Each month, we’ll be posting a short profile on our two most recent placements. You can find out a bit about them, and see some of their work…

Hello, my name is…
Oli O’Neill
In three words I would say I am…
Colourful, sometimes funny?
And in my spare time I like to…
Wander & wonder
I have just finished studying at…
Kingston University
You can see a portfolio of my work by going to…
olioneill.com
And my piece of work that best represents me is…
‘I like lunchboxes’
From The Partners, I’m going to…
Many, many interviews

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Hello, my name is…
Darren Custance
In three words I would say I am…
Ambitious, analytical, active
And in my spare time I like to…
Play pool, cricket, tennis (urban golf) and try to find my way around London!
I have just finished studying at…
The University of Northampton
You can see a portfolio of my work by going to…
www.darrencustance.com
And my piece of work that best represents me is…
McDonald’s Campaign

Because…
It’s fun, light-hearted and gets the audience directly involved in the campaign
You would never guess that I…
Have two middle names, I’m not telling you what they are though!
From The Partners, I’m going to…
My graduation next week!

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If you think you’d like to do a placement at The Partners, please send a PDF portfolio to info@thepartners.co.uk

I’m particularly looking forwards to this year’s grand prix season and I can’t wait to see how the McLaren boys do out on the track. Check out the video blow from the launch event and some more pics of the stunning car.

Click here to view the embedded video.

To encourage young designers from schools and colleges, our Creative Partner Greg Quinton was recently asked by D&AD to provide some pearls of wisdom in a personal take on having a career in design:

You may have seen all the fuss about “The best job in the World”. Caretaking a tropical Island? Wonderful. Everyone thought so, but I beg to differ. Nice for a long holiday from a British Winter, but long term? I believe the best jobs mean loving what you do and I love the creative industry.

Rewind twenty years or so ago to when I graduated, Macs were grey plastic bricks called Mackintosh. Phones were mobile (if you were strong enough) but everything in the shops had a prefix of ’designer’. It was a boom time for jobs and the coolest job around was in Graphic Design. I knew I was lucky with my timing even then.

At school I kind of knew what I wanted to do: design record covers, store bags, vans – you know – cool commercial things. I knew I wasn’t an artist. The problem was that nobody knew if it was an occupation. My careers advice lady stroked her beardy chin (yep nasty) and announced “You can be: an Archeologist, a librarian or – if you can pass maths – an architect” I was not best pleased, but design simply hadn’t made it onto the list of ‘real jobs’ yet.

So, searching, I blagged a place onto our local foundation course, worked bloody hard for a year and got shouted at every day for not drawing well enough. Finally the course leader said, “I’m sorry Greg, but you still can’t draw well enough to be an illustrator (long pause) I’m afraid the only option left for you… is graphic design.” She considered this a failure. I was in seventh heaven.

College was a joy. I loved every second of it. I knew this is what I wanted to do. From being bored and pretty average at school I was finally in my element. I wanted to do this forever, but knew had to find the right place. I drew up a short list without thinking I was good enough to work at any of them. Passion forces luck (and I was very passionate) and I got out there and did a D&AD workshop, interviews by the dozen, work experiences, made tea and did whatever I could to be noticed and get recommendations. Finally I landed an interview with Nick Wurr at The Partners who were at the top of my list. He (got sick of the pleading) and gave me a job.

Fast-forward twenty years and two recessions. I’ve forgotten many things but I’ve also learnt:

Creativity can solve so many issues. By using communication and design we can change perceptions, improve our environment and add real value to businesses.

We should always remember that clients don’t owe us anything. They take risks when they buy creativity. They could always play safe. Therefore, you should always avoid arrogance and work hard to create the best possible solution for every single project, whatever the client or their situation.

Most creative people (as a breed) are ‘givers’ and are generous with their personal commitment, skill, energy and passion. For many it is a vocation. This is a strength and should never be taken for granted or abused.

In these tough times it’s important to remember that the creative industry always needs new talent. This current ‘crappiness’ will come to an end at some point. We know that clients who invest in creativity during these low points will come through stronger than those who don’t. It is the same with agencies.

Try and have the long-term view. Agencies might not be able to give you a position in the short term, but please don’t give up, If you are truly passionate about your potential please keep going. Do placements, freelance, talk to everyone, do workshops, win competitions, set up your own thing, keep your chin up and do anything to avoid compromise for as long as you can. If you are good, there is a place waiting for you.

It might just be the best job in the World.

Greg Quinton
2009

Our Design director from t’north Robert Ball has been featured as part of the Preston Profiles feature on design blog The Disciples of Design.

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Year of Graduation / Grade

1997 / 2:1

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Profile
Before graduating I’d shared a house with my best mates Steve Royle (now at The Chase) and Steve Owen (The Partners, and Dave). I joined The Partners in 2000 after basically pissing about for a couple of years.

And I’m still there.

And they’re still my best mates.

Aww.

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The Disciples of Design Q&A

Q. How and where did you secure your first job?
A. I joined The Partners through a recommendation from my mate Steve Owen. I was working as an office clerk at the time and took all my holiday entitlement for the year to do a placement. Nine years later, I’m still here.

