OUGD601 PPP 03 workshop Interview Task

The Interview: workshop/task 

You have an interview at a large multidisciplinary studio.

-Prep for the interview prepare a short statement about yourself (we have had past workshops on this)

-A short statement about your technical skills (examples)

Throughout my degree my focus has been predominantly on typography, lettering and calligraphy. This means u have becom very well aquatinted with letter forms and the nuances of kerning, spacing and typographical layout. This allows me to work closely on type based brands as well, creating custom type. A prime example of this would be my hypothetical re brand of the feminist magazine Parallel. This brand was a careful meeting of custom type and image to create a complex message of strength in femininity, which was a difficult message to balance. A close understanding of the construction the letters which make up a logo, allow a much better construction and application of the complete brand with intelligence and continuity. This includes digital applications. Although I only have a small aquaintence with the actual act of coding, I have designed for web on many occasions. This requires a go understanding of the limitations of the medium and the way people interact with digital content. This can be seen in my work for The Leess Arts Party conference, for which I United the UX design approach for the website and printed guide to create a cohesive and easily understood experience.

-A short statement about your work experience (examples)

My first considerable experience of the creative industries was when I interned with Belynda Sharples at The Art of Wallpaper. This internship was basically being Belynda's assistant for several weeks, during which I was integrated into the design process and introduced to the industrial printing processes involved in wallpaper production. This experience allowed me to learn that flexibility and creativity come hand in hand, and being able to role with the last minuet changes is crucial to a successful outcome. I also learned that as creatives we dictate what makes us happy and fulfilled by our work and finding and focussing on that allows the best work to be produced.

I have also recently be elected as the communications officer for the LCA SU. The role involves designing the large campaigns that they need promotional material for, such as Fresher and the Student Elections. The responsibility of this role makes it worth mentioning here. I am given a budget to keep to for each project and I negotiate with the printers about all design outcomes for each campaign. This has allowed me to really understand the requirements of commercial graphic design and the considerations that have to be made to keep to budget and deadline, also with a good outcome.

I also recently applied for the internship program at Dalton Maag type foundry in Brixston. Although I didn't get a place straight out (there were hundreds of applicants) I am at the top of the short list, should anyone not be able to make it. 

-Statement about your work as a team and independently. 

The SU work I have been doing, as mentioned above, also includes much conversation and decision making as a group with the rest of the SU. This means a state of almost constant collaboration with lots of people. This is a great training ground for collaboration in general and has allowed me to develop both a creative back bone I.e. Knowing when to stand up for your concepts, and also how to introduce diplomacy into the equation; making the best of having external opinions to help develop a concept or aesthetic.

In terms of my internal college studio work, I am constantly on the look out for collaboration. I love working with other people and I am pretty good at it. The way I develop ideas is to discuss them, to get them out into the open and into the mixing bowl of other peoples' minds. This means that group work is often where I do my best work. When it comes to leading a group I am more than happy yet also now when to step back and take direction.

Working independently is a surprisingly similar story. I still work conversationally and orchestrate a number of informal Frits with my peers to talk about my ideas and direction for each brief. I am well aware that I am designing not for my own eyes, but other peoples' and therefore the perspective of others is quintecencial to good design. I have a very hands on approach to the design process its self. This is because my method of fully understanding things is often to draw them. Before getting on a computer, at least some time has to be spent with a pencil, then a more solid direction can be formed and later experimentation have a greater sense of purpose and certainty. 

-Statement about your communication skills, customers, clients, peers and organisations.

Spoken communication is probably one of my strongest points as a designer. I love meeting new people and for me design is all about the people you get to know, from other designers to clients. for example, I much prefer communication in person or over the phone, emails can seem very cold to me. Which is not to say they are not practical. When dealing with printers on the SU's behalf, all communication was done over the phone. Speaking with one another just makes everything clearer. 

I greatly enjoy presentations as long as I have been given long enough to quaint myself fully with the content. The key is most definitely preparation! Most of all I feel quite comfortable talking to people/an audience about a great idea or what I do, I love it, so talking about it is easy.

