Professional Practice by Sam Sheridan

sam sheridan visual communication: professional practice

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

POUNDSHOP

D&AD DAZED

PERSONAL IDENTITY

4-5

6-11

12-51

52-113

introduction

Professional Practice provides an on-going opportunity for continued professional development. The unit will build on the experiences gained on the course so far and also allow the opportunity to consider how to define my own practice. The aim is to continue to develop a portfolio of work that evidences a body of work that reflects my own subject interests and career aspirations. The portfolio is a reflection of the development of my projects and provides the opportunity to evaluate my achievements so far. This unit also provides me with opportunities to explore external communication in an entrepreneurial context and the development of my identity and professional portfolio. It will provide me with an understanding of design concepts and methods to enable me to communicate information effectively within the multidisciplinary nature of design, including screen based media, and allow for opportunities to integrate other specialisms such as: illustration, photography and typography. IN SUMMARY: The Professional Practice Unit is based on preparing us for the next step after university. In this unit we are to learn and develop our presence as visual communicators through personal branding and identity, curriculum vitae, online presence through websites and blogs and promotion such as business cards. We will also take part in live briefs that all provide us with the necessary skills for work outside of the university.

the

poundshop

The Poundshop is run by George Wu and Sara Melin. Founded in April 2010 together with Sarah Gottlieb, the idea was born during a discussion about love for design shops. Not having the capital to set one up themselves, a friend jokingly suggested they should set up a poundshop. What started as a joke, turned into a real exhibition as they set themselves the challenge to create the first design poundshop. The aim of The Poundshop is to spread design to a wider audience by making it accessible through price and engagement. The products are to be sold within the affordable price bands £1, £5 and £10. Working with a wide range of designers, most of whom are new to making products, The Poundshop is the perfect testing ground for them to experiment with new and interesting products. With low overheads and the minimal risk of small-scale production, participants are able to experience the markets reaction to their wares first hand. We were approached by The Poundshop and asked to create a product that cost very little to make so that we might be able to retail it for any price up to £3. They provided some guidance as to what sells - rulers and clipboards with screen printed designs on them were among some of the popular products. Simplistic tools and items that had illustrative qualities and traits to them. Clocks, stationary holders and candles were also among the list of items that sold in the various shops that The Poundshop had opened. The top selling items appeared were basic but had a definitive function - therefore we were informed that our products should also have similar aspects if we want them to sell. The aim of the Poundshop is to have small time designers create and design products that would be retailed for low prices in order to spread design throughout the community by

making them more available to people. The aim of the brief was to retail small products that have been designed by us and sell them for prices that could not be argued since they were to be cheap. The brief was to last one week and we were required to have designed a working prototype and have the pricing and costs for 100 products. After consideration to the project I decided that the functionality side of the product was going to be important since no one is going to particularly want something if it just has a nice design on it. The functionality is what sells the product and the design aspect makes it stand out from the other products. The product I decided to make was a shopping trolley token. Rather than putting £1 in the trolley outside supermarkets, you can use a this token instead since many people often forget change for the trolleys. The idea behind it was that it was functional and easily worth £1 since you could use it many times instead of the coin and you would always have it It would go onto people’s keys so that people would not be able to forget the token wherever they went to shop. I designed it in 3DS Max and had it printed 3D. Preferably I would make it out of wood because this would make it stronger and more durable (as opposed to the plastic of the 3D printer). However the token was only going to be small and perhaps too tricky to cut from wood. Let alone the fact that I was not skilled with wooden model-making, with the deadline being just a week later it gave me little time to experiment with materials. To make the product stand out more I tried to design a Mario token on the area that goes into the trolley rather than just a plain circle with the dimensions of the pound coin.

professional practice

3d design

poundshop

professional practice

final design

poundshop

The final product turned out to be effective as it worked as a trolley token. However the design of the Mario coin on the end went badly since it was so small and detailed that the plastic was not able to create the shapes. This was bescause when printing something 3D the plastic comes out in layers and initially as a liquid. Therefore when things get small and detailed (and near the end of thhe layers) the plastic overhangs and ends up bunching together. But it did make a start sign and was a good first attempt at 3D printing since now I know more about it and would consider other designs and how the detail cannot remain in some prints when they are so small. But the token fits in the trolleys and also on key rings which makes it a successful product, I will just have to consider other designs in the future.

d&ad

new

blood

Part of the unit was that we take part in a competition brief as one of the projects. D&AD New Blood is the competition brief that we undertook, D&AD New Blood are industry standard briefs set by global brands that are taken on by students, recent graduates and under 24s around the world. Winning a New Blood Pencil is an instant validation of talent. It is described on their website as a creative takeover. Students flaunt their work in the face of the industry to make meaningful connections and land their first break whilst brands, agencies and studios open their doors. This is all directly related to the aims of the Professional Practice unit because of the professional prospects of the competition if we win or enter commendable work. New Blood is the link in the chain between education and industry. Live briefs, exhibitions, and industry events provide a head start on creative careers. Becoming a New Blood winner is a seal of approval and sets us apart from competition. Since 1962, D&AD has been inspiring a community of creative thinkers by celebrating and stimulating the finest in design and advertising. The D&AD Awards are recognised globally as the ultimate creative accolade, entered and attended by the best from around the world. Obviously having our work nominated for this or even winning it would have a profound effect on our portfolio.

