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My initial thoughts when starting the work placement module were very unsure as I didn’t quite know what sector to focus on or go into. I also worried about how to approach these places as I had little knowledge of how to professionally be seen. Furthermore, I knew my CV needed work in terms of one when applying for a creative job in this industry, when I just had a regular cv.

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This tutorial with David helped me map out the ideas on the routes I would like to take in terms of my experience.

Overall we narrowed it down to Media, Design, Leisure and Entertainment. We then discussed the places that would fit into these; Lounge clothing which I know the university does a lot with and BigCat marketing. These were two types of brands that were outside of the expertise and skills I had.

It was at this point I realised, that I needed to venture outside what skills and knowledge I already had. This would make me more adaptable and useful to any career I went into, because I would have a lot ok knowledge and connections.

My plan was now to research around Birmingham for places I haven’t heard of and for businesses I wouldn’t think to do some experience in.

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Escape Now

Secret Spaces

Fazeley Studios

Red Brick Markets

Custard Factory

The Rainbow Venues

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Since living in Birmingham, I hadn’t really explored the area of Digbeth properly. I understood that it was the creative side of Birmingham, yet I’d never gone to look around at all the smaller companies growing around there.

I decided to use the mapping task I learn’t during last year to identify some of the key places that interested me at first sight. My next step was to look into them further, or have a look around the area for myself.

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Back in DFP, I completed a module where I designed my own escape room in a team. This project was very exciting and a brief unlike anything we’d previously done. When I saw an escape room in Digbeth is stuck out because I’d never thought about working for one, and seeing how they function and are made.

I was starting to realise I wanted to see how businesses functioned and not so much about the designing of them. Seeing the roles of each member and how they worked together for different sectors is what intrigued me.

I later found out whilst walking here that it was closed for a while and so I continued to research.

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Escape Now Escape Rooms in Birmingham | QH Birmingham

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Escape Now is in Birmingham and currently offers 3 games.

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I expected Fazeley studios to be a film or content studio, but upon further research I found that it is a venue hiring place, which accommodates for various events and audiences. Things like weddings, corporate meetings, cafe setting and a bar room. I liked the idea of a fully functioning space and so I looked further into studios like this one with more of an artistic flair rather than just providing a service. I found Secret Spaces.

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This former warehouse and church was reimagined in the early 2000s to create a stunning venue in the heart of Digbeth, located under the soaring ceilings of the church or overlooking over the courtyard.

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Looking into Secret Spaces I was really intrigued when I first saw it’s website. Also, it truly was a hidden away location in Digbeth, and I would have never realised that it was such an adaptable and huge space when I first came across it!

They have 3 separate rooms to hire all of different size and personality. The events they’ve held previously were things like boxing matches, puppy therapy, dance conventions, art shows and artisan markets. It’s diverse use of the space and it’s ability to hold so many different events really appealed to me and I was immediately interested to know what went on behind the scenes and how the team functioned. This was one I wanted to reach out to.

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Secret Space : Digbeth : BHX Performance & Event Venue

Welcome, we are an independent licensed multipurpose event space, 4 rooms in Digbeth, Birmingham (BHX) Past and present events: Bingo, Vintage Clothes, Music and Dance videos, that Jungle Plant pop up, Jamaican Independence festival, Comedy Night, COBO with Guz Khan / Richard Blackwood, The Sistine Chapel Exhibtion and Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Opera ! Who knows what may come next. Stay tuned and sign up to our newsletter, at the bottom of this page.

Be the first to hear about our next events and for discounted drinks/tickets.

See you all soon........... for event or film hire enquiries click here

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secret space digbeth venue to hire warehouse industrial

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secret space digbeth venue to hire warehouse industrial

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From my tutorial David had introduced to me BigCat marketing agency as I had some interest in advertising too but hadn’t know much about it.

BigCat agency is a marketing and creative advertising agency at the heart of the city centre, right near the arts building. The element that drew me to it was it’s work around pop ups, specifically around the bull ring. I had always stumbled across these and wandered who designed and ran them, and so I was excited to find out this was the company.

Upon looking into it I had realised it’s now an agency joined up with Spottydog, another communications company for marketing. So the two had become a brand new version that was called LeopardCo.

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Marketing & Creative Advertising Agency | Birmingham

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We’re an agency of strategists, creatives and communications experts. Together, we come up with ideas that change your business for the better.

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There were a few places I already knew of from my time in Design For Performance, and these were places that we constantly talked about and visited. They were things like the Hippodrome, Film studios, NEC and ICC.