Part of my work as a letterer includes chalkboards for independent cafes and shops. This process is very much a social one, in which you sit down and talk to the client at length about what they want to communicate. There is also an aspect of performance to the process as well. With people watching you creating the board and talking to you about what you are doing. This is part of what the client is paying for, the idea of people caring about every aspect of their business and being able to openly converse with new people is part of that.

-Statement about your understanding of graphic design. What is graphic design to you.

To me graphic design is all about people. Whether it be the people you to aspire to work with or like, or the people you create work for and learn from in so doing. Graphic design is about communicating with people and doing so as effectively as possible because you strive to understand those people. I love what I do, the process the trials, the errors, but it is everyone I know because of what I do that is the soul and centre of why I do it.

Start defining what you need to do when applying for a job and what there is to shout about when it comes to your work and what you have achieved.

-work collaboratively

- aquaintence yourself with more typographic programming.

-consider continuity of work in portfolio context.

-start talking to more studios and practitioners.

-communication skills

-collaborative instinct

-I have contributed considerably to the college

-created many opportunities for myself because of it.

Become comfortable with this information and get into twos and conduct mock interviews with a set series of questions.

OUGD602, OUGD601 Context of Practice 03 Contacting Professionals for Primary Research

Although I have already interviewed Roger Grech from the paper cut bindery, I need a few more to flesh out my primary research. This blog post is just a way of recording who I have contacted and why I have chosen to do so. I am going to ask each person the same questions but hopefully I can achieve a dialogue each time to allow each interviewee to really express their opinion properly.

The Print Project:

I have emailed and organised a meeting with Nick from the print project in Shipley. This came predominantly from the suggestion to do so from Roger. However, we have also had a workshop in college from nick and it would be useful to get another craft involved other than book binding and chalkboarding. Just to show that the ideas I am presenting, although they are specific to chalkboarding, they are the rule of craft not the exception. The print project is a letterpress workshop that does a lot of local work as well as involving a lot of local artists and designers in their work. Already you can see how their practice as a company facilitates social interaction. they also visit festivals and do out of workshop workshops that involves amateurs in learning the craft.

Lauren Hom:

Chalkboard Artist and Letterer

Although she is located in New York she is a big influence on a lot of my work. I think it is important to try and get the opinions of other chalkboard artists besides myself because, my opinion is not enough to declare something  fact. I have sent and email over asking for her opinion on a few things and am waiting a reply. I am not confident this will go through, but I thought it was worth a try to get in touch.

Stephanie Baxter:

Letterer and Illustrator

Stephanie Baxter is a letter I have been following on Instagram for years and I lover her shabby chic yet colourful and charming aesthetic. This is interesting for my purposes because she actively plays on the imperfections of hand made and crafted things to sell her work and get clients. Basically fodder for my chapter on emotional closeness. I have sent an email to her to see if she would be able to have a coffee and a chat (she is based in Leeds) and am awaiting a reply.

Phylecia Sutherland:

Letterpress and stationary designer:

I have met Phylecia before and what is very interesting about her practice is the way she melds together her own printing press and digital design through polymer plats she gets made of her digital designs. This is interesting in terms of my physical proximity section and examination of the distance between the designer and the finished product. I have sent over some questions and she provided some great and very useful answers that can be found in a later post in full.

Leadset:

Through simply searching for print shops around Leeds I found this small letterpress print shop that seems to be fairly newly set up. This is interesting because it could very distinctly show the revival of craft processes. They specialise in both polymer plate printing and movable type. I have sent an introductory email and am yet to hear back from them.

CottonPress:

Are a much larger producer of letterpress goods than either of the others. I have chosen them because they are distinctly modern in their style and approach to old mediums which questions the presence of nostalgia as anything more than an idea. I tried calling them because they are so close, I thought I wouldn't loose anything by being more upfront and direct. However, they just brushed me off and were extraordinarily unhelpful so I really can't be bothered with them.

Cotton and Pine Press:

This letterpress and design studio just popped up because I was looking for a press that had a design studio attached to them. Even though they are based in Alabama I thought it was worth trying, so I just sent over an email and am waiting to hear back.

I will update this post as I contact more people.

OUGD602 PPP 3 Brief 01 Self Branding Business Card Printing and Laser Cut Debacles

After many hours of trying to get the laser cutter to do my bidding it became clear that the source sans pro light was too thin for MDF and the ragged edge created by this means of etching would have doubtful results anyway.

                    

There is a few days for me to have some functional and pleasant business cards so I know I could look to acid etching at vernon street and using the hydraulic nipping press to emboss over a screen print or similar. However, this would take weeks and is better left for latter in the year when there is lees pressure on time.

                    

Instead I have put to one side today and tomorrow for working with the movable type in the print room to create some letterpress business cards. Although they are not custom lettering they are very tangibly pleasant things that can communicate my hands on approach.

Once printed on a soft antique white water colour paper I bought from the shop in the print room. I then matched up the soft orange ink with some coloured stock from the library wich I used, along with some spray mount to create duplex coloured edges. These are cards that will work purely for my chalkboard commissions. They are more simple and tactile than my cards for a design studio might be. It sells the rustic ideals behind the concept of chalkboarding and are something nice to keep and hold.

OUGD602 PPP 03 Brief 01 Self Branding Lettering and Re-Working Business Cards

Once I had the design for my branding and the lettering for the back of my business card detailed in the last quote, I had to create the full designs.

I looked at the back first because this was the one I thought I would have most trouble wit, because of the large amounts of information needed in such a small place.

I chose a tall narrow format that would read portrait on the back and landscape on the front (I will have to try out the ergonomics of how this will turn in the hand). The small format is just another way of applying the theme of small to everything for continuity and individuality.

For the info on the card I knew I needed a strong typographic contrast to make the mix work. I tried a number of options looking at negative space so that the wood left behind by the laser cutter would be strong enough to create a tangible impression in print form.

After last years branding I thought what I wanted to do was return to a kind of green because there really is no other colour that represents me. However, I have also looked at creating a soft rusty autumnal orange that I think could work really well in web and print (from previous projects where I have worked with these shades).

I already had a definite design in mind for the front of the business card and this was one of those times that it just worked out. The type needed to be light and sharp again to create contrast and source sans pro light did the job with a little extra tracking.

I then reversed the designs because the laser cutter with etch away the black area leaving the stamp. I have a few concerns about the thinness of the source sans pro light and iff the MDF will take such thin cutting. So, I also mocked up designs with a semi bold version of the font which surprisingly still looked great!

OUGD602 PPP 3 brief 01 Self Branding Starting Sketches

As previously mentioned I created new self branding over the summer for my application to Dalton Maag. It is a continuos line style that is like hand writing in style to help communicate informaily.

I then took this lettering style and looked at creating some lettering for the back of a business card.

                      

I wanted to communicate that lettering and drawing are my major focusses within the discipline of graphic design. I did this by adding a drop shadow to these words so that hopefully they catch the eye first.

                      

Because I need a business card soon to source some more chalkboard commissions for my context of practice research I need something that will look descent fairly quickly. However, I have known for a while that one of the uses I  wanted to put my lettering too, was custom letterpress. So next I am going to create the lettering vectors for this piece and try some laser cutting to make some wooden type of my own.

OUGD602 PPP 03 Brief 01 Self Branding Workshop Notes: DIY Identity

This workshop was mainly structured around discussion. We were asked to think about what we would want our self branding to do and why.
Two words that stood out for me were 'explain' and 'Interact'. This is because the major thing that I want to achieve with my self branding is to explain my process, style and approach to design work. The main aspects of this being the way I am a very social worker (I like to work alongside if not with others and do my best work when I work like this) hens the word 'interact'.

However, an idea that soon appeared in a lot of peoples branding was how the audience of your self branding can fluctuate depending on the work you do. Sometimes it might be other designers and other times it might be clients that want freelance design work done.

