Sasha Evans Third Year Dossier
Contents Core Assignments
Perfect Future Escape Plan What’s the brief? Tutor Lectures
Workshops & Masterclasses
Stuart Henley Anthony Head Matt Robertson Rupert Bassett
Rupert’s Masterclass Lomo Kev Masterclass Portfolio clinic Marketing Brainstorm
Guest Lectures
Outside University
Jason Ford Sam Arthur Clare Sutcliffe Fleur Isbell Lomo Kev Studio Ponto Si Scott Rejane Dal Bello Jennie Webber Fig Taylor
Buddy Scheme Internship Part Time Job London Degree Show Professional CV Exhibitions Lectures Outside Uni
SomeOne Mr B & Friends Wild & Wolf
Core Assignments
Perfect Future
Career Plans
At the moment I see myself working in full time employment for a branding design agency. I plan to apply for design internships in both branding studios and advertising agencies to see what work I prefer doing and where I fit in most. I think working in a studio fits me personally as I need set briefs and interaction with people to bounce ideas off each other. I know working for a studio or advertising sometimes comes with more restrictions creatively over freelance but I know I would struggle with freelance work. I’ve always wanted to experience working and living in London but I won’t let that restrict my job applications to one area. I want to experience as many studio internships as possible until I fit into a studio well. I’ve always wanted to work within a studio that has studios internationally so I can apply for internal roles abroad. I’m not too worried about the location of a design studio but it’s more of a long term goal as I’d need the money to move somewhere more expensive like London. I’ve also been advised to build up my portfolio before going to London design agencies to stand out in the competition for design jobs. Every designer that has come in to Bath Spa to do talks on their career have had experience in many different studios. I feel unsure of my ‘perfect future’ because of lack of experience in the industry. I think internships will help me decide if it’s a big or small studio and a branding or advertising studio. I’d like to always be excited by design and I think that’s why it’s important to find the right studios to work with. A few of the studio’s that I’ve looked at the work and really admire are; Mr B & Friends, The Chase, SomeOne and LOVE. I want to apply for both well known studios and the smaller studios as I know the smaller studios get overlooked on first applying for jobs. Another long term goal of mine is to be close to my family eventually living closer to Cardiff. There a very few design studios in Wales and no really well established names of studios. After gaining experience in the industry I’d like to start my own studio near Cardiff. I may learn in experience that the location is important to be near London or a bigger city but with most work being sent via the internet I think this isn’t a problem at the moment. I find it hard to plan the ‘‘perfect future’ but my main aim is to work hard and gain experience which will hopefully result in achieving my goals.
Escape Plan
Graduation Plans I think at the moment my work will fit into branding design in the communication industry. I’m open to advertising agencies too and would like to gain an internship in this to get a feel for what it’s like. Following my perfect future the first step to developing my career is doing internships. I have two options when graduating, the first is to do a supervisor course through my part time job and the second is to move home so I can apply for internships. Although money and independence are really important to me if. Moving home may seem like a boring escape plan but I think realistically it’s the best plan for my long term goals. I’ve started looking on YCN for job opportunities and looking at design internships on specific design studios websites. I want to refine my PDF portfolio and CV before applying but aim to apply after our May 13th deadline. I have no set location of looking for internships except maybe favouring London over any other U.K location. I think gaining this experience is necessary for getting a job in a design studio. If I don’t find internships straight after graduation I plan to work on my portfolio until I gain experience in an internship, while earning money in a retail job. After saving some money another option is to apply for an 18-30 visa for Australia. I have family who live there and would love the opportunity to gain experience in design in another part of the world. I think it would also be a great opportunity to get more into my hobby of photography. I’ve always wanted to explore photography more but have found it difficult to fit in with University and work. I wouldn’t want travelling for a year to stop me gaining experience though as I find it important to be in some type of work. Nothing is set for the future or escape plan and I’m open to any opportunities that come my way.
What’s the brief?
