Meet Joe Dolman

September was a big month for me. I moved away from home, did my first weekly food shop, use a washing machine for the first time and started my first full time job at AHOY. During the first couple of weeks a few thoughts were circling around my head… “I’m not enjoying this”, “Was this the right decision?”, “How do I budget?”… A month had passed and these questions had now disappeared and I was beginning to get into the swing of things, and really enjoy my work.

I was originally chosen to work at AHOY due to my knowledge in video editing, so naturally when I was assigned my first video-based project, my eyes lit up. The first project was some basic video editing for a bunch of Brand Attic interviews, but I’m not sure if they ever saw the light of day…

Not long after joining the AHOY team, I started to slip into a habit of making brews for everyone in the office, as an apprentice does, but something was different. I had discovered a talent I never knew I had – the ability to make the perfect brew. Subconsciously I was pleasing most people in the office with my brews, and to this day, I believe I am still satisfying taste buds at 11:00am and 3:00pm everyday. One day Matt had an idea… He knew I was good at video editing, and brew making, so he told me to combine the two skills and make the best video I possibly could based around making a cup of tea. I went to town on this project, and here is the final product in all of its glory:

After about 3 months at AHOY I felt like I needed to offer more to the company, so I started to learn how to use Photoshop. Design agency that we are, I had plenty of help from the people around me, and YouTube on top of that, so I knew I was in good hands. I worked on some banners for Shores, and messed around with a few images for events like the release of the new Star Wars film. I have learnt a few keyboard shortcuts, and some basic skills on Photoshop and I am still learning new things every day.

Before I knew it, another chance to edit vide had arisen in the form of a promo video for Gander, a company helping students get the right experience with businesses before they go into full time work. This video took the most time to produce and I helped film and direct the shoot as well. I had originally used some cheesy house music but I quickly realised that it was awful… My manager and I sat down for a good hour sampling royalty free music before we hit the jackpot. Check out the finished video below:

Since the Gander project I have been working a lot on a clothing website called Shores. I have learnt how to upload products, change product images, edit page layouts, and some social media work too. My most recent work were some promotional videos for Shores for their new YouTube channel. Take a look below:

Thanks for reading, hopefully you will be hearing from me again sometime soon.

– Joe