Senior Lecturer Louise Weir runs the Professional Practice module in the third year. Designed to get students industry ready, the module prepares students for the rigours of the professional marketplace with a combination of skills workshops, lectures, and industry focused projects. Lectures are programmed to introduce students to a wide variety of practical and theoretical areas including pricing, copyright and building a brand as well as skills such as how to design and build a website, write an e-mail to clients and design a memorable mail out. Industry practitioners and experts, course staff and alumni are invited to share their first-hand experiences, industry knowledge and invaluable tips and tricks to put MDX Illustration students ahead of the competition. One of the Professional Practice projects requires students to design and make a piece of direct mail for self-promotion. The students also get feedback and insight from the other side of the commissioning table from Professor Phil Cleaver, an established and multi award-winning heavyweight in the graphic design world This is an exciting opportunity for each student to explore and expand interests, themes and ideas to promote their work to clients and industry in an original and memorable way. This year’s Illustration third year have produced some exceptional work for this direct mail project, which will no doubt promote interest and excitement when they arrive through each potential client’s post-box.
Here are a selection of this year’s self-promotion big hitters, with details and examples of their direct mail project:
