Miles Thorpe: Fantastic Media

Miles Thorp, Head of Digital at Fantastic Media, is a former student of the University of  Huddersfield. His presence at this lecture was to give some helpful advice on upcoming placements and general importance on presentation and on how it can be beneficial in becoming a successful designer. This was incorporated with his success story, stating that he was the typical unorganised student and always tended to leave things to the last minute. He then carried on emphasising on the importance of keeping in contact with placements, even those which you don't intend on going to just as a reserve."Keeping in contact with placements allows yourself in the placements mind, keeping you one foot within the door. Just get noticed." He classed himself as rather fortunate in getting a place at Fantastic Media, saying because of his passion to learn and to always be willing to do additional work with his co-workers, he then managed to achieve his Head of Digital status. A key portion to Miles success is the invention of his portfolio site, Unifolio.

Unifolio is a free online portfolio aimed at creative students who are looking for a job or placement and allows themselves to showcase their work directly to the employer, much like the website Bechance but without the cost implications.

Photograph Of Miles During The Lecture

“No matter what technical skills you may have, if a client likes you, they will buy into you” - Miles Thorp

After talking about his success story with Fantastic Media, Thorp then talked briefly discussed about what things employers and placements alike look for. For instance, it was crucial that when applying for a placement that you submitted an online portfolio containing your best work, including some self made projects with real world applications, showing your understanding of how the process would work realistically. Fantastic Media in particular also admired designers who undertakes in learning new skills, allowing yourself to become much more dependable in situations, giving yourself more worth as a designer, as Throp stated "It doesn't matter if you are the very best at a particular field, as long as you can do it to a decent standard, your help would be a great assist when working with others in the company".

Something that stuck out during this lecture was how Thorp gave a set of questions which simplified my true intentions as an designer, understanding which placement would be best suited to myself, allowing me to at an early start on applying on the correct placements.

Miles Thorps Three Main Questions:

#1 What Do I Want To Do?

#2 What Do I Want To Learn?

#3 Where Do You Want To Do It?

Overall this brief lecture gave me a informed idea on how to go about the process of applying and working in a placement, what would be expected of me and what people are Fantastic Media are looking for. After this lecture I have decided that I will produce additional content out of lessons for my online portfolio, which will be developed on Bechance, this is because of Miles Thorp's Emphasis that it would give myself an edge over others. Furthermore, I also asked some questions post lecture and cleared some questions on how much content be displayed and if a large amount of research was required alongside a final product. Overall this brief lecture gave me a informed idea on how to go about the process of applying and working in a placement, what would be expected of me and what people are Fantastic Media are looking for. After this lecture I have decided that I will produce additional content out of lessons for my online portfolio, which will be developed on Bechance, this is because of Miles Thorp's Emphasis that it would give myself an edge over others. Furthermore, I also asked some questions post lecture and cleared some questions on how much content be displayed and if a large amount of research was required alongside a final product.

Photograph Of Miles Business Card
Images Sourced From - https://twitter.com/thorp88
Date Of Lecture 11 /11/ 2015