Dave Sedgwick - 999

On 29th October David Sedgwick a senior designer from 999 Design Manchester, came into college to give a lecture on his career and his experience in the design industry. I found the main point of his lecture was to show how he got to where he was and to give us advise, which is what he did.





Dave came to Manchester in the late 90s to study a D&AD course at Manchester Metropolitan University, he told us about his first two placements, one at Flix mag - a print based company before Internet was essential, and Splinter in Liverpool - a small design company. He really enjoyed the whole experience at Splinter but not so much at Flix mag, this sort of experience helps to make the decision on what sort of design agency you would prefer to work at. This was one of Dave's pieces of advise - research companies to help you make your own decision, as everyone is different.

Dave began to speak about how we should go about things like, portfolios, placements and even our end of year show. The end of year show last year being a red bus that was hired out to go around the town to different agencies, this was a great idea as it gave designers more of a reason to look at your work. Dave seemed to think it was a great idea but was maybe a little bit too cramped, this is something that us as a year can re think about when deciding on our end of year show. One thing Dave really believed in was getting a placement set up prior to graduation. This is a great bit of advise as it is something that could change everything. Experience is key.



Dave later went on to a placement at TCW - now Love Creative, after his placement there he was offered a job so this was a great achievement but was then later made redundant but as he had experience now as a paid designer he found it a lot easier to get interviews as contacts had been made and also other companies are always interested in what other agencies are doing. After being made redundant thought he decided to do some freelance work, before later getting a job at RACE, whilst working for these he continued to do own work as well which resulted in him gaining publicity and later in 2006 joined 999 where he is still working today. He has worked with a wide rang of clients including the BBC, Warburtons and Puma. Dave is still continuing to do his own work outside off 999 - Design by Dave.

Dave tried to give advise on how to get a job, I liked the attitude Dave gave to this as a lot of agencies that come in stress how difficult it is to be successful in the world of design where as Dave said the complete opposite which gave me personally a bit of confidence. He explained that it is not as hard as we might think, the time to be looking and planing is NOW!!! Finding agencies that we like is essential and to make sure that its not just big companies that are found. One piece of advise I have found great is to call the company you want to email just to find out a name as this is a lot more personal rather than just sending it to info@ and keep a diary of everything found.

This lecture was by far one of my favorite as I found it appealed to me a lot and the advise given helped me to think about things a lot more clearer.