Emailing my design heroes- 

Asked to pick five of the companies/people/studios we admire I could only think of four:

The District: http://www.thedistrict.co.uk

Bob London: http://www.boblondon.co.uk
Nobrow: http://www.nobrow.net
Heart: http://www.heartagency.com

I emailed them all this (with a few variations depending on who the recipient was) 

"Hello Mr London,

My name is Kate and I’m a designer/illustrator in Leeds. I've been fond of your illustrations for a few years now and have finally decided to pluck up the courage to say hello and ask for some advice.  

I'm interested in collage, colourful illustration and book design. I'm based in the Leeds and Suffolk but can travel anywhere around the UK and would love to come and say hello.
 
I’ve attached a small pdf of my work and if you have a free minute some feedback/any advice would be brilliant.

Thank you!
 
Kate"

I swiftly received a reply from Bob London which was a bit bizarre but ultimately made me laugh and had a bit of valuable advice thrown in there. 

"Hello, hello and thanks for the mail
 
Now, be honest with me Katie, how many people did you cut & paste that  
email to eh? Tell me the truth cos I'll know if you've been lying.
 
What kind of advice are you after? Are you at college?
Are your tutors not doing their job properly?
 
They probably tell you to look at other peoples work don't they?
 
I say: DON"T. Try as hard as you can to find your own style.
There's already too many illustrators copying each other
& they're all working in Sainsbury's stacking shelves.
 
Strive as hard as you can to be original.
It may prove unpopular at first but you'll win in the end.
 
That's all I can say really.
 
Cheers and good luck,

Bob"

I also received replies from Heart and Nobrow asking if I was interested in an internship (how American of them) but I'm not sure to be honest if thats what I want to do right now. That probably sounds stupid but I'm aiming to get something sorted in my third year and for the summer but they were talking about sooner which was impractical for me. Disappointingly after making initial contact and with The District they didn't reply but I have a plan about that...

 

PDF slides attatched to email: