Tom McPhillips joined us from Germany for the IDI Graduation Ceremony 2016. After receiving his BA (Hons) Graphic Design degree, Tom was delighted to end his journey at Edinburgh Castle.
Tom sat down with us to talk about how he successfully managed his time while studying amidst family life.
After Graduating, Tom went on to publish one of his books as well as starting a new business.
Tom’s Design Work
“In my design work, I like to create design solutions which are unique and memorable. I like to provoke thoughts and emotions.
“In my book, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, humour and photography are combined to create a visual for everyday metaphors and idioms. This coffee-table book is captivating and fun, while at the same time creating an emotional reaction. It is designed to captivate the viewer and to have them think about the illustrated metaphor.
“In my design piece logo, for Moresby cartography, the logo reflects the delicate hand-crafted nature of their work. The logo has a hand-crafted feel reflecting the ethos of the company. It is memorable yet sophisticated, and can be applied to any collateral.”
Interview Transcript
Hi, my name is Tom McPhillips and I studied Graphic Design with IDI.
Where have you come from to be here today?
I’ve come from Germany.
What brings you to the graduation ceremony today?
It’s been such a great journey, and it’d be nice to finish off the journey with the graduation ceremony and it’s important to me because it was been a big change in my life to do Graphic Design because I used to be an engineer so it was a big career change.
What made you chose to study online with IDI?
I’m a family man so IDI really worked with my family situation. It was flexible and allowed for flexibility so rather than doing your mainstream college courses IDI was a course for me, so it was pretty good.
What were the worst moments?
The worst parts; maintaining the discipline and trying to control the distractions of family life. That’s the hardest part.
What were the best moments?
The best parts was the creating projects that we were given and then seeing them through to the end and then seeing that final product. For me that was probably the most important part and the most enjoyable part.
How would you describe the peer interactions and student support?
The peer interaction and student support was really good. The feedback was very good, the interaction with the tutors was excellent so it was very helpful and it steered us back in the right direction if we were going off line a little bit. So, it was pretty good.
Do you have any advice for people thinking about studying online wit IDI?
I would say make sure that you have your timelines in place before hand, know what to expect because there is some work involved and be realistic of timelines and be realistic of what can be achieved over the time period, and if you’re a family person know that there is some work involved, but once you know that and you work through it, it’s doable, it’s workable.
So, what’s next?
Next steps; I’m working on a project, actually, that is my final major project, I’m going to full fruition and to publication of it. It’s a book that I created and then I’m starting a company, in January, with a colleague of mine, so looking forward to that.