Live projects
2 Introduction 4 Experience 10 Events 24 Freelance 35 Competitions 42 Self initiated 46 The Future
introduction
Introduction
What I wanted to gain:
For this live projects brief the aim was to utilise my growing graphic communication skills and knowledge by undertaking externally initiated design projects. I wanted to explore my more recent interests in more depth as well as maintian and utilise my exisitng skillset by entering competitions and working with real clients.
-Gain insight into company structure -Witness client/company relationships -Have access to other aspects of a company, E.g Marketing -Start to learn the software needed -Shadow people already working in the industry -Gain confidence in dealing with clients and designers -Get into a working routine -Feel dynamic in a working 9-5 environment -Boost confidence in my own work -Inspire me for self initiated projects -Network/make friends -Improve CV
Aims: — to allow me to gain first hand experience within the creative industries — to enable me to test and apply the skills and knowledge gained during my studies in a real world context — to enable me to gain new skills and experiences that I can bring back and apply to my college projects — to reflect on my own development and Live Projects experiences — to use this refl ection to generalise and create a set of priorities and actions for further personal development as a designer
What I was afraid of: -Lack of confidence -Not having extensive prior knowledge of experience -Being thrown in at the deep end -Find that I don’t want to do it -People not replying -Not managing my time properly -Be overwhelmed -Don’t meet deadlines
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introduction
Online Portfolio & CV Before I started sending out my website and CV to people I gave them both a bit of an overhaul. I didn’t change my website massively, it was still neat and minimal on a white background but I altered the logo and the layout of my projects as well as adding up to date work.
Before
The logo previously I felt was too big and just didn’t look right in massive capitals so I made a new one, just in lowercase and a lot smaller which I think looks far less imposing and allows the focus to remain on the projects. Before it was bigger than the projects themselves.
After
I made the project tiles full size so that you could see the whole image as opposed to a cropped version and it gives the whole website a more finished look. I also added small descriptions when you click through to a project. I find it annoying when there is no description next work you find on portfolio sites. All it needs are few words to give it a context and I think that’s important when prospective employers are looking at your work.
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At the start of February I spent a week with the in house design team at Sky News. The work they do is predominantly motion based but includes graphics for broadcast, iPad and online, touchscreens and web applications for presenters, and data driven systems for weather, business and election specials. The designers provide a broad range of creative work across Sky News output, responding to live breaking news, as well as long term project work, and collaboration with the wider design team across broadcast and digital platforms.
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Sky News What I did: — Spent time with each of the teams working across the different platforms — Shadowed designers working on live news stories — Learnt a small amount about the software they use
I found it slightly surreal when I first arrived being sat in reception opposite a huge flatscreen tv showing Sky News and to the left of me being able to see through the glass double doors and see the presenters in the flesh doing ther job. It made everything seem far less glorified and sterile being able to see behind the scenes and appeared more human in a sense, as you can sometimes forget that the people you see on television exist in real life.
click here to see examples of the work
You never know what may happen — With news you can never predict what the next story is that you’re going to be working on. During my time one of the designers I shadowed, Sam, was working on creating virtual 3D models of each of the Sochi Olympic Stadiums in case there was some sort of attack with the event being surrounded in controversy. If news broke of an incident they would need to quickly be able to visuals of what happened so would have them ready. This means that preparation is key, and applies to design jobs across the spectrum, not just motion graphics within news, take as many opportunities as you can to make life easier in the long run.
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You don’t have to be the best to be hired — Whilst speaking to the Head of Design Chyaz Buffet he expained how they very rarely like to hire amazingly technical whiz kids. They’ve previously taken on a lot of print designer who know the basic design principles and ideas that they feel have potential. They would rather take on people who they can mold and train but who have a spark, because software can be taught. I found this quite surprising but reassuring at the same time as I have alwyas felt my technical software skills have held me back slightly.
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Technical skills
It’s essential to keep evolving
— The main animation software they use is Viz, which when working to fast dealines saves a huge amount of time because it renders in real time. I started to get the hang of the absolute basics, but obviously nothing I produced made it to the tv screen unfortunately, maybe someday. They also use program such as Maya and After Effects, as well as Photoshop and Illustrator.
