Hi! I'm Elena – a Graphic Design student at Loughborough University. As part of my course, I had the opportunity to take a year out before my final year to gain industry experience and grow as a designer. I decided to apply for a placement with The Engine Room during this time to explore my interests in Branding Identity and Strategy.

I first visited The Engine Room back in 2023 as part of Greenhead College's careers week. The studio's warm, creative environment left me feeling so inspired, and became the catalyst for me to pursue Graphic Design as a career!

Returning in 2025 for a work experience month, I was keen to immerse myself in this culture and learn more about strategy, animation, and agency life. I learnt so much during my initial placement (a highlight being working on the branding and strategy for an urban plant fertiliser company), so I was overjoyed to be asked to return the next summer for 3 months.

This time, I had the chance to work on several projects – my favourites being the rollout and case study for the British Schools Museum; creating illustrations for the identity of a World Kinect event; and a social media identity for The Engine Room's email newsletter, 'Unpacked'. These projects helped me refine my skills in decision-making, animation, layout, and brand messaging. I learnt to embrace feeling stuck, push my creative thinking, and explore the 'weird idea'.

As well as branding, I am also passionate about illustration and curation. It was amazing how much I was encouraged to use and develop these skills throughout my placement - from image sourcing to illustrative social media graphics and newsletter content.

Surprisingly, some of my favourite learning experiences came from working on administrative jobs. The Engine Room specialises in brand strategy, and much of their work stems from thorough research and client insight workshopping. Therefore, organising and clustering these findings was incredibly helpful for understanding key themes in projects, their importance to communities, and how the agency uses this to inform their work. I can't wait to adopt some of these methods when I return to university.

One of the biggest takeaways from my placement experience was the value of balancing creative and admin work. University projects are often purely creative and practical. However, in a fast-paced environment, creative thinking can be difficult to maintain or conjure – sometimes days of working on admin help to gain perspective on a creative conundrum and avoid imagination burnout. I am so grateful to The Engine Room team for creating a placement opportunity packed with learning experiences, real-life client briefs, and full immersion in agency life. The experience I have gained has given me so much more confidence heading into my final year of university.

If you're hungry to learn what life is like in a brand agency, why not get in touch and we'll see how we can help…