I used these as a basis of my list of places to approach as I knew of these and had recognised how big of a company and well known they were to Birmingham. These were more design based companies as I wanted to mix of industry work in terms of organisation and management as well as creativity.

My aim was to gather as many places I could to reach out to so that I had a broad scope of connections and possibilities. I knew it was going to be a difficult chance of getting into one thats why I wanted lot’s of options.

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LeopardCo now represents both agencies combining marketing and public communications to become a marcoms company. They had a broad sector of work they do for extremely different brands. Things like creativity, public relations, social media, advertising and strategy all of which was tailored to the companies that came forward to them.

They had worked with familiar brands like O’Neils and Twycross zoo, and so I was intrigued to find out what type of work they do and how this is divided with the teams. I had never thought about a company like this so the idea of having experience within a tech based and research company seemed a good idea. I am fond of research and organisation, and I also thought it was a good idea to explore what existed within the centre of town along with Digbeth. So that i was getting a wide scope of learning and experience.

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From my research and exploring of the creative industries within the city centre, Digbeth and I had narrowed down a list of places I wanted to approach by emailing.

LeopardCo - email

Secret Spaces - instagram

BBC

NEC

ICC

Hipodrome

Gallow Glass

Birmingham Film Studio

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I stumbled across Gallow Glass on Indeed Jobs, when I saw it was hiring. It was an events crew workplace fitting, designing and managing events and stages all over. This was the most exciting company to me as I was drawn to the audience it had created for. Places like Cirque du Soleil, RSC, ITV and the Royal Albert Hall. It had 3 divided sections crewing, safety and training. I knew the work was going to be difficult and physically hard, but I thought the more adventurous I am and the more I try new things the further it will get me.

The work consisted of analysing and creating plans for big halls and spaces, and then fitting the stages or designs in to fit the needs of the company. It was keeping in line with my design passions but also my business interests of functionality and management in a very practical environment.

I wanted to explore the way the team functioned through the whole journey of securing and finishing an event or experience. The whole idea of a process is what I wanted to know most about during this placement as it’s something that changes with every company. Being able to merge into different situations and adapt to them with ease is essential for an ever growing industry.

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Across the placement I wanted to make sure I had some aims and goals to keep check of to make sure I was getting the most out of the module:

Grow in confidence

Step outside of my comfort zone

Ask questions connecting to my project

Network

Complete work to the best standards

Keeping connection to the company

Focusing on team collaboration, workload and organisation across the company.

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15/10/24

Within this meeting we went through my extremely old CV. I was given points on how to make this a better version, talking of what people in the industry are expecting to see. This was my focal point of the meeting, as I wasn’t sure what any employer was looking for in such a diverse and creative industry.

My main points were:

The summary must be clear and concise explaining what you want to achieve in the industry.

Next should be your experience section. The order should go from most recent to previous. The date should be clear and first with the company in bold. Keep the point below not what you did but the skills you used there.

Achievements - make this more concise not too long.

Skills - make these the skills valuable in the industry so what software can you use or what knowledge you have.

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I was intrigued into creative CV writing, thats why I asked for some guidance on this. We also talked about when you would know when to apply using a creative cv and how this would be taken. So my aim was to update my normal CV then potentially experiment with the creative one.

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I’ve added an extension to my summary tailoring it to what I want to get out of my career and being in Birmingham.

I have changed the layout to be more concise and sophisticated, keeping it all consistent.

My skills box is a mix of all the skills i’ve gathered at university. Which has also helped me realise what I need to work on and gain during this work experience.

I’ve kept my achievements relevant and clear in what I got from them.

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25/11/24

This meeting focused on my struggles on how to approach a company and what to say in an email. I knew I needed to get their attention but not sound to informal. I wanted to appear willing and excited to join but also that I had a lot of knowledge in the work and learning.

So we went on how to structure and write a cover letter which I could format as my email and not a document. We went through some examples which were extremely helpful so I had a clear idea how to start approaching the companies as soon as possible. I aimed to email before the new year so that I was prepared to start in January, as I knew this was a busy period.

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We went through the BCU webpages for finding connections to workplaces and previous links they’d had within each industry. These were sent over to me to take a look into in my own time, but also we went through the offers that come in looking for placements and apprenticeships, so it was useful to narrow down what I wanted.

We were able to tailor the searches to art, film production and media.

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By looking into each sector it gave a brief information about the industry and it’s needs, but also what that could lead to in job roles and positions. Then if you went onto them it would explore further the requirements and some examples, there location varied.

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I then asked if she looked into my CV as I thought it would be a good idea to get a second opinion and view onto my updated version. She confirmed everything looked very good, and that my next steps were to create cover letters ready to email out.