dazed “We can work with commercial partners, but we are not owned by them. And that’s the big difference”

DAZED AND CONFUSED MAGAZINE

The design brief that we chose was the ‘Cut to Independence’ brief from Dazed Magazine. The project challenges us to Declare Independence in 15 seconds. The brief states: In an age when everyone is a broadcaster, where mediocre content thrives and technology has truly democratized the art of film-making, can true creative voices still cut through the noise using short form content? Can you inspire, inform and capture the independent spirit of Dazed in 15 seconds? Using short-form social video (think Instagram, Vine…) as your only medium, make a series of four 15-second films that embody independence. Dazed exists to empower, entertain and educate tomorrow’s cultural leaders through radical fashion, agenda setting photography and fearless storytelling. The description on their website is “Youth and pop culture provocateurs since 1991. Fearless fashion, music, art, film, politics and ideas from today’s bleeding edge. Declare Independence” which gave us an insight and idea on what the brief might be asking us to do, so we went on to research the Dazed Digital website. We first noticed that the website is split up into four categories; Fashion, photography, music and art+culture. We thought this could be an effective starting point when looking towards the narrative of the 15 second videos we were to make. However this idea was quickly abolished since we felt that was too expected and perhaps wouldn’t create the independent feeling that Dazed wanted from the videos. We started to look for new original videos that have been professionally executed since we felt that was what Dazed would be looking for. One of the first inspirations we had for the project was a short film by Barnaby Roper called Scratch ’n’ Sniff (found on Nowness). 15

Barnaby’s work blurs the boundaries between commercial film-making and fine art. His combination of live action footage with stylish post production techniques and rattling sound design set him apart from some of the other videos we were looking at. We felt that pop art and bright block colours (much like Roper’s Scratch ‘n’ Sniff film) relate well to the things they post on their website and might be something that we consider putting into our pieces. Roper’s film is original and different and gives good clues into coming up with something individual and that stands out amongst other films. It was a film that contained all of the elements we had first imagined for our own clips. Some of his other work was also impressive and, if not influenced our whole group, certainly influenced me and my ideas for the project. We began researching other artists that use a similar colour palette to Scratch ‘n’ Sniff and found the work of fashion photographer Molly Cranna and architectural photographer Matthias Heiderich. These two artist’s work were very minimal and contained some interesting ideas and angles that we wanted to include in our short films in order to make them stand out. Primarily though we were looking at the pastel like colour palette that has been used in these artist’s work and perhaps combining these colour with a quick-cut sharp movie that contained hidden messages and edits that quickly appeared and then disappeared but enough to catch the viewer’s attention and make them think. The messages and images would relate to the idea of declaring independence whilst looking relatively new and unseen.

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Scr

dazed

ratch ‘N’ Sniff

S t i l l s f r o m B a r n a b y R o p e r ’ s S c r a t c h ‘ n ’ S n i f f.

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Photography by Molly Cranna and Matthias Heiderich (bottom left).

One of the points that the brief made was that the video had to work on social media (namely instagram) but also work as a video on its own. This proved to be a challenge since the dimensions for instagram are square format images and film whereas the film will be viewed wide-screen by the judges of the D&AD brief. This led to us having an idea where we use images and film where there is a film crew in the background setting the whole thing up. Almost like a behind the scenes video but the idea was that the real world is different to the posts on instagram that people make. We could take popular instagram profiles and make them seem as if their photos are all staged.

For example they might take a photo for social media showing them smiling in a sunny, relaxing setting when in reality they are not happy at all and the setting is entirely set up. However we would not use in that way, rather we would show that being independent might take more than you think and independent people that you see might appear that way because that is how they want to appear. Anyone can be independent and a lot of people like to think they are. Obviously we would have to focus it more and make it more refined but that was the general idea we had for making it work both on wide-screen and social media platforms.

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Looking at more artists I found April Greiman, who is a thinker and artist, whose transmedia projects, innovative ideas and hybrid-based approach, have been influential worldwide over the last 30 years. Her explorations of image, word and colour as objects in time and space are grounded in her singular fusion of art and technology. She was recognized as one of the first designers to embrace computer technology as a design tool. I began looking at her work because it provided me with inspiration for my own work and the Dazed project in the sense that she has created work that is original and obscure, being one of the first to explore computer technology and design, her work is of an appropriate nature to look at when declaring independence and standing out. Her work also used the colours that we were looking at using and an experimental style that we were also considering, she seemed like a relevant artist at the time let alone the fact that she was one of the first to embrace technology, showing that she herself was open to change and an independent personality that wanted to experiment and stand out. This reflected the brief well since we needed to find a way to stand out and also declare independence effectively which we might be able to do by breaking the rules and mixing things up.

We talked much about the style of the videos and a sort of random collage of images was something we liked the idea of, especially with some old school VHS effects on them and a very abstract motion to them. With quick cuts and second hand imagery (most likely from the Dazed magazines) we could explore physical collage, from cuts of the magazine, and video footage and post production techniques. One example of the kind of style was from a music video for Bastilleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Bad Newsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; where there were similar cuts and a huge amount of footage from past years. It made the video feel very uneasy and there seemed to be some disturbing imagery combined with inspirational film, but this combination made the video as a whole feel almost upsetting. The difference between this and what ours would feel like would be that we would incorporate pastel colours and lighter images; we just felt that these quick cuts were something we could include and this stylisation was unique and different and stood out to us as something that Dazed might include on their website.

dazed

Glitch Art

professional practice

d&ad

Glitch art is how we summed up the style. Glitch art is where art is created out of data bending and errors in code. It is the aestheticization of digital or analogue errors, such as artefacts and other “bugs”, by either corrupting digital code/data or by physically manipulating electronic devices. The outcome is something very surreal and new which I found to be very interesting and directly related to the Bastille music video. Glitch art makes art from the errors and uses techniques to create something that goes against the rules of art. This made it relevant for the subject of independence I felt because it glorifies the mistakes and quirks of art and it also feels free and like the artists were not affected by outside influences. One point to be made about the glitch art is that it seems like it has some links to being a trend - in a day and age where being ‘different’ is the trend, glitch art ticks the box. And after looking into the nature of glitch art it became more apparent that people actually use it for Instagram posts and there are even applications that corrupt the code of photographs and video footage to make them into glitch art. However this may not have been such a bad thing since Dazed felt like they are made up of trends for young people rather than being a trendsetting platform. But this challenged us greatly since the brief states that everyone can be a filmmaker now and we must challenge this claim; yet the more we experiment with ideas, the more apparent it is that anyone can really be an independent filmmaker.

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Glitch art that was more relevant to Dazed

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Installations by Maser

Southern Comfort After looking into this block colour, pop art style some more we felt that we had not furthered our development of the videos; only the style that we were to have the videos look like. So we began to look for videos that embody independence that already exist and use them as inspiration for our own ideas, just to get us started. One video that immediately stood out to me as doing this was the Southern Comfort advert titled “Whatever’s Comfortable”. In the advert the camera focuses in on one man, walking along the beach on his own striding confidently past everyone with his Southern Comfort in his hand. The advert was primarily about comfort and having confidence in who you are which I think is perfect for the project since that is independence - not caring or being influenced by anybody because you know

who you are. Southern Comfort are also an example of independence because they stepped outside of the traditional techniques that other brands used to market their products. Before that advert, most drinks companies would advertise their drinks as being something that made you popular/ outgoing whereas Southern Comfort just made it appear as though you’d be comfortable as you are. This was something that we had not yet researched in enough depth innovative use of advert and social media since this was essentially half of the brief. We needed to produce a series of short films that were different from the films that you see on social media and everywhere, much like Southern Comfort went against the typical form of advert for drinks. 30

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Another example of an advert that relates to the idea of being independent. It is the Thomas Cook advert featuring a boy at an empty swimming pool wearing a shark fin on his back. He is alone except for one lifeguard that is watching him. Whilst at the swimming pool he starts dancing uncontrollably by himself, not caring if anyone is around - which fits exactly with the project based on independence because it shows that he is not effected by any outside influences. The boy is confident in the sense that he is alone and he can act like nobody is watching, which is what it means to be confident and being independent. Then at the end of the video the boy jumps into the water and uses the shark fin, but from seeing the fin moving you can tell he is still overwhelmed by the urge to dance and is dancing whilst swimming. The advert then concludes with the words â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;be boldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; much like the boy was being. It follows the same sort of idea as the Southern Comfort advert because it focuses on one subject with similar shots and camera angles. These kinds of adverts where the closest thing we could find to being an example of videos that already exist that can be seen as an example of declaring independence.

dazed

This music video titled Dux Content - Lifestyle depicted scenes of random imagery from popular youth culture and social media. Things that were included were memes, gaming scenes, music videos and other trends that are all recognisable by the younger generations since they are current to them even given the quick cuts of the video. The music itself is made up entirely of computer and noises and sound effects from games and the entire video is viewed on a phone.

professional practice

d&ad

Another advert which uses a somewhat similar concept to our own D&AD project. In this Money Supermarket video advertisement the main protagonist, named Brian, is followed down the street looking seemingly average with a business suit - to only spring into confidence, with the reveal of his short shorts, high heels and surprisingly large bottom.

dazed

This advert can be applied to what we are doing, as similarly to the Southern Comfort advert, this one focuses on one individual simply declaring their independence and not caring what others around them think of them and their unique quirks.

