A Taste of Things to Come: work experience with the Peaches

My week of work experience at Giant Peach digital agency was both engaging and intriguing and has given me an insight into how marketing and design can influence a business, and the decisions that it makes, especially the visual ones.

I wanted to experience a working environment, with an emphasis on marketing and photography, as this is what I want to do in the future. In reality, I got much more than that: from the fact that successful does not have to be a stereotypical, pressurized atmosphere, with an emphasis on silence and relentless deadlines! Or, how to edit a block of video into a ‘best bit’ collation; something which I thought was a lot more daunting than it actually is, especially when I had the expert guidance of the Peaches!

I started by making them some extra money – selling their old computers and equipment, something that introduced me to the expanse of camera equipment, and photo capturing programs that I would go on to use later in the week. I then edited and cut out segments of video for clients. I found this particularly fascinating because I have always had the preconception that editing photos and video is like squeezing blood out of a rock, but once I got the hang of it, it was very rewarding.

For me though, the best part of the week came half way through, when I sat in on a creative meeting, and participated in brainstorming and organising the needs for the ‘International Food and Drink Event’ photo shoot for the following day, something that I also helped with. I didn’t realise just how much equipment and preparation was needed for professional photos, but it was definitely great to see the process that the Peaches go through to achieve the images they do.

Overall though, this week has given me an exceptional insight into a job that I want to pursue in the future. I think that I particularly benefitted from being so involved, especially being part of the office, and being trusted to make decisions on how the photos should be presented. Hopefully I’ll be back again soon.