First impressions- more than just cleaning cupboards-
On my first day at Idenna, I got in and was given the task of cleaning out a cupboard. At that moment I thought – ‘what have I gotten myself into…I’m not sure how I feel about a week of this.’
More than just an office-
All jokes aside, once I had completed that (and done a pretty good job if I had to say). I found myself getting introduced to Idenna as a whole. I spoke to James – Creative Director – who shared some of his original visions for Idenna with me and from what I gathered – while sitting there feeling pretty nervous talking to the boss, is that Idenna, amongst many other characteristics, strive towards their belief in storytelling. Why? ‘Because good stories create simple human connections. They’re designed to make you feel something, whether that’s sadness, laughter or joy, but never indifference’.
Finding my own path-
I feel as though, through growing up in school, there seemed to be a pressure on knowing exactly what you want to do at all times. It felt almost as though there’s a set path that needs to be followed, and to not have a desire to follow this you must be crazy… or stupid. I remember one day, hearing the quote ‘failing to plan, is planning to fail’. And as you can imagine, as a teenage girl with absolutely no idea what I want to do with my life, this freaked me out. One constant in my life is that I’ve always enjoyed how engaging creative tasks are, whether this was at 5 years old trying to solve why mixing all my crayon colours together doesn’t make a rainbow or at 16 doing my GCSE in photography and trying to innovate a unique approach to marketing a hair product that I truthfully had no idea about. To save you from the life story, what I’m trying to say is that coming to Idenna has given me courage that a creative set of skills is equally as important and valued as that of academia.
Straight from the second day of working, I was trusted with equipment and sent to create a short reel to promote Idenna. Despite doing photography at A level and GCSE, I had never used some of the equipment and editing software, it felt like an amazing learning opportunity to be able to trial and error and find my way around these editing tools and formats that I would’ve otherwise been none the wiser on. This really reinforced my idea that working in a creative industry means constant learning and growth.
I felt particularly useful when I was asked by Natalie to shape some Gen Z- Esque market research on social media usage and marketing. To find myself in a position where I got to teach what I knew to others felt both new and exciting. It was another moment that opened my eyes to the reality that the working world makes you think and learn equally, if not more than the educational world that I’ve experienced.
Workplace culture-
Just from walking into Idenna, you can feel a sense of warmth and see the friendships that have been formed in the office. People build each other up and congratulate each other’s good work while also giving each other new ideas and constructive criticism to force the best possible outcome. As an A level business student, I don’t think that there is a better example of kaizen than here at Idenna. Instead of having ‘appraisals’ idenna reinforces a technique, where the team work together to make small, incremental changes towards improvement: constant innovation, core values and uniqueness in a growing industry makes it clear that Idenna will continue to share stories and communicate meaning in an imitable way.
Something that surprised me at Idenna is the culture of flexibility. It’s ingrained from a young age that the working world is rigid and something that you need to be ready for, but honestly, I don’t think anyone’s ever ready. At Idenna, the working environment doesn’t seem forced or rigid or even half as scary as I had imagined. It’s one thing to go to work and know what you need to be cracking on with, but it’s another to turn up knowing you have a team around you who fully trust you and help you where needs be. At Idenna they don’t just have their values written on a website, but they are actively lived every day, and this isn’t just a vibe between colleagues, but it’s projected onto clients and other people, like me, who are welcomed into the office.
Hands on- behind the camera.
To dive a little deeper into some of the work I got to do with the team: I’ll start with the short movie/reel I made to promote idenna. I started the day by being given a brief that the producer, Leigh, made for me, which outlined everything that I was required to do. It consisted of what I had to make and the vibe they were going for while also encouraging some creative freedom. I went down the obvious route of creating a mood board and planning what I wanted to be in this video, which subsequently left me forming together some interview questions to ask different people around the office (if I could snaffle them away from their work). After a couple takes and a lot of stuttering from me behind the camera, I got some shots that I was happy with. When I began editing the video together, I only had a very brief idea of what I wanted. but what I did know was that I wanted the video to tell a story. It took a lot of playing around on the computer for me to figure out exactly what it was that I was meant to be doing but once it clicked, I was set to go. This is where it was time to show the team my video. Despite my initial nerves, I was immediately reassured by the encouraging and positive feedback from everyone. It made me feel proud and confident in the work that I had produced even though it was very much a first attempt at any of the software involved.
The next project that I created throughout my week at idenna was with Kate- senior graphic designer- who set out for me to produce new branding for Skinners ‘Porthleven’ Pale ale. Again, I started with the not so surprising approach of forming a mood board and gathering some ideas for what it actually was that I wanted this ale to look like. If I had to sum up this day in a short phrase, I’d say “Canva Galore”.
Coming to terms with Canva came a lot quicker than anticipated and thereafter my very own beer design. I first created the design for the label,by playing around with scenery, typography and colour pallets until I was happy. I followed this by then piecing together a small advert where my design is displayed on the can over a watercolour-looking background. To wrap this project up, I made a social media post that could be used by the Skinners brand to promote the project. Overall, I really enjoyed this project, and it was another moment, amongst many this week that challenged me to think innovatively and push out of my comfort zone.
To continue the theme of Canva, on my last day, digital design and development lead, Yestin, set me the task to build a website. I decided to create a fashion brand with the tagline- ‘sunkissed style, effortlessly chic’. Fashion is something that I have a huge interest in so this didn’t feel like a struggle for me at all, and since I’d gotten to terms with Canva the previous day, I felt like I was cruising. I created 7 pages for my website, and with that I was done for the week. I could not have asked for a better task to end my time at Idenna.
Final thoughts- a week that changed my perspective.
An overarching statement for my week at idenna would be that it has been an incredibly inspirational experience. Not once did I think that going into a week of industry immersion that I’d be so sad to leave by the end of it. It felt so special to be surrounded by such caring and committed people who genuinely have a passion for their work. It’s taught me that finding a job isn’t necessarily about working but instead about waking up to do something that you love.
It’s funny to think that my week at Idenna started by cleaning out a cupboard. At the time, I wasn’t sure what that said about the week ahead. Now, after everything that I’ve learnt, created and experienced, I’d happily clean out 10 more cupboards if it meant ending up here again.
Blog by Evie Sleeman
Above draft concept designs created as part of a work experience project.
Above draft website designs created as part of a work experience project.