PPP3: Visit to Branding by Tonik

Following on from my email correspondence with Branding by Tonik in Sheffield, I had organised a studio visit day with them.

Correspondence with Branding by Tonik

The day before I went, I emailed them to confirm that I was still good to visit which I was. I felt that, by sending a quick message, this would be professional of me to double check and make sure that I was expected rather than forgotten about.

When I arrived, I was greeted by Phil and was made very welcome, invited to sit in the studio alongside all of the designers. I was able to talk through and show my portfolio to not only him but everyone in the studio who all came to introduce themselves and take an interest in what I had been doing. It was really nice to see everyone so engaged in, not just me, but in everything they did. Whilst I got to talk through my work, I was also talked through the work that they had produced and their experiences with clients and working in agencies. I was given the opportunity to see the sketchbooks that they had where they would start working on a project and was able to see the starting points of finished works which was really interesting to see how much a project had been developed.

All of the designers said how much they liked my work, in particular my thought process behind my work and approach to branding, but also Phil gave me some constructive feedback on my portfolio. He mentioned the lack of digital work in my portfolio so far and highlighted the importance of being able to show that I can understand how to design for web as this is an important attribute in the sector. He noticed how a lot of my work is college run or self initiated briefs and said it would be nice to include more client led briefs or quick turn around briefs to show that I can work to a strict deadline as this would be reflective of real life.

One piece of advice that really stuck out to me was a discussion we were having on time and how a studio is run like a business. Time means money so work has to be done as quickly as possible. I had never thought about my work in this sense before. Both Phil and Joe said that a really good exercise for me would be to produce some work in a given timeframe to myself like it would be in a studio and see how much I can get done for that brief. I felt that this would be a really interesting and worthwhile exercise to try for myself as I can see this benefitting me.

What the studio did say in regards to placements was that they would like to do them but they are too small and don't have enough resources for it. They said that they get a lot of people asking for placements but they liked the fact that I had took the initiative to just ask for a visit and to come and say hello. They liked that I was being pro-active in just visiting places and seeing what it was like in the real world.

Before I left, I exchanged business cards with them and they said that they would like me to keep in touch with them in the future which I would love to do.

Tonik Business Cards

I really enjoyed visiting Branding by Tonik as it was a relaxed studio in which everyone collaborates with each other and appreciates and respects each others abilities and skills. It comes across as a great environment to work in and I learnt a lot in the small time I was there- I found them a really inspiring bunch of people. It's a shame they don't do placements because I would love to work in a studio like that one day but I am determined to keep in touch with them in the future.