Mirjam Rouden Internship

     I spent one month working for Mirjam Rouden; print designer for fashion; in London creating digital prints. I found the internship integral to my learning as I experienced how it would be to work as a designer in a company and learnt a lot about the sales side of the company as I worked a long side the sales representatives.
     On my first day I had to bring in my portfolio so one of the designers that work for Mirjam could decide what my strengths are as to what I could do for them. They decided that my digital work was good enough for them to let me design on the computers. The company just use Photoshop to create digital designs as more people are fluent in this programme. I do think the company would strengthen with a designer which is fluent in Illustrator as this is more suited to different types of designs.
     Mirjam has certain collections in her work that can be sold to designers time and time again, such as florals, geometric and animal print; so these are created many times by the designers. I was set onto animal print in my first week and a half. I was supposed to have a designer to direct me but I did not get shown any samples of the type of print they wanted and the designer never checked up on me and because Mirjam's website doesn't show any of her animal print samples I didn't have a clear idea of what I was designing. When Mirjam came to check on my work she was displeased as some were too blurred and distorted. Another designer was set to direct me from then on.
     Although some of my designs could not be sold as animal prints, Mirjam was happy to sell them in other collections as they are good quality.

 Feathers that will be sold in the animal print collection.

Jellyfish print that will not be sold in the animal print collection.

     I found it strange to find out that it is not often that a designer would create their own drawings to put into Photoshop. Most of the time they take photographs from the internet and rework them on Photoshop until they are unrecognisable.
     During my second week I was put in charge of directing a new intern on Photoshop as the designers had confidence in me. The intern wasn't confident on Photoshop but she designed one rock print which was put onto fabric as a sample to be sold.

  One of my rock prints.

     During my last two weeks I created dot and paisley pattern designs out of drawings the other interns did. I found this a lot easier than using photographs from the internet as they were always good quality and I didn't have to spend time searching for images that I could use.

Dot print.

Paisley print.

     Around 40 of my designs were printed onto different types of fabric to be sold to different fashion designers around the world. While I was there around 20 of my designs travelled to America to be sold to different companies.

     As they are quite a small company the designers are also involved in sales, but they have two main sales representatives to set up meetings and travel around the world to meet with companies. Some of the designers also meet up with companies if they come to the studio to buy designs. Each time samples are going to be sold to a company a few of the designers come together to decide which samples to take. I realised through this how important it is to know your audience, including what kind of season they would be buying for and what kind of things they have bought before.