The aim of this brief is to extend your knowledge of professional practices within design through a creative brief that allows you to develop a brand for an agency and apply for the fictional roles that go with that agency. You will be expected to research the career area you hope to go into and evaluate your place within this industry through the production of a career plan. You will need to create a corporate identity for a creative agency called c310. This will involve investigating the origins of corporate identity and formulating opinions on the commercial and historical contexts in which corporate identity has evolved and is currently defined. You will be expected to apply for one of the fictional jobs within the agency that will be advertised on the notice board in c310. You will need to produce a cv and present yourself in a suitable way for the job you are applying for. 1
Branding
Brand is the name or any other feature that identifies one sellers product from another. Brands are typically made up of various elements such as: • Name - the word or words used to identify a company. • Logo - the visual trademark that identifies the brand (adidas 3 stripe design) • Tagline - such as “Just Do It” is associated with Nike. • Graphics - the dynamic ribbon is a trademarked part of Coca-Cola’s brand. • Shapes - distinctive shapes such as the Coca-Cola bottle and VW beetle are trademarked. • Sounds - such as the Nokia tune or the 20th Century Fox Fanfare. • Scents - the musk scent of Chanel No. 5 is trademarked. • Tastes - the 11 herbs and spices of KFC is a trademarked recipe. • Movements - Lamborghini has trademarked the upward motion of its car doors. The word derives from the Old Norse “brandr” meaning “to burn” where producers would burn a mark on to a particular object as a way of stating that it is theirs to own and sell. This practice dates back to 2000BC, the transition from “This belongs to me, so leave it” to “This was made by me, so buy it” started to evolve in the 1800’s. Before the 1800’s most produced objects that were sold tended to be locally produced and sold in an open format, much like fruit and veg in todays supermarkets. This meant that the consumer didnt really know the name of the manufacturer that produced the goods. Since the introduction of mass transit during the industrial revolution companies were suddenly able to ship produce to a much wider audience and therefore wanted to promote themselves to be better than their new rivals, to do this they started to create a visual identity through attractive packaging and advertising. 2
Bass & Company, the british brewery and Tate & Lyle of golden syrup are some of the oldest brands around in todays world with Bass’s logo and Tate’s golden syrup packaging being almost unchanged since there introduction all those years ago.
Proper branding can result in a companies other products also achieving good sales results due to the trust that the other product might also be of a good quality, a brand that does this well is Kelloggs cereal a company founded in 1906. Some companies have also been known to borrow aspects of advertising from competitors, one example of this is IBM’s USP (unique selling position) THINK campaign. This campaign that the company had been using since the early 1900’s started to get adopted by othere companies such as VW and Apple in an attempt to associate themselves with technology. VW started THINKing small whilst Apple was trying to THINK different.
Branding
One of the biggest companies that appears to have an immediate effect on trends within branding and advertising is Apple. The most recent change has to be when Apple changed its IOS operating system to be that of a much more flat, simple and intuitive to use system. Most companies tend to copy this style and I believe that the reason for this is a lot of companies have their own apps available on the App Store and want to make these seemless within Apples user interface.
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Here are a few logo changes that have happened only within the last few years that show off this new trend in flat simple design.
Branding Exercise For this brief task we were asked to come up with a brand identity for a new coffee shop called ‘Sunnie’s Bakery and Coffee House’. The brand had to be warm and friendly with a hipster vibe where people can relax and spend time reading, emailing, and relaxing with friends or family.
After spending a short amount of time drawing I became aware that the shapes I was creating had an art deco look about them and then this led me onto looking at art deco shapes and patterns which in turn gave me the idea of using a 2 tone sunset pattern with a coffee mug in the middle for my logo for the shop and this was also very appropriate given the name of the shop is called Sunnie’s.
To start with I made a list of words that I associate with coffee shops and from this list I started to doodle different images to help lead me on a path that would hopefully lead on to a direction I wouldnt have normally thought of.
Next using Adobe Illustrator I created my sunrise pattern and and used colours that I felt were associated not only with the art deco from the 1920’s but also with a coffee house. I then created a mug design and included this into my main design along with a typeface I felt completed my design.
