Olly Allen and Jess Wojcicki Guest Lecture
Two ex-students of NTU came in to speak about their experience. Both took the course, but both came out of the course taking completely different career paths. Wojcicki decided to take a freelance position and many different contacts from different categories of work, mainly in film. Allen had decided to take a job from an in-house position.
Allen said that his experience of working in-house was the best option for himself and the most suitable career move he could do for his interests. He also was able to progress from junior to senior much faster than if he had done working in a studio. He went into an in-house position after taking a masters in identify and branding at NTU. Allen took on different projects that demonstrated a physical purpose behind his design work. He said how he always made sure to learn the production process side to physical designs rather then only keeping everything digital. Advising us that many people value the art of doing, not just saying.
He also mentioned how to respectably handle clients who may want any amendments made to any projects above a certain about of times, keeping a boundary in work-life situations. He suggested it was best to ask for 30% of the overall cost to be paid extra, This, in theory, could make the client put more thought into the amendments asked for. Its quite easy for someone to not understand the amount of time put into a project as well protect your time as well.
On the other hand, Jess Wojcicki had decided to take jobs working on sets in film and various different roles, including story boarding. Creating set and prop art through connections she had created herself. She had constructed her own portfolio and online presence to send out to potential clients, she also took the time to send emails to anyone and everyone as much as possible and soon enough employers and film set crew would reply and ask for her assistance in their projects.
Eventually, this all led her to take on the idea of illustrating her own children’s books, as she was able to publish her own books by using a kick starter to help fund the beginning of her project. As she was going through her career, she was reminded about how much she values and finds mental health an interesting topic and felt value in helping create around that sentiment. Her children’s book was connected to this, about a lost child not figuring their position out yet but always having a ‘line’ connected to ‘home’ (their mother in this case). She also expressed that despite the adventure of being freelance included freedom and variety in different fields you could work in, it may be tricky to at first pick up clients for a length of time. Also negotiating prices and such could be quite hard, although she did mention that there are unions that would help protect you and help with the legal contracts that clients must sign and abide by. Essentially the main concern seemed to me to be the fact that the income is not consistent, there may not be suitable projects circulating at that time.
Woicicki’s website
Both had also expressed their frustration with not knowing where to go ‘from here’. And both are still trying to figure it out despite being successful in their careers up until this point. The take home was all of this is that you are always learning even after leaving education, and you won’t quite know where you’ll find yourself, but it’s always best to keep on going.
