My Week at Helm by Alisha

Monday

The first day of work experience can be quite daunting. And mine was exactly that! (For the first 5 minutes anyway.) Soon enough I felt welcomed with beautiful scenery, a comfortable atmosphere and friendly people at the Helm studio. I knew I had made the right choice for my placement.

The day began with a short briefing from creative director, Liam, on my tasks for the week. We made quick plans on how I was expected to carry out my work and what I should have done at what times. This all seemed very exciting and I couldn’t wait to get going. I set off on my first project and quickly got into the flow of the work environment. I spent the day conducting research to create a starting point for all of the projects so that throughout my placement I could make the most of my time and produce quality work. Liam also informed me that later on in the week I would have the amazing opportunity to work with 360 degree cameras in order to create a 360 interview promoting the Helm heartbeat. With the exciting week ahead, my first day soon came to an end and I was eager to start the next.

Tuesday

On Tuesday I was invited to go along with Racheal and Liam to Ridgewood school to have a meeting with the Headmistress (Scary stuff!) concerning the new signs for the school. I felt very sophisticated sitting in a meeting so important, this was a whole new experience for me. I also enjoyed being in a school and around teacher without being seen as a student but in fact there to represent Helm and Attract. Im very thankful of Helm for such a unique experience. From this I also learnt about the importance of signs around schools or organisations and how you can use them to portray a range of different things to different types of people. Following the visit to Ridgewood, I finalised all of my research and project due for the next day and had a relaxing rest of the day enjoying the Helm environment.

Wednesday

Wednesday was a very important day. I had been anticipating this since the start of the start of the week. On this day I was to sit in a meeting alongside Liam and have my say in helping a Columbian jewellery brand, Picaflor reinvent their company. I enjoyed coming up with ideas that actually helped and seeing the excitement on their faces when we expressed ideas that they knew would push their company forward. The founders of Picaflor left with a brain full of concepts and strategies ready to take their company to the next level. Success! On day three I was also lucky enough to have a sit down lunch with Racheal the founder of Scaffold, a coaching and leadership business. She would be one of my interviewees for the 360 interview. During lunch we discussed the questions I would be asking her and got to know each other very well. After lunch Racheal offered me a great opportunity to create a professional animation for her company during the summer holidays. I never expected to receive such an array of amazing opportunities, and this was only day three!

Thursday

Day four was 360 filming day! In the morning Liam gave me a walkthrough of the special cameras how they worked and how they were set up. Having the aspirations of working in film and media, this was very interesting stuff for me. I also met my second interviewee, Ashley, founder of Everyone. We talked for a while before we set out to the grounds of the grand St Catherine’s house to film. After setting up the cameras the weather decided it did not want to be on our side and we were forced from the walled garden outside. Because of this were kindly allowed to film inside the house. The servants quarters offered us an exciting place to set up our 360 interview, again. From here we managed to get the whole interview in one take. Liam then stitched up the video and posted it on Helm social media. I feel famous! Leaving the studio on Thursday did NOT leave me anticipating the next because when I was to return it would be my final day. *Sad face*

Friday

The last day! All of the tasks that I had been set over the week were all complete so I was set one final piece of work by Liam. I was presented with a magazine based on dog nutrition and I was told to use my marketing brain to give improvements and changes in order to improve the feature. I really enjoyed doing this as it required me to think creatively about what type of things they could do to get more customers and what type of things would have the opposite effect. It also allowed me to conclude everything I had learnt over the week and work completely independently on the task using all of my newfound knowledge on marketing. I finished my week on a massive high knowing I had learnt so many new things as well as being given a vast amount of amazing opportunities and had the pleasure of working with such a great group of people.

My week at Helm opened my eyes to the incredible amount of thought and emotion that goes into creating a business. I now understand the importance of the way that it looks and presents itself and the different range of strategies businesses use to attract customers. I am extremely lucky to have had a work placement at Helm, I have enjoyed it massively. Though professional, the people here were extremely relaxed and cheerful. The work space was very open and splashed with bright colours as well as all around views of the beautiful Woodfield Park. This was the perfect working environment which left me feeling motivated and ready to carry on with my studies.

Thanks Liam and everyone at Helm!