Schwartz Advert
The advert was created for Schwartz new product of Flavour Shots. The advert was described by the agency as The Sound of Taste. The advert is a minute long, that uses hessian sacks full of spices exploding in time with a piano. Each spice was issued it’s own musical note to ensure perfect timing of the composition with the slow motion footage. The use of bright, natural colours of the spices suggest that their new product flavour pots are exploding with flavour. The choice of medium was a TV and viral advertisement, I think this choice of medium was a strategic decision to show of their idea of the sound of taste. The stills of the video don’t have the same impact as the video itself. I think this is due to the music intensify as the video progresses, possibly portraying flavour developing as you taste. The decision of a video was clearly well planned out with pyrotechnics making the spice explode that’s perfectly timed with the notes, shot in one take. Another part of the campaign I didn’t yet see until researching Schwartz is a sonic poster. The interactive poster allows the user to touch the poster while music appears on the Schwartz App. The poster uses touch sensitive, conductive ink with blue tooth linking the poster to the phone itself. This poster allows the user to be a part of the campaign creating a more interactive platform. I was shown the making of the advertisement before the actual advert itself by a tutor who found it on a design blog. I saw the advertisement a few months ago on evening television. I think the aim of the advert being in the evening is aiming the products at a specific audience of families. The typical feel of spices adverts are usually depicted with a family or in a kitchen, this advert breaks the mould with the advert itself but still aims it at a familiar audience.
The sound of taste campaign was trying to achieve dramatised flavour and creating the feeling of different senses while cooking, not just taste. The client was trying to achieve a new campaign for their new product and trying to get away from the stereotypes of the spice adverts. The strategy was how the campaign could make Schwartz stand out withing the competition. The only problem with this advert is that has been compared to Sony bravia, paint campaign, which was paint explosions over a council block in Glasgow. If I were to write a brief that I think the client Schwartz would have written it would be very different from the outcome. It seems from researching this advertisement that it was actually the design company that had to persuade Schwartz to break away from the homely scenes of mum in the kitchen. The brief might have been launch Schwartz’s new product of Flavour Shots. Creating imagery familiar with the Schwartz brand of mum in the kitchen or a family cooking a meal. The creativeness of the design company pushed Schwartz to use something completely different.
Stills from the Schwartz advert‘The sound of taste’
Tutor Lectures
Stuart Henley
Course Leader Stuarts lecture covered moving to America for jobs, internships and education possibilities. Moving abroad has always appealed to me as I’ve seen family and friends make a better life for themselves in a different country. Gaining information about the types of visas that are available for specific needs is useful as it can be confusing to learn it on your own. Moving abroad for job opportunities seems like a long term dream and sometimes unrealistic. I know for America, Canada or Australia you need to show you can support yourself in their country by having a certain amount of money in the bank. Saving for the money to be able to support yourself and get a job would take a long time and a lot of hard work. My realistic dream would be to find an agency with several locations and applying internally to get transferred to that destination. I think already having your foot in the door with an agency in the U.K would make a more realistic dream. The other possibilities that Stuart discussed was studying for a master in the arts. I have never seen a masters degree as an essential part of education. Talking to designers in the industry they usually do a masters part way through their career when they need a change of pace. Although funding is available for a masters degree the fees of £30,000 a year didn’t appeal to me.
Anthony Head
Lecturer
Anthony’s lecture covered public art funding and projections. The first site he showed us was kick start, I had never heard of the website kick start before, a website used to promote a personal project or event and help gain funding via donations through the site. I found it useful to know that there’s a website to help with funding out there. We discussed using this as a way to raise some of the money for our London degree show. The only catch is if you don’t raise all the money that you have put as a minimum you don’t get any of the money. The site kick starter is also a good way of finding projects or events that are happening in the local community. There’s a 4 day event in May for artists which is promoted through kick start called art space Bath. As most design exhibition happens in London it’s a good way to find local events and support them. Anthony also covered job sites specifically for design such as artjobs.org.uk, which is a site for design jobs, work experience and internships. It can be a long task of finding jobs through specific design agencies so it’s a good way of finding internships after graduation through one site. Anthony’s personal work of projection mapping was interesting but this area of design doesn’t interest me personally but seeing how the work can progress so much more with this funding is a good way of seeing how funding can help.