SUNNIE’S BAKERY and COFFEE HOUSE 4
Branding Exercise
I then applied my logo and branding to a variety of objects this is to help visualise how each finished product could look as a finished piece. The items I have created are, coffee mugs, paper takeaway cup with branded sleeves, napkins, takeaway paper bags, a chalkboard for behind the main counter, a shop front, and also branded Twitter and Facebook pages to show how the companies online presence might also look.
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SUNNIE’S BAKERY and COFFEE HOUSE Apple Doughnut - £1.35 Belgian Bun - £1.75 Bread Pudding - £2.30 Chelsea Bun - £1.00 Currant Bun & Butter - £1.20 Danish Pastry - £1.75 Eccles Cake - £1.75 Iced/Jam Doughnut - £1.20 Fruit Scone & Butter - £1.45 Fresh Cream Eclair - £2.00 Fresh Cream Doughnut - £2.00 Fresh Cream Slice - £2.00 Fresh Cream Meringue - £2.00 Vanilla Slice - £2.00 Toasted Bun & Butter - £1.30 Muffin - £1.35
Cappuccino - £2.20/£2.50 Caffe latte - £2.20 Caffe mocha - £2.40 Espresso - £1.70 Filter coffee - £2.10 (Including refill) Americano - £2.00 Hot chocolate - £2.35 Luxury hot chocolate - £2.55 Pot of tea for one - £1.85 Pot of tea for two - £2.75 Herbal/Green/Fruit teas - £1.90 Milkshake - £1.90 (With whipped cream) Mineral water/ - £1.60 Juice burst / Oasis - £1.90
Branding Exercise
Overall I am reasonably happy with this quick exercise. I feel that my outcomes have met the brief to create a new warm, friendly, relaxing, and hipster vibe coffee house with an online prescence. I believe the idea to create an American Art Deco feel to the brand is a unique one compared to the current crop of chained coffee shops out there at the moment which tend to either promote a modern sleek design style or a more warm Italian approach. Even though this would start as an independent store I believe that this design choice could easily transfer into a franchise brand that would suit any high street or shopping center. 6
Looking at Existing Logos Notice here how the Coca-Cola logo has changed very little since its introduction in 1887, I believe this to be a huge factor in it becoming possibly the worlds most famous brand because the consumer doesnt have to get used to a new design so is consistent throughout their lifetime.
as old but in a totally different market sector (oil). Here Shell also believe that their brand is so recognisable that they have even taken away its own name from the logo. Again these changes are apparent with the Vauxhall logo. In this logo the main image of a Griffin holding a flag has been in every design and even changed in shape from a standard bird shape to being squashed to fit into a square box
out against its rivals with their highly detailed designs. Also notice here how it is the same kind of In its early days Pepsi also adopted a changes happening with a company just similar typeface. However in the 1960’s the company decided to radically change to a new bold sans serif typeface. Notice also how a new round swirl effect pattern has now appeared as a little homage to the original logo shape. This design again remained hardly altered right up until 2008, where the logo was again simplified with plain blocks of colour possibly done to make the product stand 7
expanding into all corners, to how it is today, a nice clean circle. Also notice how as technology has changed so has the production design of the logo with its most recent metallic and 3D carnation. This change has happened to a large number of logos over the years.
Looking at Existing Logos Another three companies here that are in the same business. All three have a very simple yet effective look and only contain letters.
The BBC has gone for a bold sans serif typeface, as has ABC but in lowercase and the CNN logo has its own typeface that reminds me of the NASA logo.
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Logos don’t have to just represent companies, they can also represent events such as these here for past and future Olympic Games. There are many different takes on the Olympic logo by the countries hosting the games. The one common element that they all have is the Olympic rings, many countries have also included an image of a person.
Sometimes as companies merge so do their logos as seen here after Microsoft aquired Hotmail. Notice how to start with Microsoft added msn first and then its own name, then added a butterfly shape using its colour pallette from the Windows logo and then in the end just swapped it over for the Windows logo.
Logo History Exercise For a learning exercise we were given this list of logos and a timeline and asked to find out who designed each one and when. This exercise turned out to be a lot more effort than first realised due to the fact that the majority of the logos here have gone through many changes in their own personal timelines, because of this some designs became impossible to find exact information on because the design was only a slight tweak at some point in its history. Below are my findings in date order.
