In February I took part in Digital Shift, the UAL initiative to give back to the local community by funding students to work for local businesses for free. My placement was at the coffee shop ‘Black cowboy coffee’ where I helped mostly with their website and product photography. I had to apply to be a part of this opportunity and be chosen out of multiple applicants.I made sure to tailor my application towards the Black Cowboy Coffee placement as it was the opportunity I was most interested in, being a fan of the company’s branding and style. Black cowboy coffee was also the only placement which claimed to have potential illustrating or animating opportunities.
Having followed this company since frequenting elephant and castle because of how much I loved the style, I was very familiar with the aesthetic of the brand up front and knew that they often commissioned freelance artists for digital art pieces. One of my hopes for this project was that I’d stand out in the mind of the cafe owner and they would potentially commission me for more of my art in the suture independent of the university.
The first in person event for this placement was a breakfast meeting where we could meet the person we would be working with and learn what they wanted out of the digital shift program. The creator of black cowboy coffee, who I learnt was named Emeka, was very friendly and told me and the other person on this placement about the inspirations for his brand. What he wanted help with most was to start selling his Coffee Beans on Amazon Marketplace. The other person on placement with me was a digital marketing student so volunteered to focus on the marketplace front. During my first meeting with Emeka he said he would like an animated mascot for his website to present his products if we had time to create one. I didn’t have time to complete a fully animated mascot but I did create two still ones of his mascot with his mouth open and closed which could potentially used for that purpose at a later date. Emeka loved the mascot designs and plans on printing one out as a standee for the cafe. Emeka wanted to expand his social media presence past Instagram onto TikTok, the digital marketing student (Yanel) set an account up for him and asked me to create some graphics that could be used for the account. I decided to try and create a digital illustration for each type of coffee bean being sold in a style that matched the previous brand illlustrations Emeka had showed me. Once I learnt there was more than four types of beans though I decided to be more realistic with the amount I could get done, however I had to drop the illustrations altogether because we had to prioritise a different task. But before I moved on to product photography I read a couple of books from the university library entitled ‘Understanding comics’ and ‘Making comics’ both by Scott McCloud. I chose these books because the illustrative style of Black Cowboy Coffee was that of an American comic book and I wanted to know how to closely match that style and work in the sequential format. Emeka also mentioned that one day he would like to make a comic book featuring his black cowboy mascot and I hoped that by demonstrating my skills in the medium I could potentially be considered for that in the future.
Unlike what was specified on the handout we were given for the placement, Emeka wanted other things completing like further product photography(whilst the form said we’d be working with existing photography.) We worked out a system where Yanel was in charge of photography and I was in charge of photo and video editing. The only videos we took were of the Belgian waffles, when it came to the video editing stage I found it tricky to make the cuts feel natural. The syrup in the waffles would expand between takes and mess up the morph dissolves, I tried my best to rectify these issues but struggled to reach a result I was satisfied with. Because of this experience I want to expand upon my Premier Pro skills and take more lessons on the subject. Video editing is something I consider pretty integral to my animation skill set so whilst this information could help me with product editing once again, it can still be useful to my goal of being an animated filmmaker.
On the illustration side, I only managed to complete the cowboy mascot for the website and couldn’t finish the illustrations for the beans I had started at the beginning of the placement. When drawing the cowboy mascot I referred to the books I got from the library, ‘Making Comics’ includes a detailed guide to conveying depth in character expressions: ‘By mixing any two of our emotional primaries, we can create a third expression.’ I wanted the expression of the mascot to be kind and memorable so I used the advice in this book to create a layered appearance.I still did a lot of work on the photo editing side of things, I edited around 35 photos to be used for promotion material and delivery sites like uber eats. Through helping Yanel upload images to deliveroo and uber eats, I got a glimpse into using services I hadn’t before.
At the celebratory lunch for the end of the placement, I met some of the other Digital Shift participants. A stand out conversation I had was with a man who ran one of the companies taking part in the digital shift project. He informed me that he was currently working for East Street Market on a project to rebrand the place. I talked with him about my experience working on a market stall and how most of the markets in my hometown have been closed down. Emphasising how important I felt it was to keep these community gathering points flourishing. He seemed interested in my knowledge and we exchanged contact information in case he needed any animation work on the project in the future.
Overall this experience was extremely important to my DPS year. It was rewarding to finally land a placement outside of the DPS live briefs but also one where I could try out new skills relating specifically to the business side of design. I learnt that sometimes the job you undertake won’t be exactly as you expect but you can use the knowledge and skills you already have to adapt to the task. I know feel more prepared for potentially selling my own products one day. One thing I think I need to improve on from this experience was my communication and understanding of the client. When we were taking product photography we encountered a problem with how we understood the difference between each product. I thought that each type of bean came with two versions, 250g and 225g, with the weight being the only distinction between them. However, later on in the placement it dawned on me that the 250g bag contained full coffee beans and 225g bag contained ground coffee beans. This meant that instances where I sped up our process by just replacing the weight on photoshop to stop us having to take two photos, I had to go back and also edit in the state of the beans which should also be listed on the label of the bag. I thought I had understood this difference when we began editing the photos but evidently I didn’t, next time I need to be more observant and triple check important details like this with the client. I also learned not to get too attached to projects as I had to quit the large illustration side of the placement pretty quickly, I’m glad I still managed to fit in some illustration work but I had wished for it to be a larger aspect of my placement. I’m glad I’ve matured enough in this process to not be too deflated about that.
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