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16 creative studios in Birmingham to have on your radar

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In search of relevant and inspiring workplaces in the UK, we highlight creative companies – new studios, agencies and more – in Birmingham.

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After writing and adapting each cover letter and message I began sending them out to the companies I had found. These were all at different times.

Responses were varied some taking very long, or very quick but others I still hadn’t heard off.

If I could start emailing by before Christmas time it gave me a head start before the new year and way before the module had started.

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I messaged on Instagram where I was sent the email to speak to the management.

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After sending my email I recieved an interview date and time.

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From LeopardCo, I was able to join them for experience, although it was limited for 3 days only. I decided to take it on board and use my other option for the hours.

My dates were the 18th to the 20th of March, and was also invited to the open house event for networking on the evening of the 18th.

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18/2/25

The interview consisted of the usual questions about myself, and looking over my CV to establish what I would bring to the company.

I also had the chance to ask what was expected of my and so we both formed a list on what we would achieve:

Choose a list of events to attend

Instagram content

Photos of venue

Report Feedback on company

Set up an event

Take down an event

Produce content during events

Help the team

Guide them

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From then on I researched and created a list of the events I would like to attend. These were boxing games, a political speech, yoga and Holi event.

These were a wide range of activities happening, and so I made sure the variety was good ensuring I gathered experience in all situations and experience, to see how the place adapted and worked for them.

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9:30-4:30 - I made my way into the office and was greeted by the lady I was emailing; Lex Williams. She showed me around the office and introduced me to the whole team. They had the marketing team, communication team, graphic designers and artists and then the management. There was a lot of spaces for meetings, separate work pods and cool/wind down rooms to relax. The space was very open and had a lovely teamwork atmosphere.

I was then placed at one of the desks surrounded by other worker, and was introduced to my mentor Amelia Willets. She used to also be an intern and so it was lovely to have a talk to her about how she managed to secure her job, and how she found the work.

After that, I was given my first task of the day.

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This day focused on the PR work at LeopardCo. Whether a company choses to advertise using this method, it is the style of writing you do and research you look into that sets yours apart.

My task was to write a PR report on a new steakhouse in Solihull. I needed to research the company and it’s competitors and decide how much of it I would use in the report. I was given examples of the same work done for previous companies by the team.

I’d gotten this done after lunch when I sent it to some member and they gave me some feedback.

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Taking on board the feedback I edited the changes that needed to be made.

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Then after this, my next task was to create a media list of media companies that would be appropriate for sending these off too. For example if the new restaurant is opening here, I would send it to a publishing company in France.

This involved researching familiar stories like my one to make that connection. This is what the company would do before they send these off, and the team leader would confirm them in a team meeting. These happened regularly to make sure the right changes were made.

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These were the lists I created and I found a lot of information on Birmingham live which was something I wasn’t familiar with, so it was nice to work around this. They said they had a lot of connections to this media company too!

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Overall, I really enjoyed my first day here, it was probably my favourite, as I actually really enjoyed the whole process of the day and writing the piece.

I was opened up to a process of the media company in which I had no idea existed. I just thought journalists write the reports in the media and not companies like these at the request of the owners. I learn’t a lot about the processes in this company which were really useful.

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The open house even was later on in the evening, where we were given a presentation about the company and what it is about. We spoke with the owners and they mentioned the work here and its’ brand values and aims were. Two of its members then gave a speech on their personal journey in the company which was useful and inspiring.

There was then an exercise of networking where we could talk to the team, I went straight to the design team as I had spoke to them the least whilst being there, and I was able to get a great perspective on my project work.

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Today was all about the social media aspect of the company. I was given an electic car battery company and had to thoroughly research them and their competitors. Then looking at a precise document, you would have to decide what media to use to advertise this. Using excel you would create a monthly overview of when and what you are posting on what platform. This would be complete with caption, hashtags and links. So that when it came to that day you were ready to go, and this could be checked beforehand.

I spent most of the morning researching everything about the company and it’s competitors, this was extremely in depth. I then analysed the social media accounts and posts already made to get a feel for the type of aesthetic they wanted and followed. This did take a long time, but I can see why it was so helpful for being prepared to keep on top of events and whats going on. Keeping consistent is the main struggle for companies.

I then planned 5 posts for the month of April for LinkedIn and X. It was good to plan for platforms i’d never really thought about, but it’s so important to stay consistent across all platforms in this industry. I had to be very creative but also informative throughout this making them catchy and suited to that specific platform. My indeed posts were longer, whereas for X they were short and brief due to it’s scrolling nature.

This was all checked off and I was given pointers on what others do for this, and was given examples. I did not have time to put this into the excel document due to the extent of the research required. My document was checked off and I was given lot’s of pointers for the best approach.

