ad6065 formative report
For this part of the module, we had to come up with a concept of branding ourselves, in whatever way that may be that fits in with us personally. We also needed to document the research and design processes and show how we got to
balance between my more enclosed,
our outcomes.
personal side and my passion for
The overall concept for my Brand
all things digital and futuris-
Me project is the creation of a
tic too. My main influences for my
digital platform/portfolio, on
personal branding have come from
which I can display all of my
nostalgia, music and retro-fu-
work in a way that fits how I want
turism references, I want the
my personal brand to be seen;
space to reflect an overall theme
creative and the future of fash-
of ‘being before my time’, as
ion communication, yet also per-
throughout my whole life, that’s
sonable. I want this space to en-
how I’ve always felt. To come up
compass all sides of me; to be a
with these ideas I did extensive research and went through a lot of trial and error, however I’ve eventually came up with a few different concepts that I’m excited to develop further at a later stage.
concept statement
Summer brief
Over the summer I reflected on my 2nd year including my strengths and weaknesses, what I want to
do as a career in the future and what I want to create as a final
outcome for when I finish university.
After contemplating what I’m
good and bad at, I came to the
Another thing I thought about a
conclusion that I know my main
lot over the summer is my future
strengths lie in the digital
career goals. I came to the con-
realm, mainly working with soft-
clusion that my ultimate career
ware programmes such as Adobe
goal would be to work in content
suite where I can put my skills
creation for alternative publica-
in graphic design, photography
tions such as Dazed or i-D. And,
and creative layout to use. How-
working up to that, for smaller
ever, I also knew that I needed
publications or brands such as
to work on a few things to ensure
Mushpit, Pink Noise Zine and Clio
I’m working to my full poten-
Peppiatt.
tial. My confidence and presenta-
Moving onto my final degree-show
tion skills are something I’ve
outcome that I discussed in my
always struggled with, I’ve been
presentation, I came to the de-
shy from an extremely young age
cision that I wanted to create a
and I’ve always felt like it’s
‘publication experience’ using
something that massively holds
moving image, photography, graph-
me back; not only in terms of my
ics; an overall interactive and
work but also my life. This year,
inclusive event that would act
I really wanted to work on let-
as an issue of a publication. I
ting go of constantly striving
think the way I’ve used my re-
for perfection and feeling like
search so far into this module
nothing’s good enough, as well as
and my outcome for my landing
caring too much about what other
card will go along well with this
people see of me. I’ve already
final idea and work as a perfect
began working on it, but I know I
platform to showcase it on even-
have a long way to go.
tually.
ABOUT ME I also wanted and really value
the opinions of those closest to me, as I can be a very private and closed person unless you know me really well. This has also allowed me to bring my more personal side into my work, which is something that’s very impor-
tant to me as, although I love technology and graphic design and creating cool things, that can sometimes be quite impersonable. Which, some people could see as a good thing however I felt compelled to bring a more raw side into my branding too as ‘hi-tech’ isn’t me all of the time.
I started to do this by getting my mum, grandad and boyfriend; Kieran to share their opinions on me and answer the same/similar questions I asked myself. I knew by doing this that they would see me completely differently to not only myself, but also people that know me on quite a shallow level. I’m the type of person that has a lot of different layers to me, personality and creativity wise so I definitely wanted to show that through my branding as whether I like it or not, that’s what makes me unique.
SELF REFLECTION answering. The answers definitely helped me to see myself in a different light, as I’ve always been the type of person to find
it hard to think of good things
about myself. I also took a quiz
called on Authentic Happiness, It focused on personality strengths
which I could 100% tell they were true, I’d just never thought
about myself that way before. For
This part of the module has
example; my top strength came out
forced me to learn a lot about
as modesty and humility, ‘You do
myself, as someone who’s always
not seek the spotlight, prefer-
found it hard to actually recog-
ring to let your accomplishments
nise what I’m good at I really
speak for themselves’, which is
feel like I’ve discovered quite a
extremely true, as I’ve always
lot about myself.
been extremely cautious of not showing off or bragging about my
To start off my brand me research,
accomplishments but instead try
I wrote down 5 questions about
to use my creative output to
myself that I would actually need
prove myself. Through this module
to think quite hard about before
I’ve learnt that I’m a very independent person (and also quite a control freak), so I definitely prefer to work on my own. However, I can still step up to the plate when working in a group environment and despite my shyness, when it comes to creativity I’m not scared to put my ideas out there and lead a team. I’ve learnt that being modest isn’t always a good thing, sometimes you need to have the confidence to discuss your accomplishments if you’re proud of something. If you’re too enclosed to prove how talented you are, no one’s going to believe it.
Dexter Navy
Leading on from what I’ve learnt about myself, I thought it was important to research and look more into how my interests affect my creative output, my personality and the way I want personal brand to be seen in general. I started off by looking back on my previous work and made an overall moodboard of pictures that I feel like speak to me and represent my personality; ones that jumped out of the page when I was scrolling or looking through a magazine. This then lead into me looking more into themes of nostalgia, graphic design, music and feminism.
GRAPHICS & PHOTOGRAPHY Chad Pitman
utwo on tumblr
From spending days drawing clothes when I was younger, to going onto studying art at school, I’ve always been an extremely creative person. However, it wasn’t until I started college when I was 16 and began to study graphic design and photography, when I started to realise how much I loved working digitally and using software. Over the years i’ve definitely came into my own style, and it wasn’t until I began my research into this module and started looking back over my previous work that it became apparent how much my work reflects themes of nostalgia. I’m fascinated by film photography, camcorder videos and graphic work from the 80’s and 90’s, which I think is definitely reflected in the content I create.
Linda Evangalista VOGUE 1994
TECHNO MUSIC
Jaques Green @ Village Underground LDN
NOSTALGIA Apeninacoquinete on Tumblr
Moving onto nostalgia, which is something I’ve always been interested in, in all aspects of my life, not just creatively. Throughout my whole life, I’ve always felt different to everyone else my age. I’ve always had a more mature outlook on life, and felt like I had more in common and could hold a better conversation with those older than me.
Unknown (Pinterest)
I have always been massively creatively influenced by music and the art/graphics surrounding it. From dance/techno music to music from the 70’s and 80’s. I love to go to festivals and concerts and immersive myself in the sound, visuals and atmosphere of dance music. However, I’m also hugely inspired my music of the 70’s and 80’s which again links back to my love for nostalgia.
My fascination with what’s already been comes into play in so many facets of my life including my music taste, the way I design and my personality. It’s funny, as I’m such a digitally creative
research
and future-thinking person who loves to work with technology, but I also have the other side to me that always relates back to the past.
inspiration My music taste also links into my main inspiration in life; Freddie Mercury. Not only does he inspire me with his incredible musical
many people never understood or
talent but I’ve also felt like
liked their music. Freddie always
I could relate to him on such
stayed true to himself and what
a deep and personal level. He’s
he wanted to create, he learnt
someone who’s always been differ-
to completely not care about
ent and stood out from the crowd,
what anyone thought of him when
and was quite shy and extremely
he was up on that stage. In the
self conscious about his appear-
same breadth, I don’t really want
ance growing up. He used music as
everyone to try to understand
an escape and a creative outlet,
my ideas and concepts because I
much like I do with my creative
know they won’t. If only a small
work and always pushed his band
amount of people get where I’m
Queen to be so ahead of their
coming from, I would prefer that.
time, so far ahead in fact, that
Freddie has taught me to learn to always embrace what makes me different, because thats what makes
Queen Pepter Hince
Michael Ochs Archives
me special.
From my previous research, the next step was to of course move
Pitch Zine
onto the actual branding of myself. This lead me onto looking into colours that I felt held connotations with me. This included red, black and blue (all colours my close friends and family said they thought resonated with me) and neons such as pink and green which I felt not only always capture my eye but also follow along with my love Nakedly on tumblr
Nathan Head Photography
Ellehana on tumblr
delinquantgentleman on tumblr
@Subliming.JPG
Vejas
Unknown (Pinterest)
emilia-roseee on tumblr
AudioVisual-dept on Tumblr
for nostalgia, techno art and are quite futuristic. Each section I researched into I wanted to resonate with my interests and the way I could envision myself being branded. As stated previously, I want my digital space to be a balance between showing my more personal and quiet side and my more technology based, so I looked into many different creative styles that I felt like I resonated with in some way.
BRANDING research
Digital and Handwritten logo designing
One of the main elements to my final product is producing a logo. After researching into font styles that I feel would fit my brand via tumblr and pinterest and
then looking at logo designs
from content creators, platforms and brands that I follow closely I had a few different ideas of the
logo design
style of logo I wanted to create. I either wanted something quite retro-futuristic, something that could be animated or something that was handwritten by me, to again; bring in the personal elements to my digital space. After a lot of trial and error, working both digitally and freehand I came up with a selection of logos that I’d love to choose from and carry on developing at a later stage. The main inspirations for my final logos were Grrrl Zine Fair (2018), Amber Grace Johnson (Johnson, 2018), and AM Music Curation (2018).
Final Logo concepts
Next came the design of my digital space, in which as previously stated, I want it to be a perfect balance between my love for digital and my more personal, nostalgic side. I started again, by looking into the websites of content creators and brands that I follow, noting down what I like and don’t like about different designs which helped me to then draw out some basic sketches of styles that I like. From this, I
‘About‘ page research
then made many different website mockup designs on Photoshop until I finally had a few that I liked and felt fit my brand perfectly. I knew that I in some way wanted to incorporate film into my final site layout, and I wanted my landing page to be bold and striking, yet not too busy and all over the place. I would say my main inspirations for website design come from Kaemi (2018), Lupae (2018)
Landing Page Sketches
and m0no, as featured below.
KAEMI
LUPAE
M0NO
A selection of landing page mock-ups
website
@eprestonvisuals - the Instagram I set up
The final, yet smaller aspect for me was social media. I wanted to create a platform to go alongside my digital space, and decided on Instagram as I find its the easiest way to share images. With it reaching 1 billion monthly active users this year, according to Statista (2018). It’s obviously one of the best ways to gain a
following and even a client base, so if I do end up needing freelance work in the future, It’s almost like a secondary and more accessible portfolio. I’ve set up an account called @eprestonvisuals in which I’ll be sharing my work, the development of my brand and hopefully branded content creations and films in the future. Some accounts that I follow that inspire me in terms of what I want my instagram layout, and feed to be like are: @pitch_studios, @nowness and @butt_studio (See figures). All of these accounts have not only amazing and inspiring content, but also carefully curate their layouts, colouring and have an overall retro-futuristic vibe.
@nowness
@pitch_studios
@butt_studio
The outcome of this hand in is
personal touch, I might even add
two main, final concepts that I’ve
a polaroid image of myself if
developed further than the oth-
I decide to develop this idea.
er ideas I’ve came up with. The
There’s then a link to go to my
first one has a landing page with
portfolio which is a separate
the main features being a still
page, giving the site an element
from a film I created last year as
of exclusivity so not everyone
the background and my logo that I
can see my work straight away,
wrote in yellow neon highlight-
only the people that are real-
er, and then scanned in to cre-
ly engaged and interested by my
ate a logo. If you scroll down on
landing page; which is what I
that page, it comes to my ‘about
want. The portfolio page is a lot
me’ section which I’ve kept quite
more candid, featuring my work in
short however I thought the ele-
quite a ‘messy’ way, which again
ment of having that on my landing
I think brings a personal and
page helps to give more of that
less robotic element.
something I really wanted from my digital space. The element of the The last main concept I have, is just as striking however features a video as the main focus of the landing page, using clips from my films last year. The other main focus is an animated logo that I created using Adobe After Effects. I think this design helps to really allow my content to stand
animated logo also helps to showcase my skills. Ths design however, has clearly visible links to my work page (which is similar to the previous) and my about page. Again, the ‘about’ page will utilise the animated effects and I’ve also added in the personal element of a childhood image, which is something that’s really
final concepts out and do the talking, which is
important to me, relating back to my love for nostalgia. I think it both of my final concepts help to bring me back to the overall retro-futuristic, yet still digitally skilled theme that I want my branding to have.
Moving on from this, my next steps are to choose which idea I want to develop and go forward, researching into how I would develop each of the different elements in terms of creating an actual digital space that functions as a website and portfolio. I want to carry on developing my idea, and researching deeper into different elements such as cursors, music and loading pages and by the end of this module, have a really strong personal brand. Overall, I believe my concepts reflect my research and reach the goals that I set for myself; showcasing my digital skills but
What next?
also keeping my brand personal and reflecting my love for the things that have once been.
references AM Music Curation. (2018). AM Music Curation. Retrieved from http://www.amsoundesign.com/
Grrrl Zine Fair. (2018). Grrrl Zine Fair. Retrieved from https://www.grrrlzinefair.com/
Johnson, Amber. (2018). AJG. Retrieved from https://www.ambergracejohnson.com/
Kaemi. (2018). KAEMI. Retrieved from https://www.kaemi.co/
Lupae. (2018). LUPAE. Retrieved from https://www.lupaeberlin.com/
Statista. (2018). Number of monthly active Instagram users from January 2013 to June 2018 (in millions). Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/253577/number-of-monthly-active-instagram-users/
fortune favours the bold