Boots 1883 Jesse Boot Coca Cola 1886 Frank M Robinson Rolex 1904 Hans Wilsdorf Kelloggs 1906 Will Keith Kellogg Olympics 1912 Baron Pierre de Coubertin MG Motor 1924 Cecil Kimber Pirelli 1945 Quaker 1946 Jim Nash Braun 1952 Wolfgang Schmittel Playboy 1953 Art Paul Pan Am 1955 Edward Larrabee Barnes Canon 1956 Dunlop 1959 Bendal Sony 1959 UPS 1961 Paul Rand WWF 1961 Sir Peter Scott Beatles 1963 Ivor Arbiter Mobil 1964 Tom Geismar Harrods 1967 Minale Tattersfield Puma 1967 Lutz Backes Fiat 1968 McDonalds 1968 Quaker 1969 Saul Bass Rolling Stones 1971 John Pasche Shell 1971 Raymond Loewy Adidas Classic 1972 Käthe and Adi Dassler Atari 1972 George Opperman
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Nike 1972 Carolyn Davidson FC Barcelona 1975 Nasa 1975 Richard Danne and Bruce Blackburn Ford 1976 3M 1977 Siegel & Gale Apple 1977 Rob Janoff I Love NY 1977 Wells Rich Greene MTV 1981 Frank Olinsky Espana 1982 Joan Miro Belkin 1983 Metallica 1983 The A Team 1983 Qantas 1984 Tony Lunn Saab 1984 Carl Frederik Reuterswärd Stussy 1984 Shawn Stussy NBC 1986 Steff Geissbuhler Microsoft 1987 Scott Baker BBC 1988 Chupa Chups 1988 Mercedes 1989 Obey 1989 Shepard Fairey V & A 1989 Alan Fletcher Adidas 1990 Peter Moore Mastercard 1990 BT 1991 Wolff Olins Starbucks 1992 Terry Heckler Mighty Ducks 1993
Skoda 1993 Burger King 1994 Fed Ex 1994 Lindon Leader Taco Bell 1994 Animal Planet 1996 Apple 1998 Michelin 1998 BP 2000 Levi 2000 Sony Ericsson 2001 Linkedin 2003 Nickelodeon 2003 UPS 2003 Futurebrand Skype 2004 Bacardi 2005 Facebook 2005 Cuban Council NHL 2005 London 2012 – 2007 Wolff Olins Google Chrome 2008 Audi 2009 Dell 2010 Twitter 2010 Google Drive 2012 Microsoft 2012 Windows 8 2012 Paula Scher Mall of America 2013 Duffy and Partners EON ???
Creating My Own Logo A good logo design is what helps the public remember you or your business. The right logo design can be one of the strongest marketing tools. For this part I would like to create an image that would be unique to myself and after looking into current designer logos I can see that what I would like to do is use a part of either my name or initials to create something that would hopefully stand out from the competition.
Target Audience: Professional companies, individuals looking to promote their own business. Where Might it be Placed: Business cards, letterheads, iPhone app logo, newspapers/ magazines, websites, cv’s, clothing, stationary, mugs. Slogans or Words: It should probably include my name and job title, so for an example, Simon Ryland Graphic Designer or perhaps just my initials SR. Overall Design: Should be modern and clean so it is quick and easy to read and not cluttered with unnecessary elements that could distract the viewer. Colour: I feel that I would like my logo to work in all colour variations so not to limit myself towards a final design and also this would allow my logo to be used in many different situations.
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Creating My Own Logo Thumbnails
Here I have created a set of thumbnails as I start looking into creating a logo for myself. I quite like the idea of just keeping the layout very simple as can be seen in the first 2 images. I also like the design in the top right where I have merged the letters S and R to create a new shape that reminds me of the Pi symbol. I will look into merging these 2 ideas together as I narrow down my ideas.
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Creating My Own Logo Thumbnails Here I have started to put some of my ideas together using the computer to see what looks best. I started by creating the symbol of the S and R combined which can be seen below and I am really pleased with this outcome and then I looked at a mixture of fonts for the wording and I experimented with different styles and upper and lowercase letters and I am most happy with the outcome bottom right of the page next I will try seeing how this design would look in different forms.