For me this manifests its self in my chalk boarding. The things that I want to present to independent cafes tat might want a chalkboard done is completely different to that which I would want to present to possible employers. For example, to cafes I would want to communicate that chalkboard design and creation is my main priority and skill. However, to a studio I would need to communicate both my individuality as a designer and my flexibility of skill.

These intended messages dictate directly the format the self promotion is in. We talked about interactive deign and how this could be a good way to achieve a long lasting effect on whoever receives you branded mercy or promotional material.

After this workshop I have definitely decided to use the idea I developed in the DR. Me workshop in my PPP self branding because it manages to address all these issues whilst still expressing me as a person and designer. I could however, develop this idea into a chalkboard oriented design set that could be used for my chalkboard freelance design promotion.

OUGD603 and OUGD602 Extended Practice Brief 01 SU Work Part 2 Elections Visiting Footprint

After talking with the SU about the possibility of using Risograph printing for the elections campaign Billie and I looked into fotprint printers in Leeds as one of the main Risograph printers we were aware of. When we loked at their website we had our concerns about the scale of the job we would have for them, but thught it worth getting in touch to talk through the project and pssible pricing.

I emailed James who it turns out used to be a students at LCA and we aranged for Billie and myself to visit them to talk everything through on Friday the 16th of October.

However, after a lengthy walk to their location out in chapeltown we arrived to find that James was ill and no one could talk through our project with us. I offered to leave my number so we could be contacted mor directly than email but they said that email would be enough.

After looking at their set up and how unprofessional they seem to be I really think that this owuld be the  wrong job for them. We have too much of a tight deadline and to much to print for the small scale set up they have. I think we will go on to research some other options for printers but pssibly maintain the risograph texure because it is smething the SU and myself were so set on.

OUGD602 PPP 3 Visiting Professional and Brief Dr. Me

Dr. Me had a long talk about the way they got to where they are today.

The major take away was how they addressed self promotion and how that got them jobs when they were just starting out.

The brief they set for the day and further if we chose to take it further was to create a piece of design of our choice that cmmunicated us as designers. Then after today to take it and turn it into a mailer for studios and other oprtunities, to draw attention to us and our work.

I started by looking at the kind of places i wanted to appeal to and my practice. The two main cross overs were a hands on approach and a social design process.

This got me thinking about the people in the studio around me and how the people in your environment shape your design.

I already collect quotes and things that people say that make me laugh or I simply want to remember. I want to take some of these to make visuals that studios and designers might want to put up in their studio simply becasue they make them laugh.

One of my favourite quotes I have collected so far is from Dec "oh my god chrome, stop being such a bitch!"

I wanted to make more than just a poster, I got thinking about my brand Elittlebeth design and how I could make something small like maybe a designed little book of post its with these quotes on.

To play on the comedy of the quote I wanted to creat a contrast between the content and the aesthetic. The first words lead me to the idea of using blackletter calligraphy (like in religious texts) becuase that combined with the "oh my god" at the beginning make the end of the quote all the more funny. I started with a flat brush and ink to play with the scale and see how the layout and lettering would develop.

After a lot of struggling with drawing up a grid each time for the lettering, I made up a digital grid and printed out multiple sheets to work on rather than waisting good paper.

I looked at working at a smaller scale to see how it could actualy work on a post it.

I really like this design and this is what I had produced by the end of the day. However, because of two other extended practice briefs that I am focusing on this week along with my COP 3 I am not sending in a finished design to DR.Me on Friday. I will pick up this brief later on in the year though becuase I can see it is a valuable thing for me to do and could even work to get me some work experience. I will maybe look to do it in a week or two.

I HAVE PICKED UP THIS BRIEF ON MY DESIGN PRACTICE BLOG

OUGD603 & OUGD602 Extended Practice Reflection First CommercialChalkboard

I have recently done my first real life application chalkboard. There are a few things I have taken away from this. The major one is that I would like to do more of these. They are quite grueling, especiall when they are this size, but to step away at the end and know I did that with my hands and my mind and nothing else, is a wonderful feeling that I want to keep having.

