Bareface Media Work Placement Report

In January 2012, I completed a two week work placement at a company called, Bareface Media, who specialise in services such as website design, online marketing, social media marketing and graphic design. This digital marketing agency works with various organisations and companies from solicitors firms to manufactures, to create an effective corporate identity and house style. Ultimately, Bareface Media helps their clients receive more customers and awareness within society.

My role when working with Bareface Media was to be an Account Executive. This involved performing routine tasks within the office to help the agency’s work run smoothly and effectively. I worked alongside the professionals in the office and completed a number of specific tasks. One major job of mine was to write website content for one of Bareface Media’s clients. This manufacturing company specialises in locks, hinges and latches and Bareface Media were assigned to create and design a website for this client. My role was to provide all of the written content which would appear on the website. I found this task very difficult, as I did not know anything about the subject area of locks, hinges and latches. I had to research the topic to help with my writing. I also found writing website content a lot harder than I thought it would be. The words had to be eye-catching, dynamic and effective to grab the reader’s attention when online. After completing this task, I learnt the important techniques needed to write an ideal piece for the client's website. To add to this, I realised that I did not want to work on written website content in a future career, especially if it is on a topic I am unfamiliar with.

I learnt even more about this client when the Managing Director provided me with a short presentation in regards to all the different types of customers. He explained how we should be aiming the website towards these customers. I learnt a lot from this presentation. I did not realise how many different types of clients there were for some companies. It was really fascinating to receive in depth knowledge on the background of this industry.

Another task I was given to complete was to receive a number of printing quotes from various printing companies. Bareface Media needed four A3 glossy sheets to give to a client. This involved me researching local printers and communicating with them over the telephone. I then compared all of the price quotes to find out which was the best value. It was important to discuss deadlines with the printing companies to ensure that the documents would be ready for the desired date. Further to this, I had a different task to complete which also involved communicating on the telephone. This time I had to take messages for the Managing Directors whilst they were busy in meetings. I was very nervous when first completing these jobs as I have never felt confident talking over the telephone. However, I believe these small tasks raised my confidence significantly and improved my communication skills, particularly over the telephone.

Whilst on my work placement at Bareface Media, I was given a variety of tasks involved with website design. I learnt how to create site maps, which are planned layouts of the pages within a website. I had no idea such planning and organisation went into the structure of a website. I believe this task made me more aware of the website planning process. I also edited a number of photos for Bareface Media’s mobile site by using Adobe Photoshop. This consisted of me altering the size and shape of image files. I had not experienced the use of this software before, so I gained a number of new technological skills when completing this task. To add to this, I received an insight into website design by observing my colleagues at work. It looked extremely complicated, detailed and confusing which has encouraged me to not want to work in the website design industry in the future.

Further to this, I was asked to create a site map for a client who Bareface Media were meeting with in the office. I had to work quickly and effectively under pressure, as the site map needed to be completed under a time scale for a deadline later in the day. I got an idea of what working to deadlines felt like when conducting this job. I found this very pressurising. However, when delivering the work on time to good standard, I felt very pleased and proud of myself which was extremely rewarding.

Conducting job sheets was another task given to me. Job sheets record and file every task Bareface Media has to complete. The date opened, whether the job is active, the client it is for, the job number and who made the sale are all written on the job sheets. This helps the agency keep track of their jobs. This is some of the only information written on paper within Bareface Media, so it was important to complete this task accurately. I also had to check whether these jobs were written on Bareface Media’s Excel files and add any to the grid that were missing. This gave me a huge insight into the organisation behind a business. I found it interesting to see the hidden tools of Bareface Media.

One task I found extremely interesting was helping a colleague create and design a brochure for a client on Adobe InDesign. We had been given all of the information and images to place inside the brochure. Our job was to organise the layout and to make the brochure look visually dynamic. I had completed very similar work to this in a university degree module, so it was great to see these techniques used in the working world rather than in the classroom.

On a whole, I would evaluate my performance at Bareface Media positively. I believe I learnt many new skills quickly, as I was experiencing new environments and blended into the company very well. I feel that I put in as much effort as I possibly could and completed tasks to the best of my ability. I also think that I multi-tasked to good standard, due to completing a variety of jobs at the same time. Further to this, I believe I applied skills I learnt in the classroom at university, to help complete tasks effectively whilst on work placement.

Abbey Hartley