Laura Hamlet Case Study – Red Ladder
I was really excited when CIDA informed me they had organised a six month placement with Leeds
based Red Ladder Theatre Company. Nationally renowned, they have been touring the UK for forty
years making theatre to celebrate and inspire young people. My role is officially Assistant
Administrator although I’ve been involved in marketing their latest play performing tasks such as
sending out press releases. I’ve even worked on project management; organising the release of their
latest play as a script; spending much of my time chasing the artists for biographies! Every day is
different and it’s very exciting to work with a constant mix of new people. CIDA’s Creative Futures
programme has been a fantastic practical experience to improve my skills and my confidence, helping
me move on in the creative sector.
Mark Barrett – Music Room
I’ve always aspired to work in Graphic Design but was working as a garage attendant when work as
a freelance illustrator dried up. After finding out about The Creative Futures programme, I took
part in an eight week skills development course before CIDA offered me a six-month work placement
at the Music Room in Huddersfield.
From the start I was given a great deal of responsibility, expanding to provide their
complete creative department. Tasks are as diverse as creating adverts for press, filming videos,
making catalogues and web design. My favourite days are spent photographing stock, filming and
video editing. Through my placement I’ve received on-the-job technical training and learnt a lot
about managing myself, my time and meeting targets.
As my confidence has grown, I’ve been approached for freelance work by clients I’ve met
whilst on placement. The Creative Future’s programme has given me the confidence and self belief to
follow my dreams as well as the essential skills and practical experience to succeed.
Rachel Edge has a paid position as a Graphic Designer after her placement at Transmit
Creative
I’ve learnt a lot through the placement, from training in industry standard software such as
Photoshop, Indesign and Illustrator to improving communication skills and understanding how the
design industry works.
It's been fascinating to get to know what goes on in business, meeting with clients and how a
project develops from brief to completion. At first, meeting with clients was challenging as
although I’d studied Graphic Design at university it’s not the same as being in the real world.
In an average week I'd be working 9am until 6pm, getting a daily brief in the morning and
building on it throughout the day. A design project usually starts with researching online or in
the local library, I then draw ideas out freehand onto paper before finally designing on the Mac.
I've worked on logos, newsletters, car wraps, business cards and signs and often the same company
will want a few products designing so there’s always been variety in the work day to day.
Throughout the placement I’ve really improved how I communicate with people and have been given
a lot of trust to deal with clients personally. It’s been amazing to be an insider gaining industry
knowledge and improving my Mac skills.
I've developed massively over the six months. I am now thinking in new ways and have ideas and
approaches that wouldn’t have entered my head before working at Transmit Creative. I've also
improved on technical skills such as gaining an understanding of typography.
My placement hosts have been great and helped me wherever they could, if anything it has helped
me to define my own strengths and weaknesses so I have the confidence to know what I am capable of
and be excited about what areas I need to develop such as web design.
I’ve had a great and totally beneficial time and now I have a full-time position as a graphic
designer, it's a dream come true.
Placement Host Balbir Singh at Diversity Dance has agreed to offer both trainees freelance work
as a result of their placements
As a company, having the two work placements helped us to understand what skills Diversity Dance
brings to the sector. We realised that there is not much training in our field especially
approaches that combine holistic, storytelling and oral traditions. We realised just how unique we
were in bringing a whole different way of learning and it was useful in terms of self-evaluation.
The internship helped brought us new skills in mentoring, how to structure solid training and
assist others with personal development. It was a good lesson in how to demonstrate and delegate
responsibility and rewarding for both parties.
We took on the challenge to keep pushing the placements out of their comfort zone whilst
being supportive, patient and using the right language to provide constructive criticism; being
able to assess strengths and weaknesses whilst keeping them motivated and confident.
It was good to see how the placements have grown, how their confidence has to risen and with
them to celebrate that change. The change was through gradual steps, they had to learn to be
confident in the work environment, more creative and organic and in the process gained ideas and
practices to helping them be more creative. They also took part in mentoring one another to help
concrete the information in their minds by passing it on to the point where they came the full
circle, being able to lead now and not be lead.
* Dance techniques
* Storytelling – voice, body, hand gestures, engagement with music
* Holistic performance of art forms
* Aesthetic understanding
* Knowledge and vocabulary specific to the sector
* How to run workshops – deciding times, which creative to use, how to collect feedback
The training has not only benefited the trainee’s as we now have staff specifically trained
for our projects that will certainly be added to the pool of freelancers we work with as
facilitators for our future projects.
Case Studies