My interview at Bright Blue Day five years ago was my first one out of university. I arrived with my uni portfolio and a giant sized ball – the Twitter ball. A rubber-band ball made up entirely of printed Tweets, wrapped onto the ball, representing a fragment of someone’s digital life. I decided to bring the weird ball because I had been asked to come with something memorable. It must have worked because I landed the internship a week later, smashed out my first three months, then got offered a permanent role as a fully fledged member the BBD team. It was the very beginning of my career as a real-life “designer”.
I worked hard, made mistakes, learnt from them, and made more mistakes. I’d never heard of things like ‘non-destructive masking’ before. Or what a CTA was. And don’t even get me started on all the planning jargon. But it was all part of agency life. I soon became comfortable riding the waves of our creative processes and developed into, I like to think, a pretty good designer. Five years later and I feel like I’ve become a highly valued member of the team, and it feels great hearing it from my fellow peers.
My time at Bright Blue Day has been a fascinating one. On one level, it’s given me the most solid foundation to build my career, providing me the opportunity to work with some of the world’s biggest brands and develop my craft as a designer. I’ve had the chance to create campaigns, art direct photoshoots, design websites, doodle illustrations, compose storyboards… the list goes on. A personal highlight certainly includes completing the identity for RNLI Sandstorm, then actually competing in the event itself with my mates from work. Seeing something you’ve spent months working on come to life in the real world is something very special.
But apart from “work stuff”, there is something equally valuable to gain. I feel like my “career self” grew up here, and BBD became a place where I could personally develop and become part of a second family. People always say who you work with makes all the difference, and I can 100% vouch for that. I’ve met some of the most amazing people during my time at BBD. People who aren’t only nice human beings, but who are extremely bloody good at their jobs. I’ve experienced incredible parties, summer away days, festivals, Christmas knees ups, and I’ve made some incredible memories and friends for life along the way.
Fast forward five years from my first interview and I’m in the next stage in my life, where I’m moving to London with two suitcases and a whole heap of excitement. The Big Smoke was on my list of things to do from the beginning, whether for the culture, the gigs, or the endless opportunities. But most importantly, it’s the buzz from the creative industries within it that have sucked me in. New city, new home, new housemates, new agency, new people – it’s my next chapter and I can’t wait to learn, grow and become an even better designer than I am now.
A special thanks to all those friends who made my BBD experience an awesome one. And to all those BBDer’s who where here when I started, to when I finished, and everyone in between. I had an incredible journey, all thanks to you lot.