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Creating My Own Logo
I have made some small alterations to my chosen design by altering the spacing between the lettering to make the logo easier to read. I have also scaled the SR shape to fit between the X-height of my surname to the baseline of the word design 13
and I feel that this helps the overall look. I have also presented my logo in many different colours and because of this I can say that the design would quite happily work as any of them and this is good to
know especially when the logo could be placed on all manner of backgrounds. My favourite colours out of this selection are, blue, light green, the mixture of purples (design number 6 if read left to right) and also the last design in the bottom right.
My Logo Finals A closer look at my final logo design. With the combined SR shape I have actually used the font Lithos Pro and altered the shape accordingly to work best. With the shape created by my logo I have used a font called Harabara this is because I felt that its rounded non serif design was most in keeping with the look and feel, also because this is not a stock font on most computers it gives my design a unique look and feel. I have included an image on this page of my current work in progress C.V. because the 2 purple designs have their colour taken from areas within this design. I feel that the purple does not quite work as a fill colour for the letters themselves because it is quite hard to see that the colour is made up from lots of different elements. The colour does work much better as a background with a simple white text overlay. This is the design I will use for my final piece because I feel that it would work much better as a brand. 14
Business Card / Letterhead Here I have created a business card and a letterhead that I could use for my self promotion. As you can see I have kept the purple theme from my main logo design and the white writing because I felt this stood out most from the background. I have added a drop shadow to the text on these items just to make it stand out a little bit more and make it feel a little bit more professional. With the reverse side of the business card I have introduced a new font Kirvy. This font is much better for this part of my business card and also in the bottom of my letterhead this is due to the point size needed keeps it visible and easy to read whilst still retaining a nice rounded feel without coming across as childish. I am really pleased with my letterhead design and I feel this is probably much better suited to be used for my CV rather than the original idea because it does not feel as cluttered and harsh to the eye.
ryland design 15
say hello email : simon@rylanddesign.co.uk web : www.rylanddesign.co.uk phone : 07792031152
SWOT Analysis
Here I have done a personal SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, finding a job where I would be able to help out one day a week. opportunities, threats). This will help me understand where I am as a designer in my life now. Doing this exercise will also show me where I Illustration - Lack of real illustration skill. need to improve myself so I am more desirable to potential employers. Age - Companies might be looking for someone who is younger which they can mould into what they want or even someone older who has the Strengths: exprience of real work within the industry. Time Management - Here I have a proven track record both with attendance within my current job and also with college and also with Opportunities: submitting completed work in either on or before a set completion date. Uni - Possibility to carry on learning with a university course. Age - Being 28 means that I am a mature person but also I am still in touch with current social media trends. I also believe that my age Practice - In my own time doing online tutorials for different techniques and maturity helps me take on board criticism much better and more for different outcomes with software such as Photoshop and Illustrator constructively. and also with extra work within education working on live briefs (Glevum). Hunger to Learn - Proven track record with the ability to learn new software, (illustrator, indesign, photoshop) over the past 2 years which was completely alien to me before and constantly learning new techniques and processes with these products through both learning through my education but also doing online exercises at home in my own time.
Getting Out There - Going to see exhibitions and also by taking photos of inspiration from places I visit in my own time. Social Networking - Getting in touch with other designers and keeping up to date with current trends.
