Every week our new apprentice will be keeping you updated on her time at Creative Clique.

Here is Laura’s first entry….

My name is Laura Sullivan and I have recently started an apprenticeship in graphic design at Creative Clique.

I attend South Downs College once a week to study for 3 qualifications, which compliment the apprenticeship, and then work hands-on at Creative Clique Tuesday to Friday.

I’ve just finished my first week under the watchful eye of the owner, Jo, and I have really enjoyed the experience and so am looking forward to the upcoming months. On the first day Jo threw me in at the deep end and gave me design work straight away whilst teaching me a number of short cuts to be more efficient (which I am yet to get used to!). I was involved in creating posters, leaflets, business cards and invitations, some of which used the clients’ previous design works as their basis.

Jo, Glenn and Simon are very helpful and always take the time to sit with me and show me design ideas that may work well within the brief.

There’s so much I have learnt in such as short space of time, including :

• Image resolution (each photo should have a ppi of 300)
• Crop and bleed marks – for printers to allow cutting and print bleed
• Keyboard short cuts
• Keeping photos scaled by having matching scaling percentages
• How to import links into a document and making sure they are not missing
• How to download a font and install it onto the Mac
• How to use image library, such as –
– Vector images (allow for the photo to be edited in Illustrator)
– Isolated images (those with a white background)
• Comp images (allow for the image to be previewed in the document before buying it from a stock photo provider)

I have really enjoyed my first week and already feel more confident with using Indesign. I am really grateful for the opportunity Jo has given me and can not thank her enough!!