Rupert Bassett
Lecturer Matt Robertson
Lecturer
Matt’s lecture covered his own work and comparing freelance to commercial jobs. He was interested in found imagery, shredding documents and forming new pieces of work. This way of working is very experimental but worked really well as end results. I think in my own work I need to be more free creatively and experiment with different types of media. He also discussed logo design, showing us examples of how a logo adapts to different situations. This is very useful at the moment due to finding a logo and identity for the film festival project. Matt talked about the importance of the logo representing the project you are working on, how it fits into the environment it’s going to be in. Finding a logo for the themes of British, End of the World and Somerset House is something I’m struggling with at the moment. He explained that a logo can simply be a logotype if it works for the project. Matt also discussed how commercial jobs for agencies can come with a lot of compromise. The client can change your original ideas a lot and this can be disappointing. In contrast to that freelance work comes with a lot more creative control. Freelance has never appealed to me as a main form of income as I need more structure and working ideas with others. The lack of creative control is something I’d have to accept when applying for jobs that are more commercial design.
Rupert’s lecture covered his own work of rigorous typographic layout design. I found it fascinating that the typesetting and typography he learnt all by hand. He explained that he was keen to master the technical difficulties of hand typesetting. Typesetting and typography are obviously key to being a graphic designer. I feel like I’ve learnt a lot about typesetting and typography skills through university, especially in Rupert’s workshops. In first year I always found hand type setting to be quite dry but now I see the importance of it to learn the basic skills. Ruperts refresher course in the University of Maine led him to work with Wolfgang Weingart. Ruperts way of working is using grids and focusing on the spaces between things. In contrast Weingart didn’t use a grid and liked to make pictures from type, breaking the rules of typography. It seemed that Rupert would seem uncomfortable with this way of working but it shows how much you can learn from different designers. Liking a certain design or a way of working is usually opinion based but I found it exciting how much you can learn from opposite ways of working. This shows you should never stick to one way of working and always try and push yourself to try different things.
Photo taken from Rupert’s typography workshop.
An example of Matt’s experimentation work.
Guest Lectures
Jason Ford
Illustrator
Jason Ford is a freelance illustrator who graduated from Royal College. His style of illustration is using painted ink outlines and digitally adding colour in Photoshop. His work is very precise and I admire his patient for drawing the outlines by hand. Although he is an illustrator his work is very work is quite graphic in the colours and line. Jason does both freelance and more editorial work such as working for the guardian, which both have their advantages and disadvantages. The more involved an art director is the less creativity you have but it usually comes with more pay and vice versa. This seems to be a message that a lot of designers want to get across is understanding the way different types of design work. Although I’m not a illustrator myself his colouring book The Super book for Super Heroes was a really fascinating project. The part of the project that I found interesting was the way he had to work with an editor for the whole project to make sure it worked. I think gaining more experience of working with others in different departments of the industry is something we don’t do in University and should do more of. After the success of the book he set up a superhero workshop in somerset house using templates from the book. I like the idea of how a project can expand further than what your original idea was.
Sam Arthur
Nobrow
Sam is the creator of Nobrow. An independent print publisher for graphic art, illustration and comics. Although my work is more graphic based than illustration or screen printing he gave really useful advice. Sam wanted us to know the importance of getting our work seen, applying to both illustrators and designers. Having a strong online portfolio or website is important to getting seen by design agencies. He explained that there a so many talented people that don’t get work because they can’t sell themselves. I think having a strong portfolio isn’t enough and having a strong identity as a designer will get you where you want to be. The collaboration of illustrators for the Nobrow magazine is an important process to know. The organisation of the different styles can be hard to work with so we can apply this to our process of our degree show. The only restrictions Nobrow give is the work has to be 2 colours. It will be interesting to see how our degree show of illustrators and designs work together to create a strong identity for ourselves. Another aspect of Sam’s talk I found interesting was how Nobrow has expanded. It seems they haven’t settled with just being a print studio and have tried to expand the business as much as possible. They now have a shop in London and a Nobrow books for kids. They also do talks in East London Comics and Arts Festival, showing how you should always push yourself to different things.
The Super Book illustrated by Jason Ford.
Fleur Isbell
Wolff Ollins
Fleur Isbell is a recent graduate from Bath Spa University, graduating in 2011. She currently works at Wolff Olins, a design studio based in London. When she graduated she did Internships at Wallpaper, Mytton Williams, Place and then Wolff Olins. With both graduating and Mytton Williams internship in common I was excited to here her experiences. Fleur got the amazing opportunity of being selected by Neville Bordy for the 51st D&AD Annual cover. Her explanation of how her creative process of making the cover was so overwhelming. The concept was so cleverly thought out and her experimentation led to so many different ideas. She pushes so many different and unusual ideas and has to be sometimes reigned in so it can fit to use for the consumer. I always wish to be more creative and experimental in my work as I think sometimes I get stuck with one idea.
Clare Sutcliffe
Code Club
She is often called ‘glitch’ in work, for forcing mistakes to see what the outcome is. Two points she made really stood out to me were be ambitious and take risks. I think this is really important to not be stuck in an idea or project and play safe. Taking risks usually gives the best results as can be seen with her D&AD cover.
Claire Sutcliffe is a Graduate form Bath Spa University who created Code Club. We are told in the design world that understanding how digital design is important. I found it inspiring that Claire taught herself mark up, then moved on to HTML. Designing digitally can feel daunting especially as I’m not used to doing it. Learning to build website and Apps is something I’ve always wanted to do as the design world is changing a lot from print to digital. Claire created Code Club which teaches kids coding in schools. It’s fascinating how Code Club has gone from an idea to having 1513 clubs in the U.K. and expanded to clubs in 33 countries in the World. It’s always more interesting to hear that a Bath Spa graduate has done so well as a lot of successful graduates come from a London Based University. Claire’s tips for success were really useful. She explained that she worked 3 years in advertising and wasn’t proud of any work that she created and to do something that your proud of. I think sometimes you have to do jobs or internships in areas of design that your not so proud of to get a more successful career. Another piece of advice that I will definitely take away is test, test and test again. Knowing the importance of testing work with the appropriate clients especially when digitally creating something.
Fleur’s D&AD cover.
Lomo Kev
One of my favourite photographs from Lomo Kev.
Photographer Kevin Meredith aka Lomo Kev is a photographer speciallsing in Lomography. Lomo kev also teaches a 2 day photography courses and is the author of photography book ‘Hot Shots’. Lomo Kev seems to do projects he enjoys and then clients ask him to change it slightly to fit their brief. His photography has taken him around the world and presented him with a lot of opportunties. His photographs have got him work for O2, Flickr and Sunday times. I found it really interesting that a lot of his freelancing photography could still fit commercial work. He spoke about the importance of always having a camera on you to take those snap shot moments. Finding your own style of photography is clearly important to make you stand out from all the other photographers. Photography is something I’ve always wanted to explore further as a hobby and he gave us some good camera suggestions to use.
His work is taking images of quite everyday things such as english breakfasts or brighton swimming club. The subject matter becomes really interesting when photographed so well. This idea of making an ordinary subject extrodinary applies to graphic design also. Finding something that is overlooked and making it beautiful can make a really interesting project.
Charity branding for PAZ holandesa.
Rejane Dal Bello
Wolf Ollins
Rejane dal bello is a senior design at Wolf Ollins, a design company based in London. Rejane’s best piece of advice was to keep foreign, to keep looking at the world in a different perspective. I think this is really important for us to stay creative and keep coming up with fresh ideas. It can feel like everythigns already been done in the design world, but this advice of keep foreign makes me confident that it’s how you perseve things. Rejane’s work that stood out to me was PAZ holandesa hospital, a children’s hospital in Peru. A piece of charity work that she went above and beyond to create a strong personal identity for this hospital. Charity work is clearly important to her for giving something back, which I really admire.
Rejane tackled childrens characters with vector images in the childrens hospital project, something you usually associate with illustration. I usually use some form of vector images created on illustrator and was amazed how she broke the stereotype of a childrens character. I didn’t think I could do work associated with children if it didn’t have a hand made feel quality to it but it worked very succesfully. Rejane also discussed doing a masters. She explained that she personally thinks it’s only important to do a masters when you’ve had experience in the design world. A masters straight after univeristy degree has never appealed to me but I didn’t want to rule it out as something I would never do. It seems like a lot of designers opinion to do a masters later in life as a top up or to get re-inspired by design.
Studio Ponto
London Studio Studio Ponto is a design studio based in London founded by two students who graduated London College of Communication. I was shocked to see that Studio Ponto was only founded in 2012, I can’t imagine starting a studio that soon out of University. They were really well organised in University and did projects together with the aim of studio ponto being set up as soon as they graduated. I always find it inspiring that students do so well being independent and creating work for themselves. Personally I want experience of working in different types of studios before ever thinking of starting a studio myself. I think it’s important to have strong contacts and experience in the design world before going into business yourself. A lot of their work online is self initiated work or work from university and as a start up business it may be difficult to come across clients. They work on a lot of different media such a print and web design. Web design is something I want to explore more of especially as the demand for digital based design is becoming higher. Understanding how design can be applied digitally could open many doors to getting internships. They also have their own shop where you can buy studio ponto designed scarves, books and posters. A shop is something I’d also like to create myself. I think creating more self initiated work to sell could be an intresting hobby to have both to make money and do work that you have more creative control.
