An internship in Amsterdam.
Written by Oliver Dell
Creative Intern at VBAT
Hey! My name’s Oliver, and this is a story all about how (my life got flipped, turned upside down) I ended up in the fortunate position of being a Creative Intern at VBAT | Superunion, a leading design studio in Amsterdam.
I met Graham Sturt, Creative Director of VBAT, by chance and after showing him my work, was invited to apply for an internship. After a couple of interviews, and the completion of a brief to test my design skills further, I was offered a position as Creative Intern. I’m currently a third year Graphic Design and Communication student at the University of Leeds. We have the option to take a year out from our studies to complete internships in the industry, so this proved to be the perfect opportunity.
I took up the seat of a close friend of mine who had just finished her internship there. This provided me with a great view of the Amstel, the odd glorious winter sunrise peeking through the January fog, and a really efficient route to the studio’s coffee machine!
The campus has a fantastic canteen, where a new, fresh meal has been made for every day I’ve been here. I’ve still not seen the same meal twice.
VBAT is a really exciting place to be, with extremely welcoming people from all over the world. With ~15 nationalities in the studio, covering three disciplines; VBAT is a creative melting pot, and a wonderful place to be.
Without further ado, I think the best way to introduce myself is with a few snippets of my work.
SOUR JAM
The bright colours and gross slime you see here was the result of a rapid-turnaround client brief for Sour Jam, an expanding nightlife events and record label company based in Leeds. This was a joint project with my friend and housemate Joel. The brief was very straight-forward, “go wild”. They wanted to carve out their own place in a saturated market.
In Leeds, the student music culture is huge. Everyone knows at least 3 mates who are aspiring DJs. The big idea started with a question: what would ‘Sour Jam’ actually look like? The answer: a great deal of acid, yeast and neon paint.
In little over a week, we provided Sour Jam with a word-mark, 3 digital mix-tape covers, social media assets, a typographic system, a record sleeve concept and merchandise. The 3 mix-tape covers are photographs of 3 batches of our ‘sour jam’ recipe.
MONOWERK
Self initiated brief: MONOWERK are fiercely proud of their Norwegian heritage, and their place in the disco scene. To anticipate the release of four new digital synthesiser plug-ins, a rebrand was commissioned. This concept is the marriage of two themes: Norwegian heritage, and the age of electronic music, from which the synthesisers take inspiration for their sound. This brand identity aims to emphasise the idea of variability (often through the use of changing colours), which is what makes synthesisers so different to other instruments.
I could go on forever if I was allowed, so it’s probably best to leave it there. If you’re still reading, thank you, and I look forward to keeping you in the loop as my internship continues. Exciting times ahead!
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written by Oliver Dell, Creative Intern at VBAT
edited by Connie Fluhme, PR at VBAT
