Digital Design student returns to college to deliver inspiring talk to students

A Digital Design student has had the opportunity to reflect on his academic journey after delivering a talk to students from the college he studied at prior to university.

Final year Digital Design (Graphics) student Cameron Hunter was invited to speak to students from his HND Graphic Design course at West College Scotland, an invitation given by his lecturer Deborah Dennett.

Cameron, who developed a close relationship with his college lecturer, decided to return the favour and agreed to do a class talk after she helped him land a design role at law firm Jones Whyte alongside his studies.

With an academic journey spanning five years, Cameron has had many experiences and developed insight that he was able to share with the students:

Journey to GCU

“Before I decided to go down the graphic design route, I originally studied Music Business at university. I didn’t enjoy my first year and then realised that second year felt like a total repeat of it. The lecturers were great, but the course just wasn’t for me. After that, I worked for Topman for a few years and then worked in sales for David Lloyd. It got to a point where I knew that I didn’t want to do this for the rest of my life.

I started watching videos including examples of graphic design work and it made me think “Wow, someone gets paid to do this” and from there I decided to study Graphic Design for three years before moving onto university.

My previous jobs definitely helped me. When working in sales, for example, you need to be confident. In university you need to do presentations and although I was nervous, as most people would be, I was able to channel into that level of confidence that I learned through my sales job.

A few years ago I decided to go back to education and study something that I had never done before. I started off with studying at NC level and then worked my way up to an HND with West College Scotland. It was brilliant and they had us working with some really good brands. We also had the opportunity to meet our current lecturer, Helen Buchanan, who showed us the GCU campus and from there I could totally see myself being there. The natural progression from college to studying at GCU was night and day for me.”

Returning to West College Scotland

“I kept in contact with my college lecturer, Debbie, who actually helped me get a job outside of studying. I’m now doing design work with a law firm called Jones Whyte, which was an opportunity given to me by my lecturer after I finished college due to our close relationship.

One of the caveats of taking the job meant that I would need to come back to speak to other college students about it! I was more than happy to do that, of course. She got in touch with me at the start of last semester to ask if I could come in to do the talk and it just shows what can happen if you make a connection with someone in the industry. It opened up so many doors for me.”

How it feels to be an inspiration to students

“It feels brilliant. I’ve always wanted to try teaching, as well as what I’m doing just now. It was the first time that I had the chance to give a talk which wasn’t marked or assessed, which helped me feel more relaxed about it. The class was really engaged and asked lots of questions, which I was glad about as there is the fear that no one will ask anything!

The presentation was about my career after finishing college; speaking about my final year of college and the brands that we had the chance to work with. I also got to speak about the work that I’ve been doing with Jones Whyte. The idea was that I wanted to show the fun side of what I do during my studies at GCU but also how working for non-agency places, such as the law firm I work for, and how you need to really understand the market you’re designing for. I thought that point was important to show the different challenges that come with the industry. I also got to hear from another graduate who has went down the same route as me and now also works for Jones Whyte, so it was interesting to hear his story as well.

To have the opportunity to see your work displayed like that and to be able to talk about it is something that you don’t often get the chance to do. Showing off your work in university can be a bit daunting, because you’re not sure of how good it is, whether it deserves a good grade or not. However, in this case I had the chance to stand up and show my work that received high marks. It was a great experience.”

By Rachael McAlonan

Got a SCEBE or GSBS story? Email me at Rachael.McAlonan@gcu.ac.uk or connect with me on social media here