Portfolio Visit 7 - Paul Rose & Chris Platt

Portfolio visit 7

Paul Rose & Chris Platt

Rapport Events

Hilton Street, Manchester

Today I met Paul and Chris at Rapport Events in Manchester, an ideas led agency for whom Chris is the creative director and Paul is the senior designer. The introduced themselves as looking to ‘give something back’ and also to recruit new emerging talent on potential projects (and silly me didn’t order business cards in time!)

Both were extremely pleasant guys who were down to earth and relatable, coming straight from the print room wasn’t such a bad idea after all as even they were in jeans.

As I started to show them my portfolio it immediately became apparent that they were drawn in by my work. The Uganda images were striking and clearly held their attention whilst the collaged elements were ‘workable’ and offered lots of ‘potential’. I have started to create a set of these elements now including the spider, grasshopper and ladybird from last year in addition to the frog, apple and bird from the Grimm’s brief. They reckon that these are what the Guardian will be particularly interested in. However, owing to their craftsmanship and tactility that they could see on the very 2D paper, they asked if I by chance had the originals. Luckily, (and it was lucky as I was scanning them in this morning) I did. The one piece of advice they did offer was to take my sketchbook with me to any future portfolio visits as they in particular find the originals and the ideas behind them etc much more interesting than the final piece, although the final piece obviously shows its refinement etc.

They liked the reverse stitched type which I used for the James and the Giant Peach redesign for Puffin in 2011, but they didn’t see the need to include the stitched type I created for Grimm’s fairy-tales. One, it didn’t stand up to the former and two it had already been done earlier on in the portfolio and added nothing new to the table. I think that these are very valid points and will no doubt take it out after today. That was the only criticism that they offered though, the rest was very positive feedback.

Both guys cottoned on to the style that I am starting to develop with the collaged characters and they feel that it will work very well in a design environment. They feel that it works better than the painterly work seen in the Uganda project and is something to pursue.

When they asked about promotional materials, I told them of my plans to create coasters with my design on one side and contact details on the reverse so that the mailing I send has a purpose and not a ‘throw away’ design – it is something that can be used and kept. They were definitely interested in these! Maybe sending one when they’re finished would be a good idea seeing as I didn’t have a business card with me this time around. I definitely need to have these sorted for the trip to London later on in the month.

All in all a very good portfolio visit, thanks to both guys for giving me some of their precious time. With a bit of luck I may be on their contact list for future work, fingers crossed.

You can find more information about Rapport Events Manchester at http://rapportevents.com/