Engagement With Industry: Thoughtful

Working alongside Thoughtful on a day-to-day basis has meant I have been able to experience first hand what it is like working for a design studio.  The way I engage with Thoughtful has developed over the five months that the project has been running. I suppose that this would be the same with any new job or placement, but due to the nature of the project, because we spend so much time with Thoughtful and they put all their time and effort in to ensuring that we are constantly learning new things, the placement seems to be a lot more intimate and intense than any other would be. Throughout the project Thoughtful have stressed the importance of keeping our eyes peeled open, constantly on the look out for new ideas and fresh ways of thinking. We have been encouraged to read blogs, which are a great source for inspiration, introducing us to new work and debates concerning the current state of the design industry.

The fact that Thoughtful are a fairly new company has meant that they have been flexible enough to do the project. I can’t see many design studios packing up their offices and moving in to a college for the foreseeable future. I think this sums up Thoughtful’s approach to design, always looking for something new and exciting to do, and as they state in their Thoughtful Commandments; to nurture new talent. I think the project has been a big learning curve for Thoughtful as well as myself, due to the fact that there is only three of them and then suddenly taking on six students, bringing them to a total of nine, can’t have been easy. We have all had to work hard, but the first few months must have been difficult for Thoughtful. Having six students constantly needing to be looked after, told what to do, etc, and then having to go home and produce all of their work for the clients! I think that only the past couple of months have we been functioning properly as a design studio. This is not a bad thing though; it couldn’t have been any other way. For the first few months we were all finding our feet, settling in and most of all learning. A lot. We would all wait for Thoughtful to tell us exactly what to do, not having the confidence to do things for ourselves. 

However, over the time that we have been doing the project things have gradually developed and that way I engage with Thoughtful has now changed. There is normally a lot going on at once in the studio, so to avoid confusion we divide the jobs up between us, a lot of the time in pairs so that we all have our own roles. This way of working means that we all know exactly what we are doing, and when it needs to be done by. It doesn’t mean that we can’t go over and see what everyone else is doing, and throw some ideas their way, we just know what our main priority is. 

Thoughtful can now trust us to get things done, without us having to be constantly checked on. I’m not saying that I now know everything there is to know about working as a designer, because I definitely don’t. But I do know enough now to have the confidence to get on with a job, and Thoughtful are always there to guide us and give us their input along the way. 

 I see Thoughtful on a day-to-day basis, so I see how they deal with clients, how they tackle a brief and generally all of the things they do in order to make Thoughtful a successful company. As well as the noticeable things I have learnt, I also pick on lots of smaller, but just as important things about the way Thoughtful work. It seems everyday I am learning something new, which is great. If Thoughtful are not in the studio we can always get in touch with them via email or skype, which is the good thing about having macs, we can be flexible and mobile but are always able to get in touch with each other, whether it be in the evenings or at weekends. Thoughtful treat us as their employees, trusting us with their work and to do a good job. We pay them the same respect and, I speak for all six of us when I say we all want to do the best work we possibly can for Thoughtful.