The first piece of advice was rather than display my work in a standard portfolio the layout of my portfolio would perhaps suit a box which is available at silver print:
I quite like this idea however I'm unsure how well it would travel and it might be better to spend a bit more money and get one of the more professional looking portfolios that last years third years had.
He wanted me to push the scuba diving brief a lot more, and take it through to digital. Something that has been pointed out before and something that I need to do.
There were also a few tweaks to do with my butterfly effect brief which I may or may not go ahead and do, depending on time etc and whether it would be worth it.
The main thing that stuck with me from this talk was that James thought that I would do better freelance rather than going to work in a studio. He seemed to think that with the work I have I would perhaps get bored in a studio because he couldn't think of any that do everything I want to do. This has sort of strengthened my feelings that I'd had previously but at the same time I don't believe I'm ready to make the jump from college to being freelance. I don't feel like I comfortably know the industry well enough and there is so much I still need to learn, that will come from working with other designers.
I spoke to Fred regarding all of this and we had a discussion and it seems that it might be a good idea to have a sort of goal for in 5 years time and the time leading up to that can be spent working in different studios and perhaps doing some freelance on the side so that when I feel more comfortable and know more about the industry I'll be ready to think about having my own studio. Obviously the financial implications of this would be difficult and so as well as learning the skills I need for this, the next 5 years are also a time for me to be saving so I can afford to support myself while the business is setting up.