We needed to examine the brief closer since at this point we had lost sight of the specifics of the brief. Declaring independence and showing the independent spirit of Dazed became something important. But what was the independent spirit of Dazed? Perhaps the fact that Dazed work with commercial partners but claim to not be owned by them. We dissected the title “Declare Independence” in order to get a looser feel for the brief since the title was holding us back because we had no original ideas to show independence. We made the title “Challenge Perception” instead because we thought that this was a more inspiring way to rephrase the title and might spark some different ideas that we could then relate back to the original titles. At this point we had nothing to lose and started brainstorming almost from the beginning again in hopes of finding something that we could use. After a short while we were exploring other ideas that declare independence and were finally starting to reach a narrative for the videos. One of the first ideas that was sparked by the title change was saying that there could be a chain of dominoes falling and then the chain is stopped because there is one that is out of place - and this would represent independence. Although not a refined idea that was the first we had. We felt at the time it would work because all dominoes are the same and they are all doing the same thing so one that is a different colour and out of place would send the message to stand out. We then concluded that this might not send the right message because then it looks as though the one standing out is some sort of kill-joy non-conformist that won’t be apart of a beautiful display of falling dominoes and pattern. Perhaps not the message we want sending but still a break-through since we would not have to use text to communicate the message - the message just had to be better and more effective. On the subject of challenging perception we talked about a chicken with a golden egg, or a piñata that is being beaten by a child for his party but then it explodes realistically. Again maybe not the best message so we changed it for a piñata that bursts and an endless supply of sweets fall out. We talked about how else we could show independence and the fact that it would be more impressive if we could do it without words and possibly without people either (after the dominoes development). We discussed that independence means different things for different people for example; a small child tying their show laces for the first time might be something that represents independence to them, and for other people it might be the act of moving out of the family house and starting a new chapter in their The notion of ‘declaring independence’ was difficult especially since Dazed essentially is a platform for trends to be exhibited on, so trying to promote independence would prove to be challenging when looking at the articles that they post. We used the tutorial to discuss how trends are constantly changing but then regurgitated at some point later in time. They just go round in circles and follow patterns. We might be able to use this for our work, and use this to represent originality and independence. This was leading us to exploring the medium that the videos were to be displayed on and possibly exploring the nature of Instagram’s videos and the fact that they automatically repeat after they have finished. So we could use this with reference to themes and trends that are constantly going in circles. But we were still having trouble getting the content for the videos and what the narrative would be. After a tutorial it became obvious that we needed to focus more on Dazed’s brief specifics of ‘declaring independence’ - since we had only been thinking about how the medium was going to appear aesthetically rather than what it was we actually needed to show. Somewhere we could start would be showing Dazed’s own independent moments over the last 25 years, showing Dazed as a trend instigator as opposed to it showcasing the already existing trends. We would look to some of their defining moments and how they have had an affect on the fashion world and the trends in them.

“Freedom for me is knowing that you reap what you sow, and then sowing without the fear of the harvest.”

“Freedom is always circumstantial and can never be generalised”

“Freedom is the ability to make decisions without external influence”

life. Independence is relative. Trying to figure out what independence means to people would not be difficult since we could easily ask people or conduct a survey. But freedom and individuality is something that frequently appeared and freedom was also classed as a synonym of the word independence. So I researched what freedom meant and a link to Ted Talks conversation page came up where someone had already asked the question of what freedom meant to people. These were some of the replies:

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d&ad

rethinking the idea

However the tutors said that although these ideas were OK and needed developing for them to really declare independence they also provided a new outlook on the video clips. They told us that we could go out and declare independence on our own, as in as a group of people we could go and create our own independence as opposed to documenting ideas of it and this in fact might stand out more to Dazed since they want to see independence. Challenge what it means to be independent and do something amazing and eye-catching, that alone will declare independence. They spoke of challenging the laws and the fact there is a law that you can not protest within one mile of the houses of parliament because there was one man that protested by sleeping outside the houses for so long that the houses of parliament made a law against it - and considering there are five of us we have access to everything we need to create something bigger than that. That might be the better route to go down instead of creating original content that was obviously not working for us so far. We discussed our ideas further and decided against the rebellious nature of the ideas mentioned before - to challenge laws and restrictions. Instead we felt that it could be something more fashion related and something that might resonate with young culture and the fashion scene. So we brainstormed an idea of someone walking through a high street, or along the path, looking very confident and self-assured; like they know who they are and are not effected by the views of the outside world (which is a description of the word independence that we found; not being affected by outside influences and being yourself). And the video would depict the man walking down the road and near the end of the 15 seconds we would focus in more on what the subject was wearing and they would be wearing socks and sandals - which is widely known as a fashion mistake and something not to do, but this man is not affected by the outside influences at all. We would then do three more videos showing decisions that other individuals have made that are similar to this or people who look interesting as individuals. For instance we talked about someone styling their hair as a comb-over; another typical example of something that should not be done but some people do it - because they are not concerned with the opinion that others have against that hairstyle. At the time we did not have any more ideas but the general theme was using the individual quirks of people to make them seem like they stand out more among other people. That when you really pay attention to people you find that they are all their own individual and our videos would be something that glorify this aspect in modern culture.

dazed

professional practice

d&ad

Some stills from the first location scouting and attempt at one of the clips - using the socks and sandals idea. Subtle animations were placed over the video in post production to make the video slightly more entertaining and add something to them. They also help exaggerate the subject and his dress sense - putting emphasis on the socks and sandals towards the end. The subject is walking down the high street confidently in his socks and sandals bouncing to the sound of the uplifting music playing as he is walking.

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Images from the first test shoot and location hunting - also a visual story board establishing the shots required.

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Another idea we had after doing this test shoot was that we could have all the other characters overlapping and being seen in the other videos. We would have a situation connecting them all and we might see a small narrative play out from four different perspectives. All the characters would have different Instagram accounts to themselves and the videos that they were in would be uploaded to their accounts. Then we would tag them in the other videos that they appeared in and the viewer would have to go to the next account to see the next part

of the video (or the next perspective of the video). One example was we could have a man who orders a pizza (character one), then the pizza is delivered by someone (character two), on his way out of the house he is almost hit by a girl on a bike (character three). The girl goes on to play with a boy (character four) and the boy goes home to his dad (character one) for pizza. Obviously the narrative would have to be more interesting in order for viewers to want to watch the next video on the following profile.

