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Kerry Ostermeyer
Graduated 2003

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Profile:
I can’t believe it’s 5 years since I graduated from Preston – I still feel (and look) like a student, the only difference is I now enjoy a glass of Sauvignon Blanc on a Friday night, rather than a bottle of Lambrini. I look back on my university days with great fondness where I met a lot of my closest friends, learnt a lot about myself and developed a healthy passion for all things design. I had the best ending to my university life by winning a D&AD Typography commendation, along with Karen Hughes, who now works for The Chase.

Since graduating I have worked in London at The Partners, moved back to my hometown of Stafford, worked on various freelance projects, have recently started up a wall vinyl company with my fiancée and a design company with a friend. It’s been busy so far this year but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

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The Disciples of Design Q&A

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How and where did you secure your first job?
I spent a year doing work placements in both Manchester and London, one at The Partners in Farringdon. After I graduated I bumped into Rob Ball at the New Blood Exhibition and spent the next month hounding him for another placement/job/whatever I could get. The mild stalking worked and I started that summer. I ended up staying for 3 and a half years and went on to run the placement scheme – something that gave me a chance to see lots of fresh ideas, and be living proof that the placement system works.

Did you do a placement year? If so how was it?
I wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t had this experience. I spent 9 months at branding consultancy Precise in Manchester, where, thanks to ex-Preston student and skilled typographer Eric Tilley I learnt a massive amount. The work wasn’t as high profile as I would have liked (I narrowly missed out on a placement at The Chase which at the time was devastating). There wasn’t much of an after work culture but the people were great and towards the end I even had my own clients. Next, I did 1 month at Blackburn’s, a small packaging design company in Soho run by John Blackburn, an eccentric character who walked round in his slippers and made me carry his bags. We got on well though and his words of wisdom that have stuck with me are ‘if in doubt, make it smaller’. The final placement was a month at The Partners in London, where I played hard, worked harder and was inspired even more. Smile in the Mind, the first book on my reading list whilst I was at uni was like my bible, so I spent most of my time being a bit in awe. This was true for the 3 and a half years I worked there too.

What / who inspires you?
I could write a list as long as this page – work colleagues, dreams, things I see on journeys home. Books are a huge inspiration. My advice would be to save up to buy as many as you can – going on the internet for visual research just isn’t the same.

Do you think being a Preston student has benefited you in any way?
Preston has always had a great reputation for being a strong ideas based course and is the only one I know of that still runs the sandwich year. This is what put me a step ahead when I graduated and got me my first job.

Is there anything you’d have done differently at University knowing what you know now?
I would have taken more photos.

How do you come up with ideas? Is it a collaborative process or do you prefer to think alone?
Scribble things down on paper and stick them up on a wall, where I or someone else can look at them subjectively until they develop or go in the bin.

You are one of the founders of KO creative. How’s it going?
We (Kerry and Olly) have only been going for 2 months now, so are still in the very early stages. It’s exciting and we are hunting down clients we really want to work for, this means juggling and trying to get as much creatively out of the bill paying work at the same time. We started in hard times, which we see as a positive and with there being the 2 of us we can add good value for money.

How much of an average day is actually spent designing things?
Probably more time than I should be spending on designing at the moment and not enough of project management and accounting – something I shall have to balance.

What would you say has been the key to your success so far?
I think being determined and not giving up – I’m a Taurus so I’m pretty stubborn and don’t like to be defeated.

What’s the most unusual thing you’ve ever done in your career?
Flying to Reykjavik for a client; photographer Brian Griffin’s book launch, and swimming round the Blue Lagoon in pitch blackness with my creative director and project manager.

What time do you start and finish on an average day?
I love to swim before work – a great mind focuser. I get in the office around 8.30 and try to leave before 6, although with only a short walk home from the office it’s often tempting to stay.

Any advice for students entering the industry during the recession?
Be innovative, believe in yourself and your work even more. You may have to work harder for less money, but if you can make a success of it now you can do anything.

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Portfolio

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8ball T-shirts
This project is particularly dear to me as it is my other half’s company and a constant on-gong fun project. Well most of time anyway.

8ball is a mail order t-shirt company specialising in all things music, tv and film related. They sell their t-shirts to those who want to be different and stand out from the crowd – the devoted, the fan-boy, the geek, the freak, the rebel, those who don’t fit the mold – the oddball in us all.

So, the rule we’ve got for 8ball is put the number 8 somewhere unexpected: the logo is black and white but never gets applied to anything round.

We’ve so far used all sort of objects to apply the logo to, here are a few of my faves:

The branding seems to have done wonders and 8ball is now the number 2 biggest online t-shirt retailer in the UK – only one space left to chase!

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Aurora Orchestra
I’ve included this project because it was the first real job I worked on after I graduated. The client was a really nice and very appreciative of the work – something of a rarity.

Aurora Orchestra was a brand new ensemble created to be the best young chamber orchestra in the world. They wanted to defy the stuffy reputation lots of orchestras have and instead appeal to a fresh new audience of classical music lovers.

They needed to be taken seriously as a business, which meant securing funding and attracting the best new talents in classical music.

We created an ever-changing identity, which was inspired by the colour, energy and movement of the Aurora Borealis. Whilst orchestrating a piece of music with a pen torch, we photographed the conductor, which produced a series of images that were quite literally, moments in time from the music.

We christened this technique ‘painting with light’.

Sir Simon Rattle is now their patron and they continue to give national, critically acclaimed performances. They have since accepted a residency at the annual Aldeburgh Festival and were recently awarded a Leverhulme Fellowship by the Royal Academy of Music for 08/09

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Fallon & Byrne Food Emporium, Dublin:
I am really proud of this job because it has such a strong underlying message, also I think because I have a bit of an obsession with ampersands.

Fallon & Byrne are a Dublin based gourmet food emporium. They required a logo to reflect their offer of ‘5000 square feet of heaven on earth’.

The logo uses the ampersand to express not only the blissfully pure, but also the wickedly sinful qualities of food.

This cake box looks virtuous and innocent on the outside, but once opened the indulgent, devilish side is revealed.

The client was so happy with the work she got a tattoo of the logo – I hope she still likes it as much now.

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Brian Griffin Photography book
I loved working on this project – probably because the client was a little bit crazy and we had an endless budget for the production. We also got to travel to Iceland for the book launch.

The portrait photographer Brian Griffin required a ‘good book’ companion for his earlier ‘little black book’.

The result was this (production nightmare) holy white bible, which showed off his work in the purest form.

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Thanks to Kerry for sharing her work and insight.