'How To Do Something With The Skills You Learn At Art School And Not Resort To Working In A Pizza Express Serving White Wine To D***s Because You Fell At The First Hurdle Or Listened To The People In Your Life Who Told You To 'Get A Proper Job.....''

At the end of January this year I went to a lecture taken by Project Manager and Director, Jonathan McGrath. This lecture was called 'How To Do Something With The Skills You Learn At Art School And Not Resort To Working In A Pizza Express Serving White Wine To D***s Because You Fell At The First Hurdle Or Listened To The People In Your Life Who Told You To 'Get A Proper Job.....''. In this lecture Jonathan spoke about his own personal experiences working in creative industries, as well as advice he would give to others starting out in them.

Having trained as an actor at drama, Jonathan began creating theatre productions in order to set up roles for himself that he felt would challenge him. In the lecture he spoke about how he found his experience working with a successful London agent as a commercial actor unfulfilling. By creating new opportunities with Plunge Boom (a street theatre company) and Ikebana Performance, he had the chances to find his own creative voice and perform all over the world.

Jonathan talked about the importance of not over thinking what art you make once you graduate, as long as

you make something. He said "for the first eight years of making work, I thought I had to create stuff that had my mark on it but this is really limiting. If you do this you get boxed in by your own brand and creative identity". As an interior design student I could relate to this, as often I find it difficult to start new projects as I constantly question my content and 'whether or not it represents me' and this can delay your progress. I think it's important to eventually develop a design language so that your work is recognisable and unique, however I realise that this will in most cases come with time.

The next thing discussed in the lecture was the design process, and how the creative process will vary with each discipline, but how important it is to 'change your design process to meet the project, not the other way around'. This flexible way of working is arguably crucial to any designer or artist, as over your career you could be working on lots of different types of jobs, with different types of people who may not work in the same way as you. Despite this, I feel it is necessary to have some sort of understanding as to the ways in which you as an individual work best.

Many other topics were covered in this lecture; all very relevant to myself and my own experiences so far as a design student based in Manchester. I found Jonathan's realistic yet free spirited approach to his own career very refreshing. It was a very thought provoking lecture that forced the audience to question who they are as creative individuals, as well as how they want to manage their own career paths in future within the creative industries.