OUGD502 Module Evaluation

This module has been both fun and enlightening. I have loved working with others in the taking care of business and learned so much about how I work in that context. That brief in particular confirmed my feelings that I really want to work in groups and specifically collaboratively at a professional. I have already started to do this with my work with the Leeds Arts Party and I am loving it so far. One of my aims for next year is to collaborate more outside of Graphic designers because you learn so much from the work of other people. When it comes to work experience I have also tried to address this, looking specifically into studios and illustrative studios at that. The confidence of having last year behind me has allowed me to contact people much more openly. It's not that I think I am now and incredible designer, it's just that I now know I can trust myself to do my best and think to step away from the design and evaluate it objectively to improve it. Also, through my research into professional practitioners I have identified not only the type of work I want to do (in terms of discipline) but also the kind of life I want. I know I will always want and need to produce work by hand and not sway to far too far towards digital design. I like digital design but print and physical crafts are my calling. I want to live in the country in a few years. It may not be to start with because to be collaborative in practice an urban setting is currently required. Eventually however, I want to be able to at least commute to work. That is the goal.
Along with this greater sense of confidence has come an awareness that design as a discipline can never be fully mastered. If you think you have then you have lost. The constantly changing nature of its audience and those who are creating it makes it a living entity in its self. So, to be a good designer you have to be in a constant state of learning, and this is hugely exciting for me. At least nothing will ever get dull! More than anything else this year I have learned to just chill out. I know I can do this now. A real test of this was when over the last three weeks of the module I had to go back to norfolk three times because of emergency dental work. It completely disrupted my work plan and definitely resulted in large amounts of stress. However, on reflection, I am extremely happy with what I managed to produce for studio Brief 01 in about 4 days. Once again I think I just need to trust myself.
Although I have managed to research quite a few professionals one thing that has been slightly lacking is the number of exhibitions that I have attended. I really made very little effort to rectify this while I could and I regret that greatly. The only thing I can do now is male a change in this next year.

OUGD502 PPP 2 Studio Brief 01 My Brand Collective Evaluation

ALthough I am happy with what I have achieved for this brief there is an instant problem that I am aware of. I set out to create something much more earthy and hand made that last years self branding. I have not done this. It is quirky and practical which in its self is hard to achieve. However, it is not hand made in appearance. This is because it is based on a font. It is quite clean. I think that the reason it has developed into this is that on digital platforms a clean finish can look more at home. I also think that for wide application something infinitely sizeable is also so useful it is hard to pass up. In this instance I have produced something I like but it is not what I originally thought I wanted. One thing that I am very happy with is the cohesiveness of all the applications of the designs. each piece relates to the others in an unquestionable way.I am also pleased that this year I have shaped what I have made around what I feel I will really use to get work experience this summer and managed to produce work that I am happy to show to professionals. I am particularly happy that I managed to finish the work to the level that I did considering the fact that I had to go home to norfolk numerous times during the easter holidays for emergency dental work and because I don't have a laptop to work on this stopped me working for a large section of the holiday. I still managed to do everything and I am surprised by that! Another thing That I would change if I had a chance to do this project again would be to order in specific stock to be used throughout the print work. I really like the tactility of the cover of the portfolio and would have loved to be able to make my business cards and CV in it. However, it was not possible to get this double sided so I should have planned for this in advance and ordered some stock in to fulfil all of these requirements. More than anything else this project has forced me to look back on my work and realise that it is in fact not that bad, and to start to trust my self to at least do my best with each brief I face.

OUGD502 PPP 2 Studio Brief 01 My Brand Portfolio Final Design and Evaluation

After a lot of work and mistakes I got the covers to work. I am glad I allowed a lot of margin space on the page layouts because making it appear that the text is centralised on the area visible to the reader, rather than the actual area of the paper was very tricky and needed wiggle room for experimentation. I was also unable to get silver screws for the binding because the print room was simply out of them. It would have looked  a lot sleeker if the colour was silver, worked better with the grey tones of the photo. I also managed to make another big mistake which is testament to the fact that I should have done a practice run more thoroughly; the back cover is upside down. This is irrevocable and I would need to make another complete back cover to save the situation. In the time this is not feasible so it will have to do fore submission. However, I will not be sending this out. I will spend the time until I get the folder back making a new back cover so that I can use this portfolio to get work experience. I do really like difference between the texture of the digital wallpaper paper on the covers and the satin paper of the interior pages. The tactility of this just fits with the impression I am trying to create which is one of hands on craft. The practicality of the screw bound format is not lost on me either. I love that I can completely change the contents whenever I feel I have produced something better. I also feel that I have made something that I will legitimately use this summer and next year.

OUGD502 PPP 2 Brief 01 My Brand Final Designs For CV and Business Cards

Printing my business cards and creative cv was fairly straight foreword using slightly textured matt stock of 200gsm for the cv and 300gsm for the business cards. The tactility if the stock is nice but I feel that if I had planned more I could have ordered in some much softer more tactile stock that fits closer with the message of my self branding. I used the pebbles theme throughout linking closely to my website design. However, I do feel that the shadows f the pebbles came out a bit darker than intended and don't have the same lightness that they had on screen. Although I cannot re print I am going to lighten the pebbles slightly for the portfolio print, just to attempt to get the finish I want. I really like the square format of everything and the way it plays into the name of my branding in a subtle but cohesive way. I especially like the classic look of the baskerville font in the body text of the cv. I manages to feel spacious but classic and has a definite literature look to it which once again fits in with my branding. I feel like I have managed to pull my self back slightly during this project and design something that is practical, clean and still communicates me. Th hand drawn type seems the right balance of tradition and eccentricity, and it took long enough to achieve! The photographic elements work with the type to create the sense of tactility and restrained style in its grey tones that work around the high texture images of my work but can dominate when they need to.