A visual story board idea (and test shoot) that we made to get a better feel for how the characters would relate to eachother in order to solidify the instagram profiles idea that are all linked. Character one would be walking through the park and pass character two, then two would pass three, three pass four and four pass one again and so they would all be connected through each other and we would host each video on one of the peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fake instagram accounts. They would then link the next person and the viewer would follow it to the next video and so on. 43

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Stills of the cyclist 15 second film. He puts his cycling gear with a serious look ready to ride

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Then the reveal - at the end it is shown he is riding a segway rather than a bike

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Some stills from the final video - this is the one with the hard looking rocker walking with an aggressive stereotypical look about him. Until he stops and it is revealed that he is holding a teddy bear suggesting that there is nothing threatening about him at all.

In conclusion I think that the Dazed project might have gone better. Although the outcome was better than I had first expected, we still had the issue of there not being a gripping enough narrative that applied to all of the characters involved. Though some of the clips were very entertaining and held some merit and relevance to the theme of declaring independence, some just did not put across the message of being independent - they seemed more like they were there to take the mick out of something as opposed to communicate that you can be who you want and do what you want without having to worry about outside influences. I think that in the end it was more about trying to finish what we had started rather than start over again from the beginning, especially with it being four 15 second films requiring make-up artists, actors and an easily controlled location to put across the message that we wanted to. I think I would keep some of the clips, like the old lady and the boom-box, but then adapt them so that they interlinked with the other characters. I would also consider more of a series of videos that combine to make a one minute film that declares independence, but given the time we had left by the end of the idea generations stage we could not prepare ourselves adequately for the deadline. However we do have longer until the project is due for D&AD New Blood and might do some additional work to it.

personal

identity

Identity / Logo Design

Part of the professional practice project was to create a brand and identity for ourselves and establish our own presence as visual communicators. This would include; CVâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, business cards, online presence, websites and blogs and would be something we have to develop to gain work as designers and visual communicators. It is essentially a preparation for the end of the course when we have to go out and look for work. My personal identity would have to reflect the type of work that I provide in order to give off an accurate and impressive first impression to potential clients. The business cards, CV, website and portfolio would all have to be developed in a way that communicates my abilities and strengths as a visual communicator. The first thing I would have to do when trying to make my identity is create a logo for myself by which people could identify with. This logo originally was to be simplistic with much space since this would be easier for people to identify and would also portray my own work since a lot of people associate good design with little design - a simple logo with minimal design would reflect this. This logo would then influence the way that the rest of the brand would appear; a simplistic logo to show minimal, professional and effective work. The simple logo would then be easily applied to the rest of the brand and the work because it would not take anything away from whatever it is placed on; be it the website, business card or some of the work I produce. If my branding fails to send the right message to the client then why should they employ my services as a visual communicator? So it had to be something that speaks to the client. Since most identities are created through

names and turning elements of letters into some sort of logo, I initially wanted to move away from this in order to stand out. However it was the most obvious starting point when thinking about the logo design. I think that in order to avoid this Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d need a symbol that meant something to me or my work which I could use as opposed to my initials. Or I might give myself a new name, like an alternative professional persona much like Banksy - their identity is hidden. However graphics and visual communication are not like graffiti and its probably best if I was clear with who I am for my personal identity, otherwise it would not be personal at all. I started by looking towards other methods that companies and brands had their logos based on and the possibilities of using my initials which I thought were unfortunate being SS. I started with common techniques such as basic type stating Sam Sheridan and my signature as a possibility but these were very common and I needed something that stood out more. In addition they did not reflect who I was and if I myself donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like my own logo then in what way would this reflect me or my work? Something that I also had to keep in mind was the fact that the logo and identity has the potential to filter out the kind of work that I want to produce. For example people will look at my personal identity and determine whether or not my work will be effective for their project. Which means if I wanted to work on projects that were controversial I would have to reflect a controversial appearance in my brand and vice versa. Basically my brand had to represent the type of work I am interested in and wanted to continue doing.

professional practice

logo design

An example of one of the logos that could be applied to anything.

identity

professional practice

logo design

A good example of the last kind of idea - being able to put your identity on anything that you produce, maybe the logo is the only thing that ties you down rather than there being a colour scheme. Like for instance this brand, the colours and business cards are all different but you can tell they are from the same brand because of the small logo in the corner. The logo can be applied to all of them in the same way and make them all seem related. 56

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Simple designs were the initial ideas - centred logos with little type