Personality - I am not a shy person and through my life experiance I Threats: have the ability to get along with and work with lots of people from many different lifestyles. Competition - Other designers Travel - I own my own car and are therefore able to travel freely without Expense - Cost of equiptment in an ever expanding technology driven any constraints which can be helpful especially with getting to a place of environment can mean that I can beecome outdated quickly. work and to meet new clients. Recession Recovery - Lots of people already out there looking for jobs in Weaknesses: a recovering economy, plenty of people with lots of experience already who may have lost their original jobs due to costs. Experience - Lack of real world experience but hoping to combat this by 16
Curriculum Vitae A CV is the most flexible and convenient way to make applications. It conveys your personal details in the way that presents you in the best possible light. A CV is a marketing document in which you are marketing something: yourself! You need to “sell” your skills, abilities, qualifications and experience to employers. There is no single “correct” way to write and present a CV but the following general rules apply: • It is targeted on the specific job or career area for which you are applying and brings out the relevant skills you have to offer • It is carefully and clearly laid out: logically ordered, easy to read and not cramped • It is informative but concise • It is accurate in content, spelling and grammar. If you mention attention to detail as a skill, make sure your spelling and grammar is perfect! Here is my CV I have created using Illustrator. I have tried to keep the look and feel of it very simple and easy so as not to overload a potential employer who might miss key elements especially if they were looking more at the design of the page rather than the important information. To help achieve this I have created two columns the first one contains my contact information along with my key skills in an icon format so the employer knows straight away what I am capable of doing and I hope to add to this list over time. The second column contains detailed information and starts with a short statement about myself followed by my education (newest first), rather than list my qualifications from secondary school I have summarised my grades as I feel that this still shows my commitment to my education without listing individual subjects that are not relevant such as Maths, Biology, Physics etc. Next I have included my employment history with a brief description of my role to help show key skills here such as customer interaction. Finally I have added a references section with further information available on request. I will accompany this with a cover letter which can be taylor made for each application I make rather than have a generic tone to it which some employers disregard because of a lack of effort that it shows. 17
about me
I am currently a HND Design student with a passion for all things that look good. Looking to find a job that will get the best from me with my confidence with working within a team, my eagerness to learn and take on new challenges, my flexibility, and finally I’m also a bit of a sports fan.
Simon Ryland 3 Waterloo Terrace Holts Road Newent Gloucestershire GL18 1BU 01531 821004 07792 031152 s.ryland@hotmail.com
education
Gloucester College 2012-Present HND in Design Graphic Design Level 3 Newent Community School 1997-2004 A Level - 2 Passes C Grade GCSE - 11 Passes A to C Grade
employment history
Tenpin Ltd - Supervisor 2004-Present Having left school I attended a local careers fair looking for a job that would take in a fresh faced 18 year old. Tenpin took me in and I immediately fell in love with the relaxed fun atmosphere of the place whilst still maintaining a professional work environment that would help me mature into the person that I am today. After a lot of consideration I felt it was the right time in my life to make a name for myself and chose to go back to education to retrain in another passion of my life, Graphic Design and here I am today.
references
Jess Phillips - on request Farida Price - on request Wayne Dennison - on request
C310 Branding Here I am going to create a corporate identity for a new creative agency called C310. Here I have started with looking at how C310 would look with different fonts and then with these I have created a series of thumbnails for how the companys logo could look. Like my self branding I am going to take my favourites and turn them into digital versions that I will be able to play with more with different variations.
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C310 Branding Here I have created digital versions of my favourite designs for C310. I wanted to create a simple clean modern look for the company and to do this I have chosen two typefaces that I feel complete this look, they are BIKO and KANKIN. I feel that the logo itself should be accompanied by the words “creative agency� so an onlooker would be able to know what the company is without having to guess by a sign. My favourite design from these is the bottom right design. I prefer this over the others because the design is much more simplified with very few harsh angles, and this gives the impression of a friendly company rather than a brash shouty design studio that I feel the other designs give off.
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C310 Branding
As with my personal logo I have put my C310 logo in many different shades of colour and also with this design I feel that it could work in any colour so is easily changeable depending on what media format it is on. I have also included how the design might work if placed on a blue background, the reason 20
behind this is because the design studio is based within Gloucester College, for my letter header/business card design I will look into using an image of the college from the outside and then putting it out of focus and putting the wording over the top.
C310 Branding Here I have applied my C310 logo onto different backgrounds (due to time constraints these are images from the internet however they would be fairly straight forward to photograph myself for a final piece). I really like the way this has turned out and reminds me of modern t-shirt designs which have a large photograph on them like this image here. This helps give the impression that this is a new agency run by young designers with a fresh approach to design. I really like how most of these designs look and could work well as a bunch of business cards/letterheads rather than just sticking to one design. My favourite design from these is the third down on the right of the blurred image of the docks in twilight. I believe that this design sticks out the most because of how the water appears in the image with its mixture of blues and purples. Also because the creative agency wording is within this area it is easily viewable. 21
C310 Branding Here I have looked into business card design for C310. For the front of the card I chose to look into my two favourite logo designs from above and scaled them down to the correct size for british business cards (85-55mm). I altered the size of the logo as well and this looks much better in the docks images because of how the creative agency wording stands out against the dark blue water. This then led me to take an area of the water which had a nice natural gradient from blue to purple and use this for the base image for the reverse side of the card. Next I have made up different variations of how this side could look to produce the best looking business card for the business with easily editable areas so the cards can be produced with different details depending on who it is for. The 2 designs I have chosen for my final card design are shown together at the bottom.