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Whilst completing the task on producing posts, one of my main questions was how you would chose the days to post on. I was given a LeopardCo marketing calendar, which was made by the graphics team to identify what other happenings were occurring globally that you could connect your post to. I found this so amazing as it’s something I would have never thought of. From this I used it to schedule my posts. For example if its national walk to work day I could link this to the positive effect for the environment just like the electric car battery company I was helping.

It was a very handy tool and I even thought it would come in handy when doing my major project.

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Today was a very busy day with lot’s of research and facts to learn about. Thats one thing about the company is that everyday you will be working on different companies who do completely different things, and so you’ll constantly be working on different things at different times. It’s useful to be able to adapt in these conditions.

I found today very helpful in terms of supporting my major project, as I got to see some tips on how to use social media properly and how to plan for it. Also, I was also to look at the designers work which used similar software to what I’ve learnt, and so it was really beneficial to get a view for more professional advertising pieces.

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On this day I had the task of setting up a Campaign for All Bar One who wanted to spread awareness for 24-34 year olds to use their bar as a working space. With free coffee with any lunch purchased and free wifi.

I went through their system of using power point, which was what they use, to target the Campaign title, brief, audience research, my approach, cascading the comms and measuring success. My main aim was to make sure I created something that fit with the brief, was fun and attractive and also spread awareness and was manageable.

I came up with an influencer event and talk, with Q&A with speakers from different industries and backgrounds. I called this the ‘power hour club’.

I had to put everything together that i’d learnt from the days before to form this. It’s something the team does regularly for each client but to a larger scale and in much more detail. My ideas were brief, but it taught me the notions of getting a brief, to developing it to then seeing the final result pay off.

There was lot’s to think about during this task, but I was told the main emphasis was on creativity by creating an event that would help spread more awareness and bring in more customers. I needed to keep my audience in mind and what the task required.

Again the team would meet regularly and feed this back to the company to make sure they were on board with the idea too. Keeping that connection and progress was really useful in making sure they were getting the most out of the company in terms of what they wanted.

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Overall, today was a hard day, with lot’s to think about, by tying all the knowledge I’d gathered from the experience. My whole time at Leopard was very eye opening and useful for my future and major project. I learn’t things in an environment and company, I never thought i’d be in and so I had learnt so many news skills which I can transfer.

It was great to see how the team functioned together and how everyone collaborated on skills and knowlegde.

However, from this I did realise being in an office setting all day was not something I particularly wanted. The workload and content was extremely heavy and I found myself feeling overwhelmed and exhausted at time. Although it was very stimulating and exciting!

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I was given the whole day to get familiar with the company and the building. I was given a complete tour of the area and the building looking at all the different rooms and facilities.

From then on, me and the owner Kam established a plan, what did he need help with? And how was I going to be useful?

We decided together as Secret Spaces was a family run Independent small business, building awareness was the most important. So establishing a connection to this and his audience was going to be essential. I suggested an interview or photos taken of the team to introduce on the instagram stories, but he was against the idea of having his face up.

I then suggested I needed to see the space in action and meet more of the team.

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On this day I came in off my own choice to take some images of the building when no event was going on. This was something not present on the instagram or website, which I knew was another essential step towards helping them build themselves and attract people.

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I decided to do my own research on the companies use of social media. I understand the company is a small and very creative force as they host such a lovely range of events for so many audiences. Yet it never seemed to show that off.

The socials consisted of reposts from the companies renting the space, and no of their own original content, which I was deciding to take.

I needed to see the space function during an event to get a feel for this.

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I believed before coming into the company to meet with the Creative team dealing with the social media, pictures, designs and layouts. But I soon came to find this did not exist!

I was told the management of all of this was done by the owner himself, who had no experience in any of this. This is when I realised my time here was going to be very self directed and a lot of the evaluative and support work was going to be done in my own time.

I met the person in charge of the building checks and organisation of events who was called John Riley. He did a lot of work ensuring the building was always up to it’s best standards of the client. I spoke to him in depth about how the journey from a client coming in to completing the event. I was surprised to have found that he would set up a meeting after all the online forms were completed, and he would write up and sketch some ideas on the spot. There was no software or research done before, so this surprised me a lot.

Then I met the rest of the team who were students working at the bar. I asked them a series of questions about the work here and issues they had but they all came back positive, as they only worked on the bar. I was looking for more creative roles.

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One of the most intriguing elements was how a client would offer it’s interest and book out the event. Me and the owner Kam sat down to do this every session, working on their requirements and next steps.