Examples of applying the logo

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identity

Logo Development

professional practice

logo design

Looking at recurring themes/ shapes in the logo

After the initial development of the logos it was obvious to me that I wanted it to be square in format and that this sort of orange slice shape works well as the letter S when duplicated and used in place of the S. So I started to look towards using it in a new way since I felt that the logo did not necessarily need to look like my initials. This led to the experiments here with the shapes and orientations of the orange slice shapes. The first one seems to be the most resolved logo and still looks like an S but my second favourite logos are the ones that just use a single orange slice shape since they are very simple and think look well balanced inside the bounding box. The others were not so successful but were worth the try. Despite this, I felt as though they were not successful enough to use as the logo - the block colour state that they are in felt very basic (which was the aim) but they lacked a professional feel. 62

identity

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logo design

identity

Further tutorials suggested that I needed to experiment more with the logo so I took the orange slice shape again and duplicated and combined them to create new shapes that would represent me through the shapes connections and influences to the letter S. After duplicating the shapes and turning them more I found that I could make some relatively good looking shapes that might work as a logo. I often then duplicated them more so that they represent my initials SS. It was a challenge in some cases of avoiding other existing logos such as the windows logo and the blackberry sign. However the conclusion of the following tutorials were that those logos were the most successful results of the experimentation. The top left variations were also among my favourites but I knew of a shopping centre in my local area that used this as their logo and so I felt like I could not and did not want to use it. You can see where the shapes are in the line drawing versions and how the shapes were connected and used to make the logos. I included these as an experiment but they were not so helpful in determining a logo that I wanted to stick with.

professional practice

logo design

Feedback from the tutorial told me that I needed to explore the spacing and the shapes more. They were fond of the logo that looked a bit like the Blackberry and Windows logo and said it felt more refined however the spacing between the S letters felt awkward and I needed to play around with the gap and the orientation of the logo. The developments are above and were when I realised that the logo was not one that I wanted to represent me, especially after developing it and having it actually look like a swastika at some stages. There were also experiments that looked like the Canterbury logo and the Santander logo and so I felt de-moralised and began to think about doing something else for the logo.

After seeing some patterns that looked similar to the shapes I was using, I decided to try out what the S letters/ orange slice shape looked like as a pattern and put them together in different variations in the hopes of finding a way that I might use them. Although the idea of patterns was not one that I liked - I nearly never use patterns in my work - I decided to try it since there are some successful patterned outcomes when it comes to brands and I was at a loss of ideas and still not happy with any of the logos that I had made so far - it was time for a different approach. Also with the pattern, it could be easily applied to all aspects of my identity by being designed onto the website, CV and portfolio with no problems.

professional practice

logo design

I used the new patterns to create some of the common shapes that I had been using for the logo. That is when I made a new shape (bottom right symbol) that is just simply a block interpretation of the letter S and wondered what this would look like as a pattern.

identity

professional practice

final logo

identity

After making the logo into a pattern, I then looked at doing the opposite and made the patterns into logo ideas. Since I was a fan of the even and symmetrical logos - particularly the square ones - that is what I did to mine. The logo would be more of a mark that could be applied across all platforms of my work and even if I felt the need for a pattern I could use the one in the logo. I felt like this pattern worked the best since the patterns are spaced further apart which means the logo is not as dark and will work better when set to different scales. Its black and white space is relatively balanced and certainly better than the other marks. This would be the final logo.

business

card

An idea that I had early in the project, even before the logo, was to make something to promote myself other than a business card, or look to other methods of delivering the same information that a business card has that is not a business card. This meant that I had to find an alternative to a business card. The reasoning for this was that I had been given well designed and thought out business cards before but this never particularly made me remember the companies/designers. Even if I had the intention of looking through their work online after being given the details on their card, I would often find myself losing the card or not being bothered to search them up online. Therefore there is some sort of design flaw in the business card idea, I would want mine to be something that the client wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be able to put down or forget about. Something they would not be able to lose so easily. Although the business card seems like the perfect medium to present yourself in a quick and professional way that is cost effective - a card that fits inside your wallet easily, everyone has some sort of wallet or purse on them the majority of the time. But they can be lost very easily as well. I wanted to explore the idea of something that tells the client about myself in a new exciting way that they cant put down or maybe it has a particular use. Initial ideas for this were thing people want to touch and play with,

like a slinky or some sort of puzzle that might reveal my details - but this would cost too much to make and hand out and most likely would not be as effective as a card on its own. It also does not send the right message of my work since it is a relatively playful idea and my work is not playful and neither do I want to work on playful projects for clients. Another similar idea was to print the details on things like cloths, a nice material that people might not be able to put down/ stop touching. It would also be more practical because it will fit easily inside anyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pocket or wallet. In addition to it just being nice to feel it could have a function (like from the Poundshop project); this would make it useful to the potential clients and assure them that I have ideas that are outside the box that can be useful to them. The first idea to make the cloth useful was to make it a screen cleaning cloth for keyboards and screens or even glasses. Since everyone has a laptop or a screen this would make them widely helpful and they are a decent enough material to keep around. However an issue with this was that they were also easily lost and the costs of producing these and handing them out for free would be too much. In the end I settled for a business card because it was becoming apparent (and always was I suppose) that they are the best resolution for handing out my details.

professional practice

business card

identity

Some examples of the experimentation I made when thinking about how the way I applied the pattern and the logo to the business cards. Some of these were made during the development for the logo so that I could see what it would look like when applied and use that to determine which is most effective. I preferred the simple idea where the logo is just in a square in the centre of the business card with some very simple type and little information - only what I consider necessary, for example: phone number, email and website address.

professional practice

business card

identity

final business card

sam sheridan

professional practice

visual communicator

The final design for the business cards, the mark in the centre of the cards and the same with the contact details. Also included a couple of mock up designs to see how they will appear in context. The business cards are something that I am willing to change and play around with more because of the nature of the logo/ my mark means that I can position it wherever I want and the card will still look like it belongs to me. Therefore I might have a mixed amount of business cards, that is why I have include the black edition business card too; because I feel it can work as well as the white one, especially when other elements of the identity are changed too. The logo and mark will be consistent and easily applied to everything.

