I am the Senior Designer at Animade where I work on projects big and small, as well as looking after our brand identity, and I help out on some front-end development as well. I studied Graphic Design at Camberwell College of Arts, and am a self-taught web-developer. I also curate content for our digital design inspiration blog Hover States.

1. Burger King — 2 days in 2004
When I was a teen I worked in Burger King for 2 days. It wasn’t for me.

2. Office – Part-time 2008-2010
Living off a student maintenance loan in London doesn’t get you that far, so part-time work was essential, so I worked as a sales assistant selling shoes. It wasn’t for me.

3. INT Works (It’s Nice That) Intern — Late 2011
I joined INT Works as an intern for 3 months in 2011, just after graduating from Camberwell College of Arts that summer. It was meant to be only a few weeks at first, but they wanted to keep me on for an extended period, which turned into a short freelancing stint. This was the first job which started my “career” as it is now.

4. Freelance — Early 2012
After It’s Nice That I freelanced for a few months, and worked on projects with my fellow It’s Nice That intern James Cartwright under the moniker ‘Official Business’.

5. Animade — 2012-Present
In June 2012 I joined Animade, known then as Chambers Judd. I saw their job posting which read “If you like design and the internet, then come work for us”, which bluntly described me. I also wanted to work somewhere which was small and growing, so Animade was perfect. Since then it has grown from 4 of us to 15 which has been a great experience for me being one of their first employees and watching it grow. My most recent project here has been leading our rebrand, which we handled all in-house. This included refreshing the visual identity and designing the new website, and other internal tools and stationery.

Connect with Mike on Twitter here.

Photo credit: Alex Harley

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We’ve asked professionals in creative industries what jobs they have had in the past to get their foot through the door (or at least pay the rent). For more in the “My First 5 Jobs” series look here.

Graphic Design Festival Scotland is back for a second year with a brand new programme of workshops, talks, exhibitions, competitions, murals and music taking place in the Lighthouse, Glasgow between Monday 19 – Sunday 25 October. The festival is run by James Gilchrist and Beth Wilson of Glasgow-based design practice, Warriors Studio.

The festival encompasses more than traditional graphic design with filmmaking, animation, advertising, coding and web design, print making and illustration offering something for creatives at all levels. Expect workshops from It’s Nice That (London), HelloMe (Berlin), Colophon (NY & London), Workhorse Press (Edinburgh), CodeBase (Edinburgh), The Rodina (The Hague) and Kate Moross/Studio Moross (London) to name a few.

The Live 2-Day project gives young designers the opportunity to work on a Live project, set by Danielle Pender of Riposte magazine, while receiving one-to-one advice and direction from 11 of Scotland’s top creative agencies before having your work reviewed by creative titans; It’s Nice That, Creative Review, Creative Scotland and Danielle herself.

Alongside the workshops and projects GDFS are teaming up with It’s Nice That to offer a night of music from a selection of record labels and promoters; ranging from up-and-coming artists through to well established international labels combined with a realtime visual performance on the Saturday night. Karl Toomey and Jamie McIntyre from It’s Nice That/INT Works, along with VJ and animator, Charlie Doran will be remixing and manipulating a body of visual work, live.

For those looking for an earlier night, the International Poster Exhibition, featuring the 100 top posters from GDFS International Poster Competition opens with music and drinks on Friday night. The competition this year received 3432 submissions from 83 countries and will be judged by Tony Brook (Spin), Adrian Shaugnessy, Erich Brechbuhl and Warriors Studio. The top 100 posters will be exhibited throughout GDFS at The Lighthouse until 7 November.

A conference and panel discussion with all studios running 2-Day workshops will be facilitated by Rob Alderson before an evening of drinks and music to end the weekend on Sunday afternoon.

Alongside the core programme at The Lighthouse, don’t miss Off Grid – a showcase of new work by multi-disciplinary artists/designers/makers/communicators on display at Southblock from 20 October – 17 November.

You can see the full programme of events online here and book here.

More: Website | Facebook | Twitter

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Find more events in our weekly bulletin here.

First Broadcast is split into the following categories:
Between the Lines is a series of films that try and capture the people behind publications. Filmed in situ, these shorts aim to explore how publishers’ spaces and personalities inform and inspire they way they work.

Laura Bradley is commissioning editor of AnOthermag.com. See her interview here.

Laura Bradley

Here is a fast-paced festival of creativity held at London’s Royal Geographical Society where great creative talents were given a platform to share their insights and inspirations. With more than 600 delegates from across the creative industries, Here has become an exciting addition to the annual conference calendar.

Watch Documentary filmmaker, Carol Morley discuss the amount of research that goes into her works here.

In Progress looks back on the themes, projects and ideas that defined the year just gone and questions how they might shape the year ahead. Held at London’s Barbican Centre, the conference attracts speakers from a whole host of disciplines and delegates from across the creative industries.

Take a look at curator of the London 2012 Festival, Ruth Mackenzie here.

Beauty In the Making was an event celebrating creative artistry hosted by GFSmith in London in the spring of 2012. As part of the programme, It’s Nice That was invited to host a series of talks so they asked some of the most interesting minds to give a short, sharp dose of inspiration on any subject they wished at the 5×8 sessions, five talks, each just eight minutes long…

Mr Bingo is an iconoclastic illustrator who’s renowned for his take-no-prisoners approach and projects like Hate Mail whereby he sent abuse to strangers. Find out about the 16 humorous ideas for talks which he considered, then rejected here.

First Broadcast are keen to hear from talented and enthusiastic filmmakers, editors and video journalists – you can contact them using the information below…

11—13 Bateman’s Row, London EC2A 3HH
hello@first-broadcast.com
+44 (0)20 7739 5222

More: Website

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For more creative delights we’ve Spotted on the web take a look here.