At the start of September, we were pleased to take part in the South Bristol Youth Guarantee programme, coordinated by Bristol City Council and the West of England Combined Authority. The programme focuses on supporting young people aged 17-21 from South Bristol into employment and apprenticeships.
When the South Bristol team got in touch to ask if we could support the project, they mentioned they had an enthusiastic young person who was interested in website design and looking to build up their experience, so we were happy to get involved in the project.
The young person joined our team for a two-week period working four days a week, based on a project brief we had put together for a coffee shop / bakery targeting young people in Bristol.
We were keen to give the individual an experience of what it would be like to work on a real project with a real client, so we created a full working brief that they could work from throughout their time with us, with support and guidance from our team whenever that was needed - effectively we acted in place of the client, and answered questions as we thought the client would have answered them.
Image created using Google Gemini.
The young person was able to work with people across our team including our Creative Director, David Graves, our designer and our marketeers, depending on what support was needed in different areas of the brief, as well as working independently.
The brief was to design and create a small website for a local coffee company in line with a list of objectives. It had to appeal to their core target audience (students and young professionals) and drive footfall to a bricks and mortar location on the harbourside in the centre of Bristol.
Work included in this brief was:
- Kick-off and Initial Research
- Wireframing and Content Planning
- Content Management system setup and Home Page Build
- Menu / Shop Page Build
- Contact Page Build
- Testing and Refinement
- Final Review and Presentation
The brief included initial research and planning of the new website which was done partly as an independent task, and partly with the team to discuss, offer feedback and develop ideas.
Working with our web designer, the build process of the website included a design mock-up for the website using Adobe XD as well as implementing this design in the content management system (WordPress) with the theme builder (Beaver Builder).
It was important to us that the person left us with experience and skills of using web design software and systems that they could take away with them, so while they were supported by our in-house website designer, we encouraged them to work as independently as they were comfortable with as part of this process.
Once the website was built, our Creative Director and the team worked with them to develop a short marketing plan, with initial ideas set out in priority order and the most relevant ones developed into more detailed recommendations.
Our team thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and found it rewarding being able to pass on knowledge and advice in their areas of specialisation, as well as getting to question their assumptions where we were being questioned by someone coming fresh to our in-house processes.
We certainly found that stepping back in order to teach and analyse the processes we use gives a different perspective, one that isn’t always possible during our normal working day.
We have had some positive feedback from the team that run the programme as well as from the young person, who said they really enjoyed their time with us, learnt a lot and are looking to develop their web design skills further with additional practical projects that will build their experience.
The creative industry can be highly competitive and it can be tough to secure a first job in the sector. Experience is essential, so we are pleased to have made a small difference by helping someone starting out build some initial experience and get a taste of what life is like in a creative agency.
We’d strongly recommend that all local businesses in a position to do so support (and get involved in) projects like this that help young people into work. The benefits both to individuals, companies and to the community can be significant.
To find out more about the South Bristol Youth Guarantee, please visit their webpage or email the team at [email protected].
Please note our banner image for this article was created in Google Gemini.
