Tom runs his own blog, also Tom is a graduate creative in Cardiff and London.
Question and Answers;
1. Would you recommend that students produce a blog? If so why?
I would recommend that students do something, but whether it's a blog that they do depends entirely on the kind of work they see themselves doing when leave for the outside world. There is flickr, tumbir, delicious, twitter and a loads of other ways to be publicly online, it doesn't have to be a straight up 'blog'. The problem is that just producing beautiful print work, although it may get you into creative review from time to time, won't prove to anyone who's just come across your work that you have any of the skills or awareness we need as designers now. I was amazed how little digital work there was at D&AD this year, but nearly all branding and advertising is now considered with the internet at least near its core (if it isn't it should be). The advantage of a blog, or whatever online, is that it allows a student to explore their interests over time, make connections with other bloggers, and prove to any professionals out there that you are serious about what you say you are, more than you could with a single cover letter or portfolio session.
2. A lot of students aren't safe with putting their designs up on blogs due to the idea getting stolen. What would your opinion be on this?
Thats a danger whether work is online or not - look at episodes like the Kozy'n'dan rabbit/sony brava commercial. And I would say that it doesn't really have to be about students' own work. I'll come back to this in question three, but for now I'll just say it's really about deciding what you want from your blog - if your just passionate about design, surely you want to share that with people? If you're just doing it 'for the CV', then aren't you getting a head start by potentially showing people your work before the June of your (and 20,000 other people's) graduation ceremonies? Either way, my own personal opinion of a traditional blog is that it's an opportunity to explore whatever about design or the creative arts that fascinate you, show how your work relates, and link up with other people who share that love - whether they can offer you a job or just engage you in stimulating conversation.
3. People see blogs as a way to publicize themselves and their work - but a lot of blogs don't get a lot of hits - so what should the purpose of a blog be?
I Think it's really defeatist to think of it that way - If you believe that what you have to say or show is good enough, then you have to stick with it. No one's going to check your blog as soon as you've done a first post, the internet doesn't work like that. As young creatives we need to be out there on other people's blogs, having conversations, discussing other work and generally being as keen online as we are in person. Once that starts to seep around the internet, then you see the hits to your own blog go up. Hopefully, your work, if you're showing it, will be strong enough to get passed around a bit as well.
4. Finally, what's one positive and negative about having a blog?
The main negative is that you have to keep posting regularly, but that's also a real positive - it gets you constantly evaluating the world around you and trying to establish your own opinions on the issues, looking for ideas that you can talk about. I find that trying to put my thoughts into words is a really useful way of working out exactly what those thoughts are.
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