Meet: Ava Sutherland

Ava Sutherland is a BA Graphic Communication Design student at Central Saint Martins. After connecting with our service through our Employability Educator Ruth Annett-Sixta, she secured an internship during her first-year summer break. We caught up with Ava to find out more about this experience.

Hi Ava! Can you give us a little intro to your artistic practice?

My practice is within and around Graphic Communication design. I tend to make in a way that is research, experience and conversation-led. I like challenging my own thoughts and realities as well as others. This mostly appears in the form of community-based work, where I share stories and project mutual and opposing human experiences. This encourages people to build a better understanding of each other and strengthen and connect what I see as a very polarised world. Recently, that has been a project on experiences of displacement called ‘Deep-rooted, Up-rooted, Re-rooted’ and a project on the British Deaf community and why British Sign Language exists: ‘Sign of the Times’.

You had an exciting internship last year – can you tell us a bit about it?

Last summer, I took part in a 2 month full-time paid internship for Portland Design, within the Architecture company Perkins&Will. Portland is an internationally known company that designs brands and places for people, across the world. They are particularly known in the airport sector working on numerous large airport builds.

When working with them, I spent most of my time working on a project in Istanbul for a metrohub that was being developed and required further narrative to influence the architectural and internal design. My work included doing deep research into the area and the culture; considering how to build spaces that strengthen community; looking at successful market spaces worldwide and creating resources to give feedback to the client. As well as this, I worked on historic research to influence strategy for Coal Drops Yard and I developed designs for a community space in Merry Hill shopping centre. Overall, Portland was amazing at recognising my love of research, ethics and community and helped me channel this through their client work.

How did you find this internship?

Halfway through my first year, I had no thoughts on doing a summer internship, I didn’t think I was ready or that any company would want to take on a first-year BA student. It was in January that we had an internship lecture by Ruth Annett-Sixta which helped me understand how they should work and what my rights would be. Importantly it spurred a lot of conversation around my peer group. I started to feel it would be worth looking into and considering.

My eyes now open to the idea, I coincidentally heard from a connection that there was a company looking for interns, as they were expanding and juggling lots of projects. This was Portland and within a few weeks, I had reached out and put together a portfolio to show them. They were moving to a bigger office, so after the move, I was interviewed by Justin, the Art Director at Portland, and luckily for me, we got along very well, having similar mindsets to the topics that came up in my work.

Is there anything you learned during the internship which surprised you?

I was surprised by the amount of attention they put into understanding what I enjoyed working on, and how quickly I was put onto real client work.

What was lovely was they were just as surprised by my ability. I think they likely have a preconception of how much I could do given my age and point in my degree.

I’m most appreciative that I got experience working in strategy and research as well as graphic design because I could imagine it would’ve been slightly ‘safer’ to have me mocking things up and designing simple icons for their work. To be given experience in such a narrative focussed way of working was eye-opening and I learnt a lot!

How do you feel the experience shaped your attitude going into your second year of your BA?

I think it is easy when studying to fear and not know what the career you are working towards might look like in ‘the real world’. I mean who knows, you could hate it and then that degree will feel like a waste.

So going into my second year of my BA, it was incredible to feel that I was happier, more confident, and essentially reassured. Our course is so broad and not ‘stereotypical’ when it comes to graphic design so it’s easy to have in your head that it does not apply to industry. Portland showed me that I did already have the skills to work in the industry and companies would see that. I never would have thought of working within Architecture if that opportunity hadn’t been suggested so it was useful to see a new place that graphic design sits within.

What are your hopes for post-graduation?

Going into my third year, I want to continue trying out different areas of Graphic Communication Design.

I am looking into returning to Portland and potentially pushing my skills in design ethics and the influence that could have on projects.

Any advice for those currently looking for their first internship?

My advice would be:

• Open your eyes to the opportunity, you have way more skills than you realise.
• Take projects that you are passionate about and can chat about in interviews, they do not need to look like industry standards. In my experience the more natural the conversation, the better.
• Don’t just look at internships in the places that are obvious, consider other sectors, you never know how much that might open your eyes.
• Do it at the end of your first year, you have the least amount of stress, and you will make the most of your second year because of it.
• Ensure you will be working with a mentor who cares. Justin spent time learning what I enjoyed and what I wanted out of the internship before I started on any of the projects.

To find out more about internships and how to find them check out our Career Resources page.