What is professional / industrial experience?
This is experience that is gained through working in the ‘professional’ world of graphic design in this context. So to say anyone who works for an agency or has done so in the past, any freelance work or design that has been produced for someone/something with money in return i would class as professional and industrial experience.
It can also be small things like having been round a working studio, seeing and experiencing in a short amount of time what it may be like to be a professional graphic designer. So essentially the experience would be having knowledge of what its actually like to be a working professional designer, gaining this knowledge from doing so or from work placements and such.
Why is professional / industrial experience important as part of PPD?
Personal professional development eh!?
This experience is important as part of my PPD as firstly how am i meant to know what kind of area i want to be a professional designer in if i dont know what its like, as the world of graphic design is very broad, there is bound to be parts of it that i wont work well in and just as importantly parts i wont enjoy to be in. With experience comes knowledge and an understanding of what is needed and what makes up the world of professional design. Basically it will help me progress as a student into a graphic designer.
How do you gain professional / industrial experience and what form does it take?
In my situation, it is most often that i would gain this experience through the form of work placements in the industry. Whether this be in a working design studio, work for part of an agency or for something such as a print company. This experience will also grow through time more spent being a professional designer.
How i go about getting these is through sending emails round to wherever i feel id like to work at and arrange it from there to either go and make a short visit to have a chat with the workers or there or actually negotiate an amount of time for me to actually go and work there a bit!
What should you aim to gain from professional / industrial experience?
One thing you should aim to get from the experience is essentially what it is like to work in a design agency or some other company or even with a particular person, this giving you knowledge to then help you choose where to take your professional career.
Should also look to gain general and more specific contacts within the industry, this being potentially helpful in the future as your professional design career grows.
Also gaining a better understanding of where you want to work in the industry or more specifically where you do not want to work.
