Pazzy joined us for a week back in 2014 for a work experience placement. he originally wanted to learn web design and development but it became clear very quickly that he preferred the creative side of web design and has been with us (on and off) ever since!
He’s now at Exeter University studying physics and maths but still loves to design.
Here is his story, in his own words:
Write up of my experience at the cube lab
For the last three years, I have been fortunate enough to have been involved in working alongside the guys at the Cube Lab, focussing on logo design, branding and graphic design. Over the last three years, I have gained an invaluable amount of experience in working in an office environment, developing focussing skills, working with clients and (possibly most importantly) learning how to make a drinkable cup of coffee! (Added by Steve: “yeah, his first few cups of coffee were atrocious!”)
I’m now about to start my degree at university, and so I thought I’d take a look back at my experience of working at the Cube Lab, some of the work I’ve done, what went really well and what I would’ve done differently had I had the same opportunity again.
It all began in July 2014, when I was to find a place to do a week’s work experience as part of my school. The first task Steve set me was to design a leaflet detailing the process of how we work at the Cube Lab. Of course, the first piece of graphic design one does will be far from perfect, however during that week I really fell in love with the field of graphic design, and seeing beautiful designs online really inspired me to create more, and delve deeper into the field, and create more inspiring and beautiful designs, whether it be logos, a bottle label, a poster, anything!
By the end of the week I was so far down the graphic design rabbit hole, I felt a great reluctance to emerge. I then asked Steve if I could work there for the whole of that summer, to further develop my new-found passion for graphic design. He said yes! And so I ended up working part time there for the rest of that summer, despite not being paid. I recall at the time people asking “Why are you going there if you’re not getting paid?” and I simply responded “I just love doing what I’m doing.” And of course that still stands to this day.
I was fortunate enough to have been able to continue working at the Cube Lab alongside college, so I then spent the next two years helping out at the Cube Lab, further developing my graphic design and coffee making abilities. (Steve says: “He actually makes a decent cup now!”) During this time my main focus was to redesign the website for the cube lab, so I produced several web layouts for all the different pages of the website.
When I finished my A-Levels in June 2016, I then decided that I wanted to work at the Cube Lab pretty much full time. I had decided to take a gap year, but I loved Cube Lab so much at the time I felt that I could easily spend the entirety of that year working there. So from then until the end of the year, I worked there 4 days per week, for an earning. Until then, it had been merely work experience and “helping out”, but this was the real deal, 9-5, 4 days week (Okay maybe not quite full time..!). Now that I had more time to focus on this, I could step up my game and some more notable work I did during this period included;
• Cheese label for the Open Air Dairy co.
• Window posters for Osteo & Physio
• Business cards for Sam Hammett electrical
• Logo for A Star Leotards
• Logo, website layout and brand for Hall’s Garden Living
• Website layout, business cards and more.