Although working for free is perhaps a little exploitative it can also be a very useful enterprise particularly when one is trying to get a foot in the door of the mysterious design industry. In January 2007 I was fortunate enough to secure a two week work placement at Red Design.
The first project we worked on was a logo and cover design for a band called 'Forever Like Red'. After 2 days work the pitch was organised and the designs sent off, sadly no one looked at my proposals. I went in early the next morning and luckily Ed noticed my work, he asked "Is this in the pitch" to which I replied "...er, no". To my surprise he wanted my proposal to be included and so we printed them out and off they went to London by courier.
A few months later I bumped into Steven, one of the designers at Red and he told me my logo design had been selected by the client and used on the album. As you can imagine I was shocked and amazed.
Images Copyright Red Design Ltd. Photography: Ladislav Kamarad