A hand rendered letter from Si Scott.
Si Scott
Illustrator Si Scott is a freelance illustrator focusing on hand drawn typography. He has done a lot of commercial work for companies such as Coco Cola, Ellesse, Harrods, HSBC, and Adidas. He explains that it’s not really work when you’re doing more commercial work as it’s changed a lot or they want something really specific. Having free reign of our creativity at university is something that we might find difficult to let go of in studios. I work best to a set brief as I need design constraints and find it difficult to work purely from imagination like illustrators. He does a lot of charity work and always tries give more than he’s asked for. I find this really inspiring as sometimes I feel like design is really self absorbed. Although designing something for a charity may not seem like you’re helping much I definitely want to do more charity work. Si has also moved on a bit with his illustration career into tattooing. It shows the endless opportunities a design career can have, moving from different design areas to fit your type of work. He wants to create unique and personal tattoos for people, which seems a lot more personal and rewarding than more commercial advertising.
A scarf design by Studio Ponto.
Fig Taylor
Author
Fig Taylor is the author of How to Create a Portfolio and get hired. I felt like a lot of what she said was aimed at illustrators over designers, even if she did explain it was aimed to designers. She had a lot of good points about how to get a strong portfolio. The ones that stood out to me is don’t have everything in your portfolio. I know that work in a portfolio will be down to opinion of the designer but being confident about my work is important to me. I will review what I put in my portfolio and if I can’t explain my concept confidently I know I’ll need to work on that project. The YCN Building.
Jennie Webber
YCN
Jennie Webber is the Shop, Library and Events Manager for YCN. You Can Now is a company designed to empower creative talent, helping bridge the gap between university and work. It seems that the YCN memberships talks and workshops are all based in London, although she did say they were trying to explain to other areas of the U.K. The YCN student competition was an option as part of one of our projects. YCN released briefs from different companies such as Fedrogoni, Bear, and Cath Kidston. I chose not to do the YCN briefs as a D&AD brief suited me more. The YCN Student Awards doesn’t give 1st, 2nd or 3rd but showcases all the talent that’s picked as the best. The students also get published work in the student annual and mentoring after they win. I think if this talk was before choosing between YCN & D&AD Brief this would have probably swayed me to choose them.
I always thought that the designer would just want to see a finished project but fig explained that bringing a sketchbook as an optional extra so the designer can see how you work. One point I don’t agree with her point about having a style, I think as a designer showing a range of medium that works across branding or advertising will show the designer what you’re capable of. The idea of having different portfolios for different clients is something I never thought about. Personalising a PDF portfolio for an interview or emailing it to a designer is a very good idea. Putting work in their that fits with the design studios style of work will make you look as if you’ll easily fit into the company. Important aspect of applying for a job is research what the company do, going to the interview unprepared is something I’d never do as it would make me more nervous. It’s sometimes hard pleasing both tutors and designers from the industry with my current portfolio but I’ve realised that my portfolio won’t be ready straight after university. It’s going to take a lot of going over projects to improve them and making sure I have a high standard of work. The pressure of finding an internship straight after univeristy is something I don’t want to rush into. I want to feel confident about my portfolio so I’m in no rush to send out a digital portfolio until I’m happy and ready to do so.
YCN also has an opportunities section which updates it’s job boards from around the world. It offers all experience ranges from internships to senior designers. Most internships that are advertised on the site either offer £100 a week or travel and lunch expenses. Realistically I wouldn’t be able to do any internships with that cost because of living costs. YCN did say they were working on just publishing jobs with just minimum wage and they do turn down employers that offer nothing. I understand that we are meant to work our way from the bottom to the top but don’t like the assumption of everyone having enough money or living at home as a possibility. The Cover of How to Create a Portfolio & Get Hired.
Lectures Outside Uni
Crystal, a branding for a Ski Holiday Resort.
SomeOne
London Studio SomeOne, a design studio based in London, did talk at the Arnolfini, Bristol and talk was held by West of England Design Forum. Four people from the company Lee Davies, Karl Randall, Simon Manchipp and Laura Hussey each spoke about a subject they had chosen; play, ambition, colour and entertainment. I found all talks really inspiring and funny, especially as they contained a lot of animated gifs, aimed to entertain. Lee Davies lecture was based around the theme play. His first point was really insightful, explaining a brand is “A system of coherent elements that can be tuned and adapted to suit a spectrum of applications.” This point is a good one to remember when designing brand identities. The importance of how the brand works across a range of mediums shows can determine how successful it is.
Karl Randall’s lecture was based around ambition. The point I took away from his talk was his idea of the ‘why bother’ attitude. This attitude of pushing yourself to achieve your full potential is something I think is really important. Creating something new allows progress in design both personally and in studios. Laura Hussey’s lecture was based around the theme colour. I found this talk really inspirational. Her idea was ‘why be a pigeon when you can be a parrot’. She linked it to branding by being different and standing out by breaking the stereotypes of a colour that industry should fit. Simon Manchipp lecture was based around the them of entertainment. He explained that entertainment is seen as a dirty word and design is seen to be serious. His views are design should be entertaining including brands to get their clients more excited about the brand.
Handcrafted insurance advert from Mr B & Friends.
Mr B & Friends
Bath Studio
Creative Bath put on Design Matters talks of local designers. Simon, managing director of Mr B & Friends gave a talk about the company. His talk was very business based, more about how the company had grown than their portfolio of work. It was useful to know some of the advice he gave about business as setting up my own company has always seemed like an unrealistic dream. Simon started out in Advertising before setting up his own company. Advertising is something I’ve never ruled out, although seen by most creatives as evil. I’d like to do an internship in advertising or a more commercial agency to see how it works and how it’s different to a design studio.
It was a good opportunity to see a local based company over a london design company. I would have found it more interesting if it was more about the projects and creative aspect of the company. One of my aims was to work in a design studio in London as I saw that as the only place to work. Seeing design companies outside of London that do so well makes me broaden my view.
Wild & Wolf
Bath Studio
Another creative Bath, design matters talk held at Guildhall. Matthew Thomas, creative director of Wild & Wolf gave the talk. Wild and Wolf is another design company based in Bath established in 2005. The company are designers and manufactures of award winning gifts sold in stores such as Bloomsbury and Selfridges. Their packaging design is really fun and exciting. They work with licensed products such as Tin Tin, Ted Baker, Rob Ryan and Penguin Books but also do their own. This talk inspired me that not all commercial work has to be dreary and something you’re ashamed of. A lot of other designers or illustrators have put that view across. Matthew Thomas made the talk really entertaining. I think this reflects the studio’s attitude towards design keeping it fun and light hearted.
Another view was about making the product work for the client and pushing yourself to do more independently. Their core values were about being inventive, collaborating, efficient and thoughtful. I think collaborating is something I want to explore more, as bouncing ideas of people is helpful for designers. I regret not collaborating more in university not just in graphic design but in all creative fields. Having contacts from university is still important that we can collaborate with different fields of art & design. Wild & Wolf also has a New York office, I’ve always wanted to work for a company with the opportunity to apply internally abroad. I think this is the smartest way of finding work abroad and can lead to exciting opportunities. Experiencing design in a different environment is about learning from others and using that in your own way of designing.
Packaging I really admire from Wild & Wolf.
Workshops & Masterclasses
Rupert Bassett
Typography Masterclass Rupert held a typography masterclass which students could sign up for limited places. We were then instructed before the class that we were only allowed to wear black, white or grey into the studio when at the masterclass. It was funny to see a studio full of monochrome coloured students but expected from Rupert’s way of working. Another instruction we were given was to find a leaf to bring to the session with it’s common and Latin name. We had to include the photocopied image of the leaf with it’s name into every design we did. It was all hand rendered type teaching us composition, asymmetry and grids. It seemed the bigger contrast the image to the text and the more white space created the better the image worked. We then held a crit to look at who’s were the most successful and why. Although before signing up I thought this workshop might be tedious and dry it was actually really useful. Understanding typography off the screen helps with basic design skills. We have had previous workshops with Rupert and every time I have learnt something new about typography and layout. It’s actually a nice break from working on the computer. It allowed me to understand typography as it is in front of you rather than having to design on screen and understand how it’ll look printed. It taught me how to apply basic level typography skills to a computer.
