Nicola Rowlands

I really enjoyed Nicola’s talk as a recent graduate from D&AD, she’d made the effort to make it funny and engaging and I was amazed at how confident she is, I really admire that. She gained so much experience in her third year and gave us a rough guide to the way she succeeded and how we can do the same:

• Be nice to your teachers because they can give you contacts or recommend you for a job.
• Be genuine and yourself when contacting designers for work placements, show interest, specifically state work you like and why so it doesn’t seem like a default email you ‘sent to many’.
• You don’t have to be wacky to get noticed.
• Make it easy for people to view your work, create a blog and a website to display it and play to your strengths.
• Be open to everything, at this stage accept any work given to you, it’s all experience.
• Ask questions, showing an interest can get you further than being passive.
• Try to blend in when on a placement; acting like you belong there puts people at ease.
• Reading and being aware of the news and what is going on in the world can be great conversation starters to avoid awkward silences.
• Most importantly being yourself and keeping in contact with any creative you come into contact with for future opportunities. 

Obviously it's not a set of rules to follow, but being aware of these will definitely help me throughout my third year.