We chatted to a design student on her internship with Sass & Bide:
How I landed the internship:
I always loved Sass & Bide as a consumer- and during my time at Billy Blue I was required to get in contact with a designer of a major Australian brand, so I choseSass & Bide. The Head Designer was extremely approachable and helpful for my assessment, and so I sent her flowers to say “Thank you”. I was always taught that a tangible “Thank you” is the best, whether it be a hand written note or card. I think things like this make you stand apart from the crowd. After I sent her flowers I flagged my initial interest in gaining an internship, and she remembered me because of the flowers, and from here I found a placement!
What to expect:
I had only interned at magazines and didn’t know what to expect when I was called to come in and help. Initially I was placed in a generic role; unpacking jewellery and checking for blemishes. I didn’t mind the medial work, I was just so happy to be there. The Head Designer introduced me to the team and gave me a tour of the offices, for a fashion student this was absolutely inspirational.
I continued my role with the jewellery team for two days until I was approached to stay on as an intern in their design team. Sass & Bide have a lot of students come through their doors but they said my Photoshop and illustrator skills really made me stand out as a candidate that would fit their needs on a more solid basis.
I would go in 3-4 days a week during my College break and help them either piece drawing, painting patterns to appear on dresses or fabric cutting. The design team only had one intern, which meant I received some great mentoring across a range of introductory design tasks.
The Sass and Bide team truly cared about my development in the industry and recommended that I focus on my final year of study at Billy Blue without an additional intern commitment; and gave me their contact details should I need help. I am so glad I took that advice as your final design project is a huge commitment and I wouldn’t have done as well if I had of tried to balance both.
Would you recommend others chase internships?
Absolutely. YES! The internship helped me grow immensely as a designer, and most importantly- it reassured me that design is what I wanted to do.
My time at Sass & Bide was truly pivotal in my development as a student and fresh face in the industry and I could not recommend the experience more. I think it is so important to ensure that you are interning at a place that is helping you grow your skills. If you are doing the bins, dishes or hours on hours of quality control on ranges – it’s just not worth it. If you’re a design student, try listing ten brands you like, then be bold and approach them to ask for a placement.
At Sass & Bide the design team taught me a whole new design treatment. The team developed concepts and presented stories in a way that created clarity for everything I was learning at college. I found the theoretical process of learning at college somewhat overwhelming but Sass & Bide showed me that a functioning business is not as rigid as a course curriculum. An important difference.