There are also some tips that I want to employ next time I do one of these:

- Take breaks.

I did seven hours solid work on this including the clean down and by the end my hands were shaking with exhaustion. I need to learn that pausing for a sip of coffee is not a break.

-Do exercises both for your back and hands.

Again, this is just a tiering process, you really can't sit in the same awkward attitude for too long without it having a negative affect.

-Stay flexable.

No matter how carefully you plan the board it will always slightly fluctuate due to something unforseen, don't worry bout these changes too much, they make the board what it is.

I am going on to approach more independent cafes about chlkboards and this time I am going to be brave and ask for payment!

OUGD603 Extended Practice Live Brief and Reasons for not InteractingWith It

Visual Art and Music Briefing:

The Fresh Yorshire Aires is an initiative mixing and connecting the two areas of visual arts and music. 

It is starting out as an online exhibition that is open to any visual piece in relation to music or sound in any way.

They will then be used to stimulate the creation of some improvised music pieces. 

The brief if to find a way to brand and create a publication from the content of the exhibition. It needs to be functional but also aesthetically pleasing and be an interesting object in its self. 

Reasons for not engaging with brief:

This would be a long term collaborative brief which would monopolise a lot of my time throughout the year.mi already have my work with the students union to do this. I do not need another. Also I find it hard to discern a distinct purpose for this whole initiative, it just doesn't seem to cross over into any of my interest areas.

OUGD602 PPP Organising and Planning Around all Modules

It has been slowly creeping up on me, just how much I am going to have to juggle this year, no one is going to chase me to be organised and I need to take control now before it is too much to take control of.

So, I have started to use my calendar app as a separate thing to my google calendar and college workshops and classes. This way it looks far more manageable and I prefer having timetables college events separate to the work I need to do in my own time.

I started with a google docs to split down the work in each module that I need to do and then colour coded for urgency (the scary thing is the pink is stuff that needs doing this month). This is a document that will change as the year progresses but it is a good starting point for a working doc.

At the beginning of each day I look at my two calendars and put together a to do list.

The main aspects of this to do list are then colour coded by module relivance and written into my dairy. Hopefully this system of multiple formats reminding me to do things will stop me from forgetting anything. It only takes 5 mins in the morning to sort out now that it is up and running so, let the trial period commence!

OUGD602 Made You Look at the Hyde Park Picture House

As Part of my Research for my COP 3 work I went to see a documentary and Q and A with the director at the Hyde Park Picture House. It was a look into the Graphic Arts field and the DIY status of simply making things in such a digital age and why and how it still holds a place in our culture.

It was an incredibly inspiring evening and it really got me thinking about my plans for the year. Throughout the documentary people were talking about doing the things tat they would do in their spare time as their main earning skill. When I think about it, my thing that I do in my spare time is lettering. So, why then am i spending all my time this year spreading myself around and doing lots of stuff just to prove that I can do it? 

There is an element of fear in just saying, 'i want to do lettering and typography' because it feels like I am cutting myself off from opportunities. However, I also think that I should spend the precious time I have left on this course doing things that I want to try and do later but may not have the freedom to do so. When people talk about portfolios people say, do the work that you want to do more of and I think that is exactly what I am going to try and do.

Before this I had already done my presentation for my intentions for the year and written out my briefs. However, I think I am going to re-visit and re-work these to make sure I am doing the work that I want to do more of. Specifically lettering and typography, with a focus on craft processes.

Below are the briefs I had Planned to do and the presentation that went with them.

Third Year Design Briefs from Crystalbeth

R

Third year from Crystalbeth

OUGD602 PPP Evaluating Last Self Branding

My previous years personal branding has soon started to loose its charm. I really feel that it no longer represents me as a designer. The biggest warning came when I was putting together my Dalton Maag application and having this logo at the top of a load I samples of my work. It just didn't fit.

