Recent Shillington graduate Owen Fisher shares his HOT TIPS for students about to finish their studies. He also tells us why he loves architecture and what the second 1/2 of 2014 holds.
Tell us a little bit about yourself...
Yeah so studied my degree in Adelaide, which technically was an undergraduate Architecture degree. I was enrolled to do my masters (another 2 years) but deferred and decided to move to Melbourne and study graphic design! I moved after enrolling at Shillington College, which is basically an intense three month course focused on giving you skills and a portfolio ready to enter the industry. I choose this over another Uni degree because it was quick and don’t think I could endure another three years at Uni! Shillington was great and really effective in the way it taught the content...I’m really surprised with what you can achieve in three months! For now I’m freelancing, mainly with architectural style projects but I’m keen to get into a studio and have more of a solid structure to the working week.
As a recent grad what advise do you have for those students nearing the end of their studies
Organise your shitty filing system on your computer! The amount of time I’ve wasted sifting through files named something like ‘yeah_v1’ or ‘that_thing_bigger’ is crazy! I think Shillington helped my hoarder’ish style storage, but having a clear, clean system from the start will make life a lot easier down the track!
Give yourself time off, sit back from your work and either do something different or just relax for a bit! Having fresh eyes and sitting back from your work gives you perspective and allows you to see things that you’ve either missed or just can’t get in the design.
Plan what your going to present in your folio too. Draw out your spreads on paper and think about exactly what your trying to show or give emphasis too. It will lower your workload and you wont have to do all this extra work that will never be seen. Not saying do less work, but present quality over quantity.
I have a printed folio with seven projects. I wasn’t too concerned with the amount of projects I had in the folio, but rather why they were in there and what they were showing. I have a range of print, digital and branding/identity projects, so tried to showcase different aspect of design but also diversity which is essential for a junior designer.
We have noticed you have a strong interest in architecture, whats the draw card there for you and when did your appreciation for it start.
Where to find Owen Fisher online.
I love architecture! I’ve always found it pretty incredible how a space can control how you feel. I love materiality also, especially concrete…my favourite material by far! I think the original draw card was the idea of combining technical information (bit of a nerd) with creativity. A little backstory is that I started my uni career as an engineer…lasted a term then bailed on that idea! After the realisation that I was sick of math’s but still semi interested in technical things I turned to architecture. That’s how I grew to really love it. I always seemed to get architecture books for Christmas/birthday too so maybe its just something I’ve always appreciated and its everywhere so learnt to embrace it.