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C310 Branding Gloucestershire College, Llanthony Rd, Gloucester, GL2 5JQ t: xxxxxxxxxxx e: hello@c310.co.uk
Here I have created both a letterhead and a “with compliments” slip for C310. For these designs I have simplified the design down to the blue/purple gradient with the C310 logo on top. I have tried to keep this design very simple because if either were being sent out with work that needed signing off or finalising I would not want the client to become distracted by its design so that they could concentrate more on their own work. However I feel that this design is still very nice and appealing to look at. Also I have used a handwriting font for the “with compliments” part to give it a handwritten look.
w: www.c310.co.uk
Gloucestershire College, Llanthony Rd, Gloucester, GL2 5JQ t: xxxxxxxxxxx e: hello@c310.co.uk w: www.c310.co.uk
With Compliments VAT number 1234567890
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Registered Company 1234567890
VAT number 1234567890
Registered Company 1234567890
Creative Job Examples
Account Manager 25-45k
Art Director 15-25k +
Copywriter 18k +
An account manager is a person who works for a company and is responsible for the management of sales, and relationship with particular customers. They manage the relationship with the client of the account’s they are assigned to. The purpose of being assigned particular clients is to create long term relationships with the portfolio of assigned clients. The account manager serves to understand the customer’s demands, plan how to meet these demands, and generate sales for the company as a result.
Art directors are responsible for what advertisements look like. They are involved in creating a campaign that has an instant, positive impact on the consumer in order to promote the product or brand being advertised.
Copywriters are responsible for generating the words, slogans and audio scripts that accompany advertising visuals.
What to expect as an Account Manager in a design agency. • Managing a portfolio of accounts • Using contacts to generate new business • Engaging in project management duties • Delivering presentations • Attending meetings with clients • Maintaining good relationships with clients
An • • • • • An • • • • •
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The typical creative process can involve: • Discussing the client’s core message and art director’s tasks and duties may include: target audience Working from a brief with a copywriter, • Brainstorming visual and copy ideas with generating ideas to present to the client other members of the creative team Working on designs to produce an effective • Writing and presenting a few options to advertising campaign clients Commissioning specialists, such as artists • Modifying copy until the client is satisfied and photographers, to work on projects • Overseeing the production phase. Managing projects and working within a budget The copywriter and art director are accountable Editing the final results for presentation to for checking all the content being advertised is the client. truthful and complies with codes of advertising practice. advertising art director should: Be highly creative An advertising copywriter should: Have a thorough understanding of • Be highly creative and imaginative photography, typography and printing • Have good written and interpersonal skills Have excellent interpersonal and • Work well in a team communication skills • Be able to work under pressure Work well as part of a team, with a range • Have an eye for detail of people • Have an interest in commerce, popular Have an interest in social and cultural trends culture, and new advertising trends and and fashions. techniques.
Creative Job Examples
Creative Artworker 25-40k
Print Buyer
An artworker is someone who produces a printready product. Artworkers get a concept from a designer (either in drawing or digital form) and use the appropriate software to create it.
The primary responsibility of the Production Manager (PM), or Print Buyer, is to ensure scheduling, production and on-time delivery of all agency creative, including merchandise and other promotional items. Internally, they collaborate with creative directors, art directors and graphic designers, and a variety of external suppliers.
Studio Manager 35k +
A design or advertising studio manager’s responsibilities will typically include traffic management, by ensuring all briefs are dispatched in the studio according to a designer’s skills and strengths and ensure all work is delivered promptly and to deadline to An artworker would understand the basics of the relevant people. A design studio manager printing (cmyk, line screens, spot colours, etc.) should have excellent organisational and as well as design, typesetting, formatting and communication skills, and motivate their team colour correction. It would be rare to find an Responsibilities: by showing good leadership. The Manager artworker with no eye for design. • Checks initial input for accuracy and requests should have a great understanding of how to additional information (if needed) both achieve and develope project briefs to A “creative artworker” is someone who is • Meets with account service and creative achieve clients needs - and successful design. perhaps half way between a designer and an teams to ensure consistency across all artworker. They would be required to design media forms Responsibilities: print-ready artwork on the fly or be called upon • Possesses a working knowledge of design • Workload dispatch to apply a certain design style across a range of and printing technologies • Compiling studio schedules for senior printed material. • Collaborates with creative team regarding management meetings project specifications (e.g. colors, • Compiling Road map for projects dimensions, etc.) • Constant update of Studio schedules • Calculates all in-house, external printing • Project quality control and assessment charges • Project review and analysis • Proofreads all materials before vendor • Developing project Briefs distribution (i.e. copy/layouts/production • Consolidating client needs art) • Prompt timesheet collection • Understanding of how deadlines work
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The Job Next we were asked to apply for a job within the design world for the fictional company C310 Creative Agency. The list of jobs open for us to apply for were, • Account Manager • Art Director • Copy Writer • Creative Artworker • Print Buyer • Studio Manager This list is the same as the creative job examples I gave earlier. I am going to apply for the position of Art Director because this is where I am aiming to be within the industry when I am fully qualified. Here is a copy of my letter of application for the position and I have written it as if the company was a small agency fresh on the scene and I have just left college with my HND qualification. Also within this application e-mail I included PDF’s of both my CV and rebrand example of C310.
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The Interview For my final part of this work we had to arrange to have a mock interview within the creative industry. To start with I researched into local design companies even stretching my reach as far as Bristol and for each company I wrote a personilsed email explaining who I was and how I would like to attend a mock interview with them that they would then be able to provide feedback on that I could then use to further develop myself. Here is one of the emails I sent to Third Floor Design who are based in Cheltenham. After sending off these emails it soon became apparent that no one was going to respond to my request and after reading back through my letters I realised I should have probably includeed a PDF of some of my work to showcase what I am capable of as well as give a time scale for when I would like to attend to have the interview itself and these are things that I would need to change if approaching a company for an interview. However with some help I was able to source an interview with The Launchpad in Tewkesbury.
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The Interview The Launchpad is a partnership between Cleeve School, Gloucestershire College, Chipping Campden School, and Tewkesbury School. It is aimed at students aged 14-19 and offers the governments diploma scheme, BTECs, and NVQs. This is also the base for the marketing department for Gloucestershire College and houses a small team of designers that produce a varied mixture of work for the college across a number of different mediums such as posters, prospectus’s, leaflets and also website design. I arrived for the interview about 15 minutes before it was scheduled to start and I used this time to double check that my portfolio was all in the correct order for how I wanted to present it. After a short wait I was introduced to Jack Mulcahy (Graphic Designer) who led me through to a room where I was then introduced to Natalie Whistance (Fundraising Manager) and was asked to make myself comfortable at the set up that I was presented with which was a large table where I sat opposite the two of them. After a brief introduction by themselves I was asked to talk a little bit about myself where I explained my background and what had led me to be where I am today with being back in education looking for a career. We then talked in an informal manner about what area of design I would like to aim to be in when I leave education which just happened to be roughly the same career path that Jack had taken so we chatted a little about how he got to the position he was in today. After this we then talked about designers who I like and hopefully inspire me (James White) 28
and then how much I knew about current trends within the industry for which I talked about flat design and how it all tends to be driven primarily at the moment by Apple and the introduction of Apps into everyday life. We then got onto the subject of my work and so I started to talk about my portfolio and explained in breif detail about each piece that I showcased. I felt my portfolio was varied enough to show a wide range of styles that I felt comfortable with producing and this was met with a good response which helped my confidence more as the interview carried on. I was then asked about whether I had had any experience with real clients where I was able to explain about our work with Glevum Heating and show a work in progress version of our leaflet. I was then asked whether I understood the processes involved for sending a finished piece to print and about various file formats to which I answered as honestly as I could explaining how I knew exactly how to produce something within college and that I knew the processes were different outside in the real world but that I was not sure how I would go about sending something to print which was met with a little bit of negative feedback but not much. The interview ended with me asking a few questions about the industry and I also asked Jack and Natalie if they felt that I had perhaps brought too much work with me because afterwards I felt that I was rushing my descriptions of my work and they suggested that I might try and tie a few pieces together like my illustration work could be photographed and shown on one A3 board rather than carry the large originals.