— When designing for the general public you have to cater to numerous audiences. The decline in orinted news has been because younger audiences were using more technology to find the information they desire, however older audiences are still more likely to pick up a newspaper. It is expected that as a designer you evaluate alternative software as well as keeping up to date with developing technologies within the industry to ensure that the company keeps evolving - don’t get left behind.
Be a problem solver — Being able to demonstrate the ability the solve problems quickly and effectively is a key aspect of being a designer. And being able to communicate your ideas through storytelling and attention to detail.
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Summary: Company Dynamics — Within big companies like Sky I had alwys wondered how everybody knows what to do. In the department I was in producers came through and gave designers scripts and briefs to work from. As it includes breaking news the turnaround can be anything between 20 mins to 4 hours. — There were four main teams working in the office. Breaking news, 3D, Long term and Digital. I basically saw it as a massive system of cogs where they interlink with each other but each play an indivudual role within the workings of the company. In some cases the work filters through all of them before it reaches our screens. This is how the work remains consistent because it is hardly ever single handedly dealt with by one person.
Inter-department communications — Sometimes what a producer asks for can not be achieved and they are disappointed with the final results. Even though it is fairly rare, explaining why a particular graphic is impossible o create can be a struggle, but needs to be dealt with in a calm, civil manner.
Be a Jack of all trades — When I asked Chyaz what they look for in job candidates he expressed how he likes to see how one can demonstrate a range of transferable skills that can be built upon. Having more than one string to your bow means that the team is stronger as a whole and more equipped to tackle all eventualities.
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I very much enjoyed the lively, dynamic atmosphere at Sky as there was always something going on and interesting projects unfolding, plus knowing we were some of the first people to hear breaking news stories gave me a bit of a thrill . I was made to feel welcome by the designers, who were keen for me to get as much out of the experience as possible, answering any questions that I had and hearing about their own personal experiences in the field was inspirational. Working in such a fast-paced department I found you needed the ability to work effectively both on your own and as part of a team in a time sensitive environment. The nature of the job, being a 24 hour channel, requires the designers to work a flexible schedule on a shift rotation, which can be tough. The opportunity to get a real feel for the working dynamic of the agency gave me an insight into how innovative and conceptual design processes are implemented in a real world context. I was able to get a better understanding of the design processes and day to day work flow found within the agency and how teams of people work together to reach a certain outcome - getting their graphics to air.
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One skill I feel I learnt through this application process is the ability to explain and describe my work succinctly and to the point as it required me to answer some personal questions for which there were set word limits. It meant I had to be concise, not waffle and make sure I was communicating exactly what it was I wanted to say. This took a fair amount of time and effort but I feel like it paid off.
Sky Creative Dan, one of the directors at Sky News told me that they were about to advertise a vacancy for a junior designer and offered to send me the details. I did not apply for the job due to uni commitments and not being 100% if that was the right job for me as they deal with such an incredibly niche market. However, whilst sifting through the careers website I noticed the opportunity to have a weeks work experience with Sky Creative, Whilst at News it was suggested that seeing the diverse range of projects handled at the main Sky Creative building would provide a more comprehensive insight into the creative work of the company. Fortunately I have ben successful in my application and I’m really looking forward to seeing what it has to offer although unfortunately is not within the Live Projects term. As the company works on projects that encompass such a wide spectrum of specialisms, I’m hoping it will help satisfy my own curiosity within varying aspects of design, and help me define where my interests truly lie. In addition to this, it would be a great opportunity to learn more about design departments that I am not as yet particularly familiar with, for example On-air Promotional and Interactive design.
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Events
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Having taken part in and enjoying LCC’s Green Week last year I was keen to get involved again and attended a workshop on Permaculture. The first half of the day was run by Maddy Harland, Editor and Co-Founder of Permaculture Magazine. She explained how Permaculture is an innovative framework for creating sustainable ways of living and is a practical method of developing ecologically harmonious, efficient and productive systems that can be used by anyone, anywhere. I included a challenging yet fun exercise where in teams we had to come up with a sustainable way of producing a cereal grain bar, and also it’s packaging. It was hard but eventually we worked out way in which less resources were needed and how waste materials can be used productively. Our team ended up a wrapper that was made of recycled paper and wcould be simply embossed with the brands logo and information.
