Mary Adekoya: My design placement year in Berlin
- Written byEllen Partridge
- Published date 19 February 2026
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Mary Adekoya studied BA Graphic and Media Design at London College of Communication and graduated in 2023. Now, she’s working as a Designer at a real estate firm in London. We chatted to Mary about her work placement year in Germany through UAL’s Diploma in Professional Studies, what she gained from her industry experience and how it’s helped her build confidence as a designer.
What is the Diploma in Professional Studies?
The Diploma in Professional Studies is a year out in industry where you can gain work experience. It takes place in third year, making your course four years long instead of three. You have to complete 100 hours of industry experience.
Why did you choose to do a work placement year?
I took part because I wanted the work experience before graduating. I also knew that the tutors would provide the support in terms of portfolio reviews, CVs and job applications before we started the year.
During my Diploma in Professional Studies year, I was in Germany. I did a study exchange in my second year for my summer semester. When I applied to do the Diploma in Professional Studies for my third year, I chose to extend my stay in Germany and thankfully, I had the opportunity to get an internship in Berlin. I ended up doing 2, 6-month internships in Germany.
How did you find your internships and what were you working on?
The first internship was at an advertising agency, RCKT. I found this opportunity through my course leader and was the 11th student from London College of Communication to do an internship there. It was split in German and English and there were other LCC alumni there as well, so that was a really good opportunity.
My second placement was for a German organisation and was more freelance-based. I was the only designer, and I did a whole brand identity re-design for them.
What employability skills did you learn during your year in industry?
Those were my first real experiences working as a designer and were both quite different. At RCKT where I did my first internship in Berlin, they had copywriters, art directors and consultants. It was full of creatives in different formats, so that was an opportunity to collaborate, build my strength and to work with senior designers.
In my second internship, as the only designer, I was like a specialist and that really taught me to develop my skills. I was working on a whole rebrand, so I had to be confident in my typography, logo design, colour theory and put everything I'd been learning at LCC for the past two years into practise. That was a great experience.
I got a lot out of both placements and they helped me prepare for my third year.
How did the work placement year and your time in Berlin shape you as a person?
Doing a Diploma in Professional Studies shaped my view on design, but also gave me an opportunity to see another culture. I got to see design from a German perspective. They have a big history in typography and print, which I got to see and it shaped my outlook and taught me a lot of new things that I didn't really consider.
How else did your studies prepare you for working in the creative industries?
A lot of the briefs we did were industry focused. For example, a few briefs asked us to include animation or motion through design, which was quite an upcoming trend in the design industry at the time. We also had opportunities to do live briefs.
Now you’ve graduated, what are you up to?
I'm working as a designer in a real estate company here in London, and that's been a good experience. I'm in a small team of four designers, but we sit in a larger team within Marketing. We support all the design work needed by the business including bids, pitches, presentations. We also support the events team. I'm making sure there's brand consistency in everything that goes out externally, on social media and our website.
How would you say the job you're doing now has shaped you as a person?
When you're studying, it's very much independent in the terms of you pick a brief, but you can explore that however you want. Whereas when you're working, there are more restrictions, more deadlines, and there’s a specific way of communicating. It's taught me to think about all the other voices and think ‘how best can I communicate this?’ and ‘how best can I bring this brief to life?’ You still experiment, but you need to be aware of what the requirements are and meeting the deadlines.
What's your one piece of advice for students?
Take every opportunity that you get. I did quite a lot in doing a study abroad and a Diploma in Professional Studies, but take full advantage of all the resources, the workshops, your tutors. The time goes by really fast and but you're surrounded by so many creatives that you can collaborate with and build connection with.
My whole UAL experience shaped me to be a more confident designer. I think when I first started UAL, I wasn't very confident in my skills and just being around so many creatives who specialise in different things encouraged me. I specialise in print and I was encouraged to explore that. Being an expert in whatever you want to do is what helped me in what I'm doing now.