There are lots of reasons, upon revisiting this work, that it doe t represent me:

-Digital format (I am not a digital designer, I may dabble but it is not what I want to focus on)

-Lack of colour (I use and enjoy using colour in my work, and not a minimal black and white designer)

-Over ornamented (a little ornamentation is good but I feel this has too much and has become fussy and busy)

What I need to consider for my new self branding:

- Keep the name (despite the visuals of my last brand I do think the name represents me, there is a pun and it has the right, slightly self depreciating tone)

- Hand made feel (to reflect my hand made work)

- Possibilities for application (physical applications that are different and eye catching)

I guess the next step is to start drawing and isolate the tone of voice that I want to create with this identity.

OUGD602 PPP Refresher Task & Presentation

I completed the chalkboard design that I planned to do for this day brief. After each of us had presented our designs we were asked to write a 12 word sentence explaining our piece:

The beautiful ordinary is something I strive to see in my everyday life.

There are lots of things that I am unhappy about with this design because I set out to try and leave any mistakes that happen. This was to make the imperfections noticeable and almost celebrate them as the poem does.

OUGD602 PPP Refresher Brief: Deciding upon a Medium

Now I know that I want to find a way of presenting one of my favourite poems I need to think about how I shal do so.

Looking back to the mind ma that I produced in the last post some words stood out and have helped to define a direction in terms of medium. 'Old fashioned', 'content' and 'nature' in particular suggest a medium that has a sense of tradition to it as well as something more natural than digital print.

In my personal practice I have had an interesting chalkboard design and hand rendered type for some while. So, these are creative skills I can easily tap into. 

For reference while designing  I also have an extensive collection of chalkboard designs in the form of a Pinterest board that will be easy to call on for inspiration.

I want to draw on the established aesthetic of chalkboards, because I want to communicate the idea of tradition. This is intended to reflect the way I am a bit of a old dogie really despite being  20. 

When it comes to the typographic design decisions I find it helpful to have two key words to come back to when in doubt, to ensure I an communicating what I should be. This time these words are imperfect and natural. 

From these words I have decided to approach the type with a focus on calligraphic and cursive firms to keep the message strong. However I might add some soft serif type at points to underline the theme of tradition and age. I am going to be working straight onto the board. This is for two reasons: I want to embrace the mistakes that I make and it is in my experience the best way to get a natural finish.

For practicality's sake I am going to render the second stanza only, I have chosen this because it expresses the ideas I am trying to convey most effectively and concisely.

OUGD602 PPP refresher brief: Briefing, First Thoughts and IdeaGeneration

Brief:

Explain who you are, your values, your identity, your purpose...in terms of who you are as you, a person, not who you are in terms of graphic design.

This is telling not selling:

Task one: know who you are

Task two: communicate it

You should use this opportunity to showcase you. Once you know what you want to say, impress us with how you say, show and present it. Use your creative skills to communicate what you want to say; from poetry to a poster any medium is appropriate.

You story is of course a work in progress, it's still being written. Focus on you journey to date, a suggestion perhaps of what's to come.

I started this project by simply thinking and created the mind map you can see below to record these thoughts.

The main ideas that stood out to me were that of the beautiful ordinary and the imperfect perfect. These things define what makes me happy and the people that are important to me, so I want to try and communicate these things.

Thinking more on this general theme I remembered one of my favourite poems by Edward Thomas called the tall nettles.

TALL nettles cover up, as they have done
These many springs, the rusty harrow, the plough
Long worn out, and the roller made of stone:
Only the elm butt tops the nettles now.
This corner of the farmyard I like most:	5
As well as any bloom upon a flower
I like the dust on the nettles, never lost
Except to prove the sweetness of a shower.

This peon exemplifies this appriciation of the mundane and especially in the form of plants, which are also a huge interest of mine. 

I think what a want to do is to find a way to present part or all of this poem and then talk about it. I don't want to create a piece that involves no conversation because that is not really me. I enjoy and seek out people and social environments so I want this presentation to reflect me in that.

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.