From Skipton to Penrith: Freddie’s Week at Ast

At Ast, we believe that work experience should be exactly that — real experience.

Not sitting in the corner watching everyone else work. Not endless cups of tea and photocopying. We want people who spend time with us to get stuck in, try new things, ask questions and leave having actually created something.

We’ve always believed that progression comes through hands-on experience and continuous learning. That applies just as much to someone spending their first week in the industry as it does to our own team. We want to nurture people, give them the confidence to explore what they’re capable of and encourage them to keep pushing, whatever their role or starting point. Because when people are given the opportunity to learn and grow, the possibilities really are limitless.

This week, we had the pleasure of welcoming Freddie, who travelled all the way up from Skipton to spend the week with the Ast team.

Freddie got in touch with us a couple of weeks ago looking for some hands-on experience to complement his Business & Design courses.

From an idea to a finished product

Throughout the week, Freddie has had a taste of pretty much everything we do.

From design and production to workwear and print, he’s followed the process from an idea on a screen right through to a finished product — and got stuck in along the way.

But we also wanted to give him a challenge of his own.

The brief?

Design something. Anything.

A dangerously open brief for a designer…

Freddie spent his first day upstairs with James in our design department, learning the ropes and developing ideas. Before long, he’d decided exactly what he wanted to create: his own clothing brand inspired by the Lake District.

And wow, did he run with it.

Meet the Freddie collection

Freddie developed a bold outdoor-inspired identity, combining mountain photography, typography and graphic elements to create a range of T-shirt designs that genuinely wouldn’t look out of place hanging in a shop.

Once the artwork was ready, it was time to take it off the screen.

Freddie worked through the production process, preparing his designs, positioning the transfers and getting involved with pressing the finished graphics onto the garments.

The result? His own collection of professionally finished tops.

He even took the branding one step further and created some signs featuring his design, giving him the chance to see how one visual identity can work across completely different products and materials.

Not bad for a week’s work!

Work experience, the Ast way

For us, this is what work experience is all about.

It’s a chance to see the full process, make things, make decisions and discover the amount of work that happens between someone saying, “I’ve got an idea…” and holding the finished product in your hands.

Freddie has been an absolute pleasure to have around. He’s thrown himself into every aspect of Ast, listened, learned, asked questions and, most importantly, got stuck in.

We’ve been seriously impressed by what he’s created in such a short space of time, and we hope he heads back to Skipton with plenty of new skills, ideas and experience to take into his Business & Design courses.

Thanks for spending the week with us, Freddie!

We wish you the very best for whatever comes next — and judging by what we’ve seen this week, we’re pretty sure it’s going to be a great success. 👏

If you’d like to get hands on experience at Ast, please contact us here.