The document describes a student's experience completing a collaborative work placement assignment. The student struggled to initially find a placement but was eventually able to create an advertisement poster for a local nail technician startup. While the client gave the student creative freedom, communication broke down when the student tried to provide final details for the poster and did not receive a timely response. The student ultimately completed the assigned task but felt it did not push their skills or align with their personal interests. Lessons learned included seeking a placement earlier and with alternative contact methods to avoid similar communication issues.

1. Collaborative Work Placement By, James Cartwright

2. Chapter 1: Struggling to find a placement.. When I was first made aware of this assignment, I knew the most difficult part for me would be to find a placement. I asked around the family to see if they needed anything making, the answer was a solid no. Fast forward 3 weeks and I was starting to worry as I still didn’t have a placement.. Just when I was getting desperate, I was saved!

3. Chapter 2: My client Name: Deana Massey Business: Nail Technician I was made aware that Deana had recently started a nail business from home by my mum, so I decided to ask her if she would like an advertisement poster made, to try and generate some early interest in the business. She seemed grateful of the opportunity.

4. Chapter 3: Expectations & Needs When I talked to my client about her expectations of the poster, what she wanted it to look like, and what information she wanted on it, she was pretty lenient. I was allowed full creative freedom apart from one thing, she definitely wanted the prices and a contact number on there, which I had already decided would be. She was also very lenient about when the poster should be finished, and she placed no time constraints on me.

5. Chapter 4: Teaching myself new skills I decided to make the poster in Adobo Photoshop Cs5, as it is the industry standard, and I had just started to become proficient in the program. While I didn’t exactly teach myself new skills, I used some features of Photoshop I have never used before, mainly the Filters feature. I had recently seen a picture that had a lighting effect, and I was interested in trying it, therefore that is the filter I chose. I chose the Omni light as I was familiar with it, and after around 10 minutes I was happy with the effect I had produced. A simple technique to learn, but one that can add a lot to an image.

6. Chapter 5: Breakdown in communication Around a week after I first took up the placement, I had finished the poster. The only thing missing was the information that my client had asked to be put on. Therefore I used my only form of contacting her, and messaged her via Facebook. However, after a couple of days I had yet to receive a reply. This meant that I had to take the initiative and research prices. This also means that I have yet to show my client my poster, and am yet to get feedback. This is disappointing, but I am confident that my client will be happy with the product when I eventually show her it.

7. Chapter 6: Summary I would summarise my work placement as not being the best it could have been. I expected the placement to test my abilities and force me to learn new things, however, I found the placement I was given quite simple, and the skills I currently have saw me through it, with the exception of teaching myself how to use the Lighting Effects Filter. Overall it was disappointing.

8. Chapter 7: What I would change If we were to do this assignment again, the first thing I would do is to search for a client much earlier, and try to get more than one client to choose from. I would also find out exactly what each task entails, and to make sure to have more than one way to contact my client. The biggest difficulty I faced was communication with my client, sadly I didn’t have any way to fix this, and it was too late for me to find another client. I would also search for a task that I would enjoy more, I feel that I performed to the best of my abilities making this poster, but I don’t have any personal interest in fake nails, so it was difficult to get into it.