Work Experience At Post Industrial Design
Since about grade five I’ve known what interest me and what I can see myself doing once I’ve finished school. You see, I love buildings, floor plans, layouts, houses and the feeling of a good space once you’re in one. I have thought a lot about what career choice I might take up and it became clear to me that I wanted to become an architect! Architecture is a mixture of many aspects and doesn’t mean just building buildings. Landscape, planning, designing and creating is all part of the process of building something beautiful. I feel the job could be a good fit for me because of the amount of hard work, mathematics and solution making as well as the imagination, creativity and inspiration the job takes! So when my teachers first introduced the idea of work experience for all the year tens at my school back in Wangaratta, I was excited and nervous about the thought of working in an actual work environment. Of course coming from Wangartta it had its challenges in the variety of jobs available. I was looking at furniture stores, real estate agencies as well as show homes for any type of work experience having to do with design or homes. Then one weekend when my family and I came down to Melbourne to stay with my grandma, who lives in the suburb of West Footscray, and we past this unusual shop with an old gas pump, a cool carpet and plenty of other nic nacs in the window on display. Post Industrial Design was the name of the shop. Shortly after I came inside and had a good look around at all the quirky, unusual products and creations. I knew right away that I would be more than happy to spend a good week working at this shop! Although the shop doesn’t have anything to do straight up with architecture there were quite a few factors that contributed to the area like design, creation, art, color and the use of space. So of course before starting I was anxious and a bit nervous, as you would be. I was expecting the usual shop work like dusting, cleaning, shelving and greeting customers. I soon meet Mary who owns and works at Post Industrial Design and she was very kind! The day I started was very hot and there weren’t very many costumers at all, which made the space very quite. I did end up doing chores around the shop such as dusting, opening boxes and putting stock on shelves. The second day I got to meet Mary’s partner Jos who makes a lot of the crazy unique welding pieces in the store. I was helping him with a delivery that day, but I found the time was really great! We were both talking about different forms of art, styles of music as well as the amount of effort that goes into a piece. It really got me inspired to give my own work a go! One bonus of working at the shop on this particular week was the exhibit on show by the well-known street artist Baby Guerrilla. Part of the shop was turned into a gallery to showcase the works of art and many costumers were interested in the artist famous wall art adhesives. On the Thursday night a group of ladies called ‘Women of the West’ put on a ladies night in the store and the artwork made by Baby Geurrilla was on display. I met lots of really great ladies who came out for a good night to mingle and I had a good night myself. I was applying temporary tattoos on the women of the wall art shown in the gallery. The whole four days that I have spent at Post Industrial Design have been great! I have learnt basic store skills like displaying and the business side, I have observed how to have good relations and connections between you and your costumer, I’ve met loads of wonderful people who are faithful to the store, I’ve been shown how to make art out of anything by using recycled materials, I’ve even learnt not to take your job too seriously and do what you love and are passionate about! I love that Post Industrial Design is a new face in the community that can take so much good from this business and really bring out the true hidden character of this part of town. Where ever I end up down the track I can always use the skills I have learnt here and take all the inspiration I have collected in my head through out the week and maybe start a little something of my own. Who Knows!
