True North (Alan Herron)

Last year I went to visit Alan Herron at True North with my portfolio. He was ok with my work but said he would like me to go back to see him six months later with an improved portfolio. So I did...

Yesterday at 10am I arrived. We sat down in his office and the first piece of work we looked at was the posters me and Jordan produced for the Tolerance brief. Straight away he warmed to the idea of highlighting small, intolerable issues within the community and said we'd executed the imagery well. The only down fall he saw was that the same idea and imagery ran throughout the whole campaign. He said he would have liked "to see a bit of diversity".

The second piece of work we looked at was my 2nd year magazine work which Alan had already seen. However this was one particular piece that he had told me to improve and he was really pleased with what I had done. He asked a lot about the reasons behind decisions this regards to type, placements, imagery, compositions. Said he was conscious of every small detail so I had a lot to say. Overall he was happy with the magazine and really liked the spreads and use of imagery.

We then looked at my promotional work for the Brass Band Museum. First of all he congratulated me for my logo. Said it was "really well thought through and arranged". Only one small issue arose and that was the logo slightly repeated itself by having two trumpets for the 'b' and 'd' in band. And the direct mail he said we're nice and bold, expressive and he would have liked to have seen and bit more risk taking with my ideas. He said he could see the idea but not a thorough execution.

Onto my RAC end sting and all he had to say was "brilliant, i get it, it works even in print, well done"...

Next was my pencil shavings typeface which he didn't really have much to say about. He just said it was nice and that it worked. Applying the typeface in a poster worked well, which I did, and that was that really.

The last piece which is very exciting for me at the minute and one that I couldn't wait to show him was the metro campaign that me and Jordan have worked on. Straight way he said "there's such a clear difference in this piece of work and the first piece (tolerance) from the rest. These two pieces are well executed, clear to understand, and I get them". So that was brilliant! Given these two pieces are this years work it shows that I've improved and come a long way. So in all it was a great visit and he would like me to go back when I finish and said there might be possible placements...