DISCOVERING MARKETING AT LAW

Introduction by Dave Washer, Senior Copywriter:

We recently had the pleasure of welcoming Archie Matthews to LAW Creative on work experience. Archie spent a week with us, learning about everything from graphic design to coding, social media and a whole lot more. Archie really made the most of his time with us; he was always keen to work and ready to learn and showed plenty of promise. Here’s what Archie thought about his time with us…

Monday

As you can expect, on my way to the office I was pretty anxious. However, as soon as I arrived, I was immediately reassured that this was going to be a great week. Everyone was friendly, welcoming and happy to help with any problems I came across.

Monday was a day to learn more about the craft of design, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Graphic design has always been something that I’ve been interested in and it lived up to my expectations.

First, I was briefed on what we needed to do and treated as if I was one of the team, which I very much appreciated. I sat at the desk not knowing much at all about the software I was using (Adobe InDesign). However, thanks to Sam, who was mentoring me for the day, I began to understand how it works.

I edited posters, leaflets and designed some social media posts. These projects helped me better understand what it’s like to be a designer while also developing my skills. I thought every part of the day was very enjoyable and being surrounded by hard-working, positive people definitely helped me learn and progress – and this was only the first day!

Tuesday

Day two was copywriting. I met everyone I would be working with for the day and sat at my desk, eager to see what the day had in store for me. I was briefed and mentored by David, Head of Copy, who was patient and went into great detail about everything.

I was set the task of writing posters promoting healthcare services. The specific guidelines that were set made what I was doing very interesting because it made me realise that there’s a lot more to media texts than just words. You must consider the target audience, what the client wants their advertisements to be like, how they want it done and much more.

Once my work was complete, I received constructive criticism, which not only helped me to improve but also taught me different techniques to make advertisements more appealing, persuasive and appropriate for the client. By the end of the day I had written pages of work that I was proud of.

Wednesday

I began the morning learning about HTML coding. Having done that I then joined another team and helped decide between some promotional posters to send off to a client. In the afternoon, I learned about video editing and the different ways videos can be manipulated to promote different products. My mentor, Ryan, taught me how to edit videos and walked me through everything that he was doing, making sure I understood every stage. On the technical side of things, I found it fascinating how someone can make videos that look so professional, eye-catching and aesthetically appealing.

Thursday

Thursday started off with an agency meeting. Once the meeting had ended, it was time to get to work. Jacques showed me how to code and gave me tasks to try and complete. These were focused on the visual side of websites (colours, buttons, pictures, etc.) Web development was very intriguing and it really puts the hard work that goes into making amazing websites into perspective.

Friday

For my last day, I scouted out some possible locations to film a challenge video for LAW’s social media pages. As easy as this sounds, I was surprised at how many factors you must consider when choosing locations. Some of these include how busy the area is, how noisy it is and even things like what the shot would look like from different angles.

Once I had found three different locations, I made some pages featuring pros and cons, where they were and how we would film the video. I then presented my ideas to Robin, Account Director. After choosing our location and method, we went to the location to start filming.

In summary

Being part of the LAW Creative team for the week was incredible. I was made to feel welcome, my suggestions were always heard and I learned something new every day.

LAW Creative is a fully integrated, multi-award-winning marketing communications agency. For Smart Thinking, Strategy, Creative, Technology, Data and script to screen Film Making please contact keith.sammels@lawcreative.co.uk