Bath’s young creatives are being invited to take part in a weekend studio experience aimed at giving them a valuable insight into working in an agency.
Werkhouse was co-founded in 2017 by Bob Mytton, creative director of Bath-based brand and design agency Mytton Williams, as a deep dive into the creative and interpersonal skills required to succeed in a design studio.
Taking place this year on 19 and 20 November, it will include 30 over-18s looking to pursue a career in the industry regardless of whether they are self-taught or have any formal design training.
Werkhouse was launched by Bob and a small group of design professionals from Bath and Bristol looking to help young creatives succeed in the design industry.
It focuses on fast-paced, real-time client briefs and team-oriented tasks to show participants a real studio environment.
Bob said: “Having employed many graduates and young designers over the past 25 years, from many different backgrounds, I often felt – like many agency owners I spoke to – that the young designers could be more prepared for starting work.
“We wanted to give them an insight into working in a creative agency – how to debate and think through a design brief, how to work as part of a team and how to generate and share ideas.
“And as a bunch of volunteers, we do our best to be inclusive and support diversity, to try and help those who maybe don't have the connections to get a work placement.”
Organisers are particularly seeking ‘under-represented’ creatives in the industry as they want to engage with a diverse group of applicants from different backgrounds, design disciplines and locations across the UK and beyond.
Participants will receive a brief from a charitable organisation before being invited to work in teams with creative directors, senior designers, account managers, copywriters and strategists from creative agencies across the South West.
As a result, they will gain a unique understanding of fast-pace of ‘real life’ studio working and access to industry professionals as a helping-hand towards their careers.
Among the Bath professionals taking part this year will be representatives from brand communications agency Walker Jansseune, brand and packaging design agency Sunhouse Creative and creative branding agency Osborne Pike.
Laura Medlicott, part of the 2019 Werkhouse Cohort and now a middleweight designer at Sunhouse said: “At the end of my degree I felt underprepared for starting a career in design and was looking for insight into the industry.
“Werkhouse was a great opportunity to get first-hand experience in how agencies think and work. It was a fun, rewarding way of meeting with other fellow graduates as well as professionals, and led to me being introduced to the wonderful people at Sunhouse and my current job as a graphic designer.”
Applications are open until 14 October. The Werkhouse will take place on 19 and 20 November at Bristol design agency Taxi Studio. For more information, visit https://www.werkhouse.co.uk/