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events
In the afternoon Fergus Drennan and James wood from ‘THe foraged book Project’ took over. Their aim is to create a completely foraged book, using only materials they have found and produced with natural energy sources, so electricity is out of the question. They shared with us their vast collection of papers, dyes and paints that they have produced using plants, other natural materials and a lot of elbow grease. We learnt how to mix our own paints from scratch and although it took quite a while make I enjoyed every second it, probably because I enjoy making things using a more hands on approach. It was such fun workshop and a real eye opener in terms of what can be achieved by using natural materials. The pigments are great and when I get the chance would like to experiment with making my own and using them within projects.
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Foraged Inks As an extention of the workshop I wanted to do something with the paints I had a made, I didn’t just want them to dry up in a box under my desk. I decided to use them to create a screenprint and designed a really simple print where each ink spelt out the main material it was produced from. The paints needed altering a fair bit as they were quite gritty and I needed to add a lot of ink medium so it didn’t dry into the holes of the screen. The final outcome I think reflects the subject quite well as I created earthy, natural tones with the paints and the imperfect, eroded text effect I ended up with gives it a more hand made feel, even though that was purely accidental as a result of not all the coating coming off the screen when washed. I plan on sending one to Fergus and James but it might not count as being foraged as I had to add extra man made materials and using electricity to expose the screen was unavoidable!
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Even though permaculture is not directly linked to design it can definately be transferred and implemented in a design environment. I can make small changes to my practice that will make a difference, they don’t have to be as a extreme as ‘The Foraged Book Project’ but as sustainability is becoming an ever growing issue within design it is something that I am learning to be more concious of.
events
On February 19th I attended the Industry Sped Dating Event that was put on by the University. I went along expecting it to be really busy and over subscribed but was actually quite surprised at how few people went in comparison to my expectations. Not that I’m complaining, it meant that I was able to speak to four professionals as opposed to my scheduled two. I was already happy to have been able to meet my first two choices so the extras were a bonus. The sessions were 25 minutes long which meant that you could have a proper conversation with them and allowed time to get over the initial nerves of speaking to someone completely new. It was a similar set up to a job interview so I saw it as good practice to have to somewhat break the ice with a prospective employer. Even though it was slightly nerve racking I managed to remain calm and found common interests that allowed us to bond in some way. As it was open to all courses it was also a great place to meet other students and informally network . I befriended some film and tv students, another field that is of interest to me, and we could prove to be useful contacts for each other in the future.
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events
“I’ve never met a producer that studied production, they’ve all come from somewhere else and gotten into it. A lot of it is helping out on student shoots to get to see how it worked. Just going in at the deep end, shadowing another producer maybe for free on shoots whatever weekends you can, stuff like that would really work.” “It’s keeping the pressure on the crew without getting arsy and that’s a skill. Encouraging people without getting slippy or aggressive with them, and if you have that skill then that’s really good, it’s being a bit clever to get the results you need.”
Paul Donnellon Director/Animator Voodoo Dog
“At the end of the day if you’re reasonably good at your job, and you’re prepared to put in the work, and you’re nice, you’ve got a lot of things going for you.”
“You should be very proactive with basically creating a infrastracture of everything outside of college, you should be researching companies you like.” “If you have that pull towards something it’s worth following up because assuming you get better at that, the quicker you can get into the idustry, and you don’t have to stay in it forever, it just means it’s much easier as an employer to see that you have a strong direction.” “Freelance is hard work, it’s not for everyone. It is pretty crazy, you’re not sure if work is coming in or not but you do learn a lot quite quickly but you have to be disciplined with yourself or you just end up sitting at eleven thirty in the living room in a pair of pyjamas which is really bad. I got a studio as soon as I could. When you get out of college you become incredibly quick at working because you become more practiced. I think as a student my piece of advice is to experiment as much as possible and don’t be scared of making something which goes wrong because you’ll actually learn more from it.” “There is an element of right place right time but it’s also just not saying no and saying ‘I can do that’ and you just work it out. It’s attitude, that’s why people employ people. It’s more than 50% personality unfortunately but thats fine you seem nice.”
