001. Introduction 

Since May 2007, I have been working with a marketing & graphic design company called Octagon. They specialise in the promotional marketing of various fairly high-profile clients around Bangor and indeed Northern Ireland, including estate agencies, restaurants, property development companies, the PSNI and Translink to name but a few.

The studio consists of several Apple Mac machines, a central x-serve for storing and updating files (following strict location and naming conventions, of course) and a projector for displaying their impressive array of multimedia services to potential clients, or watching episodes of Scrubs during our generous lunch breaks. 

Octagon is twelve years old. The company originally started as a printing brokers before realising the potential behind graphic design as a marketing medium, and using the already-made connections within the printing world, began offering its new services to current clients. 

The staff hierarchy however is rather minimal. Whilst the founder of Octagon has since moved to other pastures, he left behind him two talented professionals to run the company, one of which is an IMD graduate. Ray is responsible mainly for print/editorial/stationery work, whereas Damien concentrates on the electronic/multimedia/web aspects of the creative portfolio. They collaborate on corporate identities.

  002. Company Role 

Junior designer responsible for assisting the Creative Directors with various print & multimedia projects, to include (but not limited to) graphic design, vector illustration, typesetting copy, identity strategy and tea-making.

I was also responsible for visits to the local printers (Davenport Specialist Presentation, Bangor) where much of our stationery work was produced before taking each significant proof/final copy to the client(s). 

Each of the programs incorporated with the Adobe Creative Suite have been utilised throughout my placement this included:

• Vectoring with Illustrator
• Digital editing with Photoshop 
• Typesetting with InDesign.

My first month for instance involved vectoring floor plans for properties in the morning (for web & print output) and typesetting a brochure for Translink in the afternoon. I'd then use photoshop to amplify and optimize 300dpi images received from the various tourist boards and convert them to CMYK colour profiles for the individual excursions.

Concerning the property company for whom I was vectoring the floor plans, I was also responsible for branding some of the developments. This was a fantastic introduction to the concept of designing for identity as opposed to functional operation, and the idea that my design will be utilised on the billboards during construction was a great inspiration to me.

You can find the full set at http://www.skydevelopments.com

Socially speaking, Octagon has been a fantastic company to work with. As we are based in the heart of Bangor's entertainment district, there's plenty of pubs nearby to discuss creative options and troubleshoot what to have for lunch. I have been to productive lunches with most of our clients (or tenders) and they are always a fascinating encounter. I was also kindly invited to two staff dinners for separate clients over the Christmas period.

http://www.octagon-ni.com

http://www.paulwilsdon.com