Internship at FreshWest

Over the past couple of months I’ve had a highly valuable opportunity and experience of an internship with FreshWest, a design duo in Pembrokeshire, Wales. In total the experience was a couple of weeks long, overseeing the entire length of a design project and brief they had been working on. The project was for Powis Castle, which resulted in seven life size corian shadow figures being installed around the garden grounds. The project was inspired by the exhibition House Of Portraits held at the venue. This provided me with an excellent opportunity to learn more about how to design for installation and sight specific work.

I thoroughly enjoyed all of the tasks I carried out; these included designing and preparing illustrator files, helping with the finishing off the corian pieces, and researching products and materials.

Alongside the experience of working in a creative design studio within industry, it also gave me a fundamental insight into what it’s like working self-employed running a design studio. I highly enjoyed working in the studio environment, and whilst also being passionate about running my own business with in the design industry, this experience has made me aspire to being employed in the industry working within a creative studio environment.

After installation of the project was completed, I decided to go and visit Powis Castle and Gardens to see the work within the location. This was the first time I had visited Powis Castle, and whilst I initially went to view the completed project, its picturesque architecture and landscape became inspirational to the secret garden theme I’m currently developing for my major project.

It was a busy and highly enjoyable day exploring the castle and gardens, it was a rewarding experience to see the work in location and witness people appreciating and enjoying seeing the work. It has also given me huge confidence in how my business skills, design and making skills are valuable and very compatible with industry.