The Interview
Feedback email from Natalie: Hi Simon
Many thanks for coming in yesterday, I hope you found it useful Here is some feedback for you
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businesses, do work for friends and add to portfolio Include other creative work in your portfolio (photography) to show breadth of creative skills When searching for a job, write speculative letters to companies with your CV. Marketing Managers always like to have a freelance designer to hand and be prepared to turn a job around at short notice. Research the ‘print ready’ process for artwork – preparing artwork for lithographic and digital print Dress code for interviews: Not necessarily a suit but smart trousers and a shirt (no jeans) J
Simon came across very well. He is confident in his work and showed a breadth of knowledge across the different mediums • of design such as: illustration, photography, graphic design and Photoshop work. Simon works with industry standard software (Creative Suite) and regularly takes tutorials on the Good luck! Kind regards Creative Block site to keep up-to-date. Simon felt his strengths lay in package design, branding and promotional work and his portfolio displays this well, particularly with the package design in which he showcased a redesign of the ‘Napolina’ pasta brand and a perfume box concept inspired by the Egyptian pyramids.
Natalie and Jack
I am really grateful that Natalie was able to email me back with this feedback. This will really help me improve on how I approach future interviews. There was already some information that I already knew about such as trying to get Simon is able to talk through his thought process well and as much experience as possible through side projects, be that how his designs are developed. He can work to tight deadlines creating a logo for a friends band or place cards for my sisters wedding reception. Something that I thought I had done having juggled a job and full-time study. correctly that I was surprised o read was my dress code, I felt that I was dressed appropriately (smart casual) but I now Top tips know that I need to wear smart trousers and possibly shoes. • Get as much work experience as possible: approach small 29
Copyright Copyright law originated in the United Kingdom from a concept of common law; the Statute of Anne 1709. It became statutory with the passing of the Copyright Act 1911. The current act is the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The law gives the creators of literary, dramatic, musical, artistic works, sound recordings, broadcasts, films and typographical arrangement of published editions, rights to control the ways in which their material may be used. The rights cover; broadcast and public performance, copying, adapting, issuing, renting and lending copies to the public. In many cases, the creator will also have the right to be identified as the author and to object to distortions of his work. International conventions give protection in most countries, subject to national laws. Copyright is an automatic right and arises whenever an individual or company creates a work. To qualify, a work should be regarded as original, and exhibit a degree of labour, skill or judgement. Interpretation is related to the independent creation rather than the idea behind the creation. For example, your idea for a book would not itself be protected, but the actual content of a book you write would be. In other words, someone else is still entitled to write their own book around the same idea, provided they do not directly copy or adapt yours to do so. Names, titles, short phrases and colours are not generally considered unique or substantial enough to be covered, but a creation, such as a logo, that combines these elements may be. In short, work that expresses an idea may be protected, but not the idea behind it. From The UK Copyright Service. 30
One of the best examples of how this law works is to look at the 2012 American Court Case Associated Press vs Shephard Fairey. Fairey was fined $25000 and given two years probation after pleading guilty to basing his poster on an AP photo of Obama and then trying to hide the evidence to make it look like all of his own work. Just to be clear an undisclosed out of court settlement had already taken place for the plagiarism that Fairey had done by not crediting the news agency within his work. When the two images are placed side by side it becomes clear that the work has clearly been lifted from the original photograph and is not an original image.
Copyright
Taking this information into account STEALING is wrong even when done digitally and to best avoid this is to always produce original work. There are some sources available where it is possible to use a stock image/vector or downloaded font but I need to make it common practice within my own work to check what the license for that individual piece allows me to do with it. It is common to find fonts that are widely available to download but when you start to look into the licence you tend to learn that the font is for personal use only or if you would like to use it professionally you need to pay for the privelidge.
Embedding this font in a web page with a @font-face declaration is allowed once you credit Fontfabric (www.fontfabric.com) with a link somewhere on your site.
Here I have also included the licence for the font Kankin which I have used within my work as an example of what to look for when downloading fonts. For more information visit http://fontfabric.com/
http://www.fontfabric.com/
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