Using the grey tones from the pebbles I have also mocked up a grey scale version of my logo that would be for any other application required and for black and white reproduction. I used softer tones because the silhouette is so definite that it doesn't need strong colours.

OUGD502 PPP Presentation and Notes Studio Brief 03 Design Strategy Presentation

Putting together the presentation was fairly simple, because I didn't want to over crowd each slide. I used key words and initiating sentences to communicate most of the information verbally. So, most of the content is in the notes below the presentation. I used a pebble as a little visual link to my self branding, choosing one that had a stripe of white through it, linking it chromatically to my logo. The depth the pebble provides for each slide lends a sense of tactility to them which fits with my over arching message.

OUGD502 PPP 2 Studio Brief 03 Design Strategy Presentation Development

To plan the presentation I first looked through the brief and outlined the areas I needed to cover.

I then went on to ask myself questions about these areas and the pieces of work that I could reference to enforce the points.

Then listing them chronologically so that the slide progression would make sense.

And, eventually numbering them per slide.

OUGD502 PPP 2 Leeds Arts Party Further Work

Although I produced numerous pieces of work for the leeds arts party that I submitted as part of my responsive module, I have carried on with them and have just started work on the programme. I have put together the basic frame work and put place holder text. I have also talked to Fran about a list of images and the number of words per section. As this information gets collated the programme will take a more definite shape. I used the colour guides set out by my earlier website design for them and it seems to have worked out well.

The timetable is something that I am yet to design but using the colours of the events should make it fairly simple. We made the time table central to the booklet so that it would naturally open to this most useful of pages.

The map is also something that I am in the process of designing but once again the colours will be of great use here.

OUGD502 PPP 2 Studio Brief 01 My Brand The Big Book Of Elittlebeth

When creating the layout for the big book of Elittlebeth (portfolio) I ensured that it was in fact a very similar publication to the little book. I allowed extra slug for screw bound books because I am as of yet uncertain about specific requirements apart from the obvious. 

I used the same image as for the other work to maintain continuity and once again shaped the type around the background of the image.

 Once again I used a central justification and made a visual link to the website through the use of the pebbles. Each brief had a pebble depending on the discipline the work comes under (links to the buttons on the website).

The cover layout took time and a lot of tweaking but eventually something with balance and legibility was achieved.

OUGD502 PPP 02 Making Contacts

Over the last couple of months I have become increasingly aware of the fact that I need some work experience this summer. Although I have got the green light from parallel magazine, they are still evasive about time and place. So, I have made a few more contacts in the hope that they may evolve into something more.

After hearing about Solid Block in Norwich During a PPP talk about linked in and LCA alumni I gave them a call and asked about whether they would be open to taking someone on for a few weeks over the summer. They said they are not planning to but if I send my portfolio (which I do not have yet) over in pdf format and they would go from there. They seemed very positive and welcoming so once I have the portfolio after PPP submission I will send it over.

I also realised that I wanted to look into specific production methods as well because learning a specific craft really well could be very useful. Letter press is something that I am desperate to learn well. So, I looked around north norfolk and admittedly there was very little in the way of presses. Looking around leeds and west yorshire produced phylecia Sutherland. She designs and prints at home with letterpress equipment. I sent her an email just to see if she wanted to meet up for a coffee, because just talking to her about what she does would be fascinating.

OUGD502 PPP 2 Brief 01 My Brand Business card and Creative CV

From the decisions made sketching out the CV I knew I wanted square business cards. This is because not only will it fit visually with the square books but it will also fit in with the whole Elittlebeth concept because I can make the business cards smaller than the usual, helping them to stand out in a stack.

I tried a few different layouts, but in the end it came down to centrally aligned and left justified. I thought the pebble at the bottom was a nice addition as a visual link to the website buttons and all other outcomes because I want to try and do the same thing on some of the pages of my CV and my presentation. I feel like it add the tactility I am looking to communicate and stops the page from being too corporate because the sharp serifs of Baskerville can sometimes do that.

Left justified just felt wrong and I ended up going with the central text. This decision falls in line with the text on the website as well and is something I will stick to when designing the CV and portfolio.

The front of the business cards needed to link to the landing image of the website. This is because it is likely that they will visit the website after they get a business card and communicating that they are in the right place needs to be fast. So, I used the image from the website and my logo, but also scaled down the image slightly and moved it so that the text sat in a more legible manner over a more regulated texture but the location of the image is still clear. I also wanted the image behind the text to be slightly different to that on the website, this maintaining of the scale of the image manages that whilst still keeping colours and tone of voice the same.

I then started to look at the cover text for the little book. I used the Baskerville bold font that I altered for the logo text. I wanted a layout that was quirky but also completely legible.

I soon realised that in order to tell if these layouts would work I would need the images the gauge the texture levels fighting with the text.

After a bit of moving around I found a layout that interacted with the background enough to be completely legible and be playful enough to communicate a little bit of me as well.

Throughout the interior of the book I stuck as much as possible to the centrally aligned text and use of the pebbles as a footer.

The pagination os that of a saddle stitch book, I will be binding it with white or grey thread to minimize the use of harsh colours.

I have a few concerns about how these will print because the shadows on the pebbles are particularly soft and I am unsure if that will transfer well.