Gaining an opportunity to work with incredible brands and showcasing my creative abilities through Collaborative Future’s programme

Tracy tells us about her graduating in lockdown, finding faith again and joining Collaborative Future work placement programme to work alongside numerous small businesses and re-discover her creative talents.

My experience at Collaborative future has been a super beneficial and eye-opening journey. Recently graduated in 2020 from a BA Fine Art degree, it was quite a shift living as a graduate during the pandemic, but I think it was a necessary change. Being in lockdown allowed me to reflect on myself as a person and where I wanted to take my career. Like most graduates, job searching at first was a draining and strenuous process especially during a difficult time where many people are losing their jobs and companies are going through financial turmoil. In such a circumstance it is very easy for panic and doubt to settle in and was something that I found myself doing while job searching. However, letting these emotions overcome you I know can lead you down a depressing and self-defeating route that I refused to be in. 

Already having experienced this unfortunate route I was able to spot the signs and symptoms of my mental health depleting. I realised then that I was neglecting and slowly forgetting one thing I found comfort in – God. As a proud and now completely devout Christian reflecting on my journey, I failed to realise at the time I was not putting my trust in God and his word but depending on myself and the world. One thing I want to make clear is that God is not a magic genie that will grant you wishes just because you have faith in him or pray to him more than you already do – that is just not biblical. God is a source of strength and comfort through tribulations and turmoil for it says ‘when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.’ James 1:2-3. It was at that moment things became easier to cope with and I was a lot more patient. 

I spent approximately 5 months looking for a job before I found Collaborative Future and it was such a blessing. Tess, Sonia and Prisca were so welcoming and accommodating throughout my internship. Collaborative Future truly is diverse – as a black woman, job searching can be rather discouraging knowing the bias of employment statistics. Even aspects such as ticking the Black British box on the ‘equality and employment’ page of an application still rubs me the wrong way as I know deep down this brings discrimination and disparities despite it being presented as the opposite. But this also goes beyond race as Collaborative Future ensures and works hard to continually accommodate disabilities, races, religions and other differences in order to create a healthy working environment. As an artist, I wanted more creative experience and the team understood and ensured I was heard. What makes this internship unique is the fact that you will be paired up with multiple businesses throughout your internship allowing you to greatly expand your skills and experience. I worked with 7 businesses and have done a range of creative tasks including designing products, UX/UI design, and graphic design. I learnt how capable and how adaptable I was when doing new tasks that I did not have much experience in. Despite having a degree, I still felt that I was unequipped and inexperienced, but this internship taught me that I am very much proficient and more talented than I realised. The planned events and workshops help in encouraging these discussions as well as equipping us with the tools to prepare us in future (self) employment. You will also get the chance to have a mentor who helps greatly in shaping your thinking and equipping you for life outside the internship.

I worked on amazing projects, one being my collaboration with Jubilee Greenwood where I had to design 10 notebooks. This was a task that I could completely showcase my creative abilities as they allowed me to have full creative freedom. I started with a mood-board and rough sketches that were approved and developed into a fruit-scented notebook series, I received great feedback as well as support throughout the project. Here are examples below (available via JG Etsy):

Another project I worked on was with a coding game company Rodocodo. What made this project memorable was that I was able to put forward a new idea that was taken on board and developed. This is something that companies often overlook with their interns due to inexperience, but with Collaborative Future they embraced our ideas. Rodocodo is a digital game marketed to primary schools that teaches children the necessities of coding. As fun, engaging, and educational the game was, what stuck out to me was that (especially during the pandemic) many disadvantaged children do not have access to electronics such as computers or Ipads. As someone who values accessibility I thought this would be a great opportunity for the company to take into consideration different circumstances and adapt their approach to be more inclusive. I was able to develop a worksheet that translated the game from digital to paper form. Rough sketches were made which developed into a refined worksheet as you can see below: 

Collaborative Future has played an integral part of my career journey and has brought me the opportunity to meet and work with incredible brands who pushed me to the best of my abilities. I gained many skills that will be beneficial to my creative future. Not only would I recommend this programme, but also urge for more internships to take this approach as well hope that more opportunities such as this are available and accessible to people. 

YOU CAN see tracys’ work and GET IN TOUCH WITH her VIA:

Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/canttracme/

Inspired by Tracy’s story?

You can support our work by joining our next work placement programme, purely focussed on young creative talent in Nottingham. Find out more by emailing hello@collaborativefuture.co.uk or by booking in for a chat here. Or, you can always buy our team a ko-fi!