Images from Rupert’s typography workshop.
Lomo Kev
Photography Masterclass Kevin Meredith aka Lomo Kev is a photographer specialising in Lomography. He came to Bath Spa for the day to do a workshop with 20 students. Kev gave us a sheet of paper with 30 words on, we had to take a photography of these 30 things around Bath city centre. Some of the words on the list were at work, typography, a dog, stranger with a story, rats eye view and tourists. I worked with a digital camera but tried to take only 1 photo per word so I could think about composition carefully. It sounded easy to take 30 photographs in the time limit we had but it was actually harder than I thought. Kev was around to help us with any technical issues we wanted to ask him about our cameras. We then presented our images together at the end of the day. It taught me to be more daring with photography and to think differently about angles and compositions of shots to make them more interesting. Kev also taught us to be more confident in asking people for their photographs and interacting with them to stop them from posing. I’ve always been interested in photography and I found it really interesting that we all got so many good shots from such mundane activities. I’d like to try the project again in a bigger city with more to explore as Bath is quiet.
Photo’s taken from the photography masterclass.
Portfolio Clinic
Marketing Brainstorm
Richard Holt & Dan Weeks
MA Buisness & Management
Portfolio Clinic was a chance to show designers in the industry our portfolios. The first designer I saw was Richard Holt, design director for Brand Union. Richard graduated from Bath Spa University and is now working for the London based design company. He gave me a lot of helpful advice of how I could improve my projects for industry standard, with tweaks of the design. He also told me how I could make my portfolio easier to look through to make it more exciting for the designer you send it too. The most important advice he gave was about applying for internships or jobs, was not to overlook the smaller studios. Most students will go for the bigger companies to aim high but the smaller companies have just as much success. I will definitely keep this in my mind when applying for internships or jobs.
Four of us graphic design students did a workshop with MA Business & Management students. Paul created the workshop as experience as he thought we could both learn from each other. The 3 marketing students had their own project ideas and it was surprising how different we thought of ideas. The marketing students were really literal in their ideas thinking of statistics and numbers the project would create. The projects were creating a shock campaign for Marmite, creating a campaign for San Pellegrino water and campaign for bath tourism.
My second appointment was with Dan Weeks, designer at Steers McGillian Eves Design. He also gave me a lot of helpful advice on giving my portfolio more depth. Giving me advice about how I can improve on my projects to make them industry ready. Something he said is missing from my portfolio is basic typographic or layout design. He told me to take some really mundane copy and show what I can do with my layout skills. He also explained the importance of internships and to try different studios to find where you and your work fits in.
Being around so many creative students in a design degree I sometimes doubt how creative I am but this definitely gave me the confidence of thinking I am vary creative thinking. They were very adamant on their initial ideas and it was sometimes a challenge to question their thoughts and push them to new ideas. I found that some ideas were too wild for them and just confused them of how we even thought of them. It was a good balance of my creative ideas and them pulling them back to actually work in a real campaign. The one I found the most interesting was the Marmite campaign, I made a mind map for this project so she could explore the many ideas. The most difficult campaign was the visit bath as the student was determined he wasn’t going to change his idea of showing statistics around Bath. I found it difficult challenging him in his ideas as he wasn’t open to new ideas. It was a good experience working with Marketing Students as we both work in the same industry. It built my confidence in presenting initial ideas to people and confidence in creative ideas. There should be more opportunities in university to work creatively with students of different degrees as I think both sides learnt a lot.
Image from the Marketing Day.
Outside University
Buddy Scheme
Bob Mytton
The buddy scheme was set up by West of England Design Forum. Pairing bath spa, third year graphic communication students with designers from the industry. I was paired with Bob Mytton, partner and creative director of Mytton Williams. Mytton Williams is an independent design studio based in Bath, specialising in brand communications. I had 4 meetings with Bob, in these meetings I showed him my projects and he gave me advice on how I could improve them. I also wanted to know more about the industry so always went along with questions about how his studio works. I sometimes found it difficult to show current projects as it was difficult to get very different advice from both tutors and him, so I usually showed work after university deadlines. This also meant how I could improve my university projects to fit a standard that agencies would prefer. Bob was really helpful in the advice he gave regarding my portfolio. He highlighted that I should have more web based work in my portfolio such as app or web design. I’m currently working on this in different projects trying to expand my designs to work on the web when I do a project. The best advice he gave was to know what design agency I want to go into to, making sure my portfolio fits that. I found the buddy scheme really confident boosting as I got a lot of positive feedback from my work.