The client would complete a lot of forms, I was told to go through, to register interest. The owner would then back and forth message for more information and specifics. Once confirmed and deposit was made, after this it was two final payments, the owner would log the date into his planner. This was done on his laptop through the calendar.

It was interesting to see this process and I believe it could have been more organised or even over a teams call or in person meeting to not get lost in transaction.

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I filled out a client request form, acting as if I was a customer in order to understand this process.

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Measurements unclear

Small photos

No empty hall photos

Needs to be divided a page for each

Very unclear

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It would be better to have a broche

Lot’s of information

The small text at the bottom is unreadable

Have images next to visual elements like food

Spread this out to be more concise and clear

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No images to support

Limited technical drawing ability

Needs to be re organised

Very brief

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I’m focusing on the three main events I did as these were the largest.

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Setting up, Running and putting the events away

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Setting up, Running and putting the events away

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I wrote this in my own time to give a professional and clear outside opinion of the company from a creative point of view.

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Overall, this placement was very eye opening, especially for my major project, and it’s what inspired me to create my small business guide to creative industries. I saw a small company in need of some uplifting and educating, as a whole they had a good foundation but needed to improve on their marketing side. This could be due to their lack of a creative team to direct this. They had so much potential to grow and experiment they just need to be confident and show then way. The team lacked cohesion and creativity throughout the company, which showed in the elements of the building.

The work and experience helped me understand the notions of how events are run from start to finish and that whole process. It also showed me methods of project management and organisation by actually putting my skills to use and building on them.

I used my guide as part of the working hours I committed, as i spent a long time working on this to present to companies like this who really needed to help and support along with encouragement.

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In terms of getting the events ready, there was a series of pre checks involved. These meant that we went around the whole building, even the outside, and made sure there was nothing in the way or causing a hazard.

The next job was to open up all of the larger shutter doors were opened at the front and back, for easy access of larger items of set and equipment. It also ensured the entrance of the event could be prepared with the metal gates for any que and a small smoking area.

We then guided and supported with the unloading and spacing out of equipment to the places already established in the building.

There was then the setting up where things were either being built or arranged.

We then made sure everything was secure and out of the way of any entrances or fire exits.

The final checks were the toilet.

Then it was time to debrief with the teams. These were security, bar staff and event clients.

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Once we had made sure the event had come to an end and everyone had left safely, it was now time to start working on the take down of the events and cleaning up.

Again, it depended when the scheduled removal vans and cars were set to arrive, but usually, if there was an event happening the morning after it needed to be done straight away. For example, the boxing event ended at 1am and the Holi event was scheduled for 9am that same day and so the stage and everything needed to go immediately. The best way of figuring out and solving this problem was to move and work as fast as possible. I kept asking what I should be doing to ensure all help was given. The jobs consisted of helping carry things to removal van, cleaning up, moving tables and chairs around and then once more completing the health and safety checks before leaving again.

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It was up to the client and depending on how much they needed to do, for when they wanted to come and set up.

For the bigger events like the boxing and Holi events the clients came in the afternoon before to set some of their things up. For example thing ring, stage, runway and DJ was all set up a day before the event, so that when the event time came around there wasn’t any delays.

Also, with the Holi event as they were having a lot of food, in which they were cooking outside throughout the event, they needed a lot of prep time and areas around the building. This meant that we had to clear and block of a lot of areas allocated to these specifics.

It’s very easy to see that with each events there was a lot of different specific details that needed to attended to and worked around. It was this quick thinking ability that you needed to have to work around issues and cater to them.

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This event was a very big and loud event taking place from 5:30pm to 1am. With over 150 people, they used the bar room and the main hall room where the stage, runway and DJ were. In the bar room they had hired a food company to host along with the event. This meant there was lots of crowds moving form one room to the other whilst the fight was going on. I aimed to take content based around how the rooms were being used for the event, showing it’s potential. I tried to work around showing content of the event as that is not what the company needs to advertise, it’s the space it’s offering and what events it can adapt for.

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This was my favourite event to help with, and definitely the largest and most fun. It had over 500 guests using all 3 rooms!

The entrance/reception room was used to hand out the community tshirts and there was also a huge photo wall where photoshoots were going on. The bar room was used to promote some of the companies supporting the event and where the bar was. Then the main haul was where all the food, dancing and seats were. There was a huge stage in the centre and seating around the edge. It was a very lively and fun event with so much colour and excitement.

Again with my content I focused on how the rooms were being adapted to fit with their use, and showing the potential to suit every customers needs especially as this one had such a large food catering element.

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This event was one of the smallest and easiest to run. The main haul was used and they just required the main stage and seating around it.