Bucks Animation Graduate Ben Chalk Launches a New Campaign for United Agency

United Agency

Bucks Animation graduate Ben Chalk works for the design agency United Agency, doing digital and social campaigns for commercial clients. We asked him to tell us about his latest work, how he got started, and what advice he can give to our students at Bucks in order to forge a successful career in the world of design, animation and motion graphics. He has just finished the design work for a new campaign, The Great Outdoors app for Thomas Cook and Brand USA, which launched this week.

Design by Ben Chalk

Bucks: You do digital design for United Agency - what does that involve?

Ben: We are a social media-marketing agency, we come up with digital & social campaigns to support or promote artists, brands and products. My job is to come up with & design ideas for apps and microsites, I also get to work on short motions graphic animations or video work depending on the campaign.

Design by Ben Chalk

Bucks: What is your most recent project?

Ben: We have just launched a new campaign, The Great Outdoors app for Thomas Cook and Brand USA, which just launched this week.


Bucks: How did you first get the job with United?

Ben: Originally I did a three months internship after finishing my degree; which then progressed into a full time job.

Great Outdoors app for Thomas Cook

Bucks: What is the best thing about your job?

I love the variety. As an agency we get to work on projects for a number of different clients, which means each design and executions is different from the last. This keeps the job exciting and a lot of fun.

Great Outdoors app for Thomas Cook

Bucks:  What skills did you learn at Bucks, which helped you to prepare for a career in digital media?

Half of my course at Bucks [Animation, Games and Interactive Media] was interactive design, which has played a huge part in what I use every day.  Digital design doesn't just stop at the visuals, it extends further into designing the user experience and how people interact with the designs.

5. What advice would you give to a student at Bucks to get the most out of their time at Uni?

Go wild and make the most of your first year - then look for an internship, or some other way to get out and get some studio experience. Experience is the key - I wish I hadn't left it until I finished university.

You could also possibly submit live projects as University, doing work that would depend on client approval. After all, you would be working in exactly the same way as you would for real clients.

Ben Chalk

You can see more of Ben's work at www.benchalk.com. For our guide to internships and how to get them, follow this link.  To see the impressive work done by our students and recent graduates here at Bucks, check out SuperFergy in 3D by Anton Alfy, see the work of Jens Kopke,  Ben Gray's Moonbeam, and the architectural visualisations of Sabah Masood and Anton Alfimenko. Also take a look at the work of Andy Thomas here, see our latest commercial project for Rocketseed, our short film done for a global aid agency, and take a look at the excellent work of designer Monika Dzikowicz, architectural visualisation specialist Krsytof Michalski, Alex Whitfield and the 3D artwork of Mike Swan. And don't forget to see the simulation work of our students done in RealFlow. To see our student demo reel, click here.

Graduate Showcase - Jens Kopke on animation, awards, motion graphics and careers in digital media

Jens Kopke is one of our talented animation graduates from Bucks, who has since found work in his native Hamburg as a motion design artist at DeliPictures. His short film (shown above) was completed right here in High Wycombe and combined live action with visual effects and motion graphics, winning an honourable mention at the D&AD Awards. We asked Jens to talk about his film, what he has been doing since graduating from university, and what it takes to forge a successful career in digital media.

Bucks: Your student film at Bucks won a D&AD award - how did that come about?

Jens: First of all - I'm not really sure if an "honorable mention" counts as an award.  But the project came about like this: One of the modules in Bill Schaaf's course at Bucks allowed students to get credits for non-course-related activities like building up skills or entering the D&AD awards.  So I teamed up with Yonca Yilmaz, since entering D&AD was part of her Advertising course. After first getting the approval of our tutors, our enthusiasm helped us to keep to a tight schedule of seven or eight days from first drafts to final product.

We progressed really fast, but we only managed to get very little feedback from our tutors due to our short timing. Relying much more than usual on our own intuitions and experience, we focused on a final product that we both really liked. Without worrying about things like - how to impress the D&AD judges. Which, in the end, made us even happier, when we got the honorable mention from D&AD.

Bucks: What software did you use to put it together?

Jens: We used a combination of After Effects, Cinema4D and Photoshop.

Bucks: Did you collaborate with students from the film and TV department or did you put it all together yourself?

Jens: We did not collaborate with students from the film and TV dept, but we did have help from another student from the Advertising course, Dunja Opalko. Her talent with photography (and her own privately owned equipment) helped us to get some nice footage to work with.


Bucks: Since leaving Bucks, what have you been working on?


Navigon // Garmin: "The Navigon App" from DELI PICTURES on Vimeo.

Jens: During my studies at Bucks I successfully applied for a job as a Motion Design Artist in Hamburg, Germany, at DeliPictures, where I still work today.

Since then I have mostly been working on commercial projects like Navigon (http://vimeo.com/61517832) or Weight Watchers (http://vimeo.com/56621462). Luckily, at DeliPictures we are encouraged to experiment and work on self-initiated projects during work hours, such as this St Valentine's Day card that I created with a co-worker. (http://vimeo.com/59576403).



WeightWatchers Kampagne: Oliver Kahn from DELI PICTURES on Vimeo.


Bucks: What advice would you offer to any student at Bucks to get the most out of their time at University?

Jens: My advice would be twofold. Firstly, don't study to get a job, study to do something you really like to do. Secondly, what helped me most during my studies was getting out of my comfort zone and being interested in everything around me. Things like sitting in unrelated classes, using equipment you are afraid to damage, choosing projects that were way too big for me - and even failing from time to time - really helped to prepare me to handle difficult situations at work. In the end, Bucks New University had a lot to offer me.

(Editor's Note: For more impressive work done by our students and recent graduates here at Bucks, check out Ben Gray's Moonbeam, and the architectural visualisations of Sabah Masood. Also take a look at the work of Andy Thomas here, see our latest commercial project for Rocketseed, our short film done for a global aid agency, and take a look at the excellent work of designer Monika Dzikowicz, architectural visualisation specialist Krsytof Michalski, Alex Whitfield and the 3D artwork of Mike Swan.)

Student Showcase - The Art of Monika Dzikowicz

Monika Dzikowicz is a 3rd year student at Bucks who has developed a very strong portfolio in visual development and concept design. She draws well and has practiced her craft to develop her skills as a concept designer, visual development artist and storyboard artist.

Monika has also taken the hugely important step of creating her own blog to showcase her work. As a freelance artist (and which artist is not, in the end, a freelancer?) you need to make your work available to prospective clients so that the world can find your work and (hopefully) pay you for your services.

Concept Art for class project

Nowadays there is no excuse for not having a blog or a tumbler account to display your work. Blogs are simple to set up, they are free, and they can be easily customised to suit your own taste and design sense.

Any student who does not have a blog or website is effectively cutting themselves off from potential employment.

One of the best aspects of building a blog or website is that it helps you to organise and sort your work. What is good? What is bad? What works? What does not? And, most important of all, what gaps do I need to fill?

When I built my first website around 7 years ago, the best part of the experience was the pleasure in realising that (a) I did have some decent work to show and (b) there were many gaps that needed filling - but that this was the first step in filling these gaps. It became a to-do list of skills that needed upgrading.

Monika has already carved out her own space on the web and even attracted followers to her page - showing that her work is enjoyed and appreciated by other artists in the blogosphere. This helps to show an employer or client that her work is popular and capable of reaching an audience.

Congratulations to Monika on building her online portfolio and inspiring the rest of us with her excellent work.

----Alex