My Experience as a Digital Apprentice at Yellow Cherry
In October 2020 I finished my work experience with Yellow Cherry. I was then brought on to the team as a ‘Digital Apprentice’. This was a year-long position to learn the ropes within Yellow Cherry and further develop my talents under the wing of the Senior Designer, Ruairidh. I also get a lot of help and information from the Project Management Team, Louse and Natalie.
There was a lot to learn at the beginning. I had to completely change my outlook on projects as it was completely different to what I had learned in school. Previously, I could get an A in art class so long as I hit the fundamental basic ‘principles of design’. As long as I achieved that, it did not matter what I based my project on or created. That completely changed when I started creating designs at Yellow Cherry. I had to consider the client and their needs for their business. I admit, it took me a while to change my mindset when approaching design work, but the time to make mistakes was during my apprenticeship.
“You don't learn to walk by following the rules. You learn by doing and by falling over.”
- Richaed Brandson
I made a lot of mistakes during my apprenticeship, but I actually learnt more when I made a mistake in comparison to when I succeeded. I took these experiences with me to the next projects and used them to improve my work. I was very thankful for the time Ruairidh gave me after projects to break down where I went wrong, particularly in areas where I could work to improve my skills for the next time.
Most Memorable Projects
One of the first projects I worked on was rebuilding the Ardlogie site. We were tasked with rebuilding the site on a newer, up-to-date platform. The same styling and layout, just a rebuild of the old site from the ground up. I had some experience with WordPress and CSS before this from my work experience, but this was my first time building a site on my own from start to finish. I got some help and pointers from Sarah and Ruairidh, with some notes to watch out for. I made sure to jot down everything I learned. By the end, I had managed to build a fully functional site, almost identical to the old one, which the clients were happy about. In addition, I got a deeper understanding of CSS and some of the styling tools that can bring designs to the next level.
While Ardlogie helped my web building skills, the first task that helped improve my design skills was the first logo concept development I carried out with Ruairidh. This was for the Photography company, Core. Ruairidh took the lead on this project but got me to go through the process and create my concepts alongside him.
Unfortunately, none of my designs went to the client, but it was actually good that they didn’t! Ruairidh helped me by explaining how I need to develop my ideas to bring the designs multiple levels above any concepts other people could create. He helped break down his process from start to finish. His work, where he draws his ideas and, most notably, how he tried to develop his ideas out of the box to create something unique and never seen before.
This was the first time I had to sit back and rethink a bunch of my designs, as well as wrap my head around the ideas which Ruairidh had sparked. It was fantastic and opened a whole new world of design.
I remember one project that the whole team worked on together for two days straight to ensure it was completed in time. Although it was very hard work, it ended up paying off in the end. This project was the proposal we sent to ODx. As they were a big, brand-new company, they gave multiple design companies the chance to try and win them over as clients, so naturally, we threw our hats into the ring. I was in charge of designing the brochure and Ruairidh was in charge of writing and designing the cards as well as getting examples of our work together. Natalie and Louise were overseeing the content to go into the brochure in addition to keeping the rest of the team on track.
The brochure took me the full 2 days. It was 12 pages worth of content and work. It showed how we could use ODx’s branding to the best of its ability. Furthermore, who we are, our work, our clients and our services. Ruairidh helped point out design opinions I missed and tidy up any mistakes. Such a tight time limit put the difficulty of prioritising the crucial assets first into perspective. It is easy to get carried away with specific design elements and get caught up in making a page look perfect. With this project, I could not do that. I had to get the critical groundwork down first, then go back and fill in the middle to make sure we had a complete brochure. Once the essential work was finished, I could then use the last of the time to go back, clean up the design and make it look perfect before we sent it off to ODx. In the end, it was all worth it. We won the contract and ODx joined us to use our services.
The last project that sticks out during my time as an Apprentice, is my work on the Yellow Cherry rebrand. Ruairidh and Sarah ask me to create some animation work for the Yellow Cherry site. I was beyond excited about this as animation is my speciality and the area of work I always wanted to focus on. Although I knew all the principles of animation and had created full animations, I had never created an animation for a website before. I researched a lot of topics, programs, and articles to work out the best way to add animations to a website. Depending on the file type, there was the possibility of limitations on the way I needed to create the animation.
I ended up going with Adobe Animate for the animations as it could export animation files such as HTML5. This meant we could have animations on a page without it slowing it down or taking up lots of space. This could also make the animations interactive if needed. This opened doors for animation potential, not only for me, but for Yellow Cherry. It was the first exposure I had working in an area of expertise that I strived in. Although, I needed to view it in a new light and relearn almost everything I knew about animations.
There are hundreds of more projects I could go through. It is hard to sum up a year’s worth of experience and knowledge into a single blog post. Every project I worked on pushed me to do better, learn more and expand my knowledge. Not because I felt I had to, but because I could see the potential I could reach, along with the incredible work from the rest of the Yellow Cherry team around me and all the hard work they put into everything.
Overall…
I started my apprenticeship, hardly knowing CSS or HTML. Now, I am fully confident in my abilities to code CSS and HTML. I am even starting to learn JavaScript in my own time to improve my web design potential and my ability to create animated web elements.
I started off having never created a logo before, now I have been involved with 6 different logo developments. I have had my logo designs sent off to two different clients, plus, I have grown a lot in my abilities to draw new ideas and create unique designs. I had my whole view on project development flipped on its head. I’ve had to rethink an abundance of my choices to make sure I make full use of my time to complete a project within the time limits given. I have had to relearn skills I already knew and branch off my talents into new fields to create more opportunities, all to grow my potential for my work and what I can provide.
The lessons I have learned at Yellow Cherry are unforgettable. I learnt more in that year than I would have on any course at university or college. I got to do what I love for a living, and, even better, this is not the end of the journey! I have been kept on as a ‘Junior Designer‘. I get to keep expanding my talents every day and I am excited to see what the future has to hold for me.
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