Shillington stars: Introducing Noe Baba

There’s a few cities in the UK known for their buzzing creative scene - and Manchester is one of them. It’s also the home of Shillington Manchester, the education facility Noe Baba attended a full-time graphic design course last year.

Now a fully fledged graphic designer, Baba graduated from Shillington in April 2017, and quickly landed herself a job at full-service creative agency Holdens. Here she reflects on life at Shillington and at a design agency, and also offers some top advice to designers in need of a little social media boost.

What was your background before enrolling at Shillington?

Fine art (and a bit of architecture). There are obvious connections there, but I recognised that design was a completely different process from what I was used to and that I had a lot to learn.

Would you recommend the Shillington experience to other aspiring designers?

Yes. At the time it felt like a massive gamble. Having already done a degree and a half, I didn’t want to do another three years at uni. I wanted to learn quickly and get to work.

Your portfolio is packed full of amazing projects. Do you have a favourite?

Thanks! I loved the project for the event and conference centre, Futuro (pictured). We had to immerse ourselves in a given city, and mine was Lisbon. I loved doing all the research and feeding this into the ideas for the project – really giving it legs.

Tell us a bit about your current role at Holdens.

Since I’ve been working there as a designer, I’ve worked on lots of different projects – from doing the branding and interior design for a new barbershop to working on websites, illustrations and retail design. It’s safe to say it’s been a steep learning curve but I’m loving it! They’ve been great at just letting me get stuck in.

You’re super active on Twitter. Any tips for anyone hoping to up their social media game?

I think it’s quite a personal thing, but if you’re looking to get your work out in the open, it’s free so you may as well give it a try. I like Twitter for the conversational element, and it’s taken me a while to get onto Instagram but now have I love it. Don’t take it too seriously – you don’t want to make it a chore so just have fun with it!

Read the full interview with Noe Baba over on the Shillington blog.