Laura becomes a fully fledged Graphic Designer

From an early age I have always been a very creative person and I knew that it was the only path I ever wanted to follow, so as soon as I left school I enrolled into Leeds College of Art where I studied Art and Design and majored in Fine Art.

LAURA COLLIER – UK

ADVANCED GRAPHIC DESIGN – LEVEL 3

“I am very much looking forward to what comes next with the course and becoming a fully-fledged Graphic Designer!”

From there I was accepted into the Norwich University of Art to study Illustration (a slight jump away from Fine Art!), where I discovered my love for printmaking and somehow (even with all the very necessary social obligations that come along with university) managed to gain myself a cushy Bachelors’ Degree and snagged myself an internship at a well-established Illustration agency, Lemonade Illustration.

There I learnt a lot about what it takes to be an illustrator as well as an illustration agent, I met some fantastic people and ate a lot of their biscuits!

But alas adulthood crept its way in and I had to find myself a full-time wage, I luckily snagged a job at my sister’s place of work and moved around different departments, being the general dog’s body and slowly lost my passion to being creative.

That was until I managed to worm my way into the Graphics department. I was happy to finally be getting my passion back and being back in a creative environment but because I had been out of it for so long and it was a field I hadn’t been trained in I lacked the skills, knowledge and self-confidence to really perform to the ability I wanted to be working at.

That’s when I discovered this course! It was perfect for me as it was flexible enough to fit around work and I could incorporate it in with my current training.

What I hope to achieve from this course is a new skill set and the knowledge that will set me on the path to becoming a great designer. I also would love to have the start of a good portfolio and the drive to continue with a few ideas I already have.

I eventually would like to set up shop as a freelance designer! As scary as it sounds right now to me, I would love to one day have the confidence, experience and skill set to become my own boss! (Partly because then I can have hundreds of dogs! – Priorities guys!).

I would also love to set up my own screen printing studio one day too!

So far, I am LOVING the course! The one makes it feel personal and tailored to my individual style, so much different to university where you would get 5 mins alone with a tutor if that and they often encouraged you to work in a certain way.

Once I have completed my current course, I plan to continue working in my current in-house Graphic Design position whilst aiming to gain more freelance clients and projects too. I’m only in the early modules still but I feel like I have come so far already and my confidence in myself is really starting to build up!

I really think that is all down to the amazing advice and guidance I get from my course tutor.

If I don’t fully understand something, if I don’t know how to do something or if I’m struggling with a design, he takes his time and works through any problems I may have and helps me look at it from a different perspective. Through his help, I’ve started letting go of my artistically wired brain and I’m starting to think more like a designer should (but it’s hard not to try and laps back!)