Q. Did anyone ever ask you what degree grade you got?
A. Only my mum & dad.

Q. Who’s work has inspired / influenced you the most?
A. I don’t really get inspired by anyone in particular – I’m inspired by fear of failure. I get inspired a lot.

Q. Where do you get your ideas from?
A. Mostly from ripping off other stuff, then changing it enough so no-one notices.

Q. What would you have done differently at University knowing what you know now?
A. I wouldn’t have had that pint of Old Tom at The Black Horse.

Q. What’s the best thing about your job?
A. Comparing it to 99% of other jobs.

Q. What is the most unusual thing you have done in your career?
A. I had a look round Puff Daddy/P Diddy’s superyacht for a photo shoot in Monaco once. I really blended in.

Q. What do you look for in graduates and their portfolios?
A. Attitude. I like enthusiastic students who realise how lucky they are to even be considering making a living out of colouring things in like what we do.

Q. Any advice for students entering the industry during the recession?
A. It’s hard to get a job in the creative industry even when the sun’s shining so do the same things but quicker, louder and weirder.

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Portfolio

2004/2005 – the National Gallery branding

We realised that if people are turned off by paintings, then posters of paintings aren’t going to change their minds. So we did the opposite. No paintings. As you might imagine, the Gallery took some convincing. We wrote a list of all the themes and emotions you can experience there – I like to think of it as the longest logo ever made. This went onto posters, t-shirts, banners, screensavers – the lot. The big red poster is still my favourite thing I’ve ever produced.

We eventually did show paintings, but just a glimpse, a tease. We broke the collection down into broad themes – love, war, sex etc. and produced advertising based on these.

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2006/2007 – The Grand Tour

We hung 44 full sized exact replica paintings up in central London for twelve weeks as an advertising campaign. You could download tours from a website or get commentary by phone. We even produced tour guides. It looks simple but took eighteen months and nearly killed us. Every wall space was donated free – asking permission in the sex shop was an interesting one. Each painting was graffiti proof, weather proof, beer proof. I was worried sick about vandalism but it was weird – they remained pretty much untouched. I think only four got nicked, and replaced pretty quickly. We’ve got CCTV footage of one getting ripped from a wall – it’s brilliant.

The idea is, it goes up in a new city every year. It was up in York last year.

(N.B. Rob neglected to mention the critical acclaim this project received, notably picking up D&AD and Art Directors Club of New York golds).

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2008 -2009 Thrislington Cubicles are The Partners oldest, and most award-winning client. I worked on a new sub-brand, building toilet cubicles for schools. For this brochure we got a load of blank exercise books and printed straight onto it with really rough digital photographs and nice big chunky yellow text. Everything’s done on a shoestring – I wrote it, the photography is by the boss’s son and most of the objects we found lying about.

We got this bog roll holder off e-bay. The things people can sell…

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2002 Design Council rebranding

This brochure was part of a new manifesto. As you can see on the cover, we decided it was one of the most important things of the century. We illustrated the problems and solutions by using two completely different styles of photography (Dod Miller and Lee Funnel). Amongst other things we photographed a fridge mountain in Wales and the guy doing the welding is creating the B of the Bang sculpture which is part of the sport-city development in Manchester…

We got the chance to turn it into an exhibition – nice big graphics. mmm.

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2008 Deloitte

This is a book what I wrote for Deloitte. It’s about being ‘One Step Ahead’ so we started page 1 on the cover. The book is about people who made clever decisions at turning points in their life. It took months of research. Thank God for Wikipedia.

I got to work with a great photographer called Andy Macdonald to bring the stories to life. I’ve got a thing about cables. I think they end up in pretty much every project I do. Lovely cables.

We needed a blood bag for this one – Andy made a phone call and it arrived – full – in about ten minutes. I didn’t ask…

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2000 D&AD

Lastly, I’ve stuck this in because it was one of the first things I did and it still makes me smile because it looks so kind of, well, shite. It was an invite for D&AD judging which was being held in Brighton. A million postcards later and finally we found a picture with a yellow pencil in it…

This is a project I did last year for the 2008 D&AD student awards. The brief asked if MTV were a virus, how would it behave? We decided to use the general public as virus carriers and created an exponential chain reaction…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Davidoff Black & White
I’d like to start with this job as it recently hit the news by becoming a nominee at the 2008 Mobius awards, just missing out on best of show in brochures and books. Davidoff Black & White is a lavish and indulgent brand book designed to help inspire agencies and internal teams from around the World to understand the true relevance and opulance of this new luxury brand offering from Davidoff.  The run-of-the-mill approach to brand books; ring bound folders or electronic pdf files, didn’t fit the bill — instead, we designed a beautiful case-bound book that looked more in place on a coffee table than in a office or studio. Rather than have page after page of what Black & White is and isn’t, we thought we’d let the book as an object, communicate it’s values through gorgeous photography.

Further to the news at the Mobius awards, the book has also won silver at  New York Festivals and both the design and print catagories at the McNaugton Review. Here’s a little peak inside…