Daymedia 2014 work placement - Sam Gallagher

Since Chris founded Daymedia five years ago he has always welcomed and encouraged young talent – so last week we took on our youngest work placement student so far, Sam Gallagher.

Sam is currently studying at Oaklands College (St. Albans) striving his way towards becoming an undergraduate Graphic Design student at the University of Brighton. After becoming part of the Daymedia team for a week, we have no doubt he will get there.

Sam first impressed us with his well designed CV – which is an essential ingredient for anyone looking to venture into the design industry. But Sam’s CV was so impressive that there was no question about whether to interview him or not! And after meeting Sam in person and talking through his portfolio, we decided that he would be a great addition to the team.

Throughout the week, Sam tackled all the challenges we threw at him with ease and confidence – including getting to grips with new software, working with brand guidelines, experimenting with new ideas, client meetings and our secret lunchtime gaming sessions!

Before joining us Sam had very little experience with web design, but was able to quickly understand the various aspects web design involves such as user experience, accessibility and technological capabilities of the web.

Here’s what Sam had to say about his experience:

“In November, I was lucky enough to have worked alongside the digital design team at Daymedia for a week. This professional creative environment was a completely different experience to what I’ve grown accustomed to, studying at college. I hadn’t had a lot of experience in Web Design before my internship, but the team supported me in venturing outside of my comfort zone. They helped me to work within brand guidelines, but also taught me about aspects of design that I hadn’t considered before, and I’m enthusiastic to develop these skills further in the future.

I’m still unsure what field of design I want to specialise in, but the next step on my continuing journey to becoming a designer is University, which I’ll hopefully be starting next year. To work with the team and see how they tackled problems together was incredibly rewarding, and whether I go on to specialise in Web Design or not, experiences like this are why I believe I want a future in design.”

We were extremely impressed with Sam during his time at Daymedia and have absolutely no doubt that he will do well in the future. His skills have already been recognised as Sam became this years winner of the ACER Christmas card competition.

We would like to thank Oakland’s College for giving us the opportunity to work with Sam, and we hope to take on other work placement students in the future.