Sunday 14 May 2017

OUGD602 Module Evaluation (Brief One & Two)

The past year has been a very important experience for myself as it has made me realise crucial elements that are key for my own design process. The most important thing I have learnt is that it is absolutely integral to create a concept to develop my work. I realised this as I found I was a lot more passionate about the work I was producing when it had been informed by a body of research. I also learnt the importance of blogging my ideas, as it made final resolutions a lot easier to understand as I had a step by step guide of my idea generation; I found this really useful for group critiques and talking through my work at studio visits, and I therefore believe that it will be incredibly useful in industry when explaining my work, both at interviews and when I have a job to work colleagues. 

I feel a lot more confident when talking through the ideas behind my work this year, I believe this is down to my engagement with the industry through studio visits. The studios that I sent my work were very complimentary and said I have a wide set of design skills which they look for in their employees. 

My presentation skills have improved vastly this year and I believe that this is also due to my engagement with industry, in particular my internship with Foxduo Design. I discovered that there isn’t anything to be nervous about when sharing ideas with clients; the worst that can happen is they don’t like the design - this isn’t the end of the world.

I think my biggest weakness this year was time management. I left contacting studios till late due to the fact I wanted to get my personal branding and online presence perfect before contacting them, and I feel as though this could’ve jeopardised my opportunity of getting internships due to the studios being fully booked for the year. 

This year I have learnt that I really enjoy collaborating, whether that be with other designers or other specialisms. I think it has a really beneficial impact on my portfolio as it shows I can work as part of a team, but I also believe the outcomes are a lot stronger when more than one person has worked on the brief - two heads are better than one. 


Overall, I have really engaged with university this year and I definitely feel in a better position and feel more industry ready than I was at the beginning of the year.  

Tuesday 9 May 2017

OUGD602 Time Plan - Updated (Brief Two)

November - January: Self-branding

January +: Contact studios

March - April: .PDF Portfolio & CV

April: Internship at Foxduo Design

May: Submit PPP, EP & complete Intermarketing brief

June: Internship at Oslo

July: Be employed / Continue applying for design jobs in Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds.

Saturday 29 April 2017

OUGD602 Manifesto (Brief One)

From what I have learnt over the past three years, I decided to make a short manifesto in the style of a haiku poem for do's and don'ts for myself to follow, and to put on my website so that people will know what I stand for.

I chose to write it in the form of a Haiku poem as it makes it a lot easier to remember due to the rhyming nature. The manifesto is below.


Thursday 27 April 2017

OUGD602 Presentation Review (Brief Two)

Today I did my presentation. I started off really nervous and was a bit all over the place with my words, however after a minute I relaxed into it a lot more and I think it went really well. I managed to say everything that I had planned on speaking about due to using a script, however I tried to not just completely read off it.

When I had previously practiced the presentation it lasted around 7 minutes and 30 seconds, which is spot on as we were supposed to leave 3 minutes for questions, however I'm not sure how long it lasted in the end due to the fact that when I am nervous I speak a lot quicker than I usually would.

I think my presentation was quite interesting, and I tried to make it more engaging by using bright colours and speaking about multiple different aspects of my development instead of just internships and studio visits.

Tuesday 25 April 2017

OUGD602 Script for Presentation (Brief Two)

Slide 1: Hello. This is my ppp presentation about how I have engaged with the graphic design industry this year, and how I have developed my self promotional materials.


Slide 2: These are my logo developments over the last three years. I changed my logo design from last year only very slightly, as I thought it was successful, however when scaling for web it lost a lot of quality - for this reason I simplified it. This has worked in my favour as it’s a lot more sleek and minimal and really gets across what my design style is all about.


Slide 3: So last year I discussed how I had made a professional twitter account, however having barely used it I have decided to use my personal twitter account instead. This means I have been a lot more careful about what I put out into the world.


I have also started trying to use Linkedin this year, however it has been quite unsuccessful as I’m still not entirely sure how to use it efficiently. This is something I am going to change once all three modules have been handed in.


I still keep my professional tumblr updated with all of my most recent work, as I find this is great self-promotion as hashtags can be used, however I have also created and kept a Behance up to date as it’s a lot more professional than a Tumblr, and it is great for sharing collaborative work.


Slide 4: As well as a Behance, I decided it was time to create a website. I created this with squarespace as it was the easiest website to use that I tried out, and they also make it affordable for students.


Slide 5: These are my business cards. I kept them black and white as I feel as though these colours represent my design work best. I am going to get them professionally printed and spray paint the edges a bright colour, as I always showcase my work on bright colours to make it really stand out.


