts about starting out in the creative industries but it's so damn true. The main thing with this is being open with what your struggles are and not being protective about your ideas or your work. There's always something that can be expanded or learned from sharing. One day your coworker may tell you about a quick command to copy/paste styles in Keynote and then the next day you're explaining to them how you easily colour correct areas of a photo. Everyone's skills can vary and when you work in a team that are all there to do the work and progress together, you can learn a shit ton more than keeping to yourself. 

Overall these are definitely the most important things I've learnt in the past few months that isn't specifcally how to do something but more of a way of working. It'll be interesting if I have any more things like these within the following months! But either way I'll be sure to keep you updated with my progress of working, in the mean time feel free to ask any questions below or feel free to tweet me or send me a message on instagram! 

[header photo by Raw Pixel and midbreak photo by Georgie Cobbs, both from Unsplash]