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Chris Pearson Freelance Designer Motion, Pattern, Advertising, Installation, Interactive
events
“You have to be willing to take abuse from pretty much everyone, to call in favours from people who don’t owe you favours and to deal with ego. Not yours, someone else’s, always.” “I think what you’re talking about is a production designer, That’s the area where with your skillset you’ll sit down with a director who says ‘I’ve got this idea, I want you to make it happen’ and you saying ‘I think I know what you mean I’m gonna go and make it happen”, and that’s a great job.”
Amos Usiskin Producer 1980 Films
“There are runners and interns, but don’t knock that. You go in as a runner becaue you have a bit of aptitude and you have an interest in it, and if you hold onto that interest you will be keen enough and motivated enough to make those next steps but being a runner is one of the most fun jobs I have ever had.” ‘Use that time and learn as much as you can, and also set up a network of everyone else that was a runner and you all move up together.”
“I’m 44 and I still don’t know what I want to do, I missed my chance to be a rockstar.” ‘Don’t spead yourself too thinly, don’t think ‘I’ve got to have photography, I’ve got to have typography, got to have packaging, got to have animation, you haven’t. It’s better to have one or two things that you’re really good at. Nobody wants to see a crap typographer who’s also a crap photographer so if you’re really good at drawing rabbits, do ten rabbits. I don’t mean that. Now is not the time to experiment and say ‘Oh i always wanted to do screenprinting i’ve never done it’, it’s pointless, go back over what you’ve done and everyone agrees that you’re good at, what you’re confident with and do more more more more more for 2 months hard work.” “Don’t do the classic panic of thinking the only way i’m gonna get a job is to prove that i can use photoshop. It doesn’t work like that.” “I keep likening it to a best man’s speech, it works because it’s short, funny, and it’s personal, so that’s what your cv needs to be, you need a few good ideas and sound motivated and interesting .”
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Scott King Creative Director CRASH
events
Trip to Ghent, Belgium When the opportunity arose to join Ghent in Belgium I immediately expressed an interest and was lucky enough to be able to go. I had planned to visit a printer during this time so when the the trip included a visit to Cassachrome I was delighted. I think that to be a good designer, especially within print, you have to know the possibilities and restrictions to what you can do. So seeing the endless ways you can print and bind books was really useful and it’s given me food for thought about my Final Major Project. For example being concious of which books I was drawn to and wanted to pick up the identifying why in particular.
Ghent is a really beautiful city with some lovely architecture and I thoroughly enjoyed spending time there. A couple of places that the tutors recommended we visit:
Copyright Bookshop This shop was absolutely packed with books on art and design but still a little bit too expensive to buy any, so I took a few titles and names to look up when I got home.
The Design Museum Unfortunately this visit didn’t quite meet expectations to the point where Sofie and I thought we had got the wrong museum. It seemed to be more of a furniture museum which was still interesting just not as useful as we were hoping.
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It was really insightful to see how they produced prints on the massive lithopress. It is far more involved than I had previously thought. Everything needs to be created on metal plates beforehand and it can be a long winded process. We were told about the common mistakes people make when sending files to print. Normally they are not formatted properly and have been sent in RGB. This is an issue I already knew about having printed in the past but it was good to be reminded of all the things that need to be considered, especially before our Final Major Project, for which I shall be creating a publication. They also covered topics such as grain direction, bulk, and ink sinking, which is where the ink goes very fast into papers with open structures, and everyday the ink is drying deeper into the paper, meaning two weeks later the print looks completely different. For this they have come up with a system that dries the ink directly off the print called HUV which uses ultra violet light.
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events
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Bold Italic The conference featured five speakers each who gave taken varying paths to get to where they are today highlighting the numerous avenues you can go down as a designer. However none of them were particularly great at public speaking or injecting their presentations with much energy, and with it being a nearly 7 hour day, I have to admit it dragged on slightly. So one thing I learnt was to make sure any presentations I do in the future are a tad more attention-holding. Manuel Raeder told us about his latest 4 year project ‘Marginália 1’, which was an exhibition revolving around the work of Brazilian designer Rogério Duarte. I admired how he could dedicate such a long time to researching one man’s life and works with such enthusiasm but could not see myself doing something similar in the future. I struggled to relate to much of the work that was discussed as it tended to be incredibly ‘abstract’ and ‘arty’ and just created because they felt like it, not for any particular purpose. Although I did like some of the pieces I could only really appreciate them on an artistic level, not on a functional design one.