0750690246 sam310396@gmail.com www.sheridansam.com

identity

web

presence

The website and my web presence as a whole was something very important to the brand and the identity. It would need to be consistent across all aspects of my self promotion and wherever my work was. The logo development helped here because it was simple and minimal - a simple repeated pattern inside of a small square. It meant that it could be applied to any sort of web page without looking too out of place. It also provided a basis for the creation of the website and stylisation of the blogs and self promotion. The web presence was also to be simple and minimalistic as to not take anything away from the work being displayed - my work would tell the potential client what type of designer I am and the identity would provide a straight-forward, professional station for it to be presented. We first started to explore the different ways to create a website using either Adobe Muse or CSS coding to edit the website in more depth. I found that using Muse was incredibly easy and meant that a website could be quickly created having had no previous experience in website design. It was much lie using Adobe InDesign and made for a very quick and effective first few drafts of the website layout. I decided that Muse would be the program that I would use for the website. I quickly realised the layout and the general feeling of my website design - it was to be simple, honest and minimal. This was after looking at other websites that I enjoyed the layout of - the simple ones were the ones that I favoured since they were so easy to use and aesthetically easy going. It would involve lots of white space, plain white backgrounds,

minimal text and what text there is to be in small type. It would also be simple enough for most devices to load effectively; which was another key part of the design because it needed to be fast and easy to use and it would also be easily editable. The simplistic themes would also be very easy to transfer over to other devices such as; tablets and mobile devices. This would enable me to keep the style of my web presence consistent across all platforms which is an important part of the identity and branding because it has to show that it is the same blog. The simple design would also mean that it goes almost unnoticed amongst my work which was a goal for me because the client goes to the website to see the work that you produce - so the simplicity takes nothing away from the work and the work has the room to speak for itself. The web presence would also include all forms of social media which I wanted to keep all consistent in the style and design. The social media would include; Instagram, Twitter, a Facebook page, a Behance page and my blog on Tumblr. Another social media application that I would include is Linkedin since it seems a very professional social media account to have and might be a good way to advertise myself as a serious designer. However I saw Behance as a more effective method for getting work since that is most likely where people will go to hire professional designers and artists and Linkedin was more for people of business rather than artists. Nonetheless it is good platform for connections and would have to be included in my web presence.

Some examples of websites I liked the look of and thought worked well - simple and plain was a consistent theme.

professional practice

web design

L e i f Po d h a j s k y â&#x20AC;&#x2122; s w e b s i t e w a s a p e r s o n a l f a v o u r i t e o f m i n e and thought it worked well with the style of content that was predominantly on my own website.

identity

I also liked the layout of this website when it came to the home page. Taylor James Productions has always been a favourite website of mine and I aspired to have mine look like theirs one day. But it seems that they have re-vamped it and now looks a little too crowded for my liking. However the way they have laid out there content on the work page is something that interested me - this irregular sized thumbnails as opposed to the square ones like Podhajskyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s website. So I decided to try this out primarily.

professional practice

identity

This was the first draft of the website and the original layout - of which eventually remained relatively similar. It was simple and easy to on the eye with much white space exaggerated by the small and minimal text. I decided on this minimal style because it made it simple for me to edit and also because people often associate good design with minimal design - sending out a good message to potential clients and viewers. At this point there was nothing written on the ‘about’ page since I was still deciding what to write on my CV for this (and would use the same content - not ideally but I needed to spend more time on the content of the CV and would save this for another time and focus on the design). The contact page is just a simple form that anybody could fill out in-case they wanted to leave me a message rather than an email. In case they wanted to email me the option was in the top left hand corner. The whole menu was made to stick to the top of the page and move with the viewer as they scrolled down the website. This was because it is easy for them to find the other buttons and was also aesthetically pleasing and gave the website a more polished feel. However one element of the website that might seem like a negative is the fact that it is not inviting and there

is very limited user-interface interactions. There are links that can be followed and all social media links are available next to the menu at the header of each page. However that is all, because I want it to be efficient and more of a no nonsense kind of website. It is straight to the point; click on work and you’ll see work, contact - contact page, about - about page. There are no animations (unless the work is an animation in which I would make the image a GIF) and there are no pages that say “Welcome” or “Click to Enter” type home pages. This is not because I want to seem like I am not welcoming, it is because whenever I come across those kind of websites, I do not find that they add anything - some look good and I feel that my identity and logo would very much fit with one of these home pages. Also one of the things I really dislike on websites is when they put music on the page so upon entering there is a track playing, my website would not include this. It was to retain a very raw feeling where the work is the only thing to look at.

