At the end of August, we welcomed four students into our Poppy Studio for four days of briefs, ideas, conversations and a proper look at life inside a creative agency.
Felix joined us as a Graphic Design graduate from the University of Portsmouth. Hannah was preparing to study Graphic Communication Design at the University of the Arts London, Ellie was heading towards a degree in Games and Animation, and Sienna came in wanting to explore where her interests in marketing and creative work might take her.
Four people at very different points, with very different interests.
Which meant one thing from the start: there was no point giving everyone exactly the same week.
Starting with a conversation
The week was led by Poppy, Isaac, Carissa, Verity, Jason and Zahra, bringing together people from across HB to share their experience and give the students a realistic look at agency life.
Rather than jumping straight into a brief, Monday started with introductions and conversations about career journeys, interests and ambitions. We wanted to understand what each student hoped to get from the experience before deciding exactly what the rest of the week should look like.
That decision paid off almost immediately.
Sienna’s interests leaned more towards strategy and marketing than hands-on design, so we adapted her week around that. It was a small change, but an important one. Work experience should help people explore what genuinely interests them, not simply follow a timetable because it’s already been written.
Getting comfortable with creativity
Before getting into the main projects, there were a few creative exercises to help everyone loosen up.
An upside-down self-portrait challenge was followed by a typeface self-portrait exercise, where students created faces using letterforms and numbers they felt reflected their personalities.
The exercises were designed to encourage experimentation, get everyone comfortable using creative software and, perhaps most importantly, help them become more confident sharing ideas with the room.
As learning how to talk about your work is just as important as creating it.
Following ideas from start to finish
For the students following the design route, the main brief centred on creating a Penguin book cover.
The project took them through the full creative process, from research and exploration to concept development, design and refinement. Along the way, they looked at how typography, imagery and layout work together to communicate an idea.
What they produced at the end was important, but so was everything that happened before it.
The real value came from seeing how ideas evolve, how feedback shapes creative thinking and how a project changes as it develops.
Presenting their work back to the group was a key part of the experience too. Talking through your decisions can feel daunting, but it’s often where the biggest learning happens.
Exploring a different side of agency life
While the design brief was underway, Sienna spent the week exploring the strategic and marketing side of agency life.
Her brief involved researching brands, looking at how they communicate with audiences and presenting her findings back to the team. She also spent time shadowing colleagues, sitting in on meetings and gaining a better understanding of the thinking that helps shape creative work.
It meant she was able to spend the week exploring an area she was genuinely interested in, while still getting a feel for how different disciplines work together inside an agency.
Looking beyond our studio walls
We also welcomed the team from Sea Monster into the studio to talk about their work in games design.
For Ellie, who is preparing to study Games and Animation, it was particularly relevant, but it also gave the whole group another perspective on just how many different routes there are into the creative industries.
There is no single path into this industry and no single definition of a creative career. Hearing different stories and experiences was an important part of the week.
What we hoped they’d take away
Throughout the four days, there were regular check-ins, feedback sessions and plenty of opportunities to ask questions. More than anything, we wanted the studio to feel approachable. Starting a creative career can sometimes feel like everybody else has access to a set of rules you somehow missed. By Thursday afternoon, everyone had something they could present, talk through and be proud of, but hopefully they also left with a better understanding of how a creative agency works and where they might fit within one.
Thank you to Felix, Hannah, Ellie and Sienna for spending the week with us, and to everyone across HB who shared their time, experience and advice.
We look forward to seeing where their creative journeys take them next!