Internship
Mytton Williams The buddy scheme led on to Bob offering me a 2 week placement for Mytton Williams in February. This was my first taste of working in a design studio. The first week I worked on my university projects, the placement came just after our first deadline so I was doing a lot of research and didn’t really get to show off any design skills of my own. The second week I worked on the studios live briefs, I was asked to sign a document which doesn’t allow me to speak about these projects for 1 year as they are still on going. There were many projects going on and I was given ones that hadn’t been started yet so again I didn’t really get to show off my design skills. It was a good opportunity to learn about working with a team, working within time limits and starting the creative process of projects. I found it daunting presenting my ideas to the team or Bob but it gave me confidence in my ability to do so. I enjoyed asking the design team questions about their experiences in University and the first studios they worked in. My first placement made me realise how important internships are for you to know where you want to work. Mytton Williams is a small studio, it would be interesting to see what a bigger agency is like to work for and what I prefer.
The Mytton Williams Studio.
Part Time Job
WHSmith
Along side my degree I’ve been working in WHSmith as a part time sales assistant. I got the transfer from Cardiff to Bath when I got accepted to University. It’s given me a lot of confidence dealing with people and in the ability to work independently. It also gave me a break from over thinking design work and often when I’m relaxed in work idea’s come to me about university work. I like the independence of earning my own money and gives me something more to add to my CV other than a degree.
London Degree Show
Jukebox Design
The first fund raiser was a night at the Nest called Jukebox. We had to pick a song and illustrate the song to sell the posters to raise money for our final year degree show in London. I chose the song Animals by Martin Garix, this was always playing on the radio and I thought it would be fun to illustrate.
Volunteering
Peer Mentor
Through University I’ve been volunteering as a Peer Mentor for first year graphic design students. I’ve been assigned 6 students which I email to check they’re getting through university happily. If they’re struggling with the course or have enquiries they have the opportunity to email me for help. I contact them every few months to check in with them to remind them that I’m there as another option to talk to. I wanted some volunteering experience and thought I can use my personal experience to help others. All posters that were being sold on the night.
Proffessional CV
Design CV
Sasha Evans Graphic Designer T: 07738230893 E: sasha.evans@live.co.uk W: /sashaevansdesign Internship
Work
Mytton Williams February 2014
WHSmith August 2009 - Present
Internship at Mytton Williams for 2 weeks, my first taste of working in a studio. For the first week I worked on my own work so I could understand what working in a studio was like. Duties included mind-mapping ideas for starting projects and presenting ideas to members of the team. I worked on ideas that were in the beginning stages giving me a feel for live briefs.
Part time job whilst studying at College & University. Weekend supervisor role leading a small team of staff, teaching me independence and organisation skills. Working to time deadlines and balancing customer needs reflects the graphic design industry in terms of deadlines and clients.
Qualifications
Volunteering
2011 - 2014
Bath Spa University BA Hons Graphic Communication Pending
2009 - 2011
Coleg Morgannwg BTEC Art & Design Merit Merit Pass
2008 - 2009 Radyr Comprehensive AS Levels English Computing Art
Peer Mentor September 2013 - Present Volunteering to mentor Bath Spa University students. Paired with six students, contacting them by email for informal support for their first year of University. Attending events to meet the peer mentees to support them further.
References Stuart Lecture Course Leader at Bath Spa University s.henley@bathspa.ac.uk Paul Thomas Manager at WHSmith 07738230893
Business Cards
Front & Reverse
Sasha Evans Graphic Designer
Exhibitions T: 07738230893 E: sasha.evans@live.co.uk W: /sashaevansdesign
M Shed
Princes Wharf, Bristol 07.03.14 Used & Abused
Centrespace Gallery, Bristol 11.04.14 Pop Art Design
The Barbican, London 10.12.13
All Over The Shop
3rd Year IMO, Bath 07.02.14
“Work hard & be nice to people� Anthony Burrill