Aquent talk

Emma Barrett from Aquent came down from London to speak to us today. I was quite excited about this talk because I knew they were one of the largest creative recruitment agency. She said on average they are employing 3500 people per week, which I think is quite a few.

Emma explained that agency's have changed and it is rare to get an agency that does a bit of everything, so most agencies specialise in a certain area. She spoke highly of agencies such as Fitch and Landor who specialise in branding, which influenced me to find out a lot more about these people.

Through some research I found out they had worked for some of the biggest brands in industry and they were just a couple of the top agency's in design today.

She also spoke about Kino the people who designed one of the concepts for the London 2012 logo, they also have a contract to work with apple.

Here are a few points I learned from the talk:

• If I'm looking for magazine work, know my publishers and look for the art director so I can contact them.
• When showing my work to potential employers, have a good use of type, a strong layout and relevant work.
• Keep doing self initiated projects and enter competitions such as DNAD because it is essential for a good portfolio.
• Most importantly use your contacts, cause they can get you places.

I showed my portfolio to Emma after the talk, the feedback I got was helpful and she gave me some names of employers to send my portfolio to, which was promising. I said that I saw my future being somewhere in digital. She gave me the names of 'BskyB' and 'proximity' who were a digital agency. After today I left feeling inspired to go out and do something with the advice I had been given.