On Tuesday 12th May I met with Anthony Smith for a portfolio visit; I was really nervous about the actual visit, so much so that I took a black cab to his office despite knowing where it was so that I wouldn’t be late.
When I arrived there I was very excited to see the studio and see how the team worked together as a group. As I was walking up the stairs Anthony met me half way and gave me warm handshake, which instantly calmed me down, he then offered me a drink as I waited for him, as I was early. The office had a very warm feeling to it; it was small yet spacious as the design of was very minimalist and modern.
While I sat on the couch waiting for Anthony as he got on with some work at his desk I took the time to look at the books on the table; most were music related. Each book on the table was chosen carefully, some were about album cover design while others were about the production of music itself. The other interesting thing was how each book was different in weight to the other – some pages were light where as others were quite heavy; this illustrated how important paper gsm was in design.
Anthony was very friendly and pleasant; he asked me a lot of questions about myself, at first I thought it was odd but then I realised it would help him inform him better about my work. I also realised this informal chat about me was another way of helping me to relax before discussing my portfolio.
While looking through my work Anthony was constantly giving me feedback about it. He also suggested a lot of artists, designers and books to take inspiration from and to help inform my work better to make it stronger. He was very positive all the way through, he didn’t make feel like I was at an interview; it felt more like a tutorial session at college. He suggested a lot of changes I could make about every piece in my portfolio but he did like the way I laid out my work. The most important piece of advice he gave me was to look at other people’s work, which would help strengthen the quality of my work.
After looking through my portfolio we discussed the workings of the studio; how they function as a team, how they approach a brief and tackle it, who gets to do what. He informed me that a few of the team would go through the brief or they may each go away and think about it individually and then discuss it as a team. It differed each time depending on the brief. Anthony personally likes to work with people as it brings diversity to the work as well as giving him the opportunity to really celebrate it at the end of each brief.
After the meeting with Anthony I realised that my portfolio could improve dramatically if I took inspiration from other peoples’ work and pushed myself a little. All in all it was a very enlightening experience that gave me a small confidence about my and the encouragement I needed to put in more effort.