professional practice

web design

Tumblr and Instagram pages

identity

Tw i t t e r a n d Fa c e b o o k p a g e s

final website

identity

The CV is something that you hand to potential employers and displays all of the important information about you that the employer needs to know. But it is important that it is easy on the eyes and can be read with little effort, however it also needs to be able to catch their eyes and keep them interested since why would they make the effort to read it if it is boring? Almost all employers are over-subscribed and get a number of CVâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s every day, there is nothing special about your own. Which means you need to stand out - namely in a professional and interesting manner and it should also reflect you. After looking into CV designs for some inspiration on what direction I should take, I quickly realised that many of the designed CVâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s have graphs and symbols - much like an infographic. These ticked the boxes for being eye-catching, interesting, easy to read and they also gave the employer a sense of themselves. However there was a problem with almost all of them; they contained bars that displayed how effective the applicant is with certain programs. This scale that they measured themselves by actually tells the employer nothing about their experience with the programs because it is not a recognised spectrum that they are measuring themselves by. Another issue with this spectrum is that the applicant has no proof of their ability - they have self determined how effective they are on a scale of unknown to unknown. After seeing this - and seeing it many times over - I decided that I would not do that because if I was an employer I would put the CV down there and then since it lacked creativity (since there are so many examples of this online) and it is also a bad idea to measure yourself on a spectrum that the employer does not recognise - it is bad communication. I quickly realised that the CV would have to be simple and informative, perhaps simple text is the simplest and most effective way to tell the employer what kind of employee you are. Keeping the balance of creative, professional, informative and different would be a difficult challenge when making the CV. Surely there would have to be one element that is sacrificed.

CV examples from Pinterest

professional practice

cv design

Some examples of CV layouts that inspired me - simple and straight forward

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identity

First attempt at the layout of my CV - with the logo at the top and a relatively balanced content layout

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professional practice

cv design

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identity

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final cv

contact sam310396@gmail.com

sam sheridan

www.sheridansam.com 07506904246

professional practice

I am currently in my second year studying visual communication at the Arts University of Bournemouth with ambitions of working with visual design in a professional environment at a high standard. I am a hard working, honest individual who is always willing to learn new skills and eager to start new projects. I have good interpersonal understanding and communication skills and am a confident team worker with the ability to work on my own initiative. I am confident that I will bring fresh, original ideas, that I can execute professionally, to any project that I undertake and can be an asset to any creative team.

education

experience

2015-Present

2014

Visual Communication BA(Hons) at Arts University Bournemouth. 2014-2015

Attended Illustration BA(Hons) at Arts University Bournemouth.

Worked on a variety of projects; both personal and commercial - most notable of which was a cover design for the top-selling author Karl Vadaszffy, for his novel ‘Sins of the Father’. 2013

2011-2013

St Michael’s High School A levels in Art, Photography and Philosophy (CBB). 2007-2011

St Michael’s High School (10 GCSE’s A*-C)

references

Exhibited photography as part of an Extended Project Qualification in an attempt to explore the possibilities of a business from design and art. 2012-2015

Part time job as a waiter with DeVere Venues - serving food at weddings, parties and bar mitzvas.

skills Skills within the fields of photography, editorial design, typography, painting, illustration and website design. Experienced use of many Adobe software including; Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Muse and Autodesk 3DS Max. Knowledge of; Adobe After Effects and Maxon Cinema 4D. Working as a team (through experience in sports and in a professional environment). Good understanding of client and customer needs from previous job experience.

Available on request.

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identity

The final CV design - spaced out and simplistic with the same fonts as the fonts used on the business cards and website (orator std and bitstream vera roman). The contact details are clearly at the top and titled next to the logo with my name clearly underneath it. There are dotted lines that separate each aspect of the CV and make it clearer to read for the potential employer to read. The experience and education areas are dated with the most recent coming first and descending down the column.

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portfolio

After having a tutorial where the portfolio was mentioned, we were told what sort of format is most commonly used and showed an example of what the portfolio is advised to look like. Almost like the CV design in the sense that it needed to be simple, easily read and with a professional image. The example that we were showed was plain and well laid out landscape on A3 paper. The images of their work took up the majority of the pages and there was very little text explaining the projects being displayed. This was so that the work might be able to speak for itself and it gave enough information for the employer to gain interest - if they wanted to know more about the project they would have to contact the applicant. It also meant that the employer could quickly read the information and not spend too long on one page - since they are likely to not be that interested in the work or take long to take it in because again, you are one of many. The limited text also meant that in an interview situation you can primarily talk to the employer and hopefully show good presentation and verbal communication.

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professional practice

portfolio

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identity

Po r t f o l i o E x a m p l e s / i n s p i r a t i o n

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Po r t f o l i o M o c k - u p s

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professional practice

conclusion

112

identity

In conclusion of the identity project I would say that it has been a success because I have reached a finalised solution for all aspects of my identity. Particular areas that I felt were most successful were the logo design and the mark that I will apply across all platforms displaying my work. I chose to make it simple and straightforward so that nothing interrupts the imagery of my work. For instance: simple website to showcase the work, simple business card that communicates the important details immediately and the CV that does the same. It means it can always be changed without problems and is easily transferable across different media platforms and website - the design is easily replicated meaning that my facebook, instagram, twitter and website all feel consistent in their design, making my identity better recognised as well. The logo can be easily applied to everything since it is like a stamp and has a pattern - so anything with the stamp or the pattern can be seen to be related back to me and my work.

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process book dec - feb

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