IDI - Year 6 - Industry Report

INDUSTRY REPORT

author

ANN KENT

course

BA(hons) GRAPHIC DESIGN

module

ADVANCED PRACTICE (6ftc1185)

date

24th OCTOBER 2021

port

RE project

tents

CON

Page

Title

3 Intro 4

&Walsh - Analysis

6

Eleanor Ngai - Analysis

8

Analysis of Working

9

Analysis of self promotion

10

Conclusion

11 Bibliography 12

Employment Strategy - Year 1

13

Employement Strategy - Year 2

2

duction

INTRO

This report will analyse a large creative company and a free-lance designer to get an understanding of how the two ends of the scale are represented in the design industry This will allow an evaluation of their work out put and their use of the disciplines of motion graphics and illustration. The main questions that the report needs to answer is how do other promote their business and which would benefit me more, working freelance or for a creative company.

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&Walsh - Wix Campaign - andwalsh.com - 21st Oct 2021

ANALYsis of &walsh

&Walsh is a design agency, working out of New York City in the USA. The agency is fronted by Jessica Walsh and could be described as an off shoot from the professional partnership of Sagmeister and Walsh.

The agency is very woman orientated.

The team of 22 has a majority female workforce, with only 5 men working within it. The focus on women is also reflected in the projects that they have worked on and their self-promotion items that they have produced.

Due to the broad range of the team, &Walsh is able to provide branding, advertising, motion graphics and printed graphics for prospective clients. These are regularly presented using bold colours and well-planned photographs.

When fonts are used for a campaign, they are bold and bright. When an image is the focus of the frame, these also use bold colours.

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In addition to the aesthetic, initial hit, that the viewer gets when encountering a design from &Walsh, is the underlying messages. The connotations are though provoking or startling. An example of this is their campaign for Wix, the website template providers.

Each still image has a well thought out colour pallet, is photographed in a contemporary way and features women as the ‘designer’ in each one. The underlying message being that women are very capable designers.

In addition to the campaigns that they provide for clients, &Walsh also regularly promote themselves. They have branded their company with the large, stylised ampersand. This logo is simple and has been used in a number of ways throughout their promotional materials.

One way that they use it is in motion graphics, which is very affective in catching the viewers’ attention.

Their self-promotion is cleverly used to not only promote the agency, but to also use these opportunities to promote causes that they feel are important.

An example of this is the Ladies, Wine & Design which helps women in the creative industry.

&Walsh - Wix Campaign - andwalsh.com - 21st Oct 2021

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ANALYsis of ELEANOR nagi

By contrast to & Walsh, we have Eleanor Ngai, who is a freelance motion graphic designer and illustrator based in London.

Her focus is in these two areas of graphic design, but she has worked with a number of well-known companies, to assist in their promotional campaigns.

The ethos that she states on her website is ‘turning complex messages into simple and impactful animations’ (E Ngai, 2021). Although not stated on her website or social media, the designs that Eleanor produces look like they have been created using programmes such as Adobe Illustrator and After Effects.

Eleanor’s designs are true to her statement. Each one has a minimal colour pallet and is put together in a simple, clean way. With no unneeded details to detract from the message that the hero image is creating.

An example of this clean design can be seen in her Coca-Cola images. These have all been formed around tonal changes to the brands two main colours of red and brown. This pallet is minimal but also clever in the connotative message. Using only colours that relate to a brand is restrictive but also a rewarding challenge.

When it comes to self-promotion, Eleanor uses her website and social media to make people aware of her skills and talent.

To ensure that she has regular posts, Eleanor adds images relevant to the work that she has produced, but she also creates posts that are not related to a campaign. This method of regularly posting on Social Media has three advantages. It keeps the profile of the designer popping into their followers field of vision. It pushes the designer to keep working on new designs and so it keeps the designers out put relevant.

There are a number of different programmes which are set up to prompt these self promotion posts. One of which is 36 days of type, and this is championed by Adobe.

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Eleanor Ngai - Coca cola - ghostchips.tv - 21st Oct 2021

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Working as a freelance designer could allow me to make my own decisions while learning from what the client needs. I think that either role would push me to learn new things. However being freelance might allow me to turn my hand to something new, while working in a department of a company may restrict my horizons.

The down side of working as a freelancer is that in between contracts, you may not have an income. Whereas, being part of a creative company and having a full time contract, would provide a regular income and benefits such as pensions.

&Walsh - Self Promotion Campaign - andwalsh. com - 21st Oct 2021

ANALYsis of WORKing

The advantage of working in a creative company is the collaboration that working within a group brings. The more people in the group, the more you learn from one another. This would be a great benefit to me at the point of starting out in the industry. It would also give me an element of support.

&Walsh - Interior of NY office - andwalsh.com - 21st Oct 2021

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The self promotion techniques that Eleanor is employing need to be self driven. The posts that she makes for posting to her social media need to be backed by a self motivated drive. She has sought out the initial idea generator so that she is part of the 36 days of type. For this to work with for me, going forward, I will need to make sure that I seek these promotional tools when I have dry spots in my production. Being part of something like 36 day of type not only allows the designer to post regularly, but I would expect there to also be related hashtags to bring the design to the attention of new viewers and so the potential for new clients.

The self promotion that &Walsh use is almost similar, but on a larger scale. They are promoting causes alongside their own business and so there are no losers in this promotion model.

I feel that I could combine the two in the future by picking a cause that I am interested in, or passionate about, and then create design lead social media posts to help both the cause and also my profile.

This would also mean that I could stretch my current abilities each time so that I am always learning just a little more each time. This would not only benefit my profile but would also keep my skill set relevant to the current market.

ANALYsis of SELF PROMOtion

Eleanor Ngai - 36 days of type - instagram/eleanor.ngai - 21st Oct 2021

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clusion

CON

Looking at Eleanor Nagi and &Walsh it can be said that both business produce designs which have a limited pallet and are without unneeded details in their visuals. Both businesses work with motion graphics and understand that animation has a strong image in the current market.

The use of self promotion with a link to another cause is an interesting aspect that needs to be kept in mind. But the main take aways are to keep relevant, keep in the viewers field of vision and that a simple design can portray a complex message.

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Cogley, B., 2021. Jessica Walsh splits from Stefan Sagmeister to launch her own creative agency &Walsh. [online] Dezeen. Available at: <https://www.dezeen.com/2019/07/24/jessicawalsh-launches-creative-agency/> [Accessed 24 October 2021].

Ghostchips.tv. 2021. Eleanor Ngai | Freelance Motion graphics designer in London. [online] Available at: <https://ghostchips.tv/> [Accessed 21 October 2021].

Instagram.com. 2021. Login • Instagram. [online] Available at: <https://www.instagram. com/eleanor.ngai/?hl=en> [Accessed 24 October 2021].

Sagmeisterwalsh.com. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://sagmeisterwalsh.com> [Accessed 24 October 2021].

Word Count 1234

graphy

BIBLIO

Andwalsh.com. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://andwalsh.com/> [Accessed 21 October 2021].

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EMPLOYment

Plan of Action (One Month On) Following on from the examples above, I would like you to consider a viable plan to help you gain employment and enter into the creative industry.

• Reach out to design companies vis Linkedin • Update my profile on Behance, Instagram and Linkedin • Research companies who use designers but are not know as “design” companies • Set up searches using # for jobs that I can apply for • Keep an eye on changing design trends and practice these so that I am aware of how they are created • Keep setting myseld projects to upload to my online portfolio • Contact up to 5 companies a month with my promotional work (for a maximum of 6 months) Plan of Action (6 Months On) Following on from the examples above, I would like you to consider a viable plan to help you maintain your motivation and keep your work current. Think of alternative plans to suit your own situation.

• Keep updating my knowledge of motion graphics • Keep updating my photoshop knowledge • Keep doing online short courses (Skillshare) • Update portfolio with the best of my work • Try reconnection with companies that I have perviously reached out to and who have responded

Time Plan For the final part of the form, I would like you to plan out the 12 months following graduation. Add in key dates such as when to send letters, when to create new work and other relevant dates. This will give you a structure to enable you to make strategic decisions about your future beyond graduation.

2022 June July August September October November December 2023 January February March April May

Reach out to companies Update skills with online learning Enter competition Reach out to companises Add competition entry to CV and portfolio Set oen project Update skills with online learning Update CV and Portfolio Reach out to companies Enter competitions to broaden skill set Set oen project Update CV and portfolio and reach out

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One year after graduation

EMPLOYment

Reflect and write initial bullet points outlining your plans for where you would like to be one year after graduating. Please attempt to state not only where you plan to be but also what you envisage being the next step in your career.

• Be employed in a creative role in a creatively focused company

• Be employed in a role that has creative prospects i.e. marketing

• Have some illustrations of my own ready for purchase -

re-illustrate classic books

• Have a plan for my illustrative book in place

• Have some free lance motion graphic jobs completed

Strategic plan Following on from your plans above, how do you propose to implement these plans and make them a reality? Does this involve travel, marketing, further research into illustration agencies, specifically targeted emails and phone calls? Perhaps you plan on being published in the AOI annual publication, ‘Images’? Maybe you plan to participate in exhibitions (which ones) or intend sending out self-promotion packages (to whom)?

• Be Tenacious • Make Contacts • Create my own designs for sale • Collaborate with creative contacts • Reach out to other creatives for feedback on my work

Future plans If your plans work out, where will your career take you in five years’ time? Think about working overseas or running your own creative agency. Be ambitious and creative in your response.

• Hope to be known locally for my design / Art • Hope to have a website from which I can sell my art • Hope to have a market for my creative output • Would like to be employed as part of a creative team

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EN d Report available to view at: https://issuu.com/ann2012-googlemail/docs/industry_ report_322eaac36f4621