Slide 6: So to contact studios this year I started off emailing. I must’ve sent around twenty emails and only heard three responses, one of them negative. So instead of emailing I thought it would be better to call. This turned out really well, as I managed to get a Skype call and two studio visits out of this.


Slide 7: One of the studios that got back to me over email was FoxDuo, a studio based in Bradford. I did a week long internship here, and it went really well. It was a learning curve as I learnt that working in a creative hub is really great, however working in a very small studio isn’t really for me as there wasn’t a whole lot for me to do over the week and I found that quite tedious.


Slide 8: Myself and Cameron had a Skype call with Hungry Sandwich Club which was really interesting and we found out a lot about all three members. The main that this taught me was that if I were to start a studio of my own, the biggest challenge is going to be getting a steady stream of work for the first couple of months.
Slide 9: Myself and Cameron called up Saul studios and ended up going for a studio visit with the creative director, Dan. This particular visit was really interesting as he works from home, and he told us that he feels as though he is often left out from the group work that takes part in creative hubs, so he often keeps in contact with people within Duke Studios and asks for help with specific projects, for example Hungry Sandwich Club are currently coding a website for him.


Slide 10: I also had the opportunity to go to Catalogue in Leeds which was really great as I adore their work and aspire to work in a studio similar once I graduate. One thing that stuck with me from this particular visit was the fact that there is potential to travel - one of the members has moved to New York and the other resides in Leeds. It’s great as I would love to travel, however often worry about money.


Slide 11: I’ve also been for a chat with Oslo and they have said that I can have an internship once I finish uni, which should be really fun.


Slide 12: So this is my portfolio from first and second year. In first year I found out that I really enjoyed publication design and I experimented a lot with this in second year.


Slide 13: In third year, however, I have been trying to push myself to vary my portfolio. I have focused mainly on publication design, branding and design for print, as these are my main interests within graphic design and what I want to focus on once I graduate.


Slide 14: I have created a .PDF portfolio with my favourite work in, having read that only your best work should be included in the portfolio, the scale of the portfolio has been cut back a lot. However, I have tried to get a varied set of skills within it, for example icon design, poster design, publication design, branding etc. I’ve also made sure that all the work in my portfolio is concept-driven.


Slide 15: I’ve also created a creative CV. This is really bright and colourful on the outside to grab the viewers attention, however the inside is toned back and showcases my work and CV. I thought it would be beneficial including a small glimpse into my portfolio along with my CV as it gives the viewer a better idea of what I’m capable of.


Slide 16: I found DBA really useful as I got an insight into what industry feedback is really like. Overall, however, they were really surprised by my groups work as it was very concept-driven and quite abstract compared to a lot of the other entries.


Slide 17: My experience at Leeds College of Art has been really positive and I definitely feel a lot more prepared to start a creative job than I felt after leaving Art Foundation. I’ve found it really challenging, which I think is a good thing as it has pushed me to create bigger, bolder and better designs.


Slide 18: My plan for the rest of the year, assuming I haven’t already got a job, is to go back to Warrington and keep applying for creative jobs in Leeds, as it’s the place I want to be. I’m hoping to be moving back in October, before graduation.

Monday 24 April 2017

OUGD602 Creative Report: Studio Visits & More (Brief Two)

After interviewing three studios, one by Skype and the others in person, I thought it would be useful to put these into a creative report. This will be useful as I can possibly send it to the studios as a sort of thank you, and it will remind them that I still exist if they have already forgotten. To do this, I thought the best method would be to recreate my favourite design of theirs in my own style, and then add the interview on the back. This could then work as a poster design for them to put on their studio wall. 

Below is the poster I designed for Saul Studio. To do this, I recreated the promotion material that Dan made for Colours May Vary, but in my own style. I then added the interview on the back, and I also added my own logo design as well as Saul's, as I left him with a business card so this will jog his memory.


The next was designed for Hungry Sandwich Club. I decided to keep the design very simple as I am not used to making the illustrations that Hungry Sandwich Club create. I decided to just create a small flag that says the word 'hello' on. This wasn't based on a specific design of Hungry Sandwich Club, just their style as a whole. I then typeset the interview onto the back of the poster.


And finally, I created a poster design based on the artwork that Catalogue creates. This particular design is based on the poster 'Friends are friends is friends our homies'. It was a very simple design to create however I really love the poster design from Catalogue. I then typeset the interview onto the back.


I am going to send these poster designs to the studios as a thank you for taking the time out to let me come see their studio and ask them some questions.

OUGD602 Presentation (Brief Two)