Student visits
A student came to see us today. She emailed a while ago and asked if she could come in and have a look round.
She's in her 2nd year at Colchester doing a course in Graphic Media. She turned up had a quick look around, took lots of pictures. Asked a few questions; what software do you use, how do you think up your ideas, the usual kind of stuff. We gave her whatever samples we could spare and off she went.
As I was showing her out I said, "Are you seeing any other agencies today?". "Er no" she said, "You're the only agency that agreed to see me. In fact you're the only agency that replied to me at all".
That made me feel really sad.
She probably got a load of addresses from somewhere like here and she probably sent the same email to everyone. That's OK, a lot of people do that. I'm sure she wasn't expecting to get that many visits, but one? And only one reply? That's really bad, isn't it?
I know the other argument. We get loads of requests, we get loads of students writing in etc etc. And I realise we're probably the perfect size to show people round at the moment; we're big enough so that there is something to see and we're small enough to have the time to see people. But still.
We get loads of requests from students, placements, visits, questionnaires that kind of thing. We also gets loads and loads of CV's. I always try and reply, although it is hard. We always send people who send their CV's in this and hope that it helps a little bit. We can't see all the students who write in, but we make a real effort to reply.
I felt really sad today. I think we could all reply to an email couldn't we?
Oh boy! This is sad. And I thought that this happens only in Romania. Silly me :) I remember when I started. There was only one reply. And it proved to be the right one. Lucky me.
Posted by: claudiu | Nov 13, 2006 at 23:16
I'm a 35 year old designer from Australia and I was recently on a visit to London and figured while I was there I'd contact a couple of studios to see if I could have a look around and a chat, maybe answer some questions for my blog. Now I wasn't looking for a job and I stressed I didn't want to take up too much of their time, I contacted maybe 20 studios and got one reply! New York was a lot more accomodating pretty much everyone I got in contact with at least replied and a fair number agreed to see me as well.
Posted by: Chris Bowden | Nov 14, 2006 at 03:06
I work as graphic designer and am also studying graphic design. One of my assignments this year was to submit 10 questions to any designer of my choosing. Out of all the designer's I contacted only 3 replied and only 1 said they would take the time to answer my questions. That designers name was Andy Rutledge and his answers were very thoughtful and much appreciated.
Posted by: Cameron Skene | Nov 14, 2006 at 10:52
6 of 7 design companies in Newcastle replied to my friendly letter when I arrived in town asking for a handshake and 15 minutes of their time and said "Come on in for a chat and a cuppa", but only 1 out of 7 in Edinburgh. Such a pity.
Posted by: Caspian | Nov 14, 2006 at 15:33
Answering genuine email requests is a form of marketing. Not answering is arrogant and ignorant. And it reflects badly on any practice to ignore students it's own profession. They have long memories.
Posted by: Graham Salmon | Nov 15, 2006 at 08:37
Hi Ben,
I sent you an email a week ago,but I still haven't got your reply.
Posted by: mofe | Nov 20, 2006 at 13:42
I've been waiting for someone to say that!
We've just moved to a new email provider and a lot of stuff has been lost in the junk. What email address did you use?
Posted by: Ben | Nov 20, 2006 at 13:44
mofead@gmail.com
Posted by: mofe | Nov 20, 2006 at 22:25
Found it!
Posted by: Ben | Nov 21, 2006 at 09:46