Work Experience - diary

6B2
6C2
6D2

I am undertaking 2 weeks (10 days) of work experience at w12 studios in Camden, London.

Day 1:
My first day at w12 studios was a relaxed day while I got acquainted with the team and familiar with the studio. Every Monday morning the team have a meeting where they review current projects that teams are working on, as well as important information and relevant social announcements. I was introduced in this meeting and given a welcome card signed by the team. After this I had a short tour of the studios, and an introductory presentation given to me and another designer who had just started too. In the presentation we learnt about the company, what they had produced in the past and current projects that were being worked on and that were coming up soon. We also were provided with some advice and tips on how to work at w12 and what they expected of us.
In the afternoon I was briefed to help out on a project that is going on currently, creating some designs for this to meet the client alterations. This was given to me as an introductory exercise, and I spent the afternoon doing this, with the expectation to catch up with other senior designers the next day on what I had created. This was the first time I had used sketch, which is the software used most at w12, and despite never having used it before besides some preparation tutorials, I didn't require any help with it due to its similarity to Adobe Illustrator. I enjoyed getting to grips with a new software as this expands my skills.

Day 2:
My second day I came in and continued working on the designs I had started the day before, creating some more designs in a different style so I could present as many as I could in the catch up. After doing this I was involved in the meeting about the project alongside the team that are working on it. In the meeting they went through the designs they had made for the project which is based on a TV platform. The meeting lasted 2 hours with the team going over all the notes they had back from people who had reviewed it, noting all they needed to adjust or fix. I knew that a lot of work and planning goes into UX and UI design but I was taken aback at how much detail and how many versions of each screen there were, and how detailed the notes were and the even more detailed alterations to be made. 
In the afternoon I was tasked with adding sound to a project. Finding relevant royalty free sounds to the project to suit the audience took me a while, and I mocked up a little walk through of the platform in Premiere Pro where I added relevant sound. Once again this was a new software that I hadn't used before and I enjoyed playing around with it, creating the video in less than 10 minutes.
I also received a task from Porsche, head of HR that on Friday myself and a few other new starters would be presenting a short presentation about ourselves to the studio.

Day 3:
When I got to the studio I remade the Premiere Pro video with the adjustments asked for in the second meeting yesterday. Then I began to create the presentation for Friday in Keynote. I made most of this before sitting in on another meeting for the project I am working on, where I was given another task to complete. After some software issues, I got to create some adjustments for the project as per client specifications, and then I recreated the Premiere Pro video with multiple sound effects so that it could be used as a reference for the sound engineer we will send it to.
At 5pm I sat in on a call to the client which discussed the adjustments made to the project, this was done over an app where we could talk and listen to each other as well as view the adjustments that had been made on one of our designers screens, which was talked through and shown to the client.

Day 4 and 5:
In the last 2 days of the first week, I was responsible for making the final adjustments to the Premiere video to send to the sound engineer, as well as recording the rest of the sound effects for reference. As well as this, I was tasked with making some explorations for the part of the project that had not yet been developed yet. On Friday we also had a team quiz at the end of the day.

Day 6:
On Monday, 2 of the more senior people in my team were in Dallas running through the project with the build team, so I carried on with the explorations I made the previous week. It was a slower day than the previous week had been, but I developed some of the explorations on using feedback from another person on my team. 

Day 7: 
On Tuesday morning, I had some tasks to do from the team's call the previous day with the build team. These were only minor adjustments and recreating some elements for the team but this allowed me to improve my skills further within sketch, the software I have been using throughout the experience.

Day 8:
sick :(

Day 9:
On the last day I was tasked with making further adjustments to elements of the project. On the last few days I have actually contributed a lot more to the project as the team have began to trust me more. 

On the last day I also had a feedback session with one of the people on my team and my point of contact, Cam. In it I had the chance to give my feedback about my experience, which was good overall - I didn't have many problems throughout the 2 weeks and really enjoyed myself. I said that I had gotten to learn how a proper studio works and contribute to some important projects, as well as learn some new software and work well within a team setting. The feedback I received about my performance was also good, with Sean stating that I picked up on tasks very quickly and didn't require much explaining. He also said I managed to create some ideas that they could develop onwards to contribute to the project. He thought I fit in well with the team, which I agreed with. I was encouraged to apply once I graduated, I also emailed Callan to see if I could land an actual job after I graduate and he said 'I will definitely catch up with the team next week and discuss the possibility of you joining us again after you graduate and if there's an option to put something more permanent in front of you.' Which seemed positive! Overall I have really enjoyed placement, more than I thought I would, and I would love to return!