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Tech Talks In previous projects I have felt that perhaps my work has been limited by the fact that I am not as technically proficient as some of my fellow classmates. As well as this the vast majority of job and internship requirements ask for technical competence across a range of Adobe programs. I am fairly confident using Indesign and Photoshop but the same cannot be said for Illustrator and Effects so attended tech talk introductions in which I started the learn how to use the basics within the programmes. Gaining skills in these areas means I can utilise them within future projects, menaing I can save time by not having to perform specific tasks by hand and will hopefully improve my employability.
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As a designer these days it seems increasingly clear that you have to have your finger on the pulse of a multitude of trends and fields within the creative industries. With this in mind I wanted to further widen my horizons and make a more concerted effort to find inspiration in places where I haven’t looked before or have maybe been lacking of late. One of which is galleries, which I used to go to all the time but in recent years have found myself looking at more and more websites as opposed to going out and seeing things through my own eyes, which gives a completely different experience entirely.
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events
Gallery Visits
The Saatchi Gallery
Pangea: New art from Africa and South America
The Hayward Gallery
Martin Creed: What’s the point of it?
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F r e e l a nc e
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At the end of February myself and Laura Clarke, a former classmate who is currently on a DPS year, were commissioned to create some screenprinted A1 posters that her boss on her current placement needed. It was poster to advertise an exhibiton at the Peter Von Kant gallery in New Cross. Being a keen screenprinter I was happy to help and would was glad to utilise my skills as I hadn’t screenprinted in a while as projects had not demanded that type of format.
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As soon as we started we encountered problems and unfortunately they just kept on coming. Little did we know that screenprinting such a large area of block colour was one of the hardest things you could do technically. As we were matching the colours to an existing flyer it took us a whole day to get colours that were close enough and a vast enough volume of it to coat 15 prints There were problems with the ink that we had mixed as although we had stirred it thoroughly the medium had not fully mixed with the coloured ink.
The difficulties we faced were no doubt down to our lack of preparation as we were not aware how difficult a task we had taken on. In the end it was all part of a learning curve and we managed to get them finished on time but it’s not something I’ll be forgetting how to do in a hurry.
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As well as problems with the inks, our screen had coating blocking large sections of the mesh causing us to get wishy washy results and patches where there was no ink whatsoever. As a result of this we had to rigourously clean and re-expose the screens 3 times. It took us a week down in the studios experimenting and doing things over and over before we finally got the results we desired and in the end we only ended up with eight decent prints, which we still had to touch up slightly with paintbrushes.
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I wanted to undertake some freelance work as it’s probably one of the aspects of professional development that scares me the most. I decided I need to conquer my fear of being independent and taking responsibility as if left for longer will probably just get worse. It’s also fairly irrational as I know deep down that I am capable and it was about time I heeded the advice I have plastered over my bedroom wall. I have always been under confident in the work that I produce and receiving positive feedback feels reassuring but I find myself soon slipping back into the insecurity. I wanted to build up my faith in myself and prove that I could do it. To begin with I kept the loop of clients small quite small and limited it to mutual contacts, keeping in mind that I didn’t want to be inundated with requests for the following months when I need to be focussing on my studies.
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Money Matters
knowing when to move on
- Fortunately I only had to chase up one payment, which was done with ease. However I am highly aware that this is not always the case in the real working world. In terms of payment I used bank transfers as there was an exisitng level of trust involved having found majority of my clients through mutual friends. This existing relationship meant I was able to establish a good rapport with them early on which definitely helped on the communication front. I think this is how I would build up a client base in the future, by starting close and small, then building up a reputation based on recomendations.
- Once I’d finished a job I would find myself continuing to pick at it and find ways it may have looked better, but I think I was just wasting my time. I learnt how to lay things to rest once I had completed them and move on and get stuck into the next task.
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Putting personal preference aside
I’m not a morning person...yet - Admittedly I have never been a morning person so being so self disciplined was hard at first. However the pressure of knowing that someone is relying on me was enough of an incentive to get me up and working. I managed to get in a really good pattern of working and down time so aim to continue this throughout the final term.
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- I’m used to only having to cater to my own needs aesthetically in previous university projects, as the client is often hypothetical. So this made it interesting getting feedback from people at various stages. The work was usually very commercial and luckily the client tended to have a clear idea of what they wanted to be included so I never went too drastically in the wrong direction. It wouldn’t necessarily have been my taste in design at all but I always had to consider the audience for which it was targeted and consider what their previous work had looked like. For example to suddenly change the style of poster ‘Penthouse’ had been using would have created an inconsistency. So I quickly learned that if it pleases the client and serves it’s purpose then I should consider it to be a job well done.
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Charging for my time - Pricing was something I had no clue about so used the method we got taught when pricing our items for the end of year show shop last year. I then brought it down slightly as I definitely didn’t want to run the risk of overcharging people, especially at the start.
Use it or lose it Some jobs were much more up my street, such as this tshirt design for a magicians above. And logo jobs that allowed for me to play around a bit more.
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- Having to use Adobe programs on a pretty much day to day basis for hours at a time really forced me to brush up on things I’d forgotten how to do. But as I was having to do things over and over again I found it easier to retain the information and how to use certain tools started to come back to me. It means I have to make more of an effort to keep using the programmes for small self initiated projects even when they may not necessarily be needed for my uni work, say if I’m screenprinting for example.
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How to pick up the pace -Gradually I started to find myself working quicker and being able to finish small jobs in a day but I think that will naturally improve even further when I start working full time, perhaps in an agency where time is of the essence and I’ll need to adjust. It’s possible that I shall have several deadlines to work to at the same time whereas during this period of time I only had maximum of two projects to be working on at once.
Preparing for print - It was required of me to use my existing design skills within print and publication briefs such as Eirens of London, opposite and Stanwells lookbook, next page. It made a nice change to be given the content I needed to work with and being able to focus totally on the design instead having to create it all myself, with these being my favourite projects. I only sent one file to print myself as the other clients already had plans put in place but it would have been nice to see more of the finished outcomes.
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I only had to meet with clients on a couple of occasions to make amendments but for this I always met in a cafe as it didn’t seem right to invite them to my poxy flat where I’m living out of one room. It seemed unprofessional and I don’t own my own studio space. After a week or so I started to do all my work in public spaces as well such as cafes or a library as, a) I needed to leave the flat and b) I became much more focussed. If I were to freelance full time I would definitely invest in a space where I can go to work without my bed staringly longingly at me from the other side of the room during long hard nights of working.
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One is a lonely number - I’m comfortable in my own company a lot of the time but there were moments when I felt quite isolated and lonely. There weren’t other creative people around that I can bounce ideas off and look to for feedback on the work I was producing. I’m not 100% sure if freelancing is for me. At least not at this stage in my plans. It is something I shall probably have to do to make ends meet whilst I am searching for a job but not something I would choose to do as a career until I was perhaps older and the freedom of working to my own schedule was of more value to me. I would like to get first get some solid work within a company under my belt where I can be continually learning and growing.
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Seeing results Whilst in my hometown of Bournemouth over Easter I was surprised to find myself following a bus that looked very familiar to me. At the end of first year I took on a work experience placement with a small local company within which I was given the role of designing a bus wrap for the local football team AFC Bournemouth. I never actually got to see the final outcome even though I knew it had been signed off as I have friend who works at the club who was coincidentally the person who had to approve it. It was fulfilling being able to see an idea right through from conception to final outcome and felt a sense of pride as I followed my largest ever design, quite literally, around the streets.
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Competitions
competitions
Competitions I wanted to use competitions as a way of challenging myself and using my current skills to work towards briefs set by big companies that already have high standards of visual communication in place for their brands. I knew the quality of the entries would be high so wanted to give it my best shot but also have fun with it. I chose the Cath Kidston brief as it was the one that appealed to me most. Having been a customer in the past I already knew a fair bit about their designs and products and immediately ideas started popping into my head. I decided that if I had more time after I would perhaps go back and try another brief as well. After braisntorming ideas it was impossible to pick just one of them so went ahead with two of my favourites and set about making my patterns.
-Cakes/sponges -Insects ladybirds bumblebees dragonfl ies -Literature characters -Typographical -Seaside beach hut -Clocks -Hats -Animals of farthing wood -Raining cats and dogs and frogs -Camping logs fire tents -Stamps -Biscuits
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competitions
British Colloquialisms Entering this brief required me to work methodically by first creating a swatch in Illustrator, a process I taught myself as the project went on as well as putting into practice what I had learn at the tech talk. I think my choices and variations in colour are quite considered and this is my favourite design out of the two I chose to develop. As the visuals could go in any direction I wasn’t too worried about it not looking very much like a ‘Cath Kidston’ print, so this is where I used the colours to bring it back round to fit in with target audience.
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The subject of British colloquialisms I felt accurately reflected the brand values and added a cheerful and fun element.
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competitions
Design 1 The three final designs I submitted
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competitions
It’s raining cats, dogs & frogs For my second image the process sped up rapidly and I was able to spend less time tweaking. As creating repeat tile patterns was something I hadn’t done before I made sure to leave plenty of time between starting and the submission date. I didn’t want any unforseen errors to ruin my chances of entering the competition so this meant leaving enough time for them to rectified should they have occured.
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For the two designs I submitted I felt I came up with original and slightly quirky ideas that fit in with the guidelines set out by the brief. I think I’ve successfully refreshed Cath Kidstons style with a cheeky British sense of humour but at the same time would not look out of place on products in their stores.
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competitions
Design 2 The three final designs I submitted
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competitions
Print Club London Blisters: Sound Sessions I’ll admit these designs were slightly rushed, as I had not realised the deadline had been extended and assumed I had already missed my chance to enter. The song I chose to illustrate was Nightcall by Kavinsky. It features on the movie soundtrack for drive which is what I used as inspiration when trying to depict the song. I used Illustrator again for this design. Something I would not have even consiidered doing just a few months back. Unfortunately my design was not selected for the show, but I was not surprised, having looked at last years competition the theme was film so my poster would have been better suited to that brief. I want to go and print these designs myself as I feel they lend themselves far more to screenprint designs than digital, and the effect of the overlapping colours will stand out a lot more on paper. The bonus is I get to make as many as I like, as the show posters were limited to a run of 40. The downside being I miss out on the £40 they were going to sell them for.
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S e l f i n i t i at e d
s e l f i n i t i at e d
Over the weeks I had spent a fair amount of time sat in front of a computer screen so wanted to get back into the swing of producing things by hand. I wanted to use various printing techniques and processes as I propose to use them within my forthcoming Final Major Project so decided it would be a good time to get a head start. I’ve always liked producing handmade gifts for people as I think it makes them more personal and it means I’m not limited to what I can find on a shop shelf. Creating these gifts was a ideal opportunity test my skills and ideas.
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s e l f i n i t i at e d
Image making As I want to produce some of my imagery for my FMP publication I decided to brush up on my drawing skills. I wouldn’t call myself an illustrator as I do not do enough of it to consider it to be a strength of mine but I do enjoy it. Drawing is a useful skill to maintain through a career as some ideas need to be sketched and visualised quickly without the use of technology. For these pieces I experimented with a range of different media including screenprint, pencil, pen, gold leaf and tippex. I will continue my experiments with image making using content related to my FMP and take more risks in the hope that I achieve some really interesting results that reflect the topic of my project which is irrationality.
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s e l f i n i t i at e d
Publication As well as my image making I needed to revisit my bookbinding capabilities. I haven’t hand bound a book for over a year apart from my ITC Report which was just bolted which is fairly straight forward. I wanted to attempt to make a book by using signatures and sewing them together, a method I had not used before. I researched the many stitches that can be used to bind books and found Coptic stitch to be most suitable as it allowed for the book to lay flat when open. However you are supposed to use just one piece of thread and weave along the whole length of the spine. Problem was, I wanted different coloured threads so decided just to do two holes at a time. I was surprised to see that it worked just as well and I had achieved the effect I originally set out to produce. The stitching was very slightly loose in some places where I hadn’t quite held the tension in place before looping the knots, especially at the bottom end which was my first attempt. It improves as you move up the spine. This example is really simple and conventional but there are endless possiblities within bookbinding and it something that I feel I am confident enough to be rather adventurous with within my FMP.
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the future
the future
The Grand Budapest Hotel Annie Atkins
Drive
Beth Mickle
Production Design Since spekaing to Amos Usiskin at the speed dating event I have been delving more into the world of design within film and the ways in which design can play an overall part in visually communicating the atmosphere of the movie. I came away from the meeting really inspired and excited as he had listened to me try and articulate what I wanted to do, managed to understand what I was getting at and helpfully pointed me in the right direction. It’s an area of practice in which both my interest in graphic design and film collide. Because of this I am now aiming to compile a list of companies that deal with art direction with the hopes of approaching them and finding out if they have any opportunites to work or intern with them after I graduate.
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s u m m a ry
This recent term has been a busy one yet thoroughly enjoyable, with a couple of surprises being thrown up here and there. I feel the biggest lesson I’ve learnt is not to be so scared anymore and I’ve become more willing to put myself and my work out there thanks to my positive experiences this term. I am able to take more enjoyment out of my work now and when I come across challenges I feel much more confident in my abilites to tackle them rather than thinking ‘why would anyone choose me to complete this task over Joe Bloggs?’. Another point to remember is that at the end of the day, everybody is human. The thought of contacting someone in a senior position at a well known firm can be rather daunting but you never know the type of person that you’re going to get on the end of the line. My placement with Sky News only came about as I had initially emailed one of the designers there through Behance, hoping to get an interview for my PPD presentation in term 1. Although it was not in time I recieved a reply and an offer of a visit if it was something I was interested in and wanted learn more about first hand. It has now led on to another placement opportunity which I’m very much looking forward to. The guard on the gates at the Sky Headquarters explained to me how it’s useful to get a foot in the door as it’s the faces you see volunteering and taking on work experience that you see walking through again having secured a job. It places more importance on attitude, showing willingness and making contacts. I did try and organise another placement but as I had plenty of work to be getting on with I wasn’t too disappointed when my applications were unsuccessful and didn’t want to hinder my studies. I had completed differing placements in previous years so was glad I had undertaken one in field that was new to me. In hindsight I have probably gained more confidence from freelancing than I would have in an agency as I still likely to have found security in the extra guidance as opposed to going it alone. What I’ve learnt about the application process is that you cannot rush them, unless you stumble across them the day before the deadline then you may be forgiven. Taking the time to double check that words are spelt correctly and what is being said is succinct and the point is a valuable habit to get into. I’m lucky that my parents are happy for me to bombard them with documents to proof read. Sometimes going through something with fresh eyes helps, explaing what you want to say and seeing if they can phrase it in such a way that you hadn’t thought of before, especially if you’ve already been working on it for 3 hours. It definitely made me think how I wanted my work to come across and this is why you need to allow time, so I intend to keep on top of job searches so that I have the time to fill out applications to the best of my ability. I wouldn’t want to send one in a hurry and give someone a sub-par impression of myself and my work when I know myself that it is not my best.
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s u m m a ry
Going back to my aims and goas for this term I can honestly say that I feel I’ve managed to fulfil the majoiry of what I wanted to gain from these experiences. I have also learned about myself at the same time. I like the company of others and work best when I have to opportunity to bounce ideas of other people and sometimes work as part of a team. This is why I feel I would benefit from working in a company when I graduate at least to begin with. It hasn’t been straight forward and it’s changed direction numerous times but I feel like I’m slowly starting to work out what it is I really want to do in the future and the following are some general rules to remember when undertaking personal professional development in the months to come:
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Remember people are only human Prepare for the worst but celebrate small victories Maintain and make new conatcts wherever possible Try harder to remain inspired and visit new places Continue to broaden my skillset whilst constantly refining my exisiting ones Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there Manage your time so you are able to complete tasks to the best of your ability Show willing Chase up contacts , enquiring about opportunities Be nice
‘Don’t be afraid to fail. Be afraid not to try’ Michael Jordan
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