About Callan Medway
Im am now a twenty three year old graphic designer, who always got in-trouble for scribbling through my high school books. I left school not quiet knowing what i wanted to do with my self. I though about it long and hard for two years while working two casual jobs until i decied my brain was shrinking, due to the boring daily rutuine of two casual jobs. So i decided to continue scribbling but push it further and started off at learning again for to years at Canberra Instsitute of Techonlgy. I wanted to do something that would intrest me but would also open some new doors for me to experience so i decided to go for the double advanced diplioma in Graphic Design and Digital Media. I passed there and moved on for one more year at the Univeristy of Canberra, following my gut, as i grew in love with the new hobby. I flew through the last year of UNI, meet people and made quite a solid group life long friends who were a second family to me.
Im am now a twenty three year old graphic designer, who always got in-trouble for scribbling through my high school books. I left school not quiet knowing what i wanted to do with my self. I though about it long and hard for two years while working two casual jobs until i decied my brain was shrinking, due to the boring daily rutuine of two casual jobs. So i decided to continue scribbling but push it further and started off at learning again for to years at Canberra Instsitute of Techonlgy. I wanted to do something that would intrest me but would also open some new doors for me to experience so i decided to go for the double advanced diplioma in Graphic Design and Digital Media. I passed there and moved on for one more year at the Univeristy of Canberra, following my gut, as i grew in love with the new hobby. I flew through the last year of UNI, meet people and made quite a solid group life long friends who were a second family to me.
Values
One fo the biggest vaules i have found which i will hold to my grave, was a very important part of me pushing my self then i ever had before. With the great group of friends which i made and hung out with at UNI, as if it wasn't for them i wouldn't be pushing my self as much as i do today. We stayed at UNI from lectures at 8am and left the studio most nights at 2am. Where we hung out, pushed, critiqued and overal enjoyed our selves, with getting the most of our studies by setting the bar for each other. Week by week i was enjoying what i did more, and from that daily retuine has made me to take this one as something i am passionate about now.
Another vaule that i hold dearly both from UNI and from my internship experience at Zoo Advertisment, is to always be a friendly face. If you want to get somewhere i this industry, it's who you know, and it's who you know who can give you work, or atealst get your name around. Along with having your work on point. Always try to pull people higher up in the feild from you for a chat. Ask them for a coffee, as your only going to get a no in the worst circumstace, but at the end of the day, you can learn alot from a lecturer or art dirrector over a coffee or a beer.
Study Achievements
The biggest achievement for my self through UNI i find was how much i have grown through my weaknesses by spending more time on them, and push them to balance out my work and skill level. From the time i made the jump to UNI from CIT, the first assessment i failed and was such a rude shock as i wasn’t taught to explain and rationalize my works and designs at CIT, and was the start of something quiet important which i have now gotten the hang of. This process has made my freelancing so much easier, as i can rationalize and explain my works to people and sell my self allot more efficiently now with these skills. On top of the rationalizing and explaining, my skill in writing has improved ten fold and, for something i used to avoid in high school as i lacked in, so avoided by scribbling in my books. I have learnt to enjoy typing and explaining and achieving some of my highest marks in written content, and page layouts and type settings.
The most out standing achievement i made while studying was the success of my Visual Information unit which, has defiantly pulled my interest and skill out to the full potential with the Meteorite Impact Zone model of Australia, as seen here. This unit as pulled the illustrating skills out and pushed it into a design form which i love. I got the top of the unit with a 98% mark along with the lecturer being quiet fond of the idea and him encouraging me to push it from prototype to making it a finished model set of each continent in the globe, which i am will to take on in the near future, once i've found my place in industry.
The most out standing achievement i made while studying was the success of my Visual Information unit which, has defiantly pulled my interest and skill out to the full potential with the Meteorite Impact Zone model of Australia, as seen here. This unit as pulled the illustrating skills out and pushed it into a design form which i love. I got the top of the unit with a 98% mark along with the lecturer being quiet fond of the idea and him encouraging me to push it from prototype to making it a finished model set of each continent in the globe, which i am will to take on in the near future, once i've found my place in industry.
Freelancing
At the end of the 1st year i was studying at CIT in Canberra, i began to immediately asked by family and family friends for little ‘backies’ (back yard jobs, freelance jobs). Which was the start of my first attempt of personal business. As i was at CIT i started off with a far fetched name of ‘Yawdem Graphics’ which was my last name flipped, which at the time i thought was smart and could work. But as i have matured through study i have knocked it back to the simplistic and ambiguous style which i have became fond with and used my name as the business a name. Through freelancing quiet early from the time i wasn’t quiet ready for, as taught me a valuable lesson on working for your self, what you learn at CIT and UNI, and what industry life is like working under someone else (contracting for Zoo Advertisement). Which has been a create learning experience for my self as a freelancer and finding a great balance of how i should run my business from four separate prospectives.
Zoo Advertisment
For one of the last units at UNI i was to achieve a internship position on industry where i was to achieve 100 working hours with a firm, group, company and to be mentored by someone in the graphic design industry. I took this opportunity to go for the higher end of the industry groups and emailed all off them and followed by calls. There wasn’t much luck as it was near the end of the year and allot of firms and groups were finishing up for the year. I ended up having my end of year exhibition at UC which was on a Friday and by the next Monday had an email back from Zoo asking me to come in for a position from the following week. I started and finished the 100 which collected the hours quiet quickly as i afford to come in early and stay back everyday, which they greatly appreciated. But at the time didn’t think about it as i was enjoying the whole experience more then i expected with their super friendly work atmosphere.
While i spend the duration of my time at Zoo, i had helped out with alot of type setting which they needed done quiet urgently being that time of year, which helped them out greatly as all the designers were quiet busy. In the down time, john Ruman, my mentor for the unit, gave me the task of taking on three new freelancing jobs which i could pitch to clients business's and sell it to them, and through their proposal process which they use to try and sell their concepts to clients. This helped me out alot along with him helping me grow and tweek how i present my self as a graphic designer.
Here is some quick shots of jobs which i had taken on at Zoo advertisment as an intern;
While i spend the duration of my time at Zoo, i had helped out with alot of type setting which they needed done quiet urgently being that time of year, which helped them out greatly as all the designers were quiet busy. In the down time, john Ruman, my mentor for the unit, gave me the task of taking on three new freelancing jobs which i could pitch to clients business's and sell it to them, and through their proposal process which they use to try and sell their concepts to clients. This helped me out alot along with him helping me grow and tweek how i present my self as a graphic designer.
Here is some quick shots of jobs which i had taken on at Zoo advertisment as an intern;
Week 1
Zoo Work - Case Studies for Zoo's website
Freelance - Hibernian Hotel
Identity Rebrand CONCEPT
Week 2
Zoo Work - Proposals for clients
Freelance - Tory Herfoss
personal branding x2 concepts
Week 3
Zoo Work - FashFest website
Freelance - PigPass.com
Identity Rebrand
When i came to the end of what we agreed on, John the art director / partner creative director asked me to stay with them until their Christmas break, which i did. It then was Christmas the start of the new year and it was the 2nd day back for the Zoo Advertisement team and i got a call form John Ruman again but this time him asking me to come into their business as a contractor, which i took in a heart beat, and is where i am today, contracting for Zoo and working for my self in down time.
Big Influences and Inspiration
With online pressence and inspirations being a great tool of the modern age, there are still some local and personal friends which i like to talk with, mentor and share work with for mentoring. A close friend who i started study with, Nicholas Lieneman who is one of the biggest perfections i know, along with being so much more switched on then any of us on our level. Theres also Rob Clode, a previous lecturer of mine, who has always worked for him self, and is always willing to take emails and catch up for a coffee and talk design. Hes been a great help in pointing me in the right dirrection through freelancing.
One of the biggest infulences, and one of the first big influences as i was starting out in this profession is Zooc. Who i stumbled across for his highly detailed illustration work, which through subscription to his channel as turned into a good vlog to watch once or twice a week on freelancing and his hobby of illustration turned concept designer and graphic designer.
youtube.com/user/ZoocDoesStuff
Other insiprations and designers that intrigue me are
